Chadwick Boseman's Instructions for Creative Work

This week Kevin attends the Hollywood Walk of Fame star unveiling for Chadwick Boseman; reflects on Chad's profound creative contribution and draws connections to his own artistic journey; and shares Chad's credo, his "Instructions for Creative Work." This episode is raw and unedited. 

DEEP AZURE by Chadwick Boseman at Shakespeare’s Globe

Hope Boykin Rehearses “En Masse” with the Martha Graham Dance Company

Body Language Studio

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Transcript

NOTE: These stories are as I recall them. 

Welcome back to Dark Mondays with Kevin Boseman. I’m Kevin Boseman. I must start this week’s episode with huge thanks. There are many, many, many people to thank but I’ll start with you listeners, those of you who tuned in over the past week for episode one, the launch episode. Thank you. And hopefully you also subscribed and shared and followed the socials @darkmondayspod on Instagram and TikTok. It’s amazing to be able to look at the analytics and see where folks are listening from. I expected downloads in North America, but also there are downloads in Europe, Africa and Asia. Wow!

I had so many loving friends, real life friends and virtual friends, who sent messages of support. Thank you all. I appreciate it so much. From the moment I shared this idea, which was already more than an idea when I shared it, I was about a month from launch when I started telling people about it. Recording of the first few episodes was underway. But, the way… but the few folks I shared with, really got it. I was out to dinner with one of my best friends, the choreographer Hope Boykin. She invited me to a viewing of her new ballet on the Martha Graham Dance Company. It was really an open rehearsal at the Graham studios. And shout out to the Martha Graham Dance Company. I am a company alum. I danced with the company from 1996-1997, for about fifteen months, and the company is in the middle of their centennial celebration, 100 years of the Martha Graham Dance Company. And they are commemorating with exciting commissions by artists like my friend Hope Boykin. Her ballet “En Masse” is set to a suite from Leonard Bernstein’s Mass and additional music by Christopher Rountree. And get this, according to Wikipedia the former full title of Leonard Berstein’s piece was “MASS: A Theatre Piece for Singers, Players, and Dancers.”  It was billed as a musical theatre work with text by Bernstein and additional text and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz. Which by the way, today’s episode was supposed to be a continuation of Wicked, that’s what I said last week at the end of episode one, but I’ve postponed that to next week because this past week was just so tremendous, so epic I wanted to talk about it. But look at Stephen Schwartz, still with us. So, Bernstein’s Mass was commissioned by Jaqueline Kennedy Onasis as part of the opening of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The Kennedy Center. And the Kennedy Center has meant a lot to me. When I danced with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, that’s the other big dance company I danced for, we played the Kennedy Center every year. It was always one of my favorite venues and DC was one of my favorite cities to visit. I also did a production of my favorite musical, one of my favorite musicals, Ragtime at the Kennedy Center. So, to watch it be taken over by the want to be dictator this past year has been heartbreaking for me. For many of us. Anyway, that 1971 Mass was choreographed by none other than Mr. Alvin Ailey. And I felt so proud discovering that. The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is the preeminent modern dance company in the world, and I was chosen for that company by Mr. Ailey’s muse, the queen Judith Jamison who we lost a year ago this month. And I could really dedicate an entire episode to both of them, Mr. Ailey and Judi. And I will. They are both not only dance, but also theatre. And so many theatre performers got to Broadway by way of the incredible training they received at the Ailey School and dancing in one of, if not both of the companies, like me. I had a scholarship to study at the school. In fact, I had the Alvin Ailey Scholarship during my time at the school. And then I danced in both companies. And I learned so much about professionalism and artistry at Alvin Ailey. From the dancers onstage to artistic leadership to stage management to the crew to all of the people working in marketing and PR and beyond, it is mint operation. And that’s where it all started for me. I spent the first decade of my career there. I often compare other operations to my time at Alvin Ailey.  

