Last week, I attended a production of “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/ When the Rainbow is Enuf” by Ntozake Shange, directed by Michelle N. Matlock. If you’re in the Seattle/Tacoma area, check it out; it plays until June 8th.
Led by an all-women-of-color cast, the interwoven pieces combine poetry, monologues, singing, and dancing, vividly illuminating the challenges women of color—especially Black women—face, while highlighting their strength, joy, and unbreakable spirit. I hadn’t heard of it before and went mainly to support a friend who was one of the performers. I left with a reminder of how powerful and instrumental the arts are for society—especially during these horrible times.
Since the layout was arena-style, I was able to see the facial expressions of other attendees. An older white couple sat directly across from me. At the start of the production, they sat crossed-armed, stone-faced, like they’d been dragged there against their will. By the time we got to the piece “somebody almost walked away wid alla my stuff,” they had started leaning in. By the end of the show, they even managed one or two slight smiles.
With the continued attacks on DEI, putting on and attending a play focused on women of color felt like an act of resistance. Because it is.
Throughout history, art has been a vital part of fighting injustice, especially during fascist regimes. Art, artists, and arts organizations have always been a line of defense against authoritarianism. Art is a mean of speaking truth to power. It’s been a vital tool to wake people up and mobilize them. For examples:
- Picasso’s Guernica depicted the horrors of war and Franco’s fascism.
- The Brigada Ramona Parra, an collective of artists, painted anti-fascist murals in resistance against Pinochet.
- The Living Theater used experimental and radical performances to critique militarism, capitalism, and state violence across continents.
- The Studio Museum in Harlem supported Black artists and fought against racism
Even when it’s not explicitly political, art is always doing political work. It reminds us of our humanity. It creates joy and hope and elevates the voices of the marginalized. It breaks isolationism, builds community, and allows us to dream of just and equitable futures. All of that makes fascism harder to sustain.
Which is why this regime has been cutting funding for the arts, significantly reducing the budget of the NEA (National Endowment for the Arts), which in 2024 was just 207M, a pitiful .003% of the federal budget. Defunding the arts by this administration is not neutral; it is an act of political warfare designed to demoralize us all so we can’t fight back as it dismantles democracy.
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Read full article here.
