21 Black Futures

What is the future of Blackness? Obsidian Theatre presents twenty-one versions of it.

In 2021, Obsidian Theatre engaged twenty-one writers to create twenty-one new stories about imagined Black futures. Twenty-one to celebrate Obsidian's twenty-first anniversary in 2021. Each playwright was tasked with scripting a ten-minute monodrama in response to the question "What is the future of Blackness?" To counter the intense early-pandemic isolation and the trauma of witnessing heightened violence toward Black bodies, Obsidian's goal was to give as many opportunities to as many diverse Black artists as possible and to bring new voices together from both theatre and film. It was a grand experiment to create a rich tapestry of possibilities and to uplift Black artists in the process.

A radical offering in unprecedented times, newly appointed Obsidian artistic director Mumbi Tindyebwa Otu's curatorial aim was joyful, aspirational, and empowering: come together in this moment and create something communal, unapologetically Black, and with the Black gaze at its centre--art as the architecture for creating those futures.

Obsidian is Canada's leading culturally specific theatre company with a threefold mission to produce plays, develop playwrights, and train emerging theatre professionals. Obsidian is passionately dedicated to the exploration, development, and production of the Black voice. Obsidian produces plays from a worldwide canon focusing primarily, but not exclusively, on the works of highly acclaimed Black playwrights. Obsidian provides artistic support, promoting the development of work by Black theatre makers and offering training opportunities through mentoring and apprenticeship programs for emerging Black artists.