We were lucky to catch up with Al Piper recently and have shared our conversation below.

Al , appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

When I was around 5 years old, my family joined a new church in Silver Spring. Shortly after we joined, my older sister, by seven years, was cast in the church’s production about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad. I remember—during one rehearsal I was dragged to—being in my own little world in the back of the room, playing with paper or a toy and then I heard a bout of THUNDEROUS laughter. I spun around and I saw my big sister on stage absolutely destroying everyone in the room because she’s so damn funny!

The moment I saw her affecting the audience, bringing them joy while also talking about some heavy stuff, was the moment I knew I had to do it too. I couldn’t even wait until the end of that very production. I didn’t care that they were halfway through rehearsing. I was going to be in that thing, ok? I made myself the unofficial costume assistant. I figured out everyone’s blocking, and I learned all of the choreography. Once I was confident enough, I just put myself on stage. Since no one told me not to, I just kept showing up for every performance, and that was that!

I am very lucky and blessed to have found my calling so young.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I used to think of myself as JUST an actor but that was boring, unfulfilling, and not cost effective. There was always MORE to do, express and create. So I became a writer, producer, comedian, director, musician/composer, drag king and have evolved into a Modern Griot.

My mission is to create cathartic services for my audiences through poetry, song, and movement invested in deep hard truth. As artists, we teach lessons, we validate, we hold a mirror up to society and we ask hard questions and, sometimes, we don’t give answers. There are so many facets to every person’s story—look at mine: black, queer, trans, youngest sibling, farthest from home, first to go to college—and it is my responsibility to create as much space for not only all of my facets but yours too, our stories are magic.

I wrote, produced and acting in the pilot of my web-series “Type-N-Such” a comedic late age “coming of age story” that revolves around Maggie, a young black woman navigating the world of online dating after a painful breakup sparks her to move to NYC because I wanted to make space for women who don’t feel seen because of their ethnicity, their size, or their background.

My next project —budget pending—is a short film I wrote called “Benches”. It follows a tumultuous 3 day love affair between two friends who are NOT ready to love one another or themselves. I plan to direct and coach intimacy.

I also create 5 -15 minute spoken word poems then string them together to make larger epics. My latest performance piece, “High Yella N*gga In Recovery”, is still a work in progress and I’m very proud of it! It chronicles the last 10-ish years of my life with reflections of things I’ve always wanted to say and share and scream but never felt safe enough to. HYNIR, in its completion, will be an approximately one hour long choreopoem with original music, improv, audience interaction, and other fun elements that I can’t let out of the bag just yet. The response I’ve gotten so far has been pretty awesome and I feel in deep conversation with the diaspora, so make sure you stay tuned!!

Have you ever had to pivot?

When I landed my first “grown up” job I made the decision to stop pursuing art, which sucked. It felt like a huge break up,like I was giving up on everything I had spent 20+ years investing in—stability takes sacrifice in this economy! Unfortunately, that stability was short lived due to budget cuts and I was laid off within 6 months of being hired. Everything I’d worked for as an artist I gave up for a job I didn’t even want. So when I was let go, it knocked the wind out of me and I desperately tried to put my life back together.

Thankfully, I budgeted my summer fun before I was laid off, so I was able to travel and follow my joy: puzzling, reading books, going to the beach, dying my hair wild colors, sleeping in, push ups, yoga, tarot—the simple stuff ya know? I finally had time to re-invest in myself and figure out what the heck I was going to do, which was paramount because I was spiraling despite the amount of self care.

At that point in my life, I refused to reinvent the wheel because I did not spend all that time on this planet to have NOTHING to work with ok?! I’ve been writing since 7th grade, therefore it’s my most consistent form of artistic expression and when I was met with “what do I do next?” a voice said “what you know you are supposed to do—write.” So I started writing for hours every day about anything and everything that came to me. I would tell myself to “just sh*t it all out on the paper and stick with what’s good” because I hadn’t exercised that creative muscle for so long.

Yes, being laid off in this ongoing recession was gut wrenching, but it was the catalyst for so much growth. It forced me to radically accept myself not only as an artist but as a person. Now I’m connected to the world again because I’m writing and creating space for myself and black and brown folks like me. I premiered myself as a poet earlier this year, and now I’m fully living as a modern griot.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I was on tour back in 2015 with a Shakespeare company based in VA. I was one of two black actors out of a cast of eleven, which was daunting. I was on guard in every state we went to, because I didn’t always feel safe as a black person and most of our stops were in very affluent neighborhoods. However, we got to this one town with a population of like 3,000 in the middle of nowhere and it was surprisingly predominately black. Needless to say I was HELLA excited.

Now these kids were “rowdy” and giving my other cast mates a run for their money—like full on talking while the actors were performing. I was listening from backstage and nervous to contend with them, but as soon as I stepped on stage the room went quiet. I felt those kids lean in, everyone in the room felt how much they were listening to me, felt how much they respected me because I look like them. To see thoughts akin to “oh I can do that?” running across their faces was the most joy and I have ever felt as an actor because for most of them, it was the first time they’d seen someone black on stage, doing Shakespeare.

Representation matters, and to provide that moment of representation to these kids was one of the most special and treasured moments of my life.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Alpiper.com
• Instagram: @alecazam
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/chipzaboii

Image Credits

Marcus Middleton
Sam Haselby