The Recipe Book takes its name from the act of passing down knowledge—much like your grandma’s sweet potato pie recipe. If not shared, it risks being lost forever.

This series honors that tradition. Each play is a recipe: rich, cultural, storied. We have the honor of passing down the work already gifted to us by prolific but lesser-known Black playwrights such as Shirley Graham Du Bois, Alice Childress, Samm-Art Williams, J.e. Franklin, and Pearl Cleage, while also making room for the living history we're creating with emerging Black playwrights.

The Recipe Book reminds us that art is not only communal, but also a call to action, a tool of hope, and a blueprint for the future—one that has often already been drafted for us by artists who came before or who are yet to be discovered. The weapons are already in the house. We just need to keep them active—and pass them down.