BLACK WOMAN GENIUS ~ CRY ALOUD! by Paula Ralph Birkett

Playwright, spoken word artist, vocalist Paula Ralph Birkett began her career in musical theater touring Europe and has played notable U.S. venues including The Apollo Theater, The United Nations, and TEDx Deer Park. Paula is the featured vocalist of the progressive jazz group Tyrone Birkett | Emancipation. As a playwright she won the 2023 Howard Gilman Foundation funded Bronx Cultural Visions Fund (BCVF) for her stage play Black American Working Woman, which was showcased at the Episcopal Actors’ Guild summer 2024. Recently, she received a 2026 Support for Artists grant from the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) to support her creative work which centers her concept Perception to Decisions. Paula explores stories of trials and triumph, helping audiences find their own paths of possibilities.

• @paularalphbirkett
• https://bio.site/PaulaRB

ABOUT THE MONOLOGUE

This monologue is adapted from my piece Black American Working Woman: A One-Act Stage Play.  It’s adapted because I felt led to answer the historic unemployment of three hundred thousand African American women over a three month period in 2025. That blow affected not just these women, but entire families and communities. But we’ve been here before. The monologue’s character Maggie L. Walker was a real-life 20th century community activist and businesswoman who became the first African American and first female bank president in US History.  She received this title not because it was her aim, but because she was determined that her community would survive and thrive.  I hope the listener receives that same determination as they experience this piece.

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EXCERPT FROM CRY ALOUD!

     ~ Excerpt published by permission, all rights held by the playwright.

                 MAGGIE                    

 

What if we weren’t distracted by a food bill, light bill, medical bill, phone bill. Rent! How much of our minds would be free to build whole different world.  

 

People thought I loved money. Maggie L. Walker the first female and first African American bank president in American history. 

 

            (Laughing to herself.)   

 

I was not raised with a silver spoon in my mouth, rather with a wash basket on my head.  I knew money couldn’t protect me from hate, but ever since I was a little girl I believed it would help me build my world. I linked arms with women from the elite to the poor, because we refused to settle for the terror history had provided.