Brother to Brother

Becoming a father raised questions about being a Black man living in Britain for McMillan. He was moved by The Underseige Stories by The Hittite Empire, an African-American male performance ensemble from Santa Monica at the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Art) in 1994. He subsequently invited Keith Antar Mason and Joel Talbert from The Hittite Empire to lead a Black men’s workshop, For Black Men Who Have Considered… at Double Edge Theatre, where he was Artistic Director, on Saturday 30 July 1994.

McMillan continued working with participants from the workshop, which would eventually become the Brother to Brother project. The title came from Joseph Beam and Essex Hemphill’s Brother to Brother: New Writings by Black Gay Men, 1991, and also popularised in Marlon Riggs’s film Tongues Untied, 1989 that was concerned with the lack of dialogue between Black men, who formed erotic relationships with one another. This work did not limit itself to a Black gay agenda, but spoke to the state of Black masculinity as challenged by the experience of ‘faggotry’.

In the meantime, McMillan attended the One Million Men March on 16 October 1995, in Washington DC, USA, and wrote an article, ‘And so we rise, and we rise again’ about his experience, which was published in New Nation, October 1995.

He worked Raw Material Music and Media to develop Brother to Brother through workshops with Black men.

McMillan eventually devised Brother to Brother in collaboration with Benji Reid, Michael Mannash-Daniels and Ekundayo (aka Anthony Lennon), where they explored how racism, fear, anger, hurt and love had shaped our lived experience as Black men. He wrote a performance text based on material from this process, and directed the first production of Brother to Brother as a multi-media performance piece that toured the UK in 1996. Other collaborators included the writer/live artist Ronald Fraser-Munroe and Douglas Russell.

Each performance was complimented by creative workshops for Black men at each venue.

Brother to Brother was published in Black and Asian Plays Anthology, Aurora Metro Press, 2000; and 4 For More, ArtBlackLive, 2001.

McMillan reflects on the creative process making Brother to Brother in his article ‘Brother to Brother: A Rereading of Black Masculinities in Embodied Performance’ in The Male Body in Representation: Returning to Matter. edited by Carmen Dexl & Silvia Gerlsbeck, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2022.

Folded poster leaflet - artwork by Ronald Fraser-Munroe: