"Adjust Your Crown" Written and Directed by Kenya Shakoor – Live at the Tacoma Armory, April 18, 2025
Kenya Shakoor (left) and ShaVanety Jones (right) perform Adjust Your Crown on April 18th, 2025. Photo by Elanna Solitaire.
On Friday, April 18th, at approximately 9 PM, I performed in a theater piece I wrote and directed titled Adjust Your Crown. The performance took place at the Tacoma Armory, where I acted alongside the brilliant ShaVanety Jones, whom you can contact at ShaVanety@outlook.com for acting inquiries. This was my first time both writing and directing for the stage.
Here’s the synopsis:
Set in present-day 2025 Tacoma, Washington, Adjust Your Crown follows Keisha (ShaVanety Jones), who gets no laughs during her stand-up set at a local dive bar. Embarrassed, she quickly exits the stage and heads to the patio to gather herself, only to be complimented on her set by the only other Black woman in the venue, Olivia (Kenya Shakoor). What starts as an unexpected moment of connection turns into a deep, layered conversation about everything from the cost of living to generational trauma and joy, reparations, and the current presidency. As the two women reflect, laugh, and speak hard truths, they discover a kinship rooted in vulnerability and the uniquely powerful ways Black women pour into each other.
I wrote the scene over two weeks, from late February to early March 2025. I wanted to speak to the current realities I’ve been feeling while living in the U.S., to share my frustrations while making my target audience, Black women, laugh and feel seen.
At the performance, 77 attendees gathered in the Roosevelt Room of the Tacoma Armory. The piece was well received and got more laughs than I expected. While performing, I realized I needed to pause longer than planned to make space for the laughter and snaps from the audience. For that, I’m deeply grateful. I felt poured into, and that’s the gift I hoped to offer others.
What’s next? I’m currently co-creating an exhibition with Kalvin Satiacum exploring Afro-Indigenous Futurism. It'll be on view this summer and deserves its own series of posts. After that, I’ll be expanding Adjust Your Crown, which is currently one scene, into a full-length, three-act play. The current piece runs about 10 minutes, and I anticipate the full version centered on sisterhood will run 30 to 45 minutes.
So, how can you support me?
Funding. I’m always seeking support for my artistic work. I would love to be commissioned by a patron to expand and produce the full-length version of Adjust Your Crown. A commission would support my writing, allow me to pay two actors to rehearse and bring the work to life, and cover production costs like venue rental and marketing. If you feel called to support, email me at contact@kenyashakoor.com and I’ll share an itemized budget and a list of perks.
Comment below. One area I’m hoping to grow in is press and community coverage. If you attended the event in person, please share your thoughts in the comments, as I’d love to gather quotes from audience members. If you know a journalist or local arts writer I should connect with, please reach out via email.
Take care of yourself. And know that our well-being is connected. Speak up for and advocate for Black women in your life. And if you don’t know any personally well, if you’re reading this, you know me. Ask what I need, and deliver the first time. Ashe 💜
With love,
Kenya Shakoor