American Voices-Craig Marberry: When black women speak truth, their voices sing. Their songs are as colorful as peacock feathers, as comical as bouncing brims, and as pointed as a pearl hatpin. I always believed that the oral histories I gathered for the book Crowns would work on the stage. These hat queens, I realized, were not really celebrating their singular headgear. They were reflecting on love and loss and, most importantly, sisterhood. Come Sunday morning, when I gaze at fanciful church hats (whether in admiration or disbelief) I hear a spirited chorus. Some of those songs, through the gift of this musical, have found a cozy home in the American Theater. And for that I am eternally grateful.

An award-winning writer, Craig Marberry has written CROWNS: Portraits of Black Women in Church Hats and CUTTIN’ UP: Wit and Wisdom from Black Barber Shops, both of which have been adapted into stage plays and presented at Arena Stage.