Where My Girls At?

I don’t think anyone ever told the lie that being black and lesbian in the 21^st century was easy, but who knew it could be so funny? In the thoughtful, provocative, and insanely funny one woman show Where My Girls At?,  Micia Mosely makes it so.

Set at a casting call for Black Beauty: America’s next top negress, we meet four drastically different women from very different walks of life, all representing the black lesbian in America.

Playa, hardcore hip hop listening, Oakland jersey sporting butch has finesse to spare. Playa explains proper protocol for how to act in the club and how to greet an ex you run into there among other tips.

Ziggy, a geeky brainiac type who comes across shy and nervous, she is the young lesbian who has most of her womyn loving womyn experiences in her head with footnotes provided by the many philosophers and social scientist she has read the work of.  Ziggy has a white girlfriend Zoe, which causes Ziggy problems in trying to blend her black and lesbian pride into a workable blend.

Sistah, the stereotypical peace loving pan Africanist who is obsessed with her yoni (with a capitol Y), planting in her garden and attending drum circles, she is the holistic, serious lesbian who spends a lot of time talking about the history of woman  from Africa and respecting mother Earth.

Last but certainly not least was Lady D, the D stood for Diva or Drama depending on her mood.  Lady D has a flair for the dramatic to say the least, wearing red leather and platform shoes; she is all about the beauty and, of course, the drama.

Over the course of the phenomenal one hour performance steeped in improve and audience participation, it is easy to forget all of these characters are played by the same woman, the multi talented Miss Micia Mosely, who also plays sitcom producer Vanessa who is holding this group audition as these four women battle for the “queer” slot on the show that will be based around 10 black women living in a house together for a year. This concept is clearly a parody of the Real World, America’s next model, and other reality based TV shows.

What Micia managed to create among the hilarity of this production was a different of looking at being black and lesbian in the 21^st century. Each woman was multi faceted with a lot to offer, each had their own ideas, likes, dislikes, and pet peeves. At the end of the interviews Vanessa brought each character out for a combined Q&A. Micia then fielded questions from the audience jumping into and out of each character at break neck speed, showing her true talent for improv, and comedic timing.

Where My Girls At? was a rich multi-layered experience that provided a dissertation into being black and lesbian including having the audience rate by applause which of the “contestants” was the most black, which was the most “womanly” and which was the most “lesbian”. I didn’t stop laughing during this whirlwind performance by an extremely talented artist.  As a matter of fact it wasn’t until I sat down to write this review that I noticed the “medicine” of this show was so cleverly hidden in the candy.

To follow our coverage, click here. For full details on the festival, go to  www.hhtf.org.