Oh yeah, looking at my notes. I am off on a tangent.  So, I’m… so, I’m at Hope’s rehearsal with Martha Graham. And I must have… I must have Hope on the episode at some point. She really became a star of Ailey over her 20 years there. And now she’s choreographing on companies and choreographing for theatre and doing some other exciting creative things which I’d love her to come on and talk about. And I’m just so proud of her. Okay, no more tangents. After Hope’s rehearsal, there was mingling in the studio, and I was chatting with Hope’s friend Dwayne who I’d met a couple times and shared the idea of Dark Mondays with him. And I don’t really share things like that, especially with people who aren’t in the inner circle. I tend to hold things close until they’re ready for release, or until the official announcement is made, as I think one should. I think it’s really important as creatives, that we safeguard our projects from people who might sabotage them, and not even necessarily steal them. But sometimes people unknowingly dissuade you from an idea. And that’s sabotage. I’ve had that happen to me. But there was something about Dwayne that just felt safe. And thank God, he got it and was so excited about it. Then we talked about it over dinner. It was me, my partner Martin, Hope, and Dwayne. And it turns out Dwayne is an artist, which I already assumed, but also a scholar with a PhD in playwriting, I think. Also, my partner um Martin is a former principal dancer with Martha Graham. He was in the company for 14 years. But shoutout to Dwayne. He reached out several times leading up to last week’s launch to show support and encouragement. I’m so grateful to him. And there have been just so many, so many aligned moments like that on the journey to launching Dark Mondays. From people offering their support to organizing a photo shoot with my stepson’s roommate when I was in Oslo for his graduation at the end of October. I had a fantastic photo shoot with an up-and-coming filmmaker and photographer Julien Vigneau for the podcast key art. And we captured some other incredible shots which I will share, eventually. So, I am so grateful. Truly. 

Ahhh… I’m just talking this week. There’s going to be very little editing. I… as I said was very inspired by this past week and the past few days. So, I’m just talking. I’m throwing this together. Um, so I hope you had a good week. Um, there’s not going to be a lot of editing, like I said. As I mentioned, my week was so good. It felt remarkable. It felt miraculous. Again, episode two was supposed to be about Act Two of Wicked. I mapped out the episodes for this season meticulously and that episode is recorded. But after this past week, it just felt weird to move on to Wicked. However, this is still a theatre episode. There will be theatre, there’s already been theatre, just not Wicked. But did you all see Wicked For Good? I saw it yesterday, Sunday. Loved it. I saw it at the IPIC in Fulton Market in lower Manhattan. And Martin had to work so, I went with myself, and I didn’t have anyone to share my first reactions with. Then I got home and I was telling him about it and he made me stop and record a voice memo of my reaction on my iPhone. So, I might include that in the continuation of Wicked next week, if it doesn’t sound too crazy. I think I was crying a little. 

It’s been an emotional week. I launched this little show of mine. I became a business owner. Yup, with my very own business banking account, and I feel so grown up. And if you follow me on Instagram, then you know I attended the unveiling of my brother, Chadwick Boseman’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. That was this past Thursday. Thank you to the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, Disney who sponsored the star, Chad’s widow Simone who worked very closely with Disney and the Chamber to make it all happen. Thank you, Viola Davis and Ryan Coogler for your gorgeous, gorgeous words. Thank you Bob Iger, CEO of Disney who was there. Thank you, Michael B. Jordan and Letitia Wright who were also there. It’s always so great to see them. And Ryan and his wife Zinzi. And it was so nice to reconnect with Chad’s team, especially Saisha Beecham, his amazing groomer and his stylist extraordinaire Ashley Weston. They treated him like a brother when they worked with him. Oh my God, Ashley said my outfit was her favorite of the day. It was mostly vintage. Also great to see Q, Chad’s social media manager. I adore those ladies. And it was amazing to share the day with my family. Martin and I stayed in a beautiful house in the Valley with my brother Derrick and his mini clan. My sister in love Trista, three of their four adult children, my nephew Aaron, my niece Briana and her 9-month-old Briaun, who is my godson, my niece Breah, Breah’s husband David, their five-year-old twins Levi and Lailah and their 17-month-old daughter Brielle. Also, Trista’s sister Tab was with us. Plus, we had other family and friends who flew out to be at the ceremony, including our cousins who are like sisters Letia and Dionne Boseman, our attorney Allen Boseman. If you’re in the Cleveland area and need attorneys, consider Sherman-Boseman for your legal needs. Our friends and business partners Niles and Nabaté Isles, and Beth Griffith-Manley, our cousins Sonja Mattress, Nolan Boseman, Regina and Julia Anderson, and Tonya Craft. I think… I think that’s everyone that was at the ceremony. I think we had like 24 people. But thank you all. We love you all. Also, shoutout to our publicist for the week, Verona Jones and her team. And of course, our managers, Ingrid Brown and Ivy Brown, who helped us navigate and coordinate all of that, and continue to do that. And this was our first time having a “team” like that, which included security. And a driver, or drivers. Like, I was around Chad with his team a lot. So, I’ve seen that. And I’ve worked with other people with teams, like Daniel Radcliffe. But it was interesting to be the client. My thoughts around that are still in process. 

