Five Years and We Don’t Stop!

April 20, 2022 marks the fifth year anniversary of the Latinx Theatre Project and I couldn’t be prouder to be a part of such a creative and resilient group who uses their talent to speak their truth and makes space for others to do so. When we put our first play on stage in 2017, Follow Me @ Tio Sam, it was so moving to see that we brought tears to people’s eyes and had many brown people from our towns say to us that they finally felt seen and heard, and so did we. At first, we thought we were telling our stories as brown and black folks growing up in the south, but we quickly learned that these stories are shared amongst so many others and telling them is beyond our own benefit. 

This month, we put together a performance for TheatreSquared and took a trip down memory lane with songs, poems and monologues from all of our past works, reflected on our journey to now and had the opportunity to share the mic with the audience. It was humbling and overwhelming to look back on everything we’ve accomplished as a group and take a moment to be proud. We went from a bunch of high school kids who created a scrappy play that was only supposed to last one season - we had no intention of becoming who we are now - but when you give a group of brown kids a platform to dream, the possibilities can be endless. That’s what we want to continue to do as an organization and that’s why my favorite part of the night was when we stepped back and let our community step up and use their voices as well. Huge shout out to everyone who shared their work - I loved that outside of the prompt we gave them, people brought work ready to share!

After two years of looking at each through zoom screens and adjusting to filming our work due to the constraints of the pandemic, I was ecstatic to be able to perform in person and engage with our people live. No one can tell what the future holds, but whether the weather be cold, or whether the weather be hot, we’ll be together whatever the weather… whether we like it or not (inside joke, I promise we like each other), and we will always have each other's backs.

Author: Sativa Vela, Founding Member & Associate Artistic Director (They/Them)