Member-only story
When the Virgin Mary Was a Black Woman: On Boston’s Black Nativity Tradition
When I observed a Black dancer performing the birth of Christ onstage, I thought of the overlooked and radical part of this biblical story
Growing up, we knew it was Christmas when we made it to Black Nativity. Boston has been running productions of Black Nativity every December for as long as I’ve been alive. At some point in November or December, my mother would pay for seats at a show—a wasted expense since we spent most of the performance in the aisles. Back then, when the show was closer to its origins as a Black-is-beautiful-inspired off-Broadway show, penned by Langston Hughes, people would freely dance in the aisles, catch the spirit, clap and sing, and join the show.
But the production was magic to me because it included the raw moment of Mary in labor. Every year, we would watch the dancer playing Mary act out her labor while a flurry of African drums played around her. She danced around the stage, crumpling at the waist, moving left and right. Joseph would move to touch her, and she would push him off. She’d shake, fall to her knees. A few times, Joseph would lift her up, and she would circle her legs wide, turning the pain into dance.
