ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — Black Theatre has long been a dynamic force in shaping American culture. Rooted in African traditions and strengthened through institutions like Howard University and the Harlem Renaissance, the legacy of Black Theatre has extended far beyond the stage.

After shaping film, television and dance, it went on to affect public discourse and directly influence how American culture understands race, identity and justice. The artistic contributions of pioneer Black writers, such as Paul Robeson, Lorraine Hansberry and August Wilson, continue to inspire communities from Broadway to Asheville.

In celebration of Black History Month, Different Strokes! Performing Arts Collective is honoring a few of those door-opening artists by selecting some of their works to be read onstage as part of their inaugural season of “INK of our KIN.”

“INK of our KIN” is a staged reading series created to amplify culturally rich, ethnically grounded storytelling. It was created with four primary objectives: to center Black narratives, to honor trailblazing playwrights who forged a powerful, often underproduced canon, to spotlight contemporary voices who carry that legacy forward and to provide opportunities for less experienced Black actors to gain more stage experience.

Different Strokes! founder and managing director Stephanie Hickling Beckman explained that she created the series in an effort to build a home for Black stories, where their voices could not only be heard, but honored and allowed to breathe.

“After fifteen years of producing work that centers marginalized communities, I felt a pull toward something more intimate, more lineage driven,” Hickling Beckman explained. “Staged readings offer a rare kind of clarity. The words stand bare, the actors lean in and the audience becomes part of the conversation.”

The inaugural season presents three landmark works that span generations and styles: “The Piano Lesson” by August Wilson, “The MF with the Hat” by Stephen Adly Giurgis and “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry. Despite the plays’ differences in era and authorship, Hickling Beckman feels that they are powerfully similar and combine to form a continuum of truth-telling.

“They center people navigating systems that were not built for them,” Hickling Beckman said of the plays. “They use humor, pain and poetry to reveal truth. They insist on the humanity of characters who are often flattened or stereotyped elsewhere.”

Hickling Beckman says that she selected plays like “A Raisin in the Sun” and “The Piano Lesson” to anchor Different Strokes! audiences in the brilliance of their ancestors, deepening the season’s exploration of the root system and lineage of Black theatre in America. While Guirgis is not a Black playwright, his writing approaches Black and Brown characters with nuance, empathy and cultural specificity, making his work a meaningful addition to the conversations this season invites. Hickling Beckman chose “The MF with the Hat” to expand the conversation into the present with contemporary struggles with addiction, loyalty, love and survival.

Performances are at 7:30 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays, at the Tina McGuire Theatre at The Wortham Center for Performing Arts:

• “The Piano Lesson” – Feb. 6-7
• “The MF with the Hat” – Feb. 13-14
• “A Raisin in the Sun” – Feb. 20-21

General admission tickets are $15.

Different Strokes! hopes that INK of our KIN will serve as an invitation for its audiences into a layered, intergenerational conversation, giving them a deeper understanding of Black theatrical tradition, a sense of continuity, a deeper appreciation for the diversity of Black experience and a recognition that allyship in storytelling is possible when non-Black writers approach Black characters with respect, nuance and accountability. Joining the institutions that have sustained Black theatre and the artists who continue to push the art form forward, Different Strokes! is making it their goal to ensure that Black stories remain visible on the American stage.

For more tickets and additional information about Different Strokes! Performing Arts Collective, please visit www.differentstrokespac.org or call (828) 484-2014.