Shakespeare? Bitch, Sit Down!

Jul 10

Now that y’all know I’m related to Shakespeare, can I please play Hamlet — for realz?

No, actually that one is not really for real. I’m too old to play Hamlet and, really, who wants to work that hard? I’ve caught shade my whole career from harsh ass critics (the kind who write reviews) who didn’t think anyone darker than Laurence Olivier in blackface should do “the classics.” What, somehow because Black people didn’t originate from the country that Shakespeare came from, we somehow will never be able to catch a beat? Has anyone heard of Def Poetry Jam?

Wealthy Africans traveled and hung out England in the 1500s, including at the royal court. Black people are also kick ass poets—the kind “regular” folks flock to listen too. What you think made groundlings rush the stage except those King’s Players could spit fire like Tech Nine? White people gas about Black people’s natural rhythm and bust on they self they ain’t got none. What? Suddenly, talking in rhythm, White people can keep a beat? No! It don’t work like that. Once corny, corny for life. Move.

No, but serious, y’all. There’s assumptions about who owns Anglo-culture. [Assuming an affectation] Only a finely attuned ear (pronounced AY-uh), palette or eye, can appreciate the works of the “Masters!” Puh-leez! Western culture thrives on appropriation, claiming to improve everything it touches (waters down). A non-Westerner borrows from the classical canon and you’d think White folks were at a grade school dance recital (“Aren’t they so cute!”). Ahem...Hamilton.

Bitchez, y’all all come from Africa. Anything you do was already stole. You was stole! If you weren’t born in the cradle of civilization you’re an immigrant. You just forgot where your ass came from. There’s even (gasp!) Africans born with blonde hair, without European intervention (look up Melanesians). Not to boast, but everything was in Africa before it went out into the world, including language. Facts.

I’m a raise hell, now. “What? you’re not a direct descendant and you’re doing Shakespeare? Bitch, sit down!”

Pink Flowers

Pink Flowers is a Black trans artist, peacemaker, educator, and pleasure activist whose work lives at the intersection of embodiment, governance, and cultural transformation. Trained in Theater of the Oppressed, Art of Hosting, and Navajo-informed Peacemaking practices, Pink designs spaces where conflict can be addressed, power can be examined, and joy can be reclaimed.

Her artistic and pedagogical practice draws from African trickster cosmology, Brazilian Joker traditions, shamanic ritual, and cooperative economics. She is the founder of the award-winning Falconworks Theater Company (2005–2021), which used popular theater to build civic capacity and participatory leadership in historically marginalized communities.

Pink served for over five years as a trained Peacemaker in the Red Hook Community Justice Center in Brooklyn, facilitating restorative processes within the New York City court system. From 2015–2018, she worked in cooperative business development with the Center for Family Life, supporting worker-owned enterprises in immigrant communities.

She currently serves as Director of Education and Training for the Inter-Cooperative Council in Ann Arbor, where she leads leadership development and conflict engagement initiatives. Her work has been presented nationally and internationally, including at the Stretch Festival in Berlin and the Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed Conference.

Across ritual, performance, mediation, and institutional design, Pink’s work asks a central question:

What becomes possible when we refuse shame and choose conscious power instead?

Shakespeare? Bitch, Sit Down!

Hard-Wired Spirit Work

Falling through Religions