natyna bean in conversation with Sophia Stopper
Published: May 1, 2024
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credit: BenjaminAllen@hudvalleyphoto
SS: natyna, it’s fantastic to have you at The Neighbors News. I remember first meeting you in Accra. We took African Women Speak together at NYU’s study abroad location and I remember being very compelled in that literature history class. What have you been doing since then? Where do you call home? Where do your passions lie artistically and socially? What have you written lately that you’re proud of?
nb: Yes, that was such a special time! Professor Esi Sutherland-Addy introduced us to so many writers I am forever inspired by. Learning in Ghana was incredible altogether, and is still one of my favorite places to visit. I became even more intentionally aware of lineage & blood memory, and found a chosen family during that semester.
I’ve actually been thinking deeply about home and how fluid it is as a space and concept. For nearly six months Accra was home. Then for years New York was home and now, years later South Jersey has become that.
Living with family as a working (hustling) artist is enlightening. Although they’ve always supported my artistic career, most folks didn’t understand what I did. My maternal grandmother would tell our extended family that I was a journalist, as that’s how she understood my storytelling. In truth, I originally worked as a playwright and an educator, but because of the themes I explored within work – family, forgiveness, fortitude, identity, and the ways in which we internalize the world around us – she registered my process and application of ethnographic research as journalism. I think it also helped her access the concept of dramaturgy, but more than that I believe she understood that even with the comfort of creative license, I always intend to be a knowledgeable storyteller. I come from very inquisitive people so I’ve learned that it’s useful to have answers or insights to offer their curiosities.
As long as I can confidently and consistently pay my bills, they remain excited about my endeavors. But more than that, they have always supported and celebrated me, and they trust my relationship to my craft however it may manifest. Lately, I’ve been working on a number of things I’m not quite ready to name as they could shapeshift and become other things. I’ve been allowing myself to hold things close to my breast until I’m truly secure in sharing it, and honestly adopting this into my practice has been extremely exciting because I free myself from the pressures and expectations of others. So, just know that I’m always creating.
SS: Please tell us about Our Body Politic. What stories does this podcast share? We understand that you started out as a contracted producer and grew your way into Director of Audience Engagement. Tell us about your journey. What milestones did you meet to have flourished so much with this organization?
nb: So, sadly, Our Body Politic is no more. We’ve been encouraged to share that it’s on hiatus, but the show has closed indefinitely.
Working as both a producer and then subsequently, as the Director of Audience Engagement was exciting and offered me the opportunity to grow as an audio journalist and storyteller. I was able to meet brilliant and creative producers who were committed to covering news from the perspective of critical thoughts and warm hearts.
During the first few months of the show, I initially joined in an administrative role, then as an associate producer. As my skills and experience grew through personal endeavors or via other contracted work, I shifted to a more creative capacity in the company and on the show. My role as Director of Engagement came as a result of myself and Digital Media Manager, Audrey Garces, collaboratively advocating and taking more initiative in growing the OBP brand more so that it would involve the voices, interests, and interaction of younger and gender-expansive audience members.
We felt that there was a need to connect with people in the podcast industry, which in many ways offer more candid and varied perspectives on societal concerns than leading news conglomerates. We also were committed to prioritizing the concerns of our dedicated listeners and giving them a platform to offer feedback on our coverage, share concerns they have regarding housing, healthcare access, and the like, as well as connect them to community resources we came across from our own research or media partnerships.
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credit: Carolyn Flores
SS: So you’re also an educator having been a Lead Teacher at Octavia Project. What is the Octavia Project and what is the public benefit? What communities are served by this project?
nb: The OP is an educational organization named for Octavia E. Butler and co-founded by longtime educator Meghan McNamara and artist-activist Chana Porter. Through free summer programs based in Brooklyn, the OP introduces young girls and gender-expansive folks to science, art, literature and transformative justice via a speculative fiction lens. It was one of my favorite places to work and I wish it or something similar was around when I was coming up in Philly.