But when I say miraculous, and yes, the day itself was miraculous. But so much else. I had been trying to organize for the launch of Dark Mondays to work with this publicist I worked with a few years ago when I was the spokesperson for a cancer fundraising organization. And she and I just never fully connected over the past few weeks. And at first, I was annoyed, and I was trying to figure out if she was ghosting me for some reason. But then something said let it go. And our managers found us Verona, and the alignment of episode one dropping the same week of the Walk of Fame was divine timing because I was able to mention Dark Mondays to every outlet we connected with. And that is a miracle. Just the timing, which I hadn’t considered. The Wicked For Good release and episode one of Dark Mondays were planned months ago, but I either didn’t know or forgot that the Walk of Fame was the same week. There’s a lot going on, between Chadwick Boseman estate, my family’s business, my parents, my business, and just life. There’s a lot. A friend asked me a while ago if I have an assistant. Nope. She also asked if I fly First Class. And I don’t, usually. Lately I’ve flown into GSP a lot to visit my parents, Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport, and I have been flying First Class because when you add the cost of checking a bag it’s sometimes been more than a First Class ticket, so I have been flying First Class. But usually, I fly economy. When I fly for work, most of these theatres don’t have money for First Class tickets. I actually learned a trick from Hope. Always request First Class in your negotiations, or Business Class. And if they can’t fly you out that way, then request more fee so you can cover your own upgrade. And you want to fly First Class not to be fancy, but so you arrive as rested and ready to go as possible. Sometimes you’re coming from one gig right into another, and travel can be rough. So, I fly First Class when it makes sense. But mostly I don’t. I saw Spike Lee in Economy once on a flight from Atlanta to NYC. Save money where you can. If Spike Lee is flying Economy, I can fly Economy. But I was chuckling on the flight out to LA on Wednesday because it reminded me of when Chad would come to NYC. A few of his films and other projects he did either premiered in NYC or had private screenings in NYC, and he always invited me. And I would often arrive at the event and go home… dressed… dressed… by subway. To tie many of the strings together, in 2015 Alvin Ailey had been reaching out to Chad’s team to get him to be the honorary chair for their holiday season Opening Night Gala benefit, which is coming up again next week. And when they didn’t hear back from him, they asked me to ask him. And what I remember him telling me is, “I only want to do it if you’ll be my plus one.” And of course, I said yes. So, I assume they flew him out and put him in a nice hotel. I went to his hotel room after the gala. It was very nice. And there’s a great photo from that gala of me, Chad and Hope, somewhere. I’ve known Hope forever, so Chad has also known Hope… forever, or knew Hope. But yes, I arrived by subway and went home by subway after that very fancy evening. I would’ve, and still would, cross a desert for him. And the rest of my family. [Sniffling]

So, following the star ceremony, we had a champagne toast in this very swanky room in the Hollywood Roosevelt. And I made toast to Chad and my parents. Derrick and I were happy to be there in their absence. But all day long I purposefully invoked their names, Carolyn and Leroy Boseman. I’ve heard people on “the team” say they made Chad. And I think I know what they mean, but it still rubs me the wrong way. They couldn’t have made Chad if Chad hadn’t arrived to them already made. And he arrived already made because of his upbringing, because of Carolyn and Leroy Boseman. Because of me and Derrick and Letia and Dionne and their parents, and our grandparents.  

We attended a fundraising event in Chad’s honor in Atlanta a couple weeks ago organized by our cousin Angela Lindsey. The King and Queen Gala. Derrick was the keynote speaker; I presented three scholarships to three deserving young people. The lovely Deanna Brown Thomas, the daughter of James Brown, was the host for the evening. And Deanna has become a friend of the family since Chad played James Brown in Get on Up. Deanna calls Chad her brother who played her father. I love that. So, another family friend, the actor Javon Johnson who grew up in our hometown, Anderson, SC spoke about Chad at the event. They worked together on various projects. Javon is a television and film, and theatre actor. Look him up. And he spoke about the rarity of a career like Chad’s. The rarity for a Black actor to have the career he had. Rarity, playing the kinds of roles he played and in such a relatively short amount of time. 2013 was 42, his first headlining role, to Ma Rainey, his Oscar nominated performance in 2020. Javon said many actors with decades longer careers don’t have that kind of career Chad had. And that was built on intention. It was built on what Chad would probably call purpose. And you build a career like that by being a very unique person. And he was that very unique, intentional, purpose driven person before he ever arrived in Hollywood. And so again, I attribute the person to my parents and to God. Thank you, Carolyn and Leroy Boseman.  

