February 1 – 18, 2024

written by Keli Goff

Thursdays – Saturdays 7:30 pm and Sunday, February 11th and 18, at 3:00 pm

In the tradition of The Vagina Monologues and For Colored Girls…, The Glorious World of Crowns, Kinks, and Curls is a collection of monologues and scenes exploring the often complex relationship Black women have with their hair. From Afros to braids, weddings, and funerals, falling in love to grieving a loss, these stories serve as a powerful reminder that for Black women in particular, hair is both deeply personal and political. These heartbreaking, heartwarming, and hilarious stories will take audiences on an unparalleled journey into the world of Black womanhood. “It feels amazing to be able to put stories on stage that represent and speak to the women in my life, that I haven’t had the opportunity to tell their stories in other ways,” says Goff.  “I know I’m not the only Black woman who has this experience where I felt hair defined a major moment in my life in a way that I wish it hadn’t.” The cast, pictured left to right, is Naimah Coleman, Zakiya Bell-Rogers, and Kirby Gibson.

 

Keli Goff is an internationally recognized multi-platform journalist, playwright, and screenwriter, best known for chronicling the intersections of politics, pop culture, race, and gender in America. Keli’s plays, which often focus on intersectionality, and the ways race, class, gender, and politics impact our closest relationships, have received staged readings at theaters across the country. Keli’s play, The Glorious World of Crowns, Kinks, and Curls, a collection of heartbreaking and humorous monologues and scenes exploring the complicated relationship black women often have with their hair, premiered at Baltimore Center Stage in March 2021.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. one of the world’s leading scholars of African American culture called the The Glorious World… “powerful and deeply moving,” while famed feminist activist Gloria Steinem hailed it as a “celebration of the human condition.” Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage declared it “a funny, heartbreaking and ultimately healing play about the role hair plays in unbraiding, shaping and celebrating our Black identity.”