When my career propelled me to leap from the world of dance to The Public Theater, the powerful impact and influence of reviews by critics became even more clear to me. Not only do reviews help shape the public’s perception of a theatrical production; they also can determine its future.

For the most part, the critics for numerous media organizations are both male and white. My experience has been that they often misunderstand the cultural nuances of works created by artists of color. Those instances made me appreciate even more the dynamic reviews written by Linda Armstrong, who reports for The Amsterdam News and Harlem News. Linda, along with Audrey Bernard of the New York Beacon and Jeanne Parnell of WBAI Radio, have been trailblazers in a space that still remains predominantly white.

However, that landscape is changing thanks to the efforts of cultural critic Jose Solís, who has been covering theater, film, and arts for more than 20 years for several publications, including The New York Times, American Theatre, Dramatics, and Backstage.

Recognizing the very low numbers of theater critics of color and inspired by the movements for social and racial justice in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, Jose decided that he had to do something to close the gap. Consequently, he took time during the pandemic-generated shutdown to develop the curriculum for the BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) Critics Lab.

Jose promoted the program on Twitter and received more than 100 applicants. A few months later, he was able to launch his effort to mentor and teach future critics with the assistance of a GoFundMe campaign.

The goal of the 10-week program is to nurture and help develop the unique voices of future critics through a multimedia lens—written essays, traditional reviews, as well as podcasting, audiovisual, and social media platforms. Jose also has recruited theater partners who have agreed to pay program participants for whatever materials they create on behalf of those theaters at the end of their participation in the BIPOC Critics Lab.

What I admire most about what Jose has done is that he saw the need and then took action to make it a reality. He said he had to push past his fears and insecurities about becoming a teacher and mentor to pursue this dream, for which he had been collecting notes for years. Ultimately, Jose constructed the program from the ground up: developing the curriculum, utilizing social media to recruit participants, and using crowdfunding to finance its initial launch.

Jose recently put me in touch with J. Gabriel Ware and Ekemini Ekpo, both of whom participated in cohorts of BIPOC Critics Lab, and they shared their experiences with me.

Read the full article about training BIPOC media critics by Ms. Donna Walker-Kuhn at ARTS Blog.