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.

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

I don't write particularly to effect social change. I believe writing can do that, but that's not why I write.

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

I think all in all, one thing a lot of plays seem to be saying is that we need to, as black Americans, to make a connection with our past in order to determine the kind of future we're going to have. In other words, we simply need to know who we are in relation to our historical presence in America.

In 1977, I wrote a series of poems about a character, Black Bart, a former cattle rustler-turned-alchemist. A good friend, Claude Purdy, who is a stage director, suggested I turn the poems into a play.