Blacks have traditionally had to operate in a situation where whites have set themselves up as the custodians of the black experience.

As soon as white folks say a play's good, the theater is jammed with blacks and whites.

The blues are important primarily because they contain the cultural expression and the cultural response to blacks in America and to the situation that they find themselves in. And contained in the blues is a philosophical system at work. And as part of the oral tradition, this is a way of passing along information.

I write the black experience in America, and contained within that experience, because it is a human experience, are all the universalities.

I write for myself, and my goal is bringing that world and that experience of black Americans to life on the stage and giving it a space there.

led to complete subversion of the blacks by the whites.