Missed the 2023 live show? You can listen to it now on Audible.
“Everything we do, everything we are as Black women…is in love for ourselves and each other and in struggle for what we grow and have grown into.”
—Rebecca Carroll, In Love and Struggle
What does it mean to live as a Black woman in America? That’s the central question of In Love and Struggle—a series that centers the lived experiences of Black women and non-binary people through storytelling, music, and comedy.
On our stage: performances from voice actor Cree Summer, comedian Zainab Johnson, poet-in-residence at Lincoln Center Mahogany L. Browne, actress and activist Amanda Seales, multidisciplinary artist Sol, and more—with the voice of writer adrienne maree brown.
In Love and Struggle, Vol. 3 will be available as an exclusive audio original on Audible in 2024—in time for the leap-year intersection of Black History Month and Women’s History Month.
It joins earlier volumes in the In Love and Struggle series, which premiered in 2020 at the Audible Theater at the Minetta Lane Theatre in New York City featuring Anita Hill, Sasheer Zamata, Alicia Garza, and more.
Curated and executive produced by cultural critic Rebecca Carroll with creative producer Monica L. Williams and advising creative producer Kamilah Forbes, In Love and Struggle was also released as an Audible audio special. The series takes its name from an encounter Carroll had with Alice Walker at a bookstore nearly 30 years ago.
A year later, in 2021, Carroll and Forbes returned as executive producers with a new work exploring the real lives of Black women at every age. In In Love and Struggle: A Black Woman Grows in America, 11 women, ages 17 to 90, share stories about love, work, microaggressions, mothering, and just being. Directed by Noleca Radway, the Audible Original featured everyone from TikTok star Ve’ondre Mitchell to two-time Pulitzer-winning playwright Lynn Nottage
See more about volumes 1 and 2 of In Love and Struggle below, and listen here and here.
THE 2021 CAST
Treasure Brooks
Activist and Student
Rebecca Carroll
Writer and Cultural Critic
Pearl Cleage
Author and Playwright
Jasmine Mans
Poet
Drew Dixon
Music Producer
Carmen de Lavallade
Dancer and Choreographer
Lynn Nottage
Playwright
Franchesca Ramsey
Comedian
CC Paschal
Podcast host
Ve’ondre Mitchell
Teen advocate
Bevy Smith
TV host
See the credits
2020 HIGHLIGHTS
“I vote because I don’t give away my power—not by force, and never by choice.”
—activist, educator, and writer Brittany Packnett Cunningham on her vote, and yours
“I already know that no one is listening to the women and that the women are supposed to lead. I have been knowing that my whole life.”
—Black Futures Lab cofounder Alicia Garza on listening to women
“The goal isn’t to agree. Not with your family, your office, not with the world. The goal is to disagree with decorum.”
—author Jodie Patterson on respecting difference
THE 2020 CAST
Aaron Philip
Model and speaker
Alicia Garza
Black Futures Lab cofounder
Anita Hill
Professor of social policy, law, and gender studies
Bassey Ikpi
Writer and mental health advocate
Brandee Younger
Musician
Brittany Packnett Cunningham
Educator, organizer, and writer
Jodie Patterson
Author
Mahogany L. Browne
Writer, organizer, and educator
Mumu Fresh
Singer, songwriter, and activist
The Reverend Dr. Lakeesha Walrond
Educator and change agent
Sarah Jones
Performer and Writer
Salamishah Tillet
Professor of African American Studies and Creative Writing
Sasheer Zamata
Actor and podcast host
Toshi Reagon
Singer, composer, and musician
