Lynwoodt Jenkins, shown here as a boy, plays all the characters in one black gay man’s life in his own play, ‘Faggot.’ (Photo courtesy Whole World Theatre).
‘Faggot’ returns home Jenkins back in Atlanta with one man show about being black and gay
PERFORMER LYNWOODT JENKINS remembers all too well the reaction he got when his one-man show, “Faggot,” made its debut in Atlanta back in 2000.
“When people drove past the 14th Street Playhouse and saw the word ‘faggot’ on the marquee, they were literally shocked,” he says. “It held up traffic.”
Jenkins admits that he purposely gave the show its in-your-face name.
“I wanted to get attention,” he says. “I did that because I wanted people to imagine how we feel when people call us that.”
Jenkins’ acclaimed show returns home May 22 at Whole World Theatre, with a preview reading of some excerpts at Outwrite Bookstore & Coffeehouse on May 20. The plot deals with being gay in the African-American community and its unique challenges. The main character is Michael, who has always known he was different. He goes through a sexual rite of passage at the early age of 12 and begins to fear he won’t be a good son to his mother.
At 18, he runs away from home in Atlanta and goes to live in New York. When he arrives, he goes through some hard times. At one point, he begins working at a restaurant, and the owner allows him to live in his basement.
But when the owner finds out that Michael is gay and has had a male visitor, he kicks Michael out and leaves him homeless. Jenkins portrays all the characters, including a drag queen Michael befriends.
JENKINS SAYS THE PIECE realistically tackles being gay and black, but does so distinctively.
“It’s really coming of age, but done so through poetry,” he says. “I think it runs an emotional gamut. It’s exhausting, but in a good way. I think it’s a play everyone can relate to.”
“Faggot” does feature some heavy material, such as rape, drug use and prostitution. Unlike many one-man shows, “Faggot” is not autobiographical, although Jenkins says he can relate to it because being black and gay is still taboo in some circles.
“It’s better now than it used to be, but it will take a while to get to where it needs to be,” he says. “It’s still an issue, especially within the church. It’s more accepted for a son to be a criminal than gay. That’s not a blanket statement, but for some people in the community, that is true.
“I think it will take a lot of black gay men coming out and being open for it to change,” he adds. “It starts with accepting who you are. The affirmation has to start with yourself.”
“FAGGOT’S” RUN AT 14TH STREET Playhouse in 2000 was a short weekend one. Jenkins got positive reaction from it and says a lot of people who missed the show said they wanted to see it if it ever returned.
The next year, Jenkins was invited to send the script to the National Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, N.C., where it was later performed. “Faggot” also ran at the San Francisco Queer Arts Festival in 2002.
“One of the most pleasant things about performing has been seeing reactions from all kinds of people,” Jenkins says. “A grandmother came up to me in tears after one show and said, ‘Now I know what I did to my grandbaby.’”
Jenkins recently decided to shop “Faggot” around again and was pleasantly surprised when he heard back from Whole World Theater about a full-length run. He has updated “Faggot” somewhat, primarily to give the character of Michael’s mother more depth.
The
following comments were posted by our readers and were
not edited by SOVO. We ask that you
treat others with respect; any post deemed offensive will
be removed.
