‘New U’ playwright fires off a spark of genius

Kymone Freeman, activist and artist seen around the “New U” corridor in Northwest, has “gone postal,” but with poetry.

When the U.S. Postal Service supervisor who fired him three years ago retired recently, Mr. Freeman shocked his former co-workers by attending her retirement party.

“When I walked in the room, they all stopped and held their mouths open, but I handed her a bouquet of roses, hugged her and thanked her for all she had done for me,” he said.

Losing his nine-year job as a retail postal clerk in North Arlington — after a customer complained about his anti-war statements — “was the best thing that happened to me professionally,” says the talkative Mr. Freeman, 35, now a playwright.

Tomorrow night, he will stage his first award-winning play, “Poetry Prison,” at the Lincoln Theatre at 12th and U streets Northwest.

“Agit-prop,” as Mr. Freeman calls his work’s genre, uses “theater as a soapbox.” “[Critics] use the label to dismiss you, but [the work] is about dreams.”

What makes this production unique is that U Street businesses, civic activists and the arts community have rallied around this talented young man to make the show a success.

“I believe it’s our responsibility when we find young, creative people to make their projects our project,” said veteran community activist Lawrence Guyot. “I don’t think of this as his play; I look at this as our play.”

“If [playwright] Tyler Perry can do this in a dress, we ought to be able to [create successful theater] with our pants on,” Mr. Freeman said, comparing his work about three black men who share a prison cell for one night to Mr. Perry’s cross-dressing “Medea” parodies. (Mr. Freeman’s play won the 2005 Larry Neal Award, named for the late famed D.C. playwright.)

“I’m part of the avante-garde arts community in D.C. that you wouldn’t know about unless you come out of your house; but we’re here,” said Mr. Freeman, who was featured in “Beat of a Different Drum: The Untold Stories of African-Americans Forging Their Own Paths in Work and Life,” by Dax-Devlon Ross.

Many of the talented young black artists of a re-emerging political hip-hop movement meet for what they call “Pookie’s Gallery” on Tuesday nights at Mirrors nightclub at New York Avenue and North Capitol Street Northeast to hear spoken words and live bands and watch artists at work.

Mr. Freeman, however, is best known as the founder and organizer of the annual “Blackluvfest” held in Malcolm X Park the third Sunday in September.

“I’m about all people,” he says, noting that many of his mentors have been white.

On Wednesday, Mr. Guyot and other community members, including the Council for African-American Affairs, ROOTS Inc., and Teaching for Change, staged a “Freedom Day” to generate support and ticket sales for the 8 p.m. show this Saturday only.

Andy Shallal, owner of the trendy Busboys and Poets Books cafe, donated a generous gift and allowed Mr. Freeman to hold a reading of the play to a packed audience in December. The event helped seed the $2,300 the writer needed to rent the Lincoln Theatre.

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