Broadway performer and activist Amber Iman became the first woman—and first Black woman—to perform on Broadway since the pandemic shutdown with a pop-up concert April 10, the second in NY PopsUp’s series of re-opening events following an April 3 performance featuring Savion Glover and Nathan Lane.
Towards the close of the Scott Rudin-produced event, Iman spoke to the Broadway community’s anxieties about the eventual reopening, particularly after a year that saw calls from community leaders and activists for the theatre industry to address longstanding, systemic problems surrounding equity, inclusion, and working conditions.
"We’re getting closer and closer to a re-opening … We are [going to be] walking back into these [audition and rehearsal] rooms with a lot of uncertainty, a lot of fear, doubt, hopelessness. … But I think we as a collective know what we’re up against. We’ve read the emails. We went to the town halls. We’ve seen the articles and the cover stories. … And I just want to put this into the air that, y’all, we are going to be alright. The love that I have felt in this room today lets me know that we are going to be alright, and we’re going to show up for each other … and we are not going to allow stuff to go down without us speaking up… That’s what it’s going to take. When we get back, it’s going to take a collective sense of a community."
