By Zhaleh Almaee

Poignant and honest, Gin Hammond delivers a remarkable piece of theater touching the heart of the complex, often painful experience of being a multicultural or bi-racial person in America in her one-woman show, Living IncogNegro. Performances are at Key City Public Theatre through Feb. 11. Hammond’s upbeat, highly personalized style, and professional-caliber acting takes audience members on an introspective, entertaining, and emotionally charged journey.

Showing in Port Townsend to audiences who may empathize but not necessarily relate,

Hammond rides the line between educating people on oppressive systems that lack humanity, and expressing the considerable impacts on intimate levels that ripple through generations of family, touch all corners of the community, and affect everyone, regardless of racial or ethnic identity.

Teaching moments like “performative race” and “the tragic mulatto” are just a few examples  woven through the show that give additional context to Hammond’s childhood stories, mishaps with dating, and navigation of relationships in her personal and professional life. It is both tenderly nostalgic and tragically current.

As a person who also relates to being “mixed” and straddles cultural worlds, there were moments for me that were so revealing, it was awkward at times to be in a room with people who were spectators and may not have a personal experience of being “othered” as it relates to race and ethnicity.

Yet, it was also heartening to consider the gift of this education, which has the potential to inform different ways of relating to people who may identify as People of the Global Majority or BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color). Hammond’s critique on the evolving language in the multicultural movement was refreshing, and at the same time touched the ache of my human desire for belonging, and the disconnect when those needs are unmet.

Through humor and artistry, Hammond gracefully presents her stories, leaving the audience with an invitation to check their biases, recognize the power of language, and acknowledge this fast-growing population of people whose cultural identity may not match their physical one, and thereby lives on the borderlands of society. It is overall a highly crafted and well-paced show that includes Michelle Cesmat as a livevisual artist onstage, underscoring meaningful moments as a camera projects Cesmat’s work onto a screen hanging overhead. The play oscillates from a TED Talk-style format with Hammond behind a podium, into a myriad of characters theatrically emerging onstage from her true-life stories.

There are poetic reflections with mood lighting, along with interactive audience participation. The stylized directing choices support Hammond with some built-in securities and comedic relief, helping share vulnerable content and reveal the destructive systems of racial injustice in an accessible, artistically engaging way.

The bold, courageous, and thoughtful presentation of taboo content encourages me to continue being in the dialogue, both locally and nationally. It affirms my gratitude for the deepening of connections among the local BIPOC community, and the importance of local organizations like Black Lives Matter, Well Organized, the Community Equity Initiative, the JCIRA Multicultural Center, and the Anti-Racist Fund, among others. It supports my own exploration and curiosities as an artist, parent, and community organizer.

It is heartening to have public institutions like Key City Public Theatre actively uplifting artists whose voices are often silenced or deprioritized. Their ability to secure funding from the National Endowment for the Arts for this original work is notable.

As our rural small town demographics continue to racially diversify, and the national narrative continues to deepen and expand, it is incumbent on us all to find ways to show up. The arts present one accessible pathway to engage. Key City Public Theatre once again delivers.

Zhaleh Almaee straddles worlds as a second-generation Iranian, who is also of Jewish and Irish descent. A theater artist-activist and community organizer, she proudly pours her life force into The Nest @ OWL360, supporting young people with connection and resources. She is also the Co-Director of Mandala Center for Change, an arts and social justice organization dedicated to societal healing and community dialogue.