Breath Behind the Mask is a devised play. The company began with no script and worked over the course of four weeks to create a new script together through various writing sessions and improvisations. Our process began with texts chosen by our director, Daniel Carlton, and master playwright, Nambi E. Kelley, to inspire the company and jumpstart the writing process. These texts, some of which are linked to below, found their way into the final script in some way, shape, or form.
We Wear the Mask by Paul Laurence Dunbar
A Litany for Survival by Audre Lorde
The work was also inspired by W. E. B. Du Bois and Ralph Ellison.
Revolution remixed by Daniel Carlton
Based on the song “Revolution” by Nina Simone
When do sisters we become included as the face?
That represents the race
Cause i see the face of things
to come
This is my talking drum
here to tell you about destruction
Construction
Without my presence i s a deduction
All the evil will have to end
My friend
Bend
Notions
Revolution is not a separate potion
A distant ocean
clean
your brain
A cleansing rain
Communicate
A more positive state
Folks
I too am choked
But not allowed to seethe
When I too can't breathe
It’s not as simple as :
Your foot off our back
That means that I lack ?
The knack
To transcend
Your idea of my truth as Black
Black life matters
Matter in a Black woman's life
Silent responses to our strife
Mothers of fallen sons
We are not shielded against anyones guns
We fall
Without outrage
From y'all
Into
Jail cells
And from bullet shells
And you better not tells
Who stands for daughters
At the bottom of wells
When it all falls down?
Where is our revolution march on the town?
It’s more than just evolution
You know?
Know ?
Know you !
What do I have to do?
To get heard too?
Do I have to swim the ocean?
Some folks
Notions
Skin bleach as a lotion?
Notions
Hate potions?
Daily deep breaths to survive
Alive?
We're taking about a change!
Stop calling me strange
Your
Constitution
Still equates my success to prostitution
Jive?
We are all trying to stay alive
We the Queen bee keepers of the hive
Its called aggression when Black women strive
I know
They’ll
say
I’m
Taking
talking
Walking
Hate
How the hell are we supposed to communicate ?
Singinging about
Evolution?
Sing : Revolution
preaching
Teaching
Reaching
Evolution
Revolution
Destruction?
Or reconstruction
I'm still standing in fact
Get your foot off my back
I too am life that matters
Black
Sing : Revolution
Not as a hymn
But She = him