Poet Bonita Lee Penn wiped tears as she recalled the pulsating rhythm of drums in her childhood Pentecostal church. The thunderous beating served as a call from her ancestors. Shouts, cries, and cheers of praise permeated the sanctuary in response.

The intensity often calmed the stirring of Sunday school children who’d crack jokes, their giggles quieted ahead of the sermon. Growing up in suburban Pittsburgh, Penn understood at a young age that the church was where much of her Blackness was rooted.

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“It’s like something in your body. It just comes alive. It’s something you can’t control,” she says. “I believe that is our bodies’ understanding that the practices of our ancestors are still in our DNA.”

Contextualizing that personal yearning and sense of belonging has shaped much of Penn’s research into her Pentecostal faith, the same way her poetry has centered womanhood and Blackness.

The poet and playwright has sought to connect her history — the origins of her culture and beliefs — to who she is today.

“We are in a constant search for who we are, where we come from, and cultural pride,” she says. “My writing reflects society’s journey into discovering the essence of our being.”

As a poet, Penn has largely delved into the complexities of navigating the world as a Black woman – unpacking societal expectations, stereotypes, and the lasting impact of social injustices. The author of the 2019 poetry collection Every Morning A Foot Is Looking For My Neck offers vivid imagery woven through dynamic delivery of cultural commentary on race, gender, and identity.

While Penn maintains she’s just a “regular, Black woman poet with something to say,” she notes that most often her works aren’t personal confessions, but rather reflections (and sometimes rebukes) of Black life in America from the perspectives of all those who live it.

Yet for her forthcoming offering, a stage play titled Gospel in the Wake, Penn takes audiences on a deeply personal journey highlighting the West African origins of the African American Pentecostal faith she holds dear.

Invoking the Middle Passage, Penn’s three-act drama opens with an African “ring shout.” The energetic religious circle was first practiced by enslaved Africans in the Americas and was Christianized in the 20th Century.

The singing and dancing ritual is also known as a “Shout” today.

Historical images accompanied by voiceovers guide the audience between acts of poetry, song, and dance. The project draws on worship styles, music, and speech to make direct connections between contemporary Black American faith practices and their ancestral origins in West Africa.

“Gospel in the Wake” continues a spiritual journey first introduced with Penn’s 2019 poem “And in the Beginning.” Leaning on themes of existence and belonging, the poem explores the universal desire to unpack our spiritual and personal origins to understand who we are and our purpose.

“I used this poem to reclaim and reinterpret what has not been taught to us in school,” she says. “My mission is to shed light on the overlooked or hidden narrative of some of the roots of the Pentecostal practice.”

According to a Pew Research study, there are more than 10 million Pentecostals in the United States. Over five million are members of the Church of God in Christ (COGIC) — and of those, 84% are Black. Western Pennsylvania’s community of Black COGIC churches, where Penn first grew in her faith, inspired portions of Gospel in the Wake.

Nowadays, however, Penn can also empathize with a growing number of young Black Americans who don’t identify with or who have denounced their religious upbringings. Younger generations of Black Americans are attending church far less than their elders, according to Pew.

The share that doesn’t identify with a religion is increasing overall, with nearly 18% of all Black Americans in this category.

Penn aims for Gospel in the Wake to be an artistic bridge connecting the West African faith tradition with that of contemporary African American spirituality – even for those who may experience a similar disconnect with organized religion.

“Because the early leaders of Pentecostalism were African American, they had been grounded in spirituality,” an epigraph from Theologian Estrelda Alexander opens the stage play. “A lot of times, because you do not understand your past, you don’t even know what it is that influences you.”

A background in sociology and African American studies anchors Penn’s deep dives into history and art before ever taking to pen. Like the choice of language and cadence in her poetry, Penn is especially driven to peel back complex layers with a delivery reflective of contemporary Black American dialect.

While research is vital, Penn insists accessibility is key. Her art is colloquial, digestible by design.

Gospel in the Wake, like her poems, serves as the artistic backdrop of her academic research. The play marks Penn’s ongoing journey to document and celebrate Black spirituality, from the heart of African American churches to the origins of its people in West Africa.

Those cultural connectors exist for all audiences, so the goal is simply to educate in a way that resonates with believers and non-alike.

“It’s not a negative conversation,” she said. “It’s an inclusive conversation of who we are as Black people in this country. We are not afraid to be Black. We cannot be afraid anymore of our ancestors’ practices.”

Just as heart-thumping drumming of the ring shout serves to connect the audience with their ancestors, Penn is passionate about her art serving as a testament to the power of journeying to discover something greater than ourselves.

Published earlier this summer, Penn’s new poetry collection, When the Trees Finally Testify, similarly calls us to prayer in a reclamation of Black identity and love.

Gospel in the Wake premieres at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Museum of Art in 2025.

Kenya Evelyn is an award-winning, freelance multimedia journalist with more than a decade of experience covering news, politics, sports and more – with a concentration on culture and identity.

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