♪♪ Welcome to "The First Twenty."

I'm James King.

The first 20 years of the 21st century are unique time in our history, and All Arts has invited artists working across multiple disciplines to help us better understand some of the complex questions and dilemmas inherent in our accelerated race to the future.

Through their individual lenses, they examine how the recent past has and continues to shape global, national and local relationships between societies and people.

Their perspectives, like their cultures, are varied, giving us myriad new ways to tell our truth.

So join us as we observe this constellation of voices spread across the new American sky.

♪♪ ♪♪ [ Women chanting in indigenous language ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Woman: I hear my anthem, right?

I feel -- I can feel and hear them talking to me.

Woman: And it is so...

Incumbent upon us to know what is going on in the world, all parts of the world.

This was all because someone envisioned a space and named you as the conduit to receive the gift.

Before they even probably even knew your name, but they knew the spirit of who you were.

Man: I'm always an artist warrior, because I think that any art you make is a political act.

♪♪ [ Click, music stops ] ♪♪ We, especially African-American artists, we were all inspired to know that we could create a narrative now that included, you know, a president that looked like us.

So forever, the times are changed, the stories are changing.

Man: There's this inherited mythology that we get and we're supposed to regurgitate and hopefully as an artist, challenging that and really reexamining what it means to... to present art and who that art is in service of.

♪♪ I laugh a lot and I try and make people around me laugh a lot.

But I also like to get into just intense, deep, philosophical conversation.

Man: Its intensity may be more than some wish to be exposed to.

And those people should be forewarned.

Anyanwu: So I try and make my writing reflect what I like to do in life, which is like experience joy.

I just don't think you can have one without the other.

For this particular piece, it's a very personal piece.

And so, you know, I got to trust people.

And so it's not actual family, but they got to feel like family.

I'm just lucky that that is the case, that these are just very beautiful, very open, very, just -- and relentlessly open people.

...wonderful blessings and just try and -- You're an off-Broadway playwright!

I'm an off-Broadway playwright!

You're an off-Broadway playwright!

Well, goddamn, you guys, happy [no audio] new year!

Happy [no audio] new year, 2018!

Newsreader: Heartbreak for Broadway fans.

It's been about seven months since a curtain rose for a show; now we're learning performances will be shut down through at least May 30th of next year.

♪♪ Hey, what's up?

I'm Lelund Durond Thompson.

I'm an actor.

I'm an acting coach.

I'm a writer.

I'm a photographer.

I'm a director.

I've been told that I'm a renaissance man.

♪♪ I'll say I strive to do my best.

But what it all boils down to is storytelling.

[ Camera shutter clicking, singers vocalizing ] Woman: We're challenging ourselves to really talk to artists about how they have been affected by the first 20 years of the 21st century.

Absolutely.

And we've got some really cool people to chat with.

Very exciting people that we're talking to today.

Tackling everybody from the artists who is educator, artists who is institutional leader, art activists, art spiritualist.

So we got -- we got a full day pass for us.

Well, let's get to it.

Let's get to it.

Come on, girl.

All right.

Thank you.

All right.

Let's go.

♪♪ ♪♪ Narrator: "Black Journal" is an on the air magazine reporting on the personalities, ideas and issues that affect Black America.

It attempts to achieve balance by reporting from a Black perspective.

Barbara Ann Teer is one of the leading personalities in Black theater; she is the founder of the National Black Theater in Harlem.

Teer: And when I say Black theater, I'm talking about changing the total thrust of Western theater without a color on it.

See, Black used to be a, um, you know, you thought of Blackness as a skin color.

And then we went through that phase, and then the definition was a state of mind.

But we're saying now that Blackness is the unleashing of a overwhelming creative force.

So, Jonathan, if we were to ask, "who are you," what is the answer to that?

I am a creative doula.

My Western title is Executive Artistic Director of National Black Theater.

I sit at the intermediary between artistic imagination and the birthing of that imagination, and helping artists to have the resources and tools to dream the unbashed dream, to really start to have an engagement with what does it mean to manifest and give birth to the babies that live inside of them?

Man: I think I can suggest to you that if you would place your hands on the television set in your homes, you might feel some of the vibrations that we are attempting to send out tonight.

I hope you will be able to deal with them because it will be beautiful.

And I must say that a hand that will be extended to you on the screen is the guiding hand of the National Black Theater.

There's a spiritual conduit that artists hold; you two hold, right?

And the gift that you guys have inside of you, they need -- they need someone not to always tell you what to do, but they need someone to just hold space for the impossible to become possible, they need someone to say, I'll light a candle for you and you won't even know the candle's lit.

