nick hadikwa mwaluko (they/he)
NICK HADIKWA MWALUKO’s plays include: Queerly Beloved; Silence Is A Sound: a Black trans femme riot; 37: a Black lesbian duet set in prison; S.T.A.R: Marsha P. Johnson; queer African trilogy bathed in fantasia Waafrika 123; QTPOC trans masculine THEY/THEM/THEIRS (TBA/Theater Bay Area); queer apocalypse Homeless in the AfterLife; Blueprint for an African Lesbian; SH/Ero; Asymmetrical We; Brotherly Love; Trailer Park Tundra; Once A Man Always A Man; Mama Afrika; Queering MacBeth; Life Is About the Kill; That Day God Visits You; Ata; To Dyke Trans; Gayze and many more. Residencies include: Nationally recognized and nominated Resident Playwright Initiative with Playwrights’ Foundation (San Francisco, CA 2019-2023); Resilience and Development (R&D) Writers’ Lab with Crowded Fire Theater Company in San Francisco (2017-2018); New York City’s EWG (Emerging Writers’ Group) at the Public Theater sponsored by Time Warner Co.; New York City’s Groundbreakers Group, Djerassi Artist Residency in northern California, Freedom Train Productions, Ragged Wing Ensemble and more. Nick is a 2018 finalist for Africa’s Gerald Kraak Award; a two-time recipient of the Creativity Fund issued by the Public Theater and Time Warner, and a 2017 Spring grantee of a Theatre Bay Area (TBA) Individual Artist Cash grant. Nick graduated Magna Cum Laude at Columbia University for undergrad and completed an MFA at Columbia University as a Point Scholar, the nation’s largest LGBTQIA scholarship fund, and was awarded a Columbia University Fellowship for theater at the same time. Nick attended the Iowa Writers’ Workshop thanks to a Norman Felton Fellowship. WAAFRIKA 1-2-3, Nick’s trans queer tragic triptych in Africa fantasia is slated for development opportunities in Los Angeles and Florida in 2020. XXYX Queer Africa: More Invisible, a companion essay to WAAFRIKA 1-2-3, was recently published online in literary magazine Juked: http://www.juked.com/2019/11/nick-hadikwa-mwaluko-xxyx-queer-africa-more-invisible.asp NICK HADIKWA MWALUKO is a queer, trans, non-binary, GNC, Tanzanian-American playwright.
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WAAFRIKA 123
a play by Nick Hadikwa Mwaluko Excerpt for Theatre Viscera RADIO ANNOUNCER ONE
Kenya Broadcasting Corporation, KBC. We interrupt our regularly scheduled musical program for a brief news bulletin. His Excellency the President issued the first of a series of fire-y speeches condemning the recently formed Kenya Gay, Lesbian and Queer Alliance, Umoja wa Wasenge. In his remarks, the President said quote: “I will use everything in my power as Supreme Commander and Chief of the armed forces to crush this ridiculous crusade for homosexual rights.” The President went on to say, “I personally sanction fellow Kenyans to do whatever is necessary, by whatever means necessary to root out this extremely perverse behavior from our national soil. This will make you a true Kenyan citizen. Show you to be a true citizen of African. And your action will make Kenya great again.” Umoja wa Wasenge, a clandestine organization claiming social justice for all, won national attention a week ago today when its leaders, two Kenyan men, were arrested for kissing in a local park. Their case has sparked a wave of violent protest throughout the country. Both men remain on trial for the death penalty. Meanwhile fighting continues to escalate in response to the President’s inflammatory remarks. Now onto sports… [AWINO pulls violently away from BOBBY as the sports segment begins.] BOBBY What the fuck is— [AWINO goes to the table, switches the radio off, wanders about the kraal pacing. S/he picks items off the floor, tossing them onto the bed. BOBBY approaches AWINO, reaches out to touch her-hir.] AWINO Touch me again and I swear I’ll beat the shit out of you. On the only God I know— BOBBY What?! AWINO (on top of her line) There’s no time. / We… BOBBY Listen to me. / Listen. We have… AWINO Put the clothes inside / the… BOBBY Tell me where we’re going first and I’ll— AWINO Just! Pack! BOBBY I! Am! I am pac-- [They pack together in silence.] BOBBY Listen, Baby, look at me just for one— [BOBBY tries to position herself as a visual focus.] BOBBY Will you listen to me please? Sweetie? You and I, we both have to think of a plan for us to be able to pick up, / please… AWINO What? Eh? What? / Are you… BOBBY I can’t—I can’t do this by myself. Where do you want us to / go without… AWINO Is this your country? Is. This. Your. Country? Is it?! [Silence. ] AWINO Do you, can you know how / they will react to us? Lesbians, deviants, faggots, queers. BOBBY But what can we do when— AWINO Do you know anything? No. So shut that stupid big American mouth of yours. Take the rest of the clothes. And put them inside the suitcase. [BOBBY doesn’t move. AWINO walks over and literally shakes BOBBY.] AWINO What do you want me to say? That I’m scared? Here: I am terrified. When they come Bobby, that’s it. We’ll be arrested, in prison, electricity here (indicating their genital area). No me, no you, no us no more Bobby. And believe me they’re on their way. So either you help me pack— —I’ll do it myself. I couldn’t care less what you decide at this point Bobby. BOBBY Listen to me! Listen! AWINO