‘Negra, negra, negra soy,’ premiering in Harford, celebrates Black women and unity, diversity of diaspora

The community performance, “Negra, negra, negra soy,” will premiere Saturday at Kamora’s Cultural Corner, 75 Sterling St. in Hartford at 4 p.m.

Created by the Afro-Feminist arts collective Kukily and directed by local artist Colleen Ndemeh Fitzgerald, the one-of-a-kind play brings together 10 Black women from throughout the Hartford area to share original stories about their desires and reflections on the state of the world today through poetry, singing, dancing, and other forms of storytelling.

It was co-produced with Sage Seeker Productions and in partnership with Hartford Public Library, Connecticut Historical Society, and funded by Connecticut Office of The Arts and The Greater Hartford Arts Council. The cast includes Diane Robinson, Sonyetta Strickland, Kaysle Stewart, Gail Martin, Jocelyn Cerda, Linda Martin, Ula Dodson, Terri-Ann Williams, Danessa Pedroso, and Ashley Innocent.

The piece itself, “Negra, Negra, negra soy,” was created by a group of 20 Black women of African descent from Brazil, Colombia, the Caribbean, Argentina (where Fitzgerald lived for five years), and many other places.

Fitzgerald said that there is a deep importance to having the performance take place within the community.

“The importance of recognizing that you’re Black, that you’re of African descent — that’s something to be proud of. That’s something that links you with other people,” she said. “It’s very, very uncommon even today in the U.S., in Argentina, to see this many Black women centered, their voices centered, performing something that they desire, to say the things that they want to say. That’s how the piece is created.”

Not only will the play take place within the community, but is cast entirely of community members.

“So, the idea also of choosing community members of many different backgrounds [and] many different ages who have never done this before is just uplifting the idea that everyone has something to say. Everyone has a story and everyone has something important to contribute to this. I believe we’re all trying to make a better world. That’s the important part about all of these women who are participating. They’re contributing to that goal of creating a better world together,” she said.

This purpose made Kamora Herrington, founder of Kamora’s Cultural Corner, open her doors for the arts collective to debut the performance.

“I’m seriously looking forward to this,” Herrington said. “This show has to happen because as Black women throughout the diaspora, we are separated by these strange, weird little pieces of culture that have been bestowed upon us by colonialism. And as we figure out how to connect with each other, there needs to be places like “Negra, negra, negra soy,” where Black women are able to celebrate the uniqueness of their Blackness and the uniqueness of themselves.”

Fitzgerald said that people should expect a night of transformation and magic.

“[The] Black women are from Hartford. And it’s going to be multidisciplinary, meaning some will be leading poetry, some will be doing some storytelling. There’s also going to be a little bit of singing, a little bit of movement dance, so it’s really going to be a lot of different creative expression[s],” she said. “Kamora’s Cultural Corner is a nature sanctuary in the middle of the night. What we’ve done with the stage for “Negra, negra, negra soy,” is create an oasis of use for these performers to share their stories.”

Herrington hopes that people who come to see the performance will come out ready to think about other people’s experiences.

“For far too many folks and definitely when it comes to a Black woman’s experience, for a lot of us, it’s really easy to become defensive and [with] an understanding of ourselves, get to the place of ‘if I was her, I would have done this.’ ‘I don’t know why she did this. She should have done that.’ We continually assign ourselves, our values, our beliefs, our ways of being to other people, and use that to not understand why they’re living the way that they live. But, also [to] bolster ourselves up in this weird place of [being] better, because we are different.”

“I believe that the show beautifully and vulnerably asks people to step in and look at people’s lives. It’s up to people what they choose to do with it … this show invites people to … that empathetic place of observing and witnessing,” Herrington said. “If people walk away from this play feeling that they can actually plan on the next thing to do, I think they missed a lot. If people walk away with an understanding that they need to think more about their own reality, because these women gave them a new way to start thinking about themselves. That’s beautiful.”

The community performance of “Negra, negra, negra, soy” is pay what you will. For both tickets and more information, go to the following website: eventbrite.com/e/negra-negra-negra-soy-community-performance-event-tickets-387610081187.