“I’m a believer that at least some of the art that you make should scare you,” says actor and director Shermona Mitchell. “Whether it’s the subject matter, a particular scene or a piece of choreography, there should be something in there that keeps your heart aflutter in a way that you’re like, Dear Lord, don’t let me pass out.”

She laughs. “That’s how you know you’re risking something, that’s how you know you’re growing.” …

Mitchell’s story begins far away from the Pacific Northwest in Fort Gordon, Georgia, where she was born in 1982. Both her parents served in the military, and as such she had an itinerant childhood moving around the Midwest, to South Korea and eventually landing in Kentucky. The idea of acting first popped into her head as a child, while she was watching a community production of A Christmas Carol at Fort Knox; she thought to herself, “I could do that better.”

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As I was doing my research for Shermona Mitchell profile, I found an interesting footnote in her biography: She’d traveled to Turkmenistan to perform. Turkmenistan? One of the least-visited and hardest-to-enter countries in the world? I simply had to ask Shermona how she found herself there.

It turns out that trip was all thanks to theater simple. Back in 2019, the Seattle theater company took part in “Theatrical Art of the Epoch of Happiness,” a festival organized by the Ministry of Culture of Turkmenistan in Ashgabat, which brought together theaters from Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Ukraine, Turkey and Russia to share their art and culture. (Theater simple was there for a cultural exchange residency at the invitation of the U.S. Embassy in Ashgabat.) Shermona said that Turkmenistan was made of “marble and gold” and that the people there were wonderful. But of course she stood out.

“One of our guides and security were like, We do believe that there are eight Black people in the country right now. You are the only one in the city proper. So I was a phenomenon. There was a tennis camp that was happening. Those kids thought I was Serena Williams — I’m not Serena Williams!” she laughed. “I literally stopped traffic. I saw a bus almost hit something. People were chasing me. We realized, Oh, this is going to be a problem. People would literally take my arm and just kind of walk off with me. I walked on stage and the audience literally gasped because it’s like seeing a unicorn.”

The whole experience made Shermona really cognizant of her identity as an American in an international setting.

“I was like, oh, this is the American privilege that they talk about,” said Shermona. “It was very interesting to have that sense of understanding.”

This tidbit didn’t quite fit into my profile of Shermona, but fleshes out Shermona’s story in a way I couldn’t resist sharing here.

Happy reading (and watching)! It’s been an honor — see you next year. :-)

— Jas

Seattle has a long and rich history of Black theater. With this final installment of BAL Season 3, Shermona Mitchell joins these outstanding artists whose work on local stages has left an indelible mark, and whom we’ve been honored to profile: Tee Dennard, Cheryl L. West, Valerie Curtis-Newton, Val Thomas-Matson, Reginald André Jackson, and Douglas Q. Barnett and Sharon Nyree Williams. You can also read about the 1930s Negro Repertory Company and listen to our podcast about the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute.

On June 18, many of you joined us at Washington Hall as we feted the wonderful artists and storytellers of BAL Season 3. It felt so good to be in community with everyone for a few hours — the love in the room was palpable. Thank you for being there! Here’s a look at a few sweet moments from the evening, which (of course) turned into a dance party.

Last week Seattle Art Museum opened Jacob Lawrence: American Storyteller, an exhibition showcasing works by one of the country’s truly great artists from SAM’s and other local collections. The exhibition celebrates Lawrence — who spent the last three decades of his life in Seattle — and explores the essential themes in his work, such as family, community, history and human rights. (And if you haven’t read our profile of Lawrence’s wife, artist Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence, check it out for some rich context.)

This newsletter will take a hiatus while we ramp up for Season 4. Until then, don’t miss last last week’s profile of poet Luther Hughes, and catch up on any other profiles you missed at BlackArtsLegacies.com. Be sure to follow us on Instagram for BAL updates. Check out our weekly Arts and Culture column and other Cascade PBS newsletters here. See you soon!