Like any aware modern tale ought to, Living IncogNegro starts with a trigger warning:
“WARNING:
The following is a very American story.
Maybe.”
This tongue-in-cheek statement sets the stage for Gin Hammond’s new one-woman play where she takes the melting pot of America and pours it out so we can see what’s inside. This includes how, as Charlie King first said, “the people at the bottom get burned, and the scum floats to the top.”
Using the kaleidoscope of her unique yet relatable perspective as a Black woman of mixed race in America, Hammond shows the fractures of our nation in a healing light that feels like maybe it can make us a little more whole.
While tackling complex issues like race, gender, and the traumas of her family of origin, Hammond weaves laughter and heartache through the intersections of life, including dating, which she demonstrates with audience participation. The audience is asked to participate throughout the play, and Hammond’s commanding yet effervescent presence expands in these interactions.
This convivial mood is complemented by the rainbowed ‘70’s-game-show-esque set. In an artful turn, set designer Michelle Cesmat is also on stage throughout the play. Off to the side with pastels and easel, Cesmat uses her unique visual creativity to make another portrait of Hammond alongside the playwright’s language.
The dynamic between Cesmat and Hammond, however, is perhaps the play’s only place for improvement as the double duty of live-portraiture and acting seemed a bit too much to carry. The audience is given a few moments to see the portrait as a work-in-progress during the play, and I found myself wanting both more of those and more of Cesmat’s personality in the sparse interactions with Hammond. Still, the finished portrait of Hammond that Cesmat reveals as the play comes to its close does seem worth the stumbles.
It’s beautiful to witness women supporting women, not only in those moments but carried throughout all aspects of the storytelling, including through director Denise Winter. Winter not only directed Hammond’s play, but she is also the Executive Artistic Director for Key City Public Theatre and a long time friend of Hammond. She even helped push Hammond to first write Living IncogNegro with all of its difficult subject matter. In an interview with Port Townsend’s radio station KPTZ 91.9 FM, Hammond recalled the conversation with Winter that gave her the push.
“The way my nervous system remembers it is: ‘How about you write about something terribly uncomfortable,’” Hammond said.
Living IncogNegro debuted at Key City Public Theatre in Port Townsend, WA, on February 1, kicking off Black History Month. It is the second of Hammond’s works to make its start in that space. In 2014, Hammond’s play, Returning the Bones, took a look at America’s history from the vantage point of one of her ancestors. Now, she returns with her own. Acclaim for Returning the Bones spread, so Hammond turned it into a novel by the same name. She’s just begun to promote that book, limiting the first run of Living IncogNegro to two weeks, closing on February 11.
The reason for Hammond’s popularity is clear: the woman is a force of nature.
Her far-ranging perspective goes beyond and through her identity as a mixed race Black woman with light enough skin to be “passing” for white. She’s also a teacher of dialects, a skill she uses to capture the wider world. In Living IncogNegro, Hammond tells hilarious tales from her international upbringing, showcasing her ability to voice an array of dialects. This is where the play really gets moving. Hammond leaps from character to character, not simply imitating voices, but using facial expressions, gestures, and posture all with a sublimely funny accuracy. Hammond also shines in the other direction, delivering powerfully poetic soliloquies set in a darkness that stands out against the rest of the play’s color and humor.
Hammond is not, however, satisfied with simply riding waves of emotion. She skillfully sprinkles nuanced philosophical quandaries throughout the play. Towards the beginning, Hammond crosses from game show host into classroom teacher to question good and evil using equations that dissect the Mayflower, which her white mother’s family traces their lineage back to.
The true strength of what Hammond has accomplished is evident in her relatability. While the content is devastatingly personal, the additional Q&A session with the audience that takes place at the end of each performance has the power to reveal just how much people see themselves in her. Story after vulnerable story poured out of audience members at the showing I attended, and for a moment I felt surrounded by family despite being in a room full of mostly strangers. Even from my own position as a white cis man, I could easily relate to Hammond, especially her abstract mantra, “I can afford it.” An audience member asked what that repeated statement meant, and Hammond noted that even now she doesn’t fully understand it. Like all mantras, the words fold in more meaning than their simplicity suggests. What I gleaned from it was the privilege afforded to white skin in America, as well as a question around how much compassion we can afford for others and ourselves.
