[darius v. daughtry] Historically, like in hip hop or such, you know, a mixtape has, you know just a varied energy happening on the same mix.

They don't really make tapes anymore but so, in a theatrical mixtape it is that, there is a mixture of vignettes, like, short plays, monologues, some poems, music, some dance all kind of woven together along a particular storyline or a theme or consistent energy that drives throughout the entire show.

B to the L to the A to the C to the K. Black, black, black.

Aye.

[darius v. daughtry] My name is Darius V. Daughtry.

I am a poet, playwright, director, educator, founder and director of a nonprofit organization, the world's greatest uncle.

And, you know, some more stuff.

[performer] Hey, we gotta go back to the past, man.

Geez.

I don't think that's how karma works.

[darius v. daughtry] And I'm proud of the work we're doing as a performing art organization.

So, for the past couple of years, we've done some great work down at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts and we're continuing to do that.

We have a show coming up called The Happening: A Theatrical Mixtape Volume IV.

That focuses on journeys and experiences and perspectives of, you know, life and trials and tribulations and joy.

But from the islands and from the perspective of black men and boys.

[performer 1] ...is pregnant.

I'm about to be a whole daddy.

[performer 2] What?

Lying bro!

Brokson has been great.

Since we've kind of fostered a relationship, they've been great partners.

Giving us a space to really be who we are and not have to conform to anything.

To have, to be in such a world-class venue, but still stay true to who we are, to who I am as an artist.

Be present in your own way.

What I gave to my cast was a skeleton of the show that I had written and our beginning rehearsals were just real kind of ideation processes.

And so we actually just had conversations.

I recorded conversations and talked.

I had them do some free writing, some just kind of opening up and writing different things.

And so from that, that's what the final product has come, from a combination of what I'd already kind of had and then what we did in this process to kind of bring it out of them.

And now their voice is deeply embedded in this show.

And for me as an artist, one of the most exciting things is the rehearsal process is the ideation.

It is what's discovered in that time before we ever hit the stage.

You can go ahead, you know, go, engage, right?

Let's go, go ahead, let's bullet, action.

So, but go from that, where we just stopped.

[douglas goodridge] Darius gave us this assignment to write a letter to our younger selves, and I kind of got carried away.

I have way too many drafts of that letter.

It's been very immersive.

It's been an experience like exploring what it is to be black and to be a black man specifically, and how much of that is repressed and stuff that I don't think about.

[david hepburn] My favorite thing about acting actually is, it's not the applause, it's that moment where you feel it.

You can palpably feel the energy in the room when you connect with the audience and it's like, I got you.

And I know I have it and I know that you're fully invested and I've pulled you in and now we're gonna go on this ride together.

Some good, you know, but some pretty horrible things that happened right here.

[darius v. daughtry] I wanna be able to take it to some schools and take it to some, you know, organizations that deal with, you know and work with young men specifically.

And so, that's my goal 'cause, you know, one of my goals as an artist and with founding Art Prevails Project is to, kind of, create this equity and as far as access to arts is concerned.

And so, sometimes that means taking the art to the people as opposed to trying to get the people to come see it.

And so hopefully after we run it at the Broward Center we'll be able to do that like a lot in 2023.

[darius v. daughtry] So in April we are launching Our Voices - Festival of Words.

And what'll be happening there is, we'll have authors and speakers and poets, and performers.

We're bringing down the Poet Laureate from the state of Alabama, Ms. Ashley M. Jones.

We're bringing down national touring storyteller, David Fakunle, who's professor at the University of Florida.

And then we'll have a lot of local authors and speakers and professors.

The whole goal is to create this energy and love and passion around words.

So it is both the literary festival and the literacy festival, right?

So we want to connect with those who may or may not read often or who may have trouble, who may need some resources.

To be able to provide resources for those, you know whether it's children, adult, seniors, whomever, you know to get what they they need.

But also we want to elevate and shine light on just the power of the written and spoken words.

So I want this to feel like everybody feels like this is for them.

Whether you're a scholar or a janitor somewhere or a kid who is struggling to read in the third grade, I want you to feel like, "Oh!

I can come here and they have something that's here for me."

And it's gonna be a great time.

You know, there'll be fun, food, storytelling, after party, you know, it's gonna be a great time.

But really it's really about building that love for words and the written and the language in, you know, in our community.