Kareem M. Lucas is a Brooklyn-born and Harlem-based Actor/Writer/Producer/Director. His solo pieces include The Maturation of an Inconvenient Negro (or iNEGRO), From Brooklyn With Love, RATED BLACK: An American Requiem, A Boy & His Bow, A Warm Winter, and Black Is Beautiful, But It Ain’t Always Pretty. He has performed his solo work at The Greene Space, Aaron Davis Hall at City College, The Town Hall, Fire This Time Festival, IRT Theater, The Slipper Room, Teatro Circulo, Judson Arts Wednesdays, Hi-ARTS, AFO Theater, JACK, HERE Arts Center, New York Theatre Workshop, The Public Theater, among others. He is currently co-collaborating on the immersive theatrical piece The Black History Museum…According to the United States of America, as a writer/performer with the Smoke & Mirrors Collaborative as a part of their Residency at HERE Arts Center, it will premiere at HERE in November 2019. He most recently was a part of The 2019 Mentor Project at The Cherry Lane Theatre, where his solo show The Maturation of an Inconvenient Negro (or iNEGRO) was mounted. He’s also an inaugural Jerome Hill Artist Fellow and a NYTW 2050 Playwriting Fellow. MFA: NYU Graduate Acting Program.

For more info you can visit www.KareemMLucas.com or follow him on Instagram @KareemMLucas

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Kareem on the solo narrative:

"What draws me to the solo form is the immediacy and inherent communal nature of a group of people gathering around one person, who tells a story. It's ancient. It's the Griot around the fire. It's both tribal and familial. And, it's been some of the most thrilling and compelling theater that I've ever experienced. Recently, I've become obsessed with the solo form, because it demands so much from me as a creator, writer, and performer. A true high wire act, with nowhere to hide, you are naked and vulnerable. Firmly planted in the palm of the audience. So, hopefully, they've had a drink or two, they treat you kindly, and maybe even listen long enough that the performer on the stage possibly shifts the way everyone in the audience looks at the world and themselves. Or, you know, maybe they at least don't fall asleep."

 

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Description of the project Kareem will be working on with AFO:

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Black Is Beautiful, But It Ain't Always Pretty

 

In this solo show, Kareem M. Lucas reanimates the memory of a never-ending NYC night — a wild roller coaster ride through alcohol, drugs, sex, joy, loss, and self-discovery. He weaves together his past and present to interrogate our desperate need for significance, in life and after death, and mythologizes the everyday experience of a common Black man in America. Black Is Beautiful, But It Ain’t Always Pretty is an epic poem about fulfilling one’s purpose—if there is any—before time runs out. The clock is ticking.

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Excerpts of Past Work: