I first got involved in theater in 1968, at the height of a social tumult. I was a poet.

Suffice it to say, I'm not poor.

I write for myself and my goal is bringing that world and that experience of black Americans to life on the stage and giving it a space there.

Blues is the bedrock of everything I do. All the characters in my plays, their ideas and their attitudes, the stance that they adopt in the world, are all ideas and attitudes that are expressed in the blues.

All you need in the world is love and laughter. That's all anybody needs. To have love in one hand and laughter in the other.

I believe in the American theatre. I believe in its power to inform about the human condition, its power to heal ... its power to uncover the truths we wrestle from uncertain and sometimes unyielding realities.

The details of our struggle to survive and prosper, in what has been a difficult and sometimes bitter relationship with a system of laws and practices that deny us access to the tools necessary for productive and industrious life, are available to any serious student of history or sociology.