Riding in Cars with Black People & Other Newly Dangerous Acts:

“For years after leaving home I carried an old family picture; tucked it directly behind my driver’s license. Where the latter went the former followed—sometimes whispering, sometimes shouting: “I am not the Black Man you think I am.”

The Project:

BrownBox African American Theatre is thrilled to present the April 2013 World Premiere of Chad Goller-Sojourner’s sophomore solo performance: Riding in Cars with Black People & Other Newly Dangerous Acts: A Memoir in Vanishing Whiteness. ---Riding in Cars with Black People is the groundbreaking and crushingly honest story of what happens when a black boy, raised by white parents, “ages out” of honorary white and suburban privilege and into a world where folklore, statistics, and conjecture deem him dangerous until proven otherwise.

Of course this show is about a lot more than what happens when white parents ship their black kids off to college in ill-fitted automobiles. At times funny, biting, and somber, Riding in Cars with Black People unpacks race, privilege, and identity like only a transracial adoptee can.

Why This Project Matters: 

Google “conversation on race” and you’ll get about 201,000,000 results—seems everyone has an opinion. But for a “conversation on race” to be fruitful it must be made up of more than opinions. It must be made up of critical and unique voices. Riding in Cars with Black People is one of those voices; ultimately demonstrating how even the most painful of experiences can be reclaimed, transformed, and accepted for what they are: the building blocks of our unique identities.

“While I did not know it at the time, one of the benefits of my honorary white and suburban privilege was the ability to gather, congregate, and move aimlessly through public spaces without attention or purpose.”

 How We’ll Use Your Contributions:

Contrary to its name, there’s nothing solo (or cheap) about mounting a solo performance, especially a multimedia solo performance.Your contributions of $9,800 will be used to cover Artistic & Creative Fees including: Dramaturge, Director, Performer, and Choreographer, as well as Multimedia, Sound, Lighting, and Set Designers. Then there’s the production side, which includes Venue & Rehearsal Space Rental, Insurance, Tech Crew, House Manager, Marketing/PR, Videographer, and Equipment Rental.Told you there was a lot.

Now the good news: we’ve done this before and are pretty good about spending money wisely and getting the best return for our buck. In fact our first solo performance, Sitting in Circles with Rich White Girls: Memoirs of a Bulimic Black Boy which premiered in July 2008, went on to a successful three year college tour and a 2010 revival. See www.sitting-in-circles.com. Speaking of tours and revivals, any monies raised beyond $9,800 will go towards mounting the Riding in Cars with Black People & Other Newly Dangerous Acts World Domination Tour!

How You Can Contribute:

1) By making a financial contribution via PayPal* or Credit Card. Any amount helps. In fact, if 300 people donate $33 dollars, we will meet our fundraising goal.

2) Spread the word: tell your friends, family, coworkers, listserv, everybody. It’s as easy as posting the Indiegogo Campaign link on your Facebook, Twitter, Blog, or wherever you think interested people will see it. Finally, “Like” and promote our Riding in Cars with Black People & Other Newly Dangerous Acts Facebook page.

"Goller-Sojourner is both a heartbreaking and hilarious storyteller." Seattle Weekly

 “Chad Goller-Sojourner is the most honestly breathtaking voice to grace the stage in a long while: One of his gifts is playfulness in the midst of grief and it is a beautiful thing to behold.” Tara Hard, Founder Bent Writing Institute

The Performer:

Chad Goller-Sojourner is a Seattle-based writer, solo-performer, and recipient of a distinguished Artist Trust/Washington State Arts Commission Performing Arts Fellowship. His work has been funded by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and featured on NPR. Most recently he was awarded a 2011 Artist Trust/Centrum Creative Artist Residency. In 2008, he launched a three year national college tour of his award winning and highly acclaimed inaugural solo show, Sitting in Circles with Rich White Girls: Memoirs of a Bulimic Black Boy.

Additional works include an evening-length play entitled The Bus Stop, which culminated in a July 2010 staged reading, and the publishing of a chapbook entitled Born One Thousand Years Too Early: Fat, Dark-Skinned, Gay and Adopted by White Folks A Fragmentary Journey Towards Alignment, which has been described as poignant, chilling, and prophetic.