Suzan-Lori Parks

Parks in 2006

Suzan-Lori Parks (born May 10, 1963) is an American playwright, screenwriter, musician and novelist.

Quotes

• At that time the army had just been integrated in the States. And it was one of the few industries that offered black people the possibility of advancement if you did a good job. Most industries didn’t have that then: you were the last hired and the first fired. He was in Vietnam and we were sitting waiting, and we were luckier than some because he was able to come home and live a pretty good life.
  • On her father’s military experiences in “Suzan-Lori Parks: 'People in America are often encouraged not to think'” in The Guardian (2016 Sep 21)

• Black people have had to become great at seeing ourselves where we are not present because that’s where we grew up. I see myself in Downton Abbey. Even before they introduced the black character, I was right there. Some weeks I was upstairs, some weeks I was downstairs! But it is different when you have a character who looks like you, so I’m glad to have plugged that gap a little bit.
  • On the United Kingdom being behind the United States when it comes to incorporating Black characters in “Suzan-Lori Parks: 'People in America are often encouraged not to think'” in The Guardian (2016 Sep 21)

• I am the white woman character, black woman character. I am the black man character, the white man character…I have to stand in that person’s shoes.
  • On embodying every one of her characters in “Pulitzer Prize Winner Suzan-Lori Parks Questions ‘Woke-ness’ With Her Latest Off-Broadway Play” in Playbill (2019 Mar 1)

• It’s like a fairy tale…[Fairy tales] give you a context in which to talk about some things that you’re experiencing in your day-to-day. Theatre works in the same way—if it’s good theatre. When it’s well-crafted, well-honed, it opens wounds for the purpose of encouraging conversation while also giving us the tools with which to have that conversation.
  • On theatre as a whole in “Pulitzer Prize Winner Suzan-Lori Parks Questions ‘Woke-ness’ With Her Latest Off-Broadway Play” in Playbill (2019 Mar 1)