WhAAAAAAAAAAAAAt! BOBBY We up and leave this house, where are we gonna go? Who will house us? Nobody. We’re the sick contaminated lesbians, remember? And we’re broke. We’re so broke it’s not even an option to—All I’m saying is— AWINO You say, you say, you you you. Who are you? And what are you doing here—really? Today morning I told you this would happen didn’t I? First thing through that door what was I saying, eh Bobby?, “We’re going to die. They will kill us”—but what did you say?, eh Bobby? What did you say? “Who is “they” Awino?. There is no “they” Awino, only personal truth.” Biiiig ideas and me being the stupid idiot that I am, I ignore everything I know about my own people and believe in you say, you say, you say. Think I’m stupid? Think because I’m quiet, don’t say a word, just sit there watching that I’m that African fool you can seduce, control, manipulate, right? You are an American with a passport. With a passport!!! You will leave me here in a minute with you say you say, fly back to United States, never mention my name or what happened here. That’s your plan, right? So you listen me and listen to me good: I know you are nothing but death to me you stupid American privilege rich whore. That’s what I say. [AWINO resumes packing. BOBBY takes a moment to register AWINO’s pain, confusion, etc.] BOBBY I will not leave you. I will never ever—Look at me. I said I will—sorry, I didn’t mean to say “I” or suggest that I’m at the center of everything, we are, you and me together Awino. But Baby, please let’s look at the larger picture here. We leave this house to go where? To whom without two cents in our pockets? Look, we get the check first thing tomorrow morning. One of us should stay to collect— AWINO So you do want to leave me then? BOBBY Fine, you stay, collect the check if that makes more— AWINO They will kill you. They will bust open that door and— BOBBY Ughhhh!, stop fucken—The situation is bad enough as is. Calm down, use your smarts for a second, just—They will not kill me. I’m an American. I worked for the Peace Corps Awino. They so much as touch me there will be a media frenzy so big, every news station in the United States plus Kenya and— AWINO And me? What happens to me? BOBBY You are not gonna like what I have to say-- AWINO WHAT HAPPENS TO ME?! BOBBY Go to your father. AWINO YESU (Jesus) Mungu wangu!! What have I been saying all day? What has the radio been saying? This is beyond Chief and child. Beyond Peace Corps, it’s-- BOBBY Nothing in this village is beyond Chief / and child… AWINO Sometimes your stupidity is / so… BOBBY Yeah, think I’m stupid? Think I have no clue what I’m saying? We run, how far do you think we can get? How far before they find us then out us as contaminated lesbos? It’s splattered all over the national radio. Everyone is listening and talking. So it’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when: Today?, tomorrow? Half an hour from now?, but they will find us; they will definitely find us. That’s why I’m saying go straight to your father for protection… AWINO Shut up! BOBBY Better you tell him the truth than— AWINO (OVERLAP) Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! You don’t know how much you’re—Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Can’t you see how this is—Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! StopStopStopStop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! BOBBY (OVERLAP that is simultaneous with “stops”) Tell him about absolute freedom. About how wonderful it feels to be together. How you found the purity of your very own personal truth. How it’s beyond your friends, or your family, or your village. Customs, laws, tradition. Even your ancestors. It’s so vital it’s larger than your fear Awino. It’s so vital, it’s larger than yourself. Anything and everything that’s ever kept you down, or away from discovering who you really are. What you really need. What you want. What you believe in, that’s what it is. Your truth. Show him how sacred it is to you. (Overlapping AWINO’s final Stop!) Stop what? AWINO Stop translating my culture to me and come! BOBBY Baby we can’t get anywhere. AWINO We leave this second Bobby, we can protect truth. We can preserve our love. BOBBY Love? You have the audacity to call what we have love? We sneak round corners. Living like shadows. None of your friends come visit you anymore because of the way you look. You can’t get a job. One of the only people in this village fluent in English. You’ve gone to high-school. You’re Dad is royalty, but you’re unemployed for how long now because you look too much like a man to stand behind a fucken counter. Is that the love you want me to protect? Is it worth my life, our lives lived in fear, spinning lie after lie after packs of lies to everyone from neighbors to family to ourselves just so we don’t get tooooo crazy—in the name of the love you want me to protect? I mean once, just once I’d love to talk to someone here about my relationship instead of spending millions calling the States for a conversation, is that the love you’re talking about? Lookit, Point to one, just one sex-positive space in our home Awino, space where we can celebrate the uniqueness of who we are, what we share together-together! [End of Excerpt.] |