They need -- We all need that.

We all need that kind of -- It's what -- it's what our ancestors did, right?

Their third eye activated our destination, right?

I once heard a woman say, "I think she's going to be an actress."

And I didn't know what that was.

Where there can be a meeting of like this happening in a -- in a liberated space codified by Black IP that says that we can have a conversation.

Man: I had an uncle who was a professional actor.

He was a contemporary of Ossie Davis or Ruby Dee and worked with Burt Reynolds at the Burt Reynolds Dinner Theater.

So I used to follow him to the theater and honestly seeing the impact the theater had on its audience, and it was something that was so special, like I could be in front of my TV, but it was just me having the experience; but being in a room full of people of different colors, of different ages, of different socioeconomic backgrounds, even at four years old, had a really profound impact on me and I really dug it, and I wish I could articulate that a little bit more.

We can learn from the past, and we can learn from being with each other and wanting to have a better world for all of us.

Man: Where did that inspiration come from?

Using the platform as an actress -- Well, if you're Black, you know, in the United States of America, child born in Harlem Hospital... You had to see things you didn't like.

And you wanted to change.

[ Singers vocalizing ] You made your Broadway debut in 1950.

1950 with Helen Hayes.

Wow, the Hel-- I say that she carried me across the stage in her arms, I was so young, but... [ Laughter ] I love that.

In what play?

"Wisteria Trees" -- it was an adaptation of "The Cherry Orchard" instead of the Russian aristocracy it was the Southern aristocracy.

Wonderful for my first show, my first Broadway show, a wonderful company to be with both the Black actors and the white actors.

Helen Hayes had lost a daughter recently, and she was very kind to me.

She was always very kind to me.

Remember, she won when we were in London -- no, we were in Paris doing "Skin of our Teeth."

And she wanted to take me to Florence.

And I had just been married, really?

And I said no, I've been away from home already, you know, you know, what was it, a month?

I said I can't stay away any longer.

It was very foolish.

I should have gone to... [ Laughter ] Hi, I'm on Ngozi Anyanwu, I am five foot four and I am based in New York City.

Thanks so much.

-I'm an artiste.

-Man: Yes, you -- Anyanwu: I am unashamed in my label and I will say that that's probably one of the things I think, top of 21st century, I was entering school for theater.

So if you would have talked to me, I was an actor, I was a serious actor.

'Cause a serious actor was going to be a musical theater star.

You couldn't tell me nothing, except everybody's trying to tell me something.

Everyone was trying to stop my flow!

Um...but yeah.

They would not let you be you.

They would not not let me be me.

But I was always - I felt like, if I look back now I'm like, oh, I was finding ways to sneak myself into shows.

There's always musical theater where I went to school, we didn't like, "New Brain."

We did like these, like, cool little, like, children's shows, and I was like, Oh, I can be that part.

Everything else felt very, like, white, and I was like, Okay, but I could be that part, that -- I could be -- I -- I was relegated myself to being very much on the sidelines and relegated myself to being like, Oh, I'll be the cool, funky, small part because there's no way I'm going to be the lead.

I mean, because it was kind of how I was in high school.

In high school, I was like, you know, the wild character.

You know, I would never be considered for the lead.

And I and I never saw myself leading 'cause of for that.

See?

Was that so hard?

Because mostly we did musicals, and then we did -- some -- we did plays as well, but I just never really placed myself in that.

I wonder -- humanity talks about three years ago and it has completely changed my career.

Two plays off-Broadway, a play in L.A. later.

I thought -- I displaced myself in that.

Okay.

Based on what other theater teachers put me.

I know!

Right?

Isn't that funny?

Like I remember auditioning for, I wanna say "Damn Yankees," and going for the lead.

Come on.

Going for the lead.

Cracking my voice.

But man, did I have that last middle-C!

I had that last middle-C. And then like ending up in the ensemble.

And so I was very used to being in the ensemble, and still felt gully enough to apply for theater school even though I was not the -- I was not the big fish in the small pond.

But you did it.

And that's why I love you.

So this is a love letter I guess.

She got rejected from D. Mm-hmm.

Nobody is listening to her.

I think she's talking to herself.

Absolutely she is!

I'm telling on her.

Yeah!

Calling 'em out.

Yeah!

So -- I know this is what you want; I'mma give it to you now.

Are you happy?

'Cause even though we'd all rather be someplace than this terrible lit room.

Not me.

Committed to telling this story.

Okay?

And not some version of poverty porn.

