DCist Interview: Nina Angela Mercer
In a play that oscillates easily between explicit sexual fantasies and pointed critiques of African American culture, Nina Angela Mercer’s Gutta Beautiful, part of the Fringe Festival, gives a complex picture of contemporary African American life. Written as a “conversation with [her] block,” Mercer’s story is also rooted particularly in D.C. and her life here.
The loose narrative of the story focuses on Lola, a young woman hungry for both sex and love, but who ends up in a relationship that is both physically and psychologically damaging. While the play touches on issues of race, sex, love and politics, it provides no easy answers. In an interview with Mercer over email, she gives some insight into the play itself and the broader issues it addresses.
Although the play's themes try to capture the universal African American experience, there are many specific references to D.C., such as how the Million Man March failed to make an impact on local African American neighborhoods. How much of the story and its message are particularly rooted in Washington and its history?
I was born and raised here in D.C. Most of the experiences which inspired me to write Gutta Beautiful came from my life here. I think that most people from outside of the District, and also many of the transplants, know D.C. as the seat of the federal government. But for locals, it's a very different life. In popular culture, especially film, our experiences as native Washingtonians are dwarfed by the White House, the Capitol, the Mall . . . But our stories are equally, if not more, important than what goes on in those places. In fact, the policies set by the federal government are the external factors oppressing the characters in the Gutta.
Your last point there is interesting. In some ways, you seem to portray Lola and Michael, the two central characters who exemplify both the stereotypes and the realities of young African Americans, as victims of circumstances beyond their control. And at other times, they are able to make choices about their fate. Do you think Lola and Michael are able to rise above their situations?
Yes. I do believe that people have the ability to rise above their circumstances emotionally and psychologically . . . spiritually. For Lola, and I believe for all people, it is important that she recognize the power, courage, and perseverance of those who came before her, her ancestors, in order to recognize that despite the external factors oppressing her family, she has the ability to choose otherwise. At the same time, it is important for people to understand that this is a battle we must fight together. There are major problems with our society, our government, our national policies, which are killing the citizens of this nation. It is important for us to realize this, as a people. But at the same time, we must strengthen ourselves internally to prepare for this battle.
I wrote Gutta Beautiful to have a conversation with my block. So, I am trying to give my community some insight into how to survive all of this, regardless of the government's concern or lack thereof. Whether or not the nation and its politicians love us, we have to love ourselves and make choices which reflect that love.
Have you read bell hooks? A lot of her themes, especially how abuse is often confused with love, seem to be expressed in your work.
Her book Teaching to Transgress has actually had the most solid impact on me. But I have studied Literature of the Black Diaspora in great detail. My influences are varied [including] . . . Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, Toni Cade Bambara, Ntozake Shange, James Baldwin, Sadiya Hartman, Deborah Willis, Sonia Sanchez, Erna Brodber, Augusto Boal, Paulo Friere, Zora Neale Hurston, August Wilson, Gayl Jones, Gloria Anzaldua, Jorge Amado, Sandra Cisneros, Ana Castillo.
Many writers of color emphasize the love principle. The reason for this is that our ancestors’ experience in this country and our own experiences have not necessarily emphasized love. We have been treated as outcasts by the land we have helped to build. We have little affirmation. So, we have to continue returning to the heart, the love of self and community, in order to have hope for the future.
How does the sexuality expressed particularly by Lola and her friends fit into these concepts of love? The play is very overtly sexual in some places--Lola performing a lap dance for an audience member. And another character (Alice in Wonder-Dick) has a monologue about lusting after an imaginary white rabbit with a huge black dick. How does this sexuality fit in with the message of self-love?
For African Americans, and for many people, sexuality is taboo. Our sexuality has been mandated by oppressors, mythologized in the media, and preyed upon. We have been shamed by our sexuality. This causes us to use sex as a commodity, as a mode of exchange, and ultimately, sexuality becomes bondage. I want to break those chains. I want us to enjoy our sexuality, embrace it, make fun of it, reverse its stigma, and move on . . .
I also feel that the sexual culture in the United States is repressive. I have traveled outside of this country, and I have noticed that not all people in the world have the same sense of shame, embarrassment, and guilt surrounding sex and sexual identity. We are caged by some very puritanical principles in relation to sex and sexuality, and that is also repressive. We even support policies and legislation which inhibit our sexual bodies. I want to claim a space of liberation, a space where a woman can claim sexual autonomy in the most beautiful and absurd ways. I want people to lose their sanctioned comfort zones and become free about how we perceive sex, its importance, and its limitations.
How have older audiences, who are perhaps less comfortable with the subject matter. reacted? What about audiences who are not African American? Has your block responded to the play?
The reactions have been positive. I mean, I have gotten some critiques, mostly about sexuality, because people can be uncomfortable with conversations about sex, conversations that happen outside of their bedrooms. Still, for the most part, people have enjoyed the show. We have had a nice inter-generational crowd. And one elder, a woman of over 80 years, fully enjoyed the show. I think that some of the things articulated in Gutta Beautiful are the very things many elder women have wanted to say. But they have not been able to say these things due to patriarchal conditioning and expectation.
As an artist, though, I have to write what I hear without censorship. I have to be true to the voices I hear. That is my responsibility to craft. So, I haven't really been canvassing every response.
As for my block, those who have been able to make it have fully enjoyed the show. And when I reference my block . . . I am really talking about masses of people of color, masses of people who have shared the experiences of Lola, Mike, Suga and Orchid. They get it. We have had some local grassroots [organizations] and their clients attend each show, and more will be present tonight. They feel the play in their hearts, in their guts because this is our language, our story, our truth, in a very raw form.
I haven't really heard much from those who are not of color. But I do remember when Gutta Beautiful was a one woman piece and I performed it for an audience of predominantly white women, I got a good response. They could relate to it from the perspective of being female in a male dominated society. They could also relate to the struggles related to class status and living in a capitalist society.
I wish that we could send some buses out to bring the block to the show in greater numbers. Tickets cost money. And we only have but so many comps. But if the piece has greater life, and I hope that it will, we will be able to get to more folk.
Gutta Beautiful will have its last show tonight at the Woolly Mammoth Theater at 8 p.m. as part of the Capitol Fringe Festival.