If you're a woman of colour working in the arts, doing stand-up, involved with academia or just living your daily life, you will confront racism on a regular basis, says award-winning comedian Desiree Burch.
Her one-woman show Tar Baby - the title does double-duty as a reference to the folktale of Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby and the racial slur - tackles the story of race in America. Co-written with playwright Dan Kitrosser, it uses stand-up, current events and Burch's own experiences to take a humorous look at race.
That's right, she says, it's a comedy about race because that's the kind of work she does and she can't imagine talking about such a serious subject without humour.
"I think it would be hard to make it all work without humour; it requires that to allow people to dig a little deeper and to get them relaxed enough to do some 'work' which might just be listening to other people talking about things that don't get talked about often enough or see things from another's point of view."