♪♪ ♪ Ain't no way ♪ [ Piano playing over ] Thompson: At the top of, um, the 21st century, I had just started pursuing my undergraduate degree at North Carolina A&T State University.

Great, great, great.

And this is for the scene with Jitney, with Rashad and Amber, we're in Donna's house.

When Amber, Reena, comes from downstairs into the kitchen with an envelope.

Okay, great.

And this scene is basically going to take place all right here.

Darnell, I don't understand.

I'm trying so hard to make everything work.

-Mm-hmm.

-What's the matter?

Um, I go upstair-- Mm.

Thompson: All good.

I went on to get my Masters at Case in the Cleveland Playhouse, and that was a three year program, which was really an incredible experience, where I met some really, really talented actors who would be coming in from New York to do the main stage shows at the Cleveland Playhouse.

Congratulations, you guy!

One scene down!

Show Case!

Once I finished my graduate degree at Case in the Cleveland Playhouse, I moved to New York City and started pursuing my career as an actor.

And it was actually through that connection that I ended up meeting someone, Ty Jones from the Classical Theater of Harlem, who would then go on to -- commissioned me to be a part of creating an evergreen show an The Classical Theater of Harlem.

Narrator: The Classical Theater of Harlem, in collaboration with the Apollo Theater, presents "The First Noel" musical, back by popular demand.

[ Vocalizing ] ♪♪ I am very, very blessed.

This is the best show that I have ever been in.

That one.

I mean, just slide into all of it.

♪ Take your time ♪ You don't really want us to -- No, no, no.

♪ In a frying pan ♪ ♪ Sometimes it's right, sugar, sometimes it's not ♪ I hope that people walk away from the show knowing that no matter what you're going through, what you've been through, where you are now, if your desire is to come out of that, to heal... "The First Noel" really was a story that was inspired by loss, trying to figure out what to do with that energy.

It was about having an awakening, you know, like when you go through something in life.

Woman: ♪ Well, you can say goodbye ♪ Man: Well, now, in the time when the world is basically shut down and different than it was before, we all long for something that feels special and feels warm and safe.

Like, I mean, I'll speak personally.

Like I used to feel.

I long to feel that way.

♪ You can grab it ♪ ♪ Hey ♪ ♪ You can grab it ♪ ♪ Oh, no, no ♪ Action.

♪♪ Woman: Yes, queen!

You have arrived!

Now y'all lookin' good.

♪♪ ♪♪ Queen, can you -- can you just start with, Who are you?

Absolutely.

Yeah.

So I'm Queen Jean.

She/her.

I am a Black trans woman.

I am a fighter for liberation and I'm a costume designer.

I love to create.

I'm a storyteller.

I'm talkin' about [indistinct].

I'm talk about trans people taking up space, in a way that we have never took space -- Tim right now as artists to really show up and to really create and to really, I think, set the tone for how we want to operate.

For us to actually put our mark on the world.

The work advocacy feels necessary.

I fight for Black trans liberation, and it is something that I'm very passionate about.

It's something that I was afraid to even say when I first started.

This is the Haitian girl, you know!

From Haiti, you know.

So you mentioned costume designer.

How did you get into costume designing?

Yeah, that's a great question.

I mean, I, um...

So my grandmother was a dressmaker in Haiti, and so a lot of, like, bridal and like, you know, formal wear.

And of course, my dad was like, not about it.

He was like, "You better put something on," and I was like, unh-unh-uh, let me get all these alterations and applique.

I knew who I was.

I mean, and -- and everyone else, I think, also knew what it was giving.

Okay.

Not really a shock, or "Oh, my God!

Did you hear Queen is --" Um Queen is definitely queen, you know, type of thing.

So that was also just... just really affirming, right?

To not feel like... welcomed, and to me, if you're not welcoming me as me, then it's not -- it's time to speak to where I...

I need to be.

-Man: You know, in a nutshell, I'm a... a husband, a father, a Black man who grew up in the South.

I'm originally from Miami, Florida.

I had the privilege of growing up during what I call the golden age of hip hop, which I think had a profound effect on me as an artist, me as a man.

Some of my influences would be like Public Enemy and KRS-One.

So those artists definitely went into the gumbo of how I approach art and how I try and make art.

I had a pretty successful career as an actor.

Got to work with some really fantastic directors, worked with some not-so-good directors, which informed how I wanted to present in a room.

Clack-clack!

I am sorry.

Man: Oh, Carl's amazing.

Carl has this ability of bringing things out of his actors as actors didn't even know they had in them.

And he's also like this Zen master, like he allows you to, like, get there on your own terms, but still is guiding you in ways that you didn't even know he was doing.

