Donna Simone Johnson

Thank y’all for the overwhelming support + confetti + care + fingers crossed + LOVE! Monday night was a big ol beautiful family reunion and winning the award for Best Supporting Actress, a bonus! ••• And! Thank youuu @naacptheatre , the entire Power Of Sail team, the godblessyoucauseyoureasaint @mtmincmanager , all of the homies, lovers and friends who saw our show, @geffenplayhouse , @djdawnwright for the dope shape-up + for feeding my spirit, Quinn for gathering me, @putheronmytab cause Sola and EVERY SINGLE Auntie (all 6 of them) who yanked the back of my jumpsuit up like we were in church + folks were stumbling. Special s/o to Coltrane for my custom earrings! There is power in momentum and power in rest. I am grateful, grateful, grateful. No other way to say it. #mevsjumpsuit #effthatrighteyelashtoo #itgoesonandonandonand

proud. courtesy of @avgvst.s ! ••••••••• this note, from @avgvst.s , is the one of my few sacred possessions— a reminder that my queerness is a superpower and I’ve never been more proud to be a queer, Black, fluid mama-artist. pride was a riot, yes and also, we survive(d) only through mutual aid. i am proud to be amongst people who show up for one another. s/o to my favorite mutual aid organizations, @theokraproject , @mpjinstitute , @btfacollective . follow them! and get involved if you’re moved! queer artists, especially QTPOC artists, I feel you. it’s hard to be seen when you have to fight to remind people you even exist. still. keep that same energy. we together in this. 🖤 •••• 📸 : @queertheodosia - you changed my whole life with you passed this on. thanks sib. 🌈

Thank you NAACP Theatre Awards for the Best Supporting Actress nomination for POWER OF SAIL! 🎈⛵️🖤 ____ I’m buoyed (🥁) and so grateful! I mean, my mind is boggled + I’m kind of amused, but trust—- recovered quickly and have been red carpet plotting for 3 weeks. 😅 I haven’t been on a stage in almost a full year, so I welcome this little spirit whisper: “See, boo? Rest. Rest! The work can *and will* wait. There is more than enough to go around.” ________ Also, geeked to celebrate + do a little praise dance for our entire POWER OF SAIL crew, nominated for 7 AWARDS! 💫 Best Director: Weyni Mengesha (@weynimengesha ) 💫 Best Lighting: Lap Chi Chu (@lapchichu ) 💫 Best Playwright: Paul Grellong (@paulgrellong ) 💫 Best Producer: The Geffen & Daryl Roth (@geffenplayhouse @daryl_roth ) 💫 Best Set Designer: Rachel Myers (@racheldirects ) 💫 Best Supporting Actor: Brandon Scott (@brandonoscott ) 💫 Best Supporting Actress: Donna Simone Johnson (🙋🏾) Giving all the nominees ALL their flowers! YALL! We get to step into our ancestral ritual of oral tradition! Like what?! Look at us go. Selah! #melanatednominatedmadelated #rootingforeverybodyBlackandlike3peoplewhoarent #breathestretchshakeletitgo

You know I love a good dressing room dance party/praise break. ••• Theatre — and the people who love it— has made me, saved me, held me + laid me tf out. Then, again from the top. Happy World Theatre Day. #weaintdeadyet

“Thanks, Fortune! Yet after all thy crosses, thou givest me somewhat to repair myself.” Pericles, Prince of Tyre (Act II, Scene 1) ••• Closing a show always stings, but this one felt whole. Right people, right place, right time — comings and goings. This was the first time Coltrane saw me onstage, + his first time in a full rehearsal process. Both our rehearsal + performance space had playgrounds (right place) and he had no problem asking me for my hotspot and another hi-chew during the shipwreck scenes. On the drives home, he confidently shared sharp observations + restless questions. On opening night, he sat front row with Kelly + stage-whispered that the squirrels were paid actors. I am SO grateful to @coeurageensemble for making sure that the theatre feels as much home + “his” as our living room does. I am so grateful for @mcgeek16 . This was also my first Shakespeare since 2023… it’s been a minute. I showed up rusty, creaky, and right on time. This process rewired how I meet Shakespeare: curiosity is bolder than grind, and breath outlasts muscle. @amandamcraven , thank you for guiding with belief and delight; if we are mostly water, the work is mostly play. 🏴‍☠️ Thank you, @sugar.otter.flour , @emilylittelg , @kaspertheenbyghost , @larslarzlars , @revolutionaryapplesauce + Ted, @thepedroarmen , Nicki and the entire creative team for carving space for the bawd, the broad, and the real and for bringing me into the fold. Right people. Finally, thank you to every person who came! Y’all laughed, cheered for pirates + knights, sang shanty’s, and delightfully ate stale popcorn. I’m still grinning like a derp. ••• And oop! thaaaaaanks City of West Hollywood @wehocity for presenting Pericles at Kings Road Park in the Free Theatre in the Parks series—free, outdoors, for everyone. #sponsoredad #sponsoreddad #helovesagoodcover