SS: Please describe your work with American carceral systems. How does your being a multidisciplinary artist and educator lead to your work with these systems? What shape does your work take?
nb: I don’t have any “work” with American carceral systems, rather I have experience as someone whose family and community is deeply and incessantly affected by their existence. I have survived the school-to-prison pipeline, experienced an absentee parent, and have been subjected to police brutality like many others in this nation and others. These truths alone impact the stories I am drawn to telling and the communities I feel led to serve.
I was first introduced to educating incarcerated youth during my senior year in NYU while taking a class called “Lyrics on Lockdown” taught by the writer-strategist, Piper Anderson. After that, I taught career and college readiness and workforce development for previously incarcerated folks in Philadelphia. Having a heightened awareness of the prejudices they have to navigate and other barriers they face in pursuit of security and success further emboldens me to challenge long prevailing narratives about people who have been to jail or prison.
In many ways my work seeks to challenge society’s belief that mass incarceration is a solution to social ills. By exploring characters, concepts, and conflicts that highlight how we’ve internalized punitive responses, I hope to encourage people who witness my work to consider more creative ways to respond to, repair, and recover from harm.
SS: You hold an MFA in Playwriting from the New School for Drama, that’s quite an accomplishment. Have you been writing for the stage recently? What stories have you written that you would love to see come to life and why? Who is the audience for these plays?
nb: I actually have been revisiting a number of my oldies but goodies now that life has shown me greater understanding of myself, and what I am most interested in saying. I am far more interested in being in community rather than competition so I won’t say that I mean to exclude anyone from my work. Nonetheless, I am interested in inviting folks to feel changed, affirmed, and maybe even a little agitated when they experience it. What new or repressed curiosities, excitements, or freedoms can they find within themselves?
Most of my plays center Black queer femmes who are in one way or another forced to negotiate their internal desires with those of their communities. Like what is agency and autonomy when you’ve been raised in a codependent dynamic? What is bold gender expression when femicide, queer- and transphobia has claimed the lives of so many siblings? How does one engage comfortably with capitalism when it's the life-source of human trafficking? These are some of the questions I attempt to work out in my stories. One play I’m still quite obsessed with is “malignant,” which has taken shape as a full-length play, a musical, and is now being reworked into a screenplay. That said, it could very well revert to a stage play upon further development. I’m just interested in telling the most honest and nuanced story possible.
SS: Do you have any last thoughts you would like to share? Who are the voices you’re listening to today? Where do you get your news? What causes are you most passionate about at the moment?
nb: I’m a lover of podcasts. I try my best to prioritize both joy and critical thought everyday so the range is definitely ranging.
My current political go-tos are Tonya Mosley’s Truth Be Told, Notes from America with Kai Wright, Into America with Trymaine Lee, Strict Scrutiny, and Translash Podcast with Imara Jones. My pop culture go-tos are Angie Martinez IRL, The Read, The Friendzone, and Small Doses with Amanda Seales. And my astrological/spiritual go-tos are How to Survive the End of the World, Astrology of the Week Ahead with Chani Nicholas, Tarot for the End of Times - a podcast with Sarah Cargill, and to whom this may affirm by jeremy o’brian and yours truly.
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TWTMA logo - art credit: KillbyKill
URL Media boasts a wonderfully comprehensive network of media partners - such as OBP, Scalawag, Capital B, India Currents, etc - which provide comprehensive coverage on immigration, housing justice, reproductive justice, Native American news, Black Greek life and more. What’s most crucial about this media network is that they provide insights into stories not given much air time on local or mainstream news sites. I also follow Al Jazeera as it is one of the few sources that is committed to balanced coverage of the genocide occurring in Palestine. It is vital that we never lose sight of this atrocity and others like it so that we do not remain complicit in the sustenance of imperialism and the destruction of humanity. I’m very inspired by the protests students are leading across the world at their respective universities. I pray we all feel galvanized to fight for freedom.
SS: natyna, it’s fantastic to have you at The Neighbors News. I remember first meeting you in Accra. We took African Women Speak together at NYU’s study abroad location and I remember being very compelled in that literature history class. What have you been doing since then? Where do you call home? Where do your passions lie artistically and socially? What have you written lately that you’re proud of?
nb: Yes, that was such a special time! Professor Esi Sutherland-Addy introduced us to so many writers I am forever inspired by. Learning in Ghana was incredible altogether, and is still one of my favorite places to visit. I became even more intentionally aware of lineage & blood memory, and found a chosen family during that semester.
