JoJo Mama and the Voodoo Queen by Lee Kitchen
Based upon real events during the life of two, deceased outsider artists. Revised recently. Screenplay also completed recently.The JoJo Mama and the Voodoo Queen is a full-length comedy in three acts that presents the greed of outsider art (folk art) collectors. The JoJo Mama and the Voodoo Queen takes place in Alabama and it is loosely based on the life of a famous, deceased African American folk artist and...
Based upon real events during the life of two, deceased outsider artists. Revised recently. Screenplay also completed recently.The JoJo Mama and the Voodoo Queen is a full-length comedy in three acts that presents the greed of outsider art (folk art) collectors. The JoJo Mama and the Voodoo Queen takes place in Alabama and it is loosely based on the life of a famous, deceased African American folk artist and two wealthy art collectors. Caveat: Thank you for considering The JoJo Mama and the Voodoo Queen. A caveat follows: it is a humorous but moralistic story about strong women who overcome the barriers of greed and prejudice, so they can share their unconventional art. It is based loosely on two deceased outsider artists who were alive forty years ago. The screenplay champions women of color and all artists who are often at the mercy self-serving benefactors. When the concept premiered years ago as a stage play, the late Michael Warren Powell awarded it his Panelist Favorite at the Last Frontier Playwriting Festival. The audience laughed and cried at the right places and applauded the reading by professional actors. The end of the reading was punctured by a conference-shattering debate that pitched Michael Warren Powell against the former Black Panther Playwright, Ed Bullins. Mr. Bullins said that “If the play were presented in his neighborhood, they would burn the theatre down.” Mr. Powell replied, “Ed, you only read part of the play. This play is tight, and a good play, and it is about greed, not race.” Much later, at the end of the festival, Mr. Bullins apologized to the playwright. Since then, the screenplay and stage play have been re-written and re-written to clarify that this play is a banner for women of color, particularly during the seventies-eighties when untrained artists had to deal with even more prejudice. You may well ask how a Caucasian man can write about the subject, as an African-American reader challenged me during the reading of Soul Coat, the sequel to the JoJo Mama. My reply in my head: Hemingway once said, “In order to write about life, first you must live it.” That reader had not lived in the place or era and had never met the artists. In today’s politically correct environment, it will take a producer or company with enormous grit to present The JoJo Mama and the Voodoo Queen, a screenplay written by a white man, but the results will be incredibly rewarding for the audience. It’s a story that needs to be told by strong and talented actors directed by someone with a soul to match the talent.