As urgent in style as in subject, Chameleon Productions’ “Blakk Love (Storeez of a Darker Hue)” offers a richly diverse and too-rare showcase for seven of Chicago’s African-American writers-and for the five actors who immerse this material in all the shades of passion.
In her adaptation of 14 stories and poems by Quraysh Ali, Oscar Brown III, Tsehaye Hebert, Taehimba Jess, Dorcas M. Johnson, Mark Jones and herself, director Lisa M. Duncan interweaves the pieces so seamlessly they create their own dialogue.
In a show meant to heal, the topics are not “the self-inflicted wounds to our collective souls” but, as the title suggests, stories of love for and between African-Americans.
They merge the living and dead: Ali’s “Funerals Are for the Living” is a delightful depiction of how the indomitable spirit of a dead grandmother infuses one of her mourners.
At its most euphoric, the poems provide an erotic accompaniment to the love that blooms between a woman afraid to be hurt (Dorcas Johnson) and a man (Josh White III) whose offer of a steaming bath helps her to trust again. For another couple (Daniel J. Bryant and Bridgett R. Williams) a persimmon-the love offering in Oscar Brown III’s verse-symbolizes their amorous exchange.
But trust is an uncertain goal. The poems pillory fools for love, who shrink themselves to fit their lover’s diminished expectations, and the pseudo-intelligentsia, whose conversations are endless variations on “I-me-my.” Hebert’s angry contribution uses the Anita Hill hearings, not just to condemn Clarence Thomas for injecting divisiveness into “blakk love,” but to show how the fear of rape poisons intimacy.
Perhaps the most poignant revelation is the anguish of African-American men who, the poems propose, can’t depend on the presumption of innocence. They fear that before they can become lovers they have to prove they’re not absentee fathers, child abusers or sexual harassers.
The most radical-and original-offering is Jess’ litany of fury “When Niggas Love Revolution.” The poet condemns his brothers and sisters for caring more about the Bulls and for $160 Reeboks than for racial justice. Accompanied by the ensemble, Victor Wells acts out the jeremiad with scathing specificity.
Driven in its delivery despite some jumped lines, Duncan’s staging repeatedly builds these poems into passionate rhapsodies.
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“Blakk Love” runs through Aug. 7 at the Edgewater Theatre Center, 1020 W. Bryn Mawr Ave. Phone 312-561-5223.