I’ve actually been thinking deeply about home and how fluid it is as a space and concept. For nearly six months Accra was home. Then for years New York was home and now, years later South Jersey has become that.
Living with family as a working (hustling) artist is enlightening. Although they’ve always supported my artistic career, most folks didn’t understand what I did. My maternal grandmother would tell our extended family that I was a journalist, as that’s how she understood my storytelling. In truth, I originally worked as a playwright and an educator, but because of the themes I explored within work – family, forgiveness, fortitude, identity, and the ways in which we internalize the world around us – she registered my process and application of ethnographic research as journalism. I think it also helped her access the concept of dramaturgy, but more than that I believe she understood that even with the comfort of creative license, I always intend to be a knowledgeable storyteller. I come from very inquisitive people so I’ve learned that it’s useful to have answers or insights to offer their curiosities.
As long as I can confidently and consistently pay my bills, they remain excited about my endeavors. But more than that, they have always supported and celebrated me, and they trust my relationship to my craft however it may manifest. Lately, I’ve been working on a number of things I’m not quite ready to name as they could shapeshift and become other things. I’ve been allowing myself to hold things close to my breast until I’m truly secure in sharing it, and honestly adopting this into my practice has been extremely exciting because I free myself from the pressures and expectations of others. So, just know that I’m always creating.
SS: Please tell us about Our Body Politic. What stories does this podcast share? We understand that you started out as a contracted producer and grew your way into Director of Audience Engagement. Tell us about your journey. What milestones did you meet to have flourished so much with this organization?
nb: So, sadly, Our Body Politic is no more. We’ve been encouraged to share that it’s on hiatus, but the show has closed indefinitely.
Working as both a producer and then subsequently, as the Director of Audience Engagement was exciting and offered me the opportunity to grow as an audio journalist and storyteller. I was able to meet brilliant and creative producers who were committed to covering news from the perspective of critical thoughts and warm hearts.
During the first few months of the show, I initially joined in an administrative role, then as an associate producer. As my skills and experience grew through personal endeavors or via other contracted work, I shifted to a more creative capacity in the company and on the show. My role as Director of Engagement came as a result of myself and Digital Media Manager, Audrey Garces, collaboratively advocating and taking more initiative in growing the OBP brand more so that it would involve the voices, interests, and interaction of younger and gender-expansive audience members.
We felt that there was a need to connect with people in the podcast industry, which in many ways offer more candid and varied perspectives on societal concerns than leading news conglomerates. We also were committed to prioritizing the concerns of our dedicated listeners and giving them a platform to offer feedback on our coverage, share concerns they have regarding housing, healthcare access, and the like, as well as connect them to community resources we came across from our own research or media partnerships.
SS: So you’re also an educator having been a Lead Teacher at Octavia Project. What is the Octavia Project and what is the public benefit? What communities are served by this project?
nb: The OP is an educational organization named for Octavia E. Butler and co-founded by longtime educator Meghan McNamara and artist-activist Chana Porter. Through free summer programs based in Brooklyn, the OP introduces young girls and gender-expansive folks to science, art, literature and transformative justice via a speculative fiction lens. It was one of my favorite places to work and I wish it or something similar was around when I was coming up in Philly.
SS: Please describe your work with American carceral systems. How does your being a multidisciplinary artist and educator lead to your work with these systems? What shape does your work take?
nb: I don’t have any “work” with American carceral systems, rather I have experience as someone whose family and community is deeply and incessantly affected by their existence. I have survived the school-to-prison pipeline, experienced an absentee parent, and have been subjected to police brutality like many others in this nation and others. These truths alone impact the stories I am drawn to telling and the communities I feel led to serve.
