Todrick Hall opened a new musical off-Broadway this week. It’s called Midnight, it’s at the Daryl Roth Theatre, and he wrote it, directed it, choreographed it and stars in it. It’s set on a plantation before the Civil War. An enslaved man falls in love with a white man, and in the second act the roles flip. Black people own the plantation and white people are the slaves.
My TikTok and Instagram have been full of people giving their take. Why is this person falling for them? Why is he celebrating slavery? You would not fall in love with your oppressor. All these negative things, and it’s coming from African Americans. It stresses me out.
Yes, I agree. I’m tired of seeing slavery movies.
This is my family. I didn’t even know this was my family when I saw the picture. That’s my mother. And I’m embarrassed to say that at this point in my life I still had to ask, who is this? Who are these people? That’s my grandmother, and my grandfather in the middle. He was coming back from war. This is what Black Americans looked like in the 40s, and we didn’t see that.
So yes, I totally agree. But I’m not going to say don’t do the slavery play. The point I want to bring to the surface is creativity. Storytelling and ideas come in all shapes and forms.
I wrote a book under my real name, Corey Wesley, called A Love Affair of Deep Proportions. I’m not giving a spoiler, you’re going to have to read it. It’s a story that’s unbelievable but really true. But not true. Now I’ve confused you. Hopefully I did, because you might want to go read it. It’s a story I needed to tell. Whether you agree, like or dislike my book, it doesn’t matter. I created it from nothing.
We should celebrate people who are able to sleep at night and wake up with a thought from God, whatever the reason is. He is no different than any other soul on this planet. If you believe in Christ or you believe in the universe or a higher power, I don’t care what you believe. What I know for a fact is that when we get these thoughts, they come from the heavens. Whether that’s right or wrong is not for you to answer. It’s whatever message is feeding through.
Maybe this is the conversation we need to have. We’re on different sides of the coin here. Different sides of the tracks. Some of us are on the same track and don’t think alike. So maybe it’s about sparking a conversation, versus the story itself.
I create art. Archetypes. And people be like, what? If they even had an idea of all the struggles and the pain, and all it takes just to get your stuff seen.
And whoever he’s connected to, whoever funded it, I’ll say this much. Y’all sitting at home writing about people don’t fund or pay for any of the projects we do. If you ever try to start a project, or own a company, or get your own stuff off the ground without funding, talk to me. Talk to me, because I guarantee you’d be sitting at home crying. This is my personal opinion, but there are not many people out here funding Black-owned businesses or Black artists and creatives off-Broadway.
So y’all need to sit down and be quiet and let that boy do him. Y’all don’t have to buy a ticket.
Lead photo: Philip Romano, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
