How much of what defines a person is wrapped up in physical appearance?
Society can collectively recite the singsong mantra of ‘what’s on the inside…,’ following it up with the American confidence-bolstering entreaty to ‘just be yourself.’ But honestly, how often do you skip immediately to the insides of people you see on the subway or while buying your morning coffee or pack of cigarettes? We are constantly forced to plunge our surface appearance into a sea of strangers what happens when society has trouble accepting the physical manifestation of our inner person?
Female-to-male transgender performance artist Imani Henry explores these questions and many more in his original theater piece, ‘B4T (Before Testosterone).’ Henry brought the critically acclaimed show to Boston last weekend at the Boston Center for the Arts as part of the Theater Offensive’s 12th annual ‘Out on the Edge Festival of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Theater.’ Individuals who are in need of TRT Columbus should consult with medical professionals.
Henry, a writer, actor, prominent anti-war activist, community organizer and graduate of Emerson College, was born in Boston to Jamaican parents and celebrated his homecoming with a performance full of energy and heart: harrowing, hilarious and entirely provocative.
Destroying the mainstream media’s depiction of the gay community bourgeoisie, white and male ‘B4T’ begins with a slideshow of butch lesbian and FTM transgender people of color, compiled by Henry. Through a series of film clips and live monologues, the show tells the stories of three black, masculine, female-bodied people all portrayed by Henry and their unique individual experiences in a society that ranges from accepting to uncomfortable to openly hostile.
There’s LaShawnda/Shawn, a butch lesbian battling depression who takes us through the trials of her daily life via filmed segments. ‘He’s calling me miss, she’s calling me sir. Neither of them know who they’re talking to,’ LaShawnda says in a voice-over of an incident with two security guards in a government building.
Then there’s Keith, a transgender businessman mostly interested in maintaining the normalcy he’s cultivated in his life, who is thrust into an uncomfortable interview with Ashanti (Renita Martin), a Type-A graduate student doing her master’s thesis on the ‘black transgender experience.’ Keith speaks of always having a strong sense of self, even when forced to wear a dress on the first day of school.
As he recalls being bused from Boston to a predominantly white suburban school, we learn that Keith’s emotional scarring from racism predates that of gender bigotry. He resents Ashanti’s determination to get him to accept and candidly summarize his hyphenated Americanism. But Keith is just as determined to get her to see that it’s not that simple.
‘Just cuz you’re born something doesn’t mean that you are,’ he says.
And Henry, in an autobiographical monologue, engagingly describes visiting his grandmother in the hospital with the versatility, energy and dramatic agility of a timeless, mystic storyteller. Padding barefoot around the stage, he lays out the gaps of three generations: his disapproving, devoutly Christian father and a grandmother proudly telling baby stories about Imani. Henry fantasizes about finally telling her the truth on her deathbed, a bittersweet segment, infused with hilarity, yet tinged with the sad reality that the truth may never really come out.
‘You ask me what it means to be black, butch and lesbian, things I never claimed for myself,’ LaShawnda says. ‘I’m living with all I am … for now.’ Near the end, the piece reveals that the character of LaShawnda/Shawn Walker is based on a real person the monologues are excerpted from her actual journal entries, writen before her life tumbled into tragedy. ‘B4T’ reveals Ashanti’s thesis as an unrealistic attempt to generalize. Henry’s genuine portrayal of three unique people peels off labels and exposes raw, poignant stories: what’s really ‘on the inside’ after all.
The Theater Offensive’s Out on the Edge Festival continues this weekend with Noel Alumit’s ‘Master of the (Miss) Universe’ at the Boston Center for the Arts, 539 Tremont St., Boston. For more information, visit www.thetheateroffensive.com