It didn’t take long for a book that would house personal stories that celebrated Black women and their contributions to Charlotte to transform into what is now known as Queen Charlotte Week.
I Am Queen Charlotte sent vibrations throughout the city during the first week of Women’s History Month. Its energy was palpable, the impact was undeniable and at the helm of it all was award-winning storyteller and poet, Hannah Hasan.
At its core, the event simply celebrated a few things—Black women, their lives and contributions to the city and their stories. It started with one conversation. A photographer had an idea to highlight Black women through photos and stories. While he had the photos covered, Hannah’s storytelling expertise would be instrumental. That one conservation concluded with the intention that the two parties—Epoch Tribe, Hannah’s storytelling collective, and AboutFace Charlotte—would collaborate to use their respective creative talents to bring the stories of more than 50 women to life.
“Almost instantly the conversation was about how Charlotte is the city that is named after a black woman and queen,” Hannah told THE BLOCK. “So, in every story, I wanted to use the refrain I Am Queen Charlotte, because we are her, but we also run the city in many ways.”
We have a black woman mayor, we have black women who are in not just power positions, but who hold our city up in the grocery stores and who clean for our city and who are elected officials and who run major corporations and we wanted to document all of that throughout the week.
hannah hasan
Immediately after starting interviews with the women, the book evolved into the live stage show, I Am Queen Charlotte. Soon after, the stars aligned for it to expand beyond the one night of performances, celebrations, storytelling and art at the Belk Theater into a collaborative effort along with Blumenthal Performing Arts to engage both the creative and Charlotte community.
From the live storytelling event that launched the week to the curriculum and the educational resources created by Janeen Bryant to the Queens of the City musical performance—and every carefully curated program in between—there was a sense of intentionality and passion felt throughout. There was also Queens Behind the Scenes, a nod to the contributions of the women who helped make it all possible. For Hannah, centering Black women who are in creative and curatorial roles in this project was non-negotiable.
The amount of hard work from all contributors that went into the entire project is something to be noted, especially for the creatives who are all working artists who offered their time and talents to be a part of something greater.
After planning, executing and witnessing it all come together, Hannah felt mostly at ease because everything flowed naturally. Perhaps it was because the dust had just settled and she hadn’t had much time for it all to sink in, she noted.
“There were some of the same hiccups that you get with any other project but this time, it felt like we were submitting to something that felt greater than us,” she explained. “And, due to that submission, it felt like the community and the resources that we needed rose up to meet us.”
At many points, I felt a specific pressure that I think was unique specifically to me within this project. As a Black woman telling stories of Black women, many of whom I know and share a community with, I felt like I didn’t want to get this wrong.
Hannah hasan
It All Started with Stories
Interviewing more than 50 women is no easy feat, especially when a vast majority of them were completed by phone. For Hannah—and for each woman—it started with the responses to two questions: think about the time you’ve been in Charlotte and consider a moment of deep joy you’ve experienced and a moment of deep pain. From there, it was about the conversation, with the longest lasting more than one hour. Then, it was time for Hannah to find the story—the first part of a storyteller’s creative process—which wasn’t always immediately apparent.
The honor of being able to tell someone’s story is pegged with a sense of responsibility coupled with the nagging fear of choosing an angle different from the subject’s desire. Hannah’s experience was no different, she noted.
“There were some of the women who at some point found out this is gonna be on stage,” she recalled. “They didn’t know, they just had to trust me. There was a major trust element attached to it and it worked.”
Every woman that was highlighted is by all intents and purposes a queen, but her giving of her story was not so it would be just about her. It was about all of us. So, the consistent reminder that although we are only able to document a small percentage of us, hopefully all of us can see ourselves in these stories.
hannah hasan
Community Matters
Charlotte is a collaborative city and this in part is what made the entire week possible. While Hannah is no stranger to creating art with minimal resources, the financial investment and support in this project made it that much more possible for the artists to focus on creating quality work, she noted.
“Because of that, we were able to create work that the community saw and wanted to be a part of,” she said. “It changes everything.”
One by-product of curating something of this magnitude is the inspiration it fuels. Since the week concluded, the women at the center of the stories are eager to do more for the Charlotte community and want to know what’s next.
Hannah’s initial goals were to celebrate Black women in a big way, to inspire the greater community—no matter your race—to see yourself inside of the story and to remind our community of our responsibility through the eyes of Black women. While the goals were met, the impact proved greater.
To create programming, where you’re putting artists and creative people that support us back to work, that’s important. To create programming where you have little girls and teenagers and Black women all seeing their work and their value, that’s so important. The impact was what we wanted, and then some. It was more than what we could have planned for.
hannah hasan
To connect with Hannah, follow her on Instagram and visit her website.
