Christopher E. Johnson

Christopher Johnson is the recipient of the 2018 Rhode Island State Council of the Arts Fellowship for Playwriting. He is also a finalist for the 2018 for the McColl Johnson Fellowship and an award-winning Slam Poet.

Timely, relevant, honest, unapologetic, personal, and political, Christopher Johnson’s spoken word commands in a way that is uncomfortable and arresting. Educated in performance art through experience and mentorship, it has been said that his pieces touch the heart with feathers and barbed wire alike, speaking uncomfortable truths, invoking the best and worst of human emotions. Christopher’s presence demands attention in a way that leaves people captivated and eager to hear more. Using words like a dancer uses movement or a painter uses color, his delivery is nuance. There is expressive intention in every gesture without it appearing choreographed. Able to evoke deep seated dormant emotions through writings and performance, Johnson's emotional expression through his art transcends race, gender, and other divisions. His impassioned words reach into the collective soul of all us, touching and expressing our own pain, fear, and love, as well as his own. When Christopher is on stage you can rest knowing you are safe in his capable hands treating strangers like family guaranteeing both the content and delivery will remain a part of you forever. 

Christopher's published writing includes:

• "When Home is Not an Option; Signifyin Harlem," 2002
• "Big Bang Praise Song; Elephant Journal," 2014.
• "Broken Mends, Forgiveness, Untitled "I am Broken Water", 2014
• "Monster; Not Dead Yet," 2014
• "What if Jesus;" Providence Journal, 2017
• "A sandwich is not a gun; This is Not a Gun," 2020
• Guest editor, Motif Magazine, February 2020

Major works created and performed include:

• "Invoice for Emotional Labor"- A solo performance workshop designed to educate audiences on the new lexicon of race and racism as defined and informed by such works as "The New Jim Crow" (Michelle Alexander), "Between the World and Me" (Ta-Nehisi Coates), and workshops given by "The Peoples Institute for Survival and Beyond." This mutli-discipline performance utilizes autobiographical stories with projections of social media occurrences and definitions of such terms as micro aggression, anti-Blackness, and institutional racism to audiences who may are may not be away of why the dictionary definition of racism is inadequate to describe the experience of the authors life as a black man in America. 2020
• "New and Dangerous Ideas" -  Inspired by Roger Williams, Bill T. Jones and Everett Dance, Stage and School. A multi media experience, "New and Dangerous Ideas" challenges ideas of criminalizing race and expatriating police while humanizing statistics by using personal stories of several members of different communities intersected with spoken word poetry, framed in music, dance and video. 2017

Tedx Providence, 2017, Christopher was invited to perform and speak about mindfulness.

Christopher is a highly sought-out speaker and performer who has collaborated with dozens of inviduals and organizations, including:

• Atlantis Charter School
• Newport Art House
• City of Providence
• Beliamo Dance Collective
• Everett Company Stage and School
• Wilbury Theatre Group
• Festival Internacional Zonas Poeticas in Havana, Cuba
• Brown Universaity
• University of Rhode Isalnd
• Tomaquag Museum
• Providence College
• FirstWorks
• Fort Forclosure
• Gamm Thaeatre
• AS220
• PVD Fringe Festival
• Arts Alliance of Communities
• Trinity Repertory Company
• School One