By Harold Steward

A 2009 TEDTalk given by Thelma Golden, Director and Chief Curator of The Studio Museum in Harlem, ultimately led me to believe that the reinvention of cultural institutions was possible and would mandate cultural shifts during a burgeoning renaissance. Golden, who took the helm of The Studio Museum in 2005, found herself doing the principal task of shaping an emergent vision for a legacy institution with many accomplishments and an established set of programs, people, and ideas. In her speech "How art gives shape to cultural change" Golden states: "I was interested in the idea of why and how I could create a new story, a new narrative, in art history and a new narrative in the world. And to do this, I knew that I had to see the way in which artists work, understand the artist's studio as a laboratory, imagine, then, reinventing the museum as a think tank, and looking at the exhibition as the ultimate white paper."

This talk helped me understand that if cultural organizations are to remain effective, then institutional leadership has to stay curious—and that curiosity is something that I have learned to relish. For me, the hallmark of engaging and impactful theater is theater that considers the circumstances or the givens, asks the right questions, and invites you to take the sagacious journey to seek answers and their truths. However, truth-seeking is an exploration that rarely produces solutions but rather more profound and informed questions that carry possibilities for transforming individuals and institutions—making questioning, practice, and synthesis cornerstones of liberation. Yes, we liberate ourselves by the questions we ask on our way to wholeness and the truths that we institute.


So when I joined The Theater Offensive’s staff as managing director in the summer of 2017, I thought back to Thelma Golden's inspiring words. The organization had started the necessary strategic visioning for a more relevant and liberated future and when we gathered, I along with many others considered this one particular question: After 30 years of radical presence, with the last 10 or so truly guided by community perspective and presence, what's next for TTO? 

After two years of strategic planning, we decided that this moment was poised for a paradigm shift, so we changed our mission. We needed to evolve from an organization that “presented the diversity of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer lives in art so bold it breaks through personal isolation, challenges the status quo, and builds thriving communities” to an organization which "presents liberating art by, for, and about queer and trans people of color that transcends artistic boundaries, celebrates cultural abundance, and dismantles oppression." So, we did!

The first set of questions that emerged as we considered this mission shift were: What are the constants and connections between these two missions? What are their variables and differences? It would be a major mistake for me to tell you that I knew then, or even that I know now, the correct answers to these questions; instead, I sought a way to pursue their truths. I believe our ability to conjure creative investigations depends on valuing queer and trans lives of color. 

So I wondered if, after 30 years of being a learning community, if it would be beneficial to our learning and community building to solidify our establishment as a think tank; a stable home for queer cultural ideations to pursue the aforementioned questions and others. As an imperative think tank, could we not only seek wholeness and liberation, but could we embed and embody it as a conscious choice, as a way of being and modeling? What about this consciousness could be so open and life-giving that it not only changes existing worlds but births new ones? What is the sheer magnitude of people of color at the intersection of queer cultural possibilities? 

Golden said that artists guided her to the truths of her questions, and that resonated with me. So we set out to assemble a community of queer and trans meaning-makers to guide us in a deeper understanding of self, pedagogy, and praxis. Both myself and The Theater Offensive are expanding. This work has nurtured and aggrandized us for the last two years and confirmed my fondest belief: self-determinant queer and trans folks are radical guiding lights. These aesthetics are fire!

Gratitude is too cheap to offer in exchange for what these cultural strategists, artists, cultural workers, and resource-sharers have given to us. So more than gratitude, I offer a personal commitment to realize, synthesize, and build upon these truths. I offer this to Maria Cherry Rangel and Sage Crump, our Consultants and Cultural Strategists; Eddie Masonet, Seraah Oose, Tatiana Gil, Letta Neeley, Tonasia Jones, Danny Harris, our Cohort Members; Micah Rosegrant, Pascale Florestal, mei ann teo, Herukuti, Justice Williams, Sharon Bridgeforth, Rebecca Mwase, Nia Faulk, Ty Defoe, Muthi Reed, JD Stokely, and Billy Dean Thomas, our Interviewees and survey participants. 

Additionally, I would like to show my appreciation for The Theater Offensive’s staff and board, both past and present, and to our funders: The Herman and Frieda L. Miller Foundation, the Barr Foundation, the Boston Cultural Council, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the Boston Mayor's Office of Arts and Culture, the National Performance Network, the New England Foundation for the Arts, and the Poss Family Foundation, whose financial support enhanced the value of these offerings.

Finally, I invite you, our growing family of artists, youth, community stewards, funders, and curious minds, to do what adrienne marie brown always summons us to do: understand that what you will experience in the following pages was offered in love. We all have the opportunity to get into the "right relationship" with these aesthetics offerings and the transformative work of The Theater Offensive.  

I appreciate you,

Harold Steward

Cultural Strategist and former TTO Executive Director