American stages often served as platforms for ridicule and distortion of Black people during the early 1800s.
White performers in minstrel shows donned blackface, portraying exaggerated and demeaning caricatures of African Americans for white audiences. Yet, even in these dark moments of cultural appropriation and mockery, Black artists were creating a counter-narrative. Through their authentic storytelling and movement, they revealed truths about the world, challenging stereotypes and reshaping the narrative of what it means to be Black in America.
This history reminds us that representation in the performing arts is about more than entertainment—it’s about confronting societal biases, celebrating diversity and providing a platform for exploring the nuanced Black experience. Black theater makers and dancers have always been at the forefront of this effort, using their craft to educate, entertain and empower audiences.
This legacy continues to thrive in Houston. It reminds us that our past, present and future are interconnected—bound by the stories we tell and the art we create.
Jasmine Hearn, an interdisciplinary artist, performer and organizer, embodies the evolving nature of Black performance art. Hearn grew up in Acres Homes and has extensively explored storytelling through interpretive dance. Hearn is the creator of Memory Fleet: A Return to Matr, a migrating project that focuses on the living memories of their Black dance matriarchs in Houston.
The stories are used to create original sound scores, choreographies, and garments, presenting a site-specific experience, album, feast, online archive, and anthological catalog. Hearn started to ask questions like How is memory stored? In what ways do we remember our history? How do we archive the lives of mothers?
“I continue to dance as a way of remembering [and] imagining. How can I continue to be in Sankofa practice about reflecting about where I come from to then being able to imagine where I want to be… and where I need to be,” Hearn said. “As ways to continue the lineage and considering who is coming after me.”
Hearn said Black artists thrive when in collaboration. Recently, Hearn joined forces and performed with Dr. Lindsay Gary, the founder and executive director of Dance Afrikana, who hosted the Kuumba Festival, a celebration of the creative spirit of the African diaspora. The festival featured dance performances, workshops, and community engagement initiatives showcasing the diversity of Black dances in the diaspora.
“There is this tool of competition that continues to be used by quite a few people in the field that I think doesn’t cultivate nourishing relationships,” Hearn said. “There are ways of isolation that come with that…and mentality of scarcity to prevail.”
Gary describes Dance Afrikana as more than movement—it’s a reclamation of our stories and heritage. Through dance, Black people can connect the past to the present, allowing people to see themselves in the rhythms, steps, and narratives they perform.
“It allows people to really connect with history and heritage on another level. If we don’t understand how West African dances are connected with hip-hop, then we don’t really understand hip-hop dance,” Gary said. “There is a chronology that we can’t forget about, and we are all cross-culturally influencing each other. It’s not a one-sided thing.”
Sometimes artists feel that in order to be successful, they need to leave Houston to go to New York or Los Angeles, and Houston has so much to offer.
Denise O’Neal
Executive Director – Playwright, Shabach Enterprise/Fade to Black
The Harlem Renaissance and the Black Arts Movement are two examples Gary uses as inspiration for her fight to amplify Black stories through dance. Gary noted Houston native and dance legend Debbie Allen as a perfect example of how racism almost derailed her career but never stopped her from becoming one of the greats we see today.
“Black artists have paved the way in many ways and opened so many doors. Black artists have contributed to things being desegregated to stages and theaters,” she said. “There’s only room for us to build on other people’s legacies that they’ve left for us.
Access to resources, funding, and opportunities is essential for Black artists to continue to thrive. For over a decade, Denise O’Neal has made it her purpose to elevate theatre production as a go-to resource for artists of color. She is the executive director of Fade To Black, a short play festival that showcases new works by African-American playwrights.
The festival is produced by her minority-led non-profit organization, Shabach Enterprise. It is volunteer-supported, culturally diverse, and community-based, employing over 600 local artists of color and producing more than 150 performances.
“It’s about collaboration…alliances…favor… who you know. You could be a really great writer and not know the right people or have the right system around to propel your work forward,” O’Neal said. “That was the disconnect between some of my African-American playwrights and some of [the] white playwrights.”
From June 8-14th, Fade to Black will introduce its first Arts Festival to kick off the Juneteenth holiday. The festival is Houston’s first and only national short play festival to spotlight new 10-minute plays of African-American playwrights.
“The playwrights have a director, a cast, this community that we bring to support them, so when it gets to the stage, it is its best rendering,” she said. “It’s in that hope that someone will see them and say, ‘Hey, that was a good piece. Do you have something longer? Or do you have something that I could produce?’ That’s how it starts.”
Theatre was an avenue Tyler Perry entered before becoming a filmmaker and the first Black studio mogul. His writing evolved into a creative outlet that led to 24 feature films, 20 stage plays, 17 television shows and two New York Times best-selling books. O’Neal hopes to provide the space to nourish Black talent but to keep them homegrown.
“Sometimes artists feel that in order to be successful, they need to leave Houston to go to New York or Los Angeles, and Houston has so much to offer, she said. “There is nothing wrong with graduating up in your career, but to say that I must completely abandon Texas to progress and never return is concerning.”
Nonetheless, the Black performing arts space is growing, and O’Neil said the expansion needs “all hands on deck” and “more people at the table” for sustainability and to create a better quality of life where the dreams of Black artists aren’t positioned as a past time or a side gig but a way to provide for themselves and their families.
