Daniel Koa Beaty (DKB) is a gifted playwright, performer, and Obie Award-winning delight. He has moved audiences over the decades with his productions, such as “Emergency,” “Through the Night, “The Tallest Tree in the Forest,” and “Mr. Joy.” He recently performed his newest one-man show, “Love Warrior,” as part of an event at the Sanctuary in Harlem to honor the New Heritage Theater Group as it turns 60 years old. (Yes, that’s right, New Heritage Theater Group has been around for six incredible decades.)
Beaty sat down to speak with the AmNews about his new work, his reverence for New Heritage Theater Group, and more. It was such a pleasure speaking with Beaty — someone I have appreciated since seeing his first work, “Emergency!”
AmNews: What’s going on with you these days, Daniel?
DKB: Jackie Jeffries is going to give me the Outstanding Achievement Award at the AUDELCOs — that’s coming up in November. I just got the Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award from Joe Biden. We’re doing “Love Warrior” again at the Billie Holiday on November 15.
AmNews: What is “Love Warrior” about?
DKB: “Love Warrior” is basically the story of my life told through my creative works. I talk about various moments in my personal journey to become a love warrior. That was really about opportunities, challenges that presented themselves in my life that could create pain and sadness; that I was able to use art, spirituality, and community to heal through and transform.
AmNews: Did you do excerpts from your different one-man shows?
DKB: Yes, and some of my ensemble plays along with stories from my personal life. I tell stories that range from my father’s challenges with heroin and incarceration, and how that led to “Knock, Knock,” and the work I’ve done about the prison system. I talk about my older brother, 11 years older, and his challenges with crack cocaine after the Marines, and his being in and out of prison and the physical abuse that resorted from that. How I lost both of these men within six months of each other during COVID.
Then how the reality is that my mother taught me that these men were just too brilliant for this world as Black men with so much talent and capacity, operating against systems that did not create adequate space for their brilliance and the unfortunate choices that they made in response to that.
I talk about childhood sexual abuse that happened repeatedly in my life over two and a half years, and about journeys in prayer and meditation where I was able to go back to my younger self and let him know that not only could I protect him now, but he was protected by angels and ancestors.
One of the biggest stories I talk about is what I discovered during COVID while visiting a plantation: that my great-great-grandmother was a queen. She was captured in 1816 in West Africa. I was able to reconnect with the paramount king of the Ga tribe, which would have been the region my great-great-grandmother would have come from, and they installed me as a king in Ghana.
I take the audience through one of the experiences that is so profound: There is a door of no return and they had a ceremony for me late at night, where I was able to go to the other side of the door and run back out to reverse the curse of slavery … It was really amazing. That all really informed my view of who I am and who we all are. It’s one thing to think of what slavery has done for us as a people, but to know that you come from a royal line … I believe in my heart that we are all royal. It elevated my sense of who I am in the world.
AmNews: What does it mean to you, being discovered by Ruby Dee and then introduced to the theater community with her blessing and that of Ossie Davis?
DKB: To this day, I look at Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis as my angels. I have a very particular connection to Ms. Dee because she would literally travel over the country just to introduce me to the people to produce my work and say, “Tell the people Ruby Dee will be in the house” to get the people to come out. We had so many conversations where she poured things into me. When I got some racist reviews when I performed at the Public, she told me, “We’ve always had to dance with a gun pointed at our feet, but still we danced.” She gave me no space for self-pity. She said, “This is work — we have to do this work. It’s important, lives are at stake.” She also said humor is the cloud to carry a message.
I definitely believe in the power of affirmations. My brain tries to tell — even after all these years — a story that is rooted in trauma. One thing I do is I name the people who love me and who have loved me in the past. I was speaking Ms. Dee’s name today. She’s a regular part of my affirmations.
I had a lot of the elders taking me under their wings – Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis, and Sidney Poitier. He came to see me do my Paul Robeson piece at the Taper in LA, then he spent a lot of time with me after that. We did a walkthrough of the “America I Am” exhibit when it was in Los Angeles. At the end of the tour, to connect the story with the Motherland, there was a door of no return from one of the slave dungeons.
After Mr. Poitier saw “Robeson,” he said it was one of the most thrilling evenings he had in the theater. I said, “Can I quote you?” [and] he said yes. Then we went through the door of no return at the museum and he said, “This is wood; this is living, breathing energy; and through this wood, I’m taking the best of me and I’m passing it on to you.”
Harry Belfonte was another elder who poured into me. I’m able to think [that] if they believed in me, I take deep affirmation and grounding in these artists who were activists at the highest level.
AmNews: In this day and age, it is very difficult for Black theaters to survive, but the New Heritage Theatre Group has stood the test of time — 60 years! To what do you attribute that?
DKB: A lot of love, a lot of creativity, and a commitment to activism, which is the purpose. The 60th celebration kickoff on October 17 at City College is being called “A Celebration of Love, Creativity, and Activism.” In a concrete way, it’s Voza Rivers, who was not a theater practitioner by training, but who met Roger Furman and was determined when Roger died to keep his vision going. Over the years, he’s donated his time, his own money, to keep the company going. The other side is that it is really a community-based organization — the people who come out to the shows are largely folks who live in the community and have been coming to these shows for decades. There’s a sense of loyalty.
AmNews: Daniel, who were your role models?
DKB: Dr. King was the biggest one of all. Right now, my role models are my father and brother, who passed within six months of each other [after] battling addiction and incarceration. I look at them as my role models, my heroes. I look at them because I feel like I have the chance to live at a level of freedom and wellness that the circumstances of their lives did not allow them to live, but in retrospect, I can see the effort; I can see them trying again and again. I can see and understand the pain of this world that would make someone go to addiction. I could see the ambition to care for one’s family that would make someone go to crime. I can see it, not justify, but understand.
Through that lens, I’m watching everything you all did that took your life from you and everything you had to face, and I’m really doing my best to do something different — not out of judgment for them, but out of deep pain and respect for the difficulties they faced.
AmNews: Why are theater companies like the New Heritage Theater Group important for telling our stories?
DKB: Theater takes us back to the roots of the griot — a moment for us to gather together in the now and create. Theater is not just created by the theatermaker; it’s also created by the audience. There’s something deeply spiritual that happens in the presence of theater that brings you powerfully into the now. I believe that what happens is that we encounter the divine. It’s the power of the now led by the attention and gift of the artist that I believe connects us to the best part of who we are.
AmNews: What advice would you give to youth who want a life in the theater?
DKB: Purpose is the bridge past ego. I don’t just mean feeling confident in oneself, but also the moment of insecurity. No one wants to hear what I have to say, but if we ground ourselves in purpose (“What can I give? How can I serve, so our gifts can be of benefit to someone else?”), it gives us a power position that bridges us through the inevitable challenges of this business. I would add to get very specific about how you make people feel. As Maya Angelou said, “People will never forget how you made them feel.”