alfonzo kahlil
| playwright | performer | poet | voiceover artist |
alfonzo solomon kahlil is a poet, playwright, and performance artist, raised on the W(b)estside of Chicago, who believes whatever doesn’t kill you, makes for great art. Dramatist of SCORPIO & THE NEW / NEW TESTAMENT, alfonzo’s art utilizes the polyphony of spoken word and performance as a medium to explore the realm of the profane, the profound, the sacred, and the taboo of the interpersonal. alfonzo holds a BFA in theatre from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and is represented by Stewart Talent. alfonzo was previously seen in Measure of a Man (Perceptions) The Island (Court u/s John), Allegiance (Goodman), HOLD UP, CANNABITCHES, and CHICAGO FIRE.
artistic vision
Don't Call Me Al
My name is alfonzo kahlil. Not Alfonso Kahlil. Not Alfonzo Khalil. Not Alonzo, not Alonso, not Alphonse or Alphonso. Not Al (especially not Al). I hate Al. My name is alfonzo solomon kahlil. (they/he)
There are two things I believe in. Radical Politics and Questions. Radical, to me, is the embodiment/concept of Change. Questions, on the other hand, is the ability to carry out Change. There is no Change without curiosity. There is no Change without the ability to Question. When both are combined, I believe Art, as a concept itself, is born. I see no need for Art for Art’s sake. Art is relational, meaning, it is always in dialogue with some idea or function. Therefore my Art has a function, it is not pure aesthetic. There is a belief that Art is aesthetic. I say aesthetic is the deathbed of Art, if we resign it there. I don’t like Answers in my Art. That’s because I have no Answers to give. Only Questions to raise. My Art seeks Change. There is no Change if I give an Answer, because the consumer, the audience, has not Questioned. I believe we live in a world where many Answers are given. This is not the same thing as seeking Answers. Seeking is movement. Seeking is active. We live in a world where we do not seek. We expect. We expect Answers. There are forces/people, in the Political World (or just the World because everything, and I mean everything, is political) who seek to take advantage of that concept. Therefore, if given an Answer, we must Question. And only then do we see Change. My Art strives to facilitate that process. I have no Answers. That does not mean I do not seek Answers in my Art. This only means that the first step is always to Question. My Art seeks to encourage Questions. My Art seeks dialogue. Therefore, Questioning can be the most Radical thing a person can accomplish. And I want us, all of us, to be as Radical as possible. For Art’s sake.
Through playwriting, I take my life, my woes, and alchemize them into something wonderful, a play. Playwriting, like poetry, is the process of rendering the everyday into the sacred. Or the art of realizing the mundane is the sacred. I am not suggesting my life lacked communion; I am simply stating, like others, I needed Play in my life because Playwriting is the sanctification of life. Your life, like my life, deserves veneration, and playwriting dispels the illusion of the mundane by bringing forth awareness or attention. One needs not a God to perform worship. Your attention is your worship. Playwriting then becomes the act of intentional glorification. I write about black people because black people deserve, demand, reverence. I write about queerness and structures and freedom because these are holy topics in my mouth. I left the Church years ago, and yet, still find myself at the altar every time I write. Playwriting is perhaps the only Church where one can truly come as they are. It is an invitation to access and share vulnerability. I accepted this possibility; this healing in the form of career. Everybody has a testimony; even apostates, or especially apostates. Plays are my testament that I decided not to make playwriting a profession, but rather, a prostration. I don’t write plays, I craft sermons in search of community. My words help me to find my people, and in turn, my people help me find my words. This is my Truth: I have decided to seek the sacred, and was given community as commandments. Glory be the hands that raised me, so glory be the diction that centers their voices. Therefore, I write to pay my tithes; to give back all that was lent to me. I write to render all our woes into wonders for the collective!