Tony Award winner Wendell Pierce recently secured $10 million and aims to use the funds to preserve these historic Black theaters' legacy, arts, and culture. He’s creating new opportunities for the next generation of Black artists. Here’s why this matters and the legacy he’s carrying forward.
Before the Civil Rights Movement, Black theater artists had few creative opportunities. In 1965, theater professionals Douglas Turner Ward, Robert Hooks, and Gerald Krone gathered to dream up an all-Black theater ensemble. The Negro Ensemble Company, formed in 1967, has supported over 4,000 artists, including Denzel Washington, Laurence Fishburne, and Phylicia Rashad.
Committed to supporting the range of Black theater, the Black Spectrum Theater rooted itself in community. Gathering in churches, basements, and other public spaces that they turned into makeshift theaters, New York’s community has uplifted Black Spectrum since 1970. Today it’s housed in the Roy Wilkins Family Center in Queens.
The Billie Holiday Theater made history in 1981 when it converted the groundbreaking play “Inacent Black” to a Broadway production. Black community members primarily funded the production. Today, the Billie Holiday Theater continues to produce theater that portrays nuanced, authentic experiences of the African diaspora.
The message to us is clear: we create the resources we need. We are the ones who get to decide what we have available to us. How does our work today pave the way for the next generation?