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Lo Steele sees beauty in Black women’s hair, yet the way it looks is her lowest priority.
“I want people to leave feeling empowered in their relationships with other people and the relationships that happen during these ceremonies, rather than the superficial result of them,” Steele says.
Instead, the Portland singer-songwriter and actress is drawn to the ways Black women connect with one another over hair care, including what it means to opt out of the traditions and values placed on hair.
“For Black women, [hair] is a huge part of identity, or we’re conditioned to make it a huge part of our identity,” Steele says. “The thing about [At the Root] is that it’s more about the ceremony of doing hair, the act of care that is, and how that embodies sisterhood and care.”
At the Root, a play with stories and music written by Steele, follows 12 music-backed vignette stories of Black women coming together at home and in the beauty parlor over hair. Steele says her favorite stories, starring the trio ensemble of actresses Marilyn Keller, Netty McKenzie and Josie Seid, are lighthearted comedic ones over heavy stories about what counts as “good hair,” like how a woman tries to prepare her friend to take a children’s ballet class.
Still, emotionally powerful stories will be told, backed by a choir. A woman braids her mother’s hair for the first time in preparation for her grandmother’s funeral.
“It’s a look at what it means to prepare one another and arm ourselves on the outside, to step into challenging parts of life, and also to arm ourselves with joy with what hairstyle to wear when you’re graduating college or bringing new life into the world,” Steele says.
At the Root was chosen for the Portland Revels theater company’s Spring Revels program. Spring Revels launched in 2019 to stage works by artists known for arenas other than writing.
Directors Yasmin Ruvalcaba Saludado and Robi Arce, and actress Nelda Reyes were previously invited to write Spring Revels shows. Steele’s writing background is similar to theirs. She focused on playwriting in her theater degree from Southern Methodist University, but Steele is best known for her music career, playing blues guitar across Portland.
“Long-form writing is a challenge for me,” Steele says. “It requires a lot more discipline, so this was a really cool opportunity because I was held accountable and was commissioned for something, so I couldn’t mess around. There’s a whole story to be told, and in songwriting, it’s a shorter form and it’s easier for me to wrap my brain around. It was a fun challenge, but a challenge nonetheless.”
At the Root plays at the Brunish Theater, 1111 SW Broadway, 4th floor, https://www.portland5.com/brunish-theatre/events/spring-revels-root. 7:30 pm Friday-Saturday, May 10-11, 2 pm Saturday-Sunday, May 11-12. $10–$35.