April 12, 2021
Suzan-Lori Parks: I started playing guitar in high school in Maryland, where people, Black and white, told me, “Black people don’t play the guitar.” This was before the internet, so I had to hip them to Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Memphis Minnie and Reverend Gary Davis. I’m not disparaging anybody, it’s just what happens when people encourage you to stay in a box. The idea of an award-winning playwright (and a screenwriter-showrunner) playing an instrument is also strange to some. My feeling is, if you find yourself in a box, maybe you want to lower the walls.