Val Gray Ward (1933-2024)
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Val Gray Ward, champion of black writers and performers, and founder of Kuumba Theatre Workshop, one of the most influential Black-centered theater companies in the city, has died at the venerable age of 91.
Ms Ward was born and raised in Mound Bayou, Mississippi, one of the oldest Black towns in America. “I came to Chicago when I was 18 and you know, here I am. I met people like Gwendolyn Brooks and Margaret Burroughs from the DuSable Museum and Hoyt Fuller—got involved with artists and then the churches.” Ms Ward became a regular at the South Side Community Arts Center in Bronzeville, which helped plant the seed for what became Kuumba when Ward began doing readings of writers such as Margaret Walker and Langston Hughes. Ms Ward founded Kuumba Theatre Workshop in 1968 (the name comes from a Swahili word meaning “to create” or “creativity”) and went on to produce shows by important voices in Black American literature and theater, including The Amen Corner by James Baldwin (which Kuumba performed at Lincoln Center in 1979 with Baldwin in the audience), Welcome To Black River by Samm-Art Williams, and The Brownsville Raid by Charles Fuller. A 1977 production of The Image Makers by Useni Eugene Perkins dealt with the Black exploitation period in film and what that represented, and was brought FESTAC ’77, an international African arts festival in Lagos, Nigeria. Kuumba toured their work around the US and internationally, including Tokyo and Montreal.Ward’s commitment to elevating Black artists encompassed more than just theater writers and performers; she brought members of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) into Kuumba productions. Pemon Rami, who worked with Ms Ward at Kuumba from the time he was 20 and also founded now-defunct La Mont Zeno Theatre (another influential Black company in Chicago) said this: “Val has always stood for what was right for the community. She could have stepped out on her own because she could have become a famous actress. She could have done Broadway, she could have done anything she wanted to do. She decided to form a company and to create material that would change people’s lives.” In her own words, Ms Gray said this about her career: "I guess I’m known for doing the works of Black artists, of Black people, our history. I guess you’d call me a historian artist. I was known as the voice of the Black writer. I love old people and listening to them. I’ve tried to recreate them. And because history has been distorted, I try to tell the truth about history through characters. People like Gwendolyn Brooks, my confidante and my friend and one of the world’s greatest poets, always said, “Val, you are a poet and a writer.” And I’d say, “No. I’m just a creator.” My father was a minister. So, when I perform literature, I do it the way people preach. People would say, “Girl, you’re supposed to preach!” And I’d say, “No, I’m doing what God would have me do, I’m preaching now. THIS is my way." Her 1988 WTTW special Precious Memories: Strolling 47th Street, received several local Emmy Awards, and she received a Grammy Award nomination for her 2003 spoken-word album Rhapsody in Hughes 101, inspired by the writings of Langston Hughes. Ward was married twice, and had five children all of whom were also active in theater. |