Between Us

“I want you to see the beauty of Blackness rather than the curse of Blackness...” — Jasmine Arbery

I had directed a play about Black track runners, GHOST, when a few months later the nation learned of the murder of Ahmaud Arbery. My thoughts immediately went to his family and then to all the young athletes of color who train in public parks, makeshift courts, and on the open road. I was consumed with the paradox of physical power and grace in Black form that can so easily be seen as a threat. And in those weeks that turned into months, then years of a global pandemic, I knew that I needed to respond to this attack through my art.

Toni Stone tells the story of the first Black woman to play professional baseball in the Negro Leagues. She played ball during one of the most dangerous times to be a free Black person in our nation’s history — the period of Jim Crow. In the years she trained and pursued her dream to “play with the big boys,” this single Black woman would often travel by herself in search of pick-up games, barnstorming on poorly-maintained fields, and working out in public parks. This, too, was the reach of so many aspiring Black athletes dreaming to take part in America’s pastime. Facing not only verbal assaults and humiliation from white players or fans during exhibition games they had to play, but the threat of harm, even death, from local townspeople who thought they didn’t belong in “their neighborhood.”

My response to the fear of Black bodies is a celebration of them. A celebration of our endurance, our power, our wit, physical excellence, and cultural joy. I hope you relish in the visual poetry captured in Black form, whose power and grace conjure up our Nation’s buried narratives.

Tinashe Kajese-Bolden Director of Toni Stone, BOLD Artistic Director Fellow