By D’Arcy Morrell –
Barter Theatre is proud to present the 5th Annual SHINE: Illuminating Black Stories on Friday, February 27th at 7:30PM on Barter Theatre’s Gilliam Stage. Curated by Barter’s Black Stories Black Voices Initiative, SHINE allows Black playwrights an opportunity to share original work rooted in the Appalachian experience, while also welcoming voices from across the nation to share in the conversation.
Now in its fifth year, SHINE continues to offer audiences an immersive experience that highlights and honors a community that is so often overlooked. This year’s theme is Black joy, explored not as a denial of hardship, but as something practiced and shared, especially in moments when it is hardest to access. As Co-Director James Jiggetts puts it, “I think it’s important to come together and share that joy through the times where it could be hard to even see it.”
Coming off a weekend immersed in Martin Luther King Jr. Day events, Jiggetts found himself reflecting on the idea of the Beloved Community and how joy often emerges through struggle, rather than apart from it. What matters most, he emphasizes, is that joy is personal. “Black joy in my mind is defined by that specific person and how they define their joy.”
That perspective shapes how SHINE approaches storytelling, honoring the realities of struggle while also making space for stories that reflect the fullness of the Black Appalachian experience. “I feel like sometimes we heighten the struggle,” Jiggetts notes, not to diminish its truth, but to recognize that it is only part of a much larger story. This year’s program reflects that idea through a selection of writings that move between affirmation, reflection, humor, and generational perspectives, offering a layered, complex portrait of joy.
At the heart of this year’s SHINE is a deeply personal contribution by Jerry L. Jones, whose work is shaped by a lifetime of lived experience and careful reflection. Jones grew up in nearby Glade Spring, VA, during segregation, in a family home that has held generations, and his writing returns again and again to the small, concrete details that shape a life over time. In this year’s piece, he follows his education and early career as a teacher, beginning with the hope of building a life in Virginia after graduating from Virginia State University, and moving through the long, uncertain search for work that ultimately led him to Maryland when the opportunities he pursued at home did not open.
The scene culminates in a moment of gratitude that speaks directly to this year’s theme. As Co-Director James Jiggetts notes, it ends with Jones declaring, “This is the nature of my Black joy. Thank you, God.” For Jones, joy is inseparable from reflection and faith, shaped by the belief that purpose often reveals itself only in hindsight. “Sometimes God will open doors, and sometimes he’ll close doors,” he says of the path that led him away from Virginia and eventually back home. What once felt like rejection became the foundation for a life devoted to teaching, learning, and returning knowledge to the community that means so much to him.
For Jiggetts, that sense of community is central to what SHINE has become. In a region where Black residents are often few in number, the event transforms the theatre into a gathering place. Audience members travel from Roanoke, Johnson City, Knoxville, and beyond, drawn together by shared experience and storytelling. “It’s like a big family reunion,” he adds, a space where people come together to celebrate, to reflect, or simply to ask one another, “How are you?”
The impact of SHINE is not limited to the night itself. An exciting example of that impact is showcased in the evolution of Trains by Quinton Cockrell. It began as a single monologue in 2022, returned in 2023 as a staged reading of a full scene, and now steps into the spotlight as a full-length production at Barter’s Smith Theatre this February. The premiere of Trains marks the first work to be fully developed through Barter’s Black Stories Black Voices Initiative, showing that what starts at SHINE can last far beyond one night and reach audiences in a larger way.
At its core, SHINE exists to illuminate Black stories rooted in Appalachia. This year’s focus on Black joy does not simplify those stories or ignore the realities that shape them. Instead, it insists on wholeness and presence. By bringing these stories together, SHINE affirms that celebration and truth can coexist, and that storytelling remains one of the most powerful ways to connect.
