Igniting the Spark: Acclaimed playwright York Walker empowers next generation

CHICAGO, ILL. - By Michael Oboza, Special to GoPride.com

Award-winning Chicago playwright and screenwriter York Walker recently visited Black Alphabet at the Jamii Center for Arts and Media, leading an inspiring creative workshop titled The Spark of a Play focused on the core fundamentals of the playwriting process. Walker—a staff writer and story editor on Dick Wolf’s television series FBI, a recipient of the inaugural Vineyard Theatre Colman Domingo Award, a winner of the John Singleton Short Film Competition, and a New York Times Critic’s Pick—spoke openly with attendees before the session about his personal and creative evolution.

Reflecting on his journey prior to coming out, Walker noted how hiding his identity once constrained his future.

"I think before coming out, I had a very limited expectation for my life. There was a part of me that just thought that I would never be in love, never have love," Walker said. "It's interesting. When I finally did come out, there was a part of me that had to grieve the version of myself that I thought I was going to be—a vision of getting married to a woman and having kids."

For Walker, stepping into his authenticity proved to be the ultimate creative unlock.

"Then you discover there is a more honest and truthful version of yourself. So I leaned into that," he explained. "There were some years of exploring 'who am I really' and trying to find how much of my personality was me 'trying to be good,' trying to 'fit into a lane,' and how much of it needed to be freed again. It was very freeing once I finally accepted that I was gay."

Originally trained as an actor, Walker discovered writing by confronting his identity directly through storytelling while in graduate school.

"I was an actor first. I was in grad school for acting, and I knew I had to confront the idea that I was gay," Walker shared.

"I wrote a play with a lead man role that was gay. It was very healing for me to write that character and to go on that journey. It was healing and opened up a whole new world for me as a writer, because I never wanted to be a writer before that."

Walker also shared key advice for upcoming storytellers and artists striving to make their mark. He urged creators to embrace authenticity, saying, "Live fully in who you are and don't feel like you have to be something other than that in order to be successful and in order to create."

He also underscored the vital power of visibility, adding, "That's one of the beautiful things about art. When someone can see themself reflected in a piece of art, it can be a very powerful thing. I know it was for me."

Black Alphabet was founded in 2013 by Janelle S. Allen, Brenikki Floyd, Sanford E. Gaylord, and Tim’m West to confront the systemic erasure of Black queer stories on screen, hosting its first Black Alphabet Film Festival that same year.

Now recognized globally as a vital arts organization created for and by Black LGBTQ individuals, Black Alphabet continues to expand its mission. In 2023, the organization was inducted into the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame, carrying forward a legacy reflected in the motto on its website, "Our story is still being written."