Acknowledgments
We take this opportunity to sincerely thank John Bennett, Acquisitions Editor at Brill | Sense and Patricia Leavy, editor of the Personal/Public Scholarship Series (Brill | Sense) for their confidence in this work and for marshalling this project with their able and committed staff.
Special thanks to Judith Hamera for her continued personal and professional friendship, and her overall brilliance that inspires me always. To my brister E. Patrick Johnson, who many years ago suggested that I should engage a book project of this type—your work is consonant with my own on so many levels.
And I thank Patrick Henry Bailey for his love and on-going, level-headed support of my person and my work.
Bryant Keith Alexander
Special thanks to Nathan Motta and the Dobama Theater for inviting me to be part of its “Playwrights GYM,” a group of Cleveland playwrights the theater supports with regular meetings, space for staged readings and productions, and other resources. To the Ensemble Theater, the Playwrights Local Theater Company, Karamu House, and the “Dark Room” at the Cleveland Public Theater, who provided space for staged/readings of some of this work in its early stages.
The bibliography at the end of the book was originally compiled by the late Najee Muhammad, EdD, Associate Professor, Ohio University.
I’d like to thank my husband, James Amie, for his unconditional love, patience, and unwavering support.
Mary E. Weems