It's life.

It's life to me, and I'm grateful to be able to give that life back.

Man: My hope with this production is that we begin the conversation again in a civil dialog to examine why archetypal characters like Richard III, people who are power hungry, and will do anything to maintain power -- why those archetypes always remain through literature and even in our political discourse now.

You know, I started my -- my path in commercials and TV work, film work.

So I was fortunate to work in those mediums.

But it was something about the ritual of theater that made me super excited, super jazzed.

And the closest thing I could equate to it would be going to first communion at church.

Just the event, the ritual behind it filled me with the same sort of joy and sort of excitement.

Woman: Ade, my brother.

Yes, my sister.

So great to have you.

So great to have you.

Please tell us who you are.

I am a native New Yorker, born to a parents of Caribbean descent, I'm a father, husband, a brother, a son, an actor, choreographer, a writer and artist, a person who loves his people.

And you -- you have many hats in the artistic world.

And what we're doing with All Arts and National Black Theater is very much talking about how the Black artist finds themselves at many intersections.

And we've been talking about the artist and spirituality, and a lot of times Christianity comes up, you know, the belief in God and Jesus and all these things.

And -- but as this big word has been coming up in the sort of mainstream mediums like "Decolonize!"

"Decolonize our syllabus, decolonizing religion, decolonize your thinking," you know, a lot of art has taken on like, you know, Black spirituality and spirituality of pre-colonialism, and [indistinct] come up a lot.

And so that's also why we're talking to you, because I know that that has come up in a lot of the art that I've seen you work in and... and seen you be at the forefront of.

So if you could talk a little bit about that.

Okay.

Well, I think that art imitates and is a vehicle that shows what's happening in the real world.

Right?

So in light of all of the societal changes, the murders and the things that have happened to us as a people, I think people are trying to refocus and reexamine who they are.

You have to gather others around and help them to realize what is going on, and I think that's the role, particularly of the -- of the artists, the writer, the journalist, the painter, the sculptor.

We have to... Whatever the medium that we work in, we have to help the larger world see our world.

Art should heal.

Art should inspire.

Art should force us to question who we are and what we do and force us to hold that mirror and be like, are we really doing the right thing?

Because sometimes I think we all can fall... We fall -- become guilty of thinking outward, outward, outward -- "I'm dope, I'm fly, I'm doing this, look at me, I'm blowing up."

But if the art reflects the person, and we are always attempting to grow and expand ourselves, and fulfill our destiny, if we continue to grow and do work on ourselves, the art will make us better, and it becomes a cycle -- I'm better, you're better for seeing my work; you're better, you go out and you get better in the world.

Now, again, that sounds very, you know, utopia, chakras and berries, right?

Very spiritual!

But -- but I think -- I think that's true.

And I think I -- some of the most memorable experiences in theater, I've walked out of there like, "Yo!

That was dope!

I want to go practice.

I want to go right.

I want to go call this person I haven't spoken to in 50 years."

So it's that, that gets me excited about art.

Hey, what's up?

Somebody had a major breakthrough today.

Somebody came up with a new idea today.

Somebody started on a new script today.

Somebody met someone today.

...and then there he is.

I think that's... That's... ♪ ...power, you keep on keeping me ♪ ♪ And I want to say ♪ ♪ Thank you, Lord, for all you done for me ♪ ♪ Yeah ♪ I mean, we've talked about the last 20 years and what has affected, you know, as we -- where do you see it going in the next 20?

I think we will become all more open to different forms of spirituality, true depictions of the spiritual forms.

[ Trilling ] ♪ For all ♪ I think we are starting to see what I think should have happened many years ago, which is a merge, the content creators of now and the next 20 and 50 and 120 years, are going to be active practitioners.

Man: A one, two, and... [ Singers vocalizing ] ♪♪ I think artists today have to be open to not only refining their skill set around their, maybe, one gift or one gift that they realize they have.

But I think that we have to be empowered by the past, and formed by where we are now, and empowered to show up as more than just the writer or the performer.

Man: We're in a time of change, and that change is not just spiritual.

It's not just social justice.

It's not just finance.

It is encompassing all of Black and African expression.

Thompson: I think we have to teach ourselves the skill set of the producer, right?

Of the director, right?

Because as actors, if we understand a little bit about directing, if we understand a little bit about writing, if we understand a little bit about producing, then we're more likely to show up better as the performer because we understand a little bit about what it's taking for those outside of our discipline to help shape this.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -Take that!

Take that!

-Oh, my God!

Baby!

The way she is!

Perfection.

Perfection is her name.

Why do you me feel so good, Lelund?

Thompson: As you should, baby.

As you should.

Wow.

You know what?

It's interesting because I was in a performing arts school, and hair was my side hustle.

I'm Lawrence Davis, hairstylist, as you said, to the stars.

I just consider myself a regular hairstylist from Baltimore, Maryland.

I left there in 2001 after styling hair about seven years in my own salon.

Still love it, it's also part of everything, pretty much the move to Los Angeles was that my career in film and television, and one of my first films was with Queen Latifah, and I went on to get nominated for that film, it was something that I dove into scared to death, but I knew I had a love for those period, at least that period, from the '20s up through the '60s, I just love doing hair for that.

So when the opportunity presented itself for HBO, I said yes, and today I'm still doing it.

Still doing it, and have so many projects under my belt that I'm grateful for.

I think some of the biggest changes today and I'm ha-- so happy that it's happening -- that our brothers and sisters of color are speaking up and saying what they want and what they need.

And I say that to say that there, you know, are certain projects that I've been a part of where I've been requested to fill that space.

But I think that because it's a climate that we're in now, people are definitely speaking up for what they want and what's required so that even these actors and actresses who are going on to win, you know, major awards because of their performances, it's the hair, it's the makeup, it's the costume, it's the total package that helped them bring forth this character 100% because they feel comfortable within that character.

So them asking for what they want and not being afraid has actually opened so many other doors.

Man: So for me, looking at that, I want to...

The frustration.

And then seeing that it's her, I can't yell at her like this.

Thompson: My instinct is to say that it's working too hard and it's predicting something versus running the energy through your -- through the line and actually using that clear action.

♪ Just a little bit, just a little bit ♪ ♪ Yeah, hey baby ♪ ♪ Just a little bit ♪ -What the hell -- -Hey, what the hell y'all doing in here?

Thompson: Tell our own stories.

Right?

If we had the skill set and we don't have to wait on permission from some producer to tell your story, you can tell your story and hopefully that producer who may have more resources than you can pick up your story.

Refreshing, but also, the exposure can feel so much that they go back into the closet and pretend... -Thompson: Like our work as artists, creative work, is really, I think, thrives the best when it's supported by community.

♪ Make a scene ♪ ♪ We gotta show the world what it can be ♪ ♪ 'Cause when we get together ♪ ♪ Everything is better ♪ ♪ Than lonely ♪ ♪ We got a light, light it up ♪ Your voice is enough.

What you have to say is going to truly, for me, be ten times more valuable because I know to arrive at this place what you'd had to do to get here, for you to share your story, so now when you're in your artistic space, when you found your artistic home, wherever that may be, that is for you now to really relinquish and to share that full power.

Always reveal the truth.

Anyway, this is me saying, Dear future artists, what we do... -I see you.

-What you do, what we decided to do -- no, what we've been chosen to do... [ Both ] ...if you believe in that kind of thing -- it's not easy.

-It's not easy.

-But it's worth it, I promise.

-But it's worth it.

-You already know.

So don't lower your head waiting for the powers that be, whoever they be or may be, to pick you up, pluck you from the bowels of obscurity.

You're the one!

It's already yours.

It's already been given.

It's already been declared.

You've been ready.

I know you're not waiting for me to give you permission.

-You're ready.

-You're ready.

-So what are you waiting for?

-So what are you waiting for?

I hope you're not waiting for it to get better.

I hope you're not waiting for some perfect storm, some calm weather, because it's not coming.

You're the weather.

You're the storm.

You are the calm.

That's on you.

It's on us.

So let's do it already.

We have everything we need.

We always have.

So I'mma keep it short... Thompson: You will be met with no's.

But don't let it discourage you.

Let that motivate you to take up space, it's yours.

Heal yourself, walk out into the space and figure out how you can heal others, educate yourself, walk up to the space and figure out how you can teach others.

Learn yourselves, see how you can learn from others.

It's time, it's been time.

Yeah?

Both: And yeah, it's going to get ugly.

It's pretty ugly right now.

But it's up to you to make something beautiful.

And I can't wait to see what you make.

So what's it gonna be?

You got next.

Man: A golden age of creativity that is not demonizing of American, Black American creation and expression, Caribbean American creation and expression, and African creation expression.

And that is what will form Voltron.

Your quote from Toni Morrison that, in these moments, this is when artists have to wake up, right, artists have to write, we have to speak.

We have to do language.

These are the ways that civilization can heal.

Lelund Durond Thompson here.

And I just wanted to take a moment to give you some love and encouragement.

[ Women singing in indigenous language ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