I was first introduced to educating incarcerated youth during my senior year in NYU while taking a class called “Lyrics on Lockdown” taught by the writer-strategist, Piper Anderson. After that, I taught career and college readiness and workforce development for previously incarcerated folks in Philadelphia. Having a heightened awareness of the prejudices they have to navigate and other barriers they face in pursuit of security and success further emboldens me to challenge long prevailing narratives about people who have been to jail or prison.
In many ways my work seeks to challenge society’s belief that mass incarceration is a solution to social ills. By exploring characters, concepts, and conflicts that highlight how we’ve internalized punitive responses, I hope to encourage people who witness my work to consider more creative ways to respond to, repair, and recover from harm.
SS: You hold an MFA in Playwriting from the New School for Drama, that’s quite an accomplishment. Have you been writing for the stage recently? What stories have you written that you would love to see come to life and why? Who is the audience for these plays?
nb: I actually have been revisiting a number of my oldies but goodies now that life has shown me greater understanding of myself, and what I am most interested in saying. I am far more interested in being in community rather than competition so I won’t say that I mean to exclude anyone from my work. Nonetheless, I am interested in inviting folks to feel changed, affirmed, and maybe even a little agitated when they experience it. What new or repressed curiosities, excitements, or freedoms can they find within themselves?
Most of my plays center Black queer femmes who are in one way or another forced to negotiate their internal desires with those of their communities. Like what is agency and autonomy when you’ve been raised in a codependent dynamic? What is bold gender expression when femicide, queer- and transphobia has claimed the lives of so many siblings? How does one engage comfortably with capitalism when it's the life-source of human trafficking? These are some of the questions I attempt to work out in my stories. One play I’m still quite obsessed with is “malignant,” which has taken shape as a full-length play, a musical, and is now being reworked into a screenplay. That said, it could very well revert to a stage play upon further development. I’m just interested in telling the most honest and nuanced story possible.
SS: Do you have any last thoughts you would like to share? Who are the voices you’re listening to today? Where do you get your news? What causes are you most passionate about at the moment?
nb: I’m a lover of podcasts. I try my best to prioritize both joy and critical thought everyday so the range is definitely ranging.
My current political go-tos are Tonya Mosley’s Truth Be Told, Notes from America with Kai Wright, Into America with Trymaine Lee, Strict Scrutiny, and Translash Podcast with Imara Jones. My pop culture go-tos are Angie Martinez IRL, The Read, The Friendzone, and Small Doses with Amanda Seales. And my astrological/spiritual go-tos are How to Survive the End of the World, Astrology of the Week Ahead with Chani Nicholas, Tarot for the End of Times - a podcast with Sarah Cargill, and to whom this may affirm by jeremy o’brian and yours truly.
TWTMA logo - art credit: KillbyKill
URL Media boasts a wonderfully comprehensive network of media partners - such as OBP, Scalawag, Capital B, India Currents, etc - which provide comprehensive coverage on immigration, housing justice, reproductive justice, Native American news, Black Greek life and more. What’s most crucial about this media network is that they provide insights into stories not given much air time on local or mainstream news sites. I also follow Al Jazeera as it is one of the few sources that is committed to balanced coverage of the genocide occurring in Palestine. It is vital that we never lose sight of this atrocity and others like it so that we do not remain complicit in the sustenance of imperialism and the destruction of humanity. I’m very inspired by the protests students are leading across the world at their respective universities. I pray we all feel galvanized to fight for freedom.
credit: BenjaminAllen@hudvalleyphoto
natyna bean is an award-winning playwright, artist, producer, and educator who co-hosts the podcast, to whom this may affirm. natyna’s work – which centers Black women and femmes in pursuit of sovereignty – has been produced, published, and/or developed with For Harriet, Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre, The Fire This Time Festival, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, SPACE on Ryder Farm, and more. You can find natyna as @sunbeamshawty on most social sites.
natynabean.com
@sunbeamshawty
natynabean.com
@sunbeamshawty
Sophia Stopper is a visual artist, poet, and curator. They received their MFA in Performance from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and their BFA in Studio Art from New York University. Traveling by bookstore, Sophia has lived on four continents and cherishes flying in a hot air balloon above a field of poppies in the Turkish countryside as one of their fondest memories.