Erika Dickerson-Despenza wins 2021 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize
Her play is about the water crisis in Flint, Michigan.
April 8, 2021
The winner of the 2021 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize has been awarded, honoring the writing of female playwrights. This year’s winner is Erika Dickerson-Despenza with
cullud wattah, a new work exploring three generations of Black women living through the water crisis in Flint, Michigan.
“I wrote cullud wattah to explore the politics of disgust, shame and refusal by highlighting the rupture of government intervention at the intersection of capitalism and environmental racism” says Dickerson-Despenza. She continued to say “I wrote this play specifically for black women on the margins of the margins. Poor and working class black women, single mothers, elders and widows, black women in recovery, and queer black girls.”
The 2021 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize has been awarded to U.S. playwright Erika Dickerson-Despenza for her play about the Flint, Michigan water crisis, cullad wattah. Awarded annually since 1977, The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize is the largest and oldest international prize honoring Women+ playwrights. On April 7, a livestream of the award ceremony honored Dickerson-Despenza and the other 9 Finalists. Award-winning star of stage and screen, and one of this year s Blackburn Prize Judges, Paapa Essiedu, announced the winning play, which comes with an award of $25,000 and a signed and numbered print by artist Willem De Kooning. What a play. Oh my God, what a play! When I say that this play hit me like a train. Like a ton of bricks. I don t think I slept for about three weeks after reading this play. It did something very significant to me. . Through its passionate exploration of the black female experience in America right now I feel like this play is going to be a classic of today and