True Colors and CNP to Host Virtual Reading of Historic Play “Before It Hits Home”
Reading in Commemoration of National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Media Contacts:
Darian Aaron
e. darian.aaron@counternarrative.org
Chandra Stephens-Albright
e. csa@truecolorstheatre.org
Atlanta, GA—January 28, 2021, Kenny Leon’s True Colors Theatre Company, a nonprofit regional theater that celebrates the rich traditions of Black storytelling, and the Counter Narrative Project (CNP), a Black gay advocacy organization that uses art and culture as strategies for social justice, are partnering on a virtual reading of Before It Hits Home, written by Cheryl L. West. The virtual reading will celebrate the play’s 30th anniversary and commemorate National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. More about #NBHAAD here.
First premiering in 1991, Before It Hits Home is one of the first plays about how HIV impacts the Black community, told through the lens of a Black family. A landmark play in the Black Theatrical canon, this moving drama examines HIV, politics, family, and love, while providing the audience incredible insights about Black people responding to HIV in the early years of the epidemic.
The all-star cast includes Brian Jordan Jr. (Tyler Perry’s Sistas), Crystal Fox (Netflix’s A Fall from Grace, The Haves and the Have Nots, and longtime Atlanta theatre favorite), Keith Randolph Smith (original cast member of the world premiere production, Come Back, Little Sheba, Paradise Blue), Joaquina Kalukango (Lovecraft Country, a Tony Award nominee for Slave Play, One Night In Miami), Tonia Jackson (Black Lightning, Outer Banks and currently the Fox Foundation Resident Actor at True Colors), Keith Arthur Bolden (Underground, Lovecraft Country), Laurine Price (The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, PHOENIX), Autumn Hurlbert (Legally Blond: The Musical), Markelle Gay (Holler If Ya Hear Me, East Texas Hot Links) and, new to the stage, Jomar Crawford.
The free virtual reading of Before It Hits Home will take place on Zoom on February 7, 2021 at 2 pm ET, and will be followed by a talkback. RSVP for the reading here: bit.ly/beforeithitshome
The reading is in partnership with Kenny Leon’s True Colors Theatre Company and CNP, and is co-sponsored by Georgia Equality.
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True Colors Theatre Company is a nonprofit regional theater company based in Atlanta, GA. True Colors Theatre Company’s mission is to celebrate the rich traditions of Black storytelling while giving voice to bold new artists from all cultures. We add dimension and relevance to our work on the stage through active community engagement and 3rd-12th-grade education programming. The vision of Artistic Director Jamil Jude is for the company to thrive at the intersection of artistic excellence and civic engagement. www.truecolorstheatre.org
Counter Narrative Project [CNP] was founded in 2014 to create a political home for Black gay men and our allies. The organization exists to tell the stories of social change and amplify the voices of Black gay men to shift the public narrative. CNP stands in the tradition of James Baldwin, Bayard Rustin, Marlon Riggs, and Essex Hemphill. Learn more about this movement: www.thecounternarrative.org
