ARTISTIC STATEMENT

My work is prayer in motion, ancestor channeling, the willing into existence a more just and equitable world for all of humanity. I deeply believe in the power of storytelling, the theater, to save lives and change realities, to both shame and ignite people into action.

The world is noisy with millions of conversations that prevent us from being able to see and settle in our truth. I write plays that invite people into the stillness of the theater or to the clarity of words on the page; to be able to inhale new thoughts and emotions and exhale a different way of being in the world that gets us closer to our humanity.

My work lifts up the voices and lived experiences of Black folks in America with a spotlight on the disappeared stories and struggles of Black women and girls. My words violently shake the cage of the status quo, determined to set free those of us who were born shackled to it. I write to strike the heart, mind and soul of the cagers – whether they built the cage, guard the cage or lock the cage while helping the oppressor bear witness to the fact that caging folks doesn’t benefit anyone – even the cagers.

I am grateful for the cannon of fierce Black women writers who came before me, freedom fighters here and across the globe, the suffering and survival skills of my people, a belief that we can and are winning, the deep knowledge that art saves lives and changes the world, the creator and the ancestors who told me before I took my first breath that this is my work of this lifetime. I am moved to action by the desperate urgency I feel to leave the world better than I found it for my daughter before I run out of time.

Through my art I want to challenge, terrify, disrupt and destroy white supremacy and all of its violence, stale beliefs that no longer serve us and the normalcy of violence be that physical or material.

I am a servant to all of humanity with a sharp focus on serving Black folks surviving and thriving (in spite of) in this country.

CAT BROOKS
2024–2025 RESIDENT PLAYWRIGHT 

Cat Brooks (she/her) is an award-winning actress and playwright. She has spent the last three years touring her award-winning one-woman show ‘Tasha, based on the 2015 in-custody murder of Natasha McKenna in the Fairfax County Jail. ‘Tasha won the Best of the SF Fringe Festival in 2017, 3 Girls Theater Salon Series Playwright Festival in 2018 and was featured in the 2019 BAMBD Festival in Oakland. In her role as an artivist, she is also the host of “Law & Disorder” on KPFA and resident playwright and actress with The Lower Bottom Playaz in Oakland and 3Girls Theatre in San Francisco. As an organizer, she played a central role in the struggle for justice for Oscar Grant, and spent the last decade working with impacted communities and families to rapidly respond to police violence and radically transform the ways our communities are policed and incarcerated. She is the co-founder of the Anti Police-Terror Project (APTP) and the Executive Director of the Justice Teams Network. Cat was also the runner-up in Oakland’s 2018 mayoral election, facing incumbent Libby Schaaf.