Lisa B. Thompson - "The Black Feminist Guide to the Human Body"

A new theatre piece, part performance art, part health fair, and part block party, "The Black Feminist Guide to the Human Body" brings art, activism and community together to center the lives of Black women, femmes, and girls. She Mind, She Body, and She Soul frantically try to locate the missing Black Feminist Guide to the Human Body in order to save the life of a young Black mother who has just given birth. The three spirits repeatedly clash on which path to take so they must rely on the help of the Black Femme Chorus and Dance Troupe to keep them on track. Can the trio find or recreate the guidebook in time to impart wisdom to the ailing mother’s newborn so she can use it for her journey through life?

"The Black Feminist Guide to the Human Body" is a poem, play, whisper, song, dance, cry, praise song, laugh, and field holler about what it means to inhabit a Black female/femme body from birth to death and beyond. The show incorporates performance, movement, video/imagery, and music to reveal how the body connects to the mind and the soul. During this raucous performance healing ritual, actors, dancers, and a chorus of Black women, ladies, girls, femmes, sisters, aunties, mamas, nanas, hip hoppers, and teenie boppers of various body types, skin colors, hairstyles, and personas, fight for the health, pleasure, and longevity of Black women globally. Their weapons? Anger and joy, fear and sorrow, lust and hunger, confusion and certainty, shame and pride, and most of all—love.