Chad was a theatre person. He, of course, graduated Magne Cum Laude from the prestigious Howard University where he was a directing major, where he chose to take his first acting class he said so he could better understand directing from the actor’s perspective, where as a Howard student he attended the British Academy of Dramatic Arts Midsummer in Oxford program, where he and his enormously talented classmates and lifelong friends and collaborators started what we know today as hip hop theatre. I had a conversation a few months ago with Phylicia Rashad about how Chad and that cohort are the progenitors of hip hop theatre. It is out of their innovation that we get a Hamilton.  

I choreographed a hip hop inspired musical called How To Break at The Village Theatre in the Syracuse area a few years ago. Jacynthe Greywoode did the music and Aaron Jafferis wrote the book. The show is about a young girl Ana who is a street dancer, a popper. She had childhood dreams perhaps of studying ballet, but she’s poor. And poverty impedes access to things like ballet for poor people. So, she competes in hip hop dance competitions for prize money to support her and her dad. At the top of the show, she’s diagnosed with cancer and admitted to the children’s ward of an inner-city hospital where she spends weeks. Also on the ward is a young boy named Joel who is a breaker. He’s in and out of the hospital for Sickel Cell Anemia. The two form a friendship and eventually a romance. This is a six person show. There’s a nurse who speaks only through beatboxing. There’s a wellness professional who plays the guitar. There’s the doctor treating both Ana and Joel. And there’s Ana’s dad. And the beatboxer and the guitar player provide all the music. All the music. And all the actors sing and rap. This musical was so beautiful. My visionary creative partner in crime Logan Vaughn directed. I will have Logan on the podcast soon, I hope. And the musical is described as “a dynamic kaleidoscope of music, poetry, breakdancing, and beatboxing, How To Break follows two hospitalized teenage hip-hop dancers and how they navigate their adolescence in the confines of a hospital room, finding ways to love and learn amidst IV bags and chemotherapy as inspired by real-life events in writer Aaron Jafferis’ time as an artist in residence at a children’s hospital. Part commentary on the American health care system, part moving autobiography, and part profound journey through the joy and pain of growing up, How To Break reveals just how resilient the human spirit is in the face of change and transformation.” 

So, weeks into rehearsal, Aaron shared with me that when my name was floated by Logan as the choreographer, he was very skeptical. And understandable. I’m not a hip hop person, by any stretch of the imagination. I was skeptical. In fact, when Logan came to me with How To Break,  I recommended a truly talented choreographer who is incredibly versed in hip hop and a beautiful actor, so I knew he’d understand the dramaturgical needs, my boy Adesola Osakalumi. But Logan said, no it’s you. So, it was me with someone versed in hip hop because I told them we’re going to need someone with a hip hop background. And I interviewed choreographers in the Syracuse area because they needed to hire someone local. I told you these theatres don’t have money. And we were blessed to add to the team the very talented Jerome “Jeromeskee” Aparis. If you’re in the Syracuse area, check out his studio Body Language Studio, which has classes that range from street styles to ballet. The link is in the show notes. It was wonderful collaborating with Jerome because the show existed in both reality and a dream state because Ana was too weak to dance in reality. Her dancing was in her mind, it was her escape. And so in that liminal space, she was both a popper and a ballerina and a contemporary dancer. She was whatever kind of dancer she wanted to be. And Jerome and I collaborated um on both Ana and Joel’s choreography so it was this mix of hip hop and contemporary dance. So, weeks in, Aaron told me he’d been skeptical. At first. But loved what Jerome and I were creating. And it turned out, he shared, that he was inspired years ago after seeing a hip hop-based play by my brother! So, there was also something divine about me being there. 

Many people don’t know Chad was also a playwright. He wrote several plays. And I’m on the producing team for one of those plays, Deep Azure, for a little theatre company in London, England called Shakespeare’s Globe. And I am beyond elated about this. I just started announcing this publicly in press this past weekend. This play is very special to me. Chad lived with me when he first moved to NYC after college. I was dancing with Alvin Ailey, and often on tour, so my apartment was empty. It felt good to give him a relatively soft landing in the city. And he started working on Deep Azure in my apartment. A full production of the play was produced by the Congo Square Theatre in Chicago in 2005 and was nominated for a Jeff Award for Best New Work in 2006. My brother also wrote a screenplay for Deep Azure, and asked me to invest in it, which I did. It made its way to Hollywood and onto the desk of the agent Michael Greene who sent in his client, a young Tessa Thompson for the role of Azure. And then Michael said to himself, I must know who wrote this. And he met with Chad. And became Chad’s agent. And he was Chad’s agent for the entirety of his career. So, this play means a lot to me. The film never got made but we produced a beautiful stage reading of Deep Azure at Howard University last spring, a one night only, special fundraiser performance that featured all actors with connections to Howard, including Adesola Osakalumi, directed by Chad’s Howard classmate and friend Nsangou Njikam who was in the original cast of Deep Azure at Congo Square. Also, our friend from home, Javon Johnson was a member of that original cast. And Phylicia Rashad served as creative consultant on that one night only performance. It was her brilliant idea for Howard to perform it.  

