Bumping Against The Status Quo

Lights Up On Zuri Washington

Written by Yetunde

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Zuri seeks refusal. A self-described lover of rock and creator of the initiative DEI Punk, she

positions herself not as someone trying to claim a seat at the table, but as someone willing to overturn it entirely. She speaks openly about moving from being in service of the piece to

claiming her identity as the artist, naming leadership, care, and confrontation as central to her practice. “I’m not trying to sit at the table,” she says. “I’m trying to wreck it.”

Her reckoning with theatre emerged through the realization that the sacrifices she made for the village were not reciprocated. She was forced to ask a deeper question: who am I without theatre as my cornerstone? In its place, Zuri has turned toward feeding her inner artist, choosing peace through writing her musical and walking her dog. Even in moments of exhaustion, she insists that hope remains, that the flame never fully goes out. Her advice is firm: be honest with yourself and with others, know the pillars you need to thrive, and strive to be whole for yourself.

These voices move beyond a focus on survival and push toward sustainability as a necessity.

Whether through rest, refusal, wellness, or restructuring, each artist names the cost of remaining within systems that demand too much and give too little. What emerges is not a singular path