“Go West. Never have two more dangerous words been spoken.”

Last week, I closed out my final workshop as a Many Voices Fellow at the Playwrights’ Center. The project titled PIONEER began nearly a year ago as research into my grandmother’s family history. Through this research, I discovered a group of abolitionists known as The Big Four, a quartet of Black women who worked as conductors on the Underground Railroad through Quinn Chapel, Chicago’s first Black church.

After having to delay the workshop a week, it was unreal seeing this ambitious script on its feet. It wouldn’t have been possible without the dramaturgical insight of Amrita Ramanan and Mo Holmes, the directorial vision of Lester Eugene Mayers, the diligent work of Julia, Sydni, and Chloe, and of course Alexis Camille, Vinecia Coleman, Valencia Proctor, and Anita Welch who brought these four women to life. I feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to collaborate with these brilliants artists and I see such a bright future for this project!