RECOMMENDED READING

We are curating a list of books to help our community in non-optical ally-ship and a list of plays/playwrights to help amplify the voices of BIPOC theater-makers.

Check back for updates! 

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BOOKS

Please try to support local bookshops or BIPOC-owned shops with your purchases.

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SO YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT RACE by Ijeoma Oluo

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HOW TO BE AN ANTIRACIST by Ibram X. Kendi

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WHITE FRAGILITY: WHY IT'S SO HARD FOR WHITE PEOPLE TO TALK ABOUT RACISM

by Robin Diangelo 

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ME AND WHITE SUPREMACY: COMBAT RACISM, CHANGE THE WORLD, AND BECOME A GOOD ANCESTOR by Layla F. Saad 

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PLAYWRIGHTS WE'RE REALLY INTO

Most of the plays listed are published works, but some can also be found via New Play Exchange.

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TARELL ALVIN-MCCRANEY (Choir Boy)

NGOZI ANYANWU (Good Grief)

JEFF AUGUSTIN (Where the Mountain Meets the Sea)

AMIRI BARAKA (Dutchman)

AZIZA BARNES (BLKS)

EBONI BOOTH (Primary Trust, Paris)

DESIREE BURCH (Tar Baby)

JOCELYN BROH (School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play)

JORDAN E. COOPER (Aint No Mo')

LYDIA R. DIAMOND (Stick Fly, Toni Stone)

JACKIE SIBBLIES DRURY (Fairview)

PEARL CLEAGE (Late Bus to Mecca)

MARCUS GARDLEY (The House that Will Not Stand)

STEPHEN ADLY GUIRGIS (The Motherf*cker with the Hat, Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven)

DANAI GURIRA (Eclipsed)

KATORI HALL (The Mountaintop) 

ROBERT O'HARA (Bootycandy, director of The Inheritance) 

ALESHEA HARRIS (What to Send Up When It Goes Down)

JEREMY O. HARRIS (Slave Play) 

JIRÉH BREON HOLDER (Too Heavy for Your Pocket)

JAMES IJAMES (KILL MOVE PARADISE)

ELLE KEY (Out of Clay)

ADRIENNE KENNEDY (He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box) 

SUZAN LORI-PARKS (Venus, Topdog/Underdog, Father Comes Home from the Wars)

DONJA R. LOVE (Fireflies)

THADDEUS MCCANTZ (First Two in Idaho)

DOMINIQUE MORISSEAU (Pipeline)

LYNN NOTTAGE (Ruined, Sweat, Crumbs from the Table of Joy)

ANTOINETTE NWANDU (Pass Over)

JONATHAN PAYNE (The Revolving Cycles Truly and Steadily Roll'd)

TORI SAMPSON (If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must Be a Muthafucka)

NTOZAKE SHANGE (For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow is Enuf)

CHARLY EVON SIMPSON (Behind the Sheet)

ANNA DEVEARE-SMITH (Fires in the Mirror, Notes from the Field, Twilight)

UNIVERSES (UNISON)

JILLIAN WALKER (Skinfolk)

LOY A. WEBB (The Light)

CHERYL L. WEST (Pullman Porter Blues)

AUGUST WILSON (Fences, The Piano Lesson)

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Check out THE KILROYS List for new plays by women, trans and non-binary writers!

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This is a rolling and by-no-means-comprehensive list that will be continually added to. We have begun by sharing the voices of primarily Black theater artists but have many more voices to share...

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If you'd like to suggest a play or playwright's work email us at marketing@spotsunvalley.com

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