So, to now have Shakespeare’s Globe approach us about mounting Deep Azure is a dream come true. From the moment I saw the play in Chicago twenty years ago, I always wanted it to have more life, so it’s a thrill to be able to facilitate that. Deep Azure is directed by Olivier nominated theatre maker and filmmaker Tristan Fynn-Aiduenu, and the Shakespeare’s Globe description reads: 

When her fiancé, Deep, is killed by the police, Azure’s world spirals out of control.

Powered by the spiritual imprint Deep has left on them all, Azure and Deep’s friends – Roshad and Tone – do their best to find peace in the wake of the tragedy. However, the Heavenly MCs of Street Knowledge have other plans for them.

Inspired by the true events of Howard university student Prince Jones, influenced by the poetry of Shakespeare and powered by the pulse of Hip-Hop theatre, Boseman’s cathartic and lyrical epic unfolds in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse.

Previews for Deep Azure start on February 7, 2026, and it opens on February 17. I will leave the link for more information in the show notes. 

The episode feels a little all over the place. And I’ve been crying because it’s really been an emotional week. Um… and this episode was put together on the fly. And you know… I hope you have stuck with it and you are just getting it and hopefully feeling my heart.   

Our Walk of Fame day finished with an event curated by our business partner… partners Niles and Nabaté. And it was at Dr. Gershom Sikaala’s His Presence Fire Church. Many thanks for Dr. Sikaala and his PR person Terry and their entire team. Niles and Nabaté made um… they created a beautiful song called “Superhero: An Ode To Chadwick Boseman” and features the singer Beth Griffith-Manley from “The Voice.” And Derrick and I shot a music video with them in our hometown that also features the visual artist Noval Noir. It was co-directed by Niles and Landrick “Prafessa” Pond and produced by Anthony Wideman who, I think has like the number one movie on Tubi at the moment. And Anthony is our cousin. Many thanks to the city of Anderson for your support and the community for coming out to participate in the shoot. Um… that evening of the premiere was very special. Niles performed an original song. Nabaté, who by the way, is a Grammy winning trumpeter performed with his ensemble. My sister in love along with my nieces and nephews sang a song. And I did a song. I’ll post videos on my Instagram when I get them back from the videographer. Also, my friends actors Dionne Gipson and David Ramsey came out, April Reign “Oscars So White” was there. I invited her. R&B singer Howard Hewett and actor Dawnn Lewis was there. I spoke to Dawnn on the phone Wednesday night before I boarded my flight and she was telling me about the time she met Chad and said she wasn’t sure if he’d remember, and I told her she was a part of his childhood. We grew up watching A Different World and were inspired by her. She was our possibility model. At the event she spoke about imprinting, how we imprint on each other, good or bad. Chad imprinted good. She imprinted good. She and the cast of A Different World imprinted good and inspired a generation of young Black people to go to college. That is an imprint that has changed the world. 

I will leave you with Chad’s “Instructions for Creative Work” as read by Simone at the star ceremony. 

1.  Write the vision, and make it plain.  Keep that word fastened in your journal, and shut in your bolted drawer until the appointed time.  Let the ideas, the visions that God gives you fester inside of you.  Let the word that he has put inside you bubble over.  Do not speak it to another until the time appointed by God.  The secrecy of the vision is the second stone layed in the building process.  It is the project’s fortress.  For a word spoken too early to the ears of men is a bulldozer and a stumbling block. 

2.  Forget the self that entered the process and be made into a new creature through the work.  

And that’s the show. Thank you so much for joining me. This episode of Dark Mondays with Kevin Boseman was conceived, written and produced by me and can currently be found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and iHeartRadio. Please subscribe to Dark Mondays and give the show a five-star review. Leave a comment, and turn on notifications so, you’re notified as soon as I drop new episodes. Please, also share the podcast, share the socials. That’s @darkmondayspod on both Instagram and TikTok. And you can follow me on Instagram @kevinboseman and on TikTok [stuttering]… @kevin_boseman. I told you I’m not editing. Have wonderful week. Happy [stuttering] Thanksgiving, if you are in America and you celebrate, or if you’re an American abroad and you celebrate. See some theatre. And I’ll see you back here next Monday.