I taught K-5 for 15 years, + we used to sing a song: We’re going on a bear hunt, I’ve got my binoculars, I’m not scared. Look over there at that (insert scary or unknown thing)! Can’t go over it. Can’t go under it. Can’t go around it. Gotta go through it. •••• This past year held some of the most joyful, ecstatic, spiritually embodied, and precious moments of my life. This past year was the hardest of my life. We can do hard things. Cheers to the new. Love you. 🖤🖤🖤 ••• 1. Left at least 6 books on planes this year. 3 weren’t mine. PSA: Don’t lend me books. 2. My baby sister, @lastladylyricist , won the year—graduated, moved into a dreamy new home, + settled into a dreamy new job. Proud is an understatement. 3. Long distance tried us, but we killed it, boo. 4. Directed Sarahjeen François’ “Mama’s Dresses/A Dress for Mama” at @cfakayenta ! Worked with the brilliant Daphne Gabriel, Latoya Cameron, and Carene Rose Mekertichyan and we all fell in love like one does with generous people and gorgeous art. Thank you, Miranda Wright, for the gift and all of y’all, for the joy. 5. Alexa, play “Chilling at Home,” by Dosi. On repeat. 6. My lodestar… The warmest hug and biggest heart I know. Thank you, Karah for answering the phone every damn time. 7. “Arms Around America” opened!!! Thank yall for holding it (and me!) down. Here we go! 8. Sola + Usher. That’s it. You already know. 9. Louisville. Turnt. 10. Home. Healing. Hope. Asé.

“Peace and Blessings manifest with every lesson learned… if we were made in his image, then call us by our name. Most intellects do not believe in God, but they fear us just the same.” Badu “To be a child is to be an artist; to be a child is to be a dreamer.’ — Maya Abu Al-Hayyat #freepalestine🇵🇸 (Ignore that last slide. the shady ass posts for those not voting is a hater.) ••• The end of Palestinian suffering at the hands of genocide feels far. I voted knowing it will be a pyrrhic victory— but one with the children of Palestine in mind—their innocence, their dreams, and their right to simply exist in safety. “All we want is to be ordinary, to be safe, to see a sky that does not hold danger as rain, to be children again.” — Susan Abulhawa #freepalestine #freepalestine🇵🇸 #yesonprop6

♾️ E I G H T ! ♾️ This confident, thoughtful, compassionate adventurer with his easy laugh, GOAT baseball skills + BFA level clown training is EIGHT!!! •••• Col, if you ever read this— 1. You gave me permission to post. 2. You are wonder and you are free. Anyone who tries to make you believe otherwise is mad sus. 3. Every time you live firmly in who you are meant to be— the universe leans in to make it so. ••• Life as Col’s mama is pretty fantastic. We love cooking together. Seasoning is my weakness, but his spiritual gift. When we get it just right, he jumps up + hits the griddy, eyes closed in exaggerated ecstasy. I grin, wondering if all boys love their mamas’ cooking or if he’ll realize in a just a couple short years that I really. and truly. cannot cook for shit. Mk so another truth (donttellcol): I’m not actually ticklish. but when he laughs—- that wild, sweet cackle that fills the air— I can’t help but giggle right along. His joy is that contagious. I see him sometimes when his voice drops, that random deep note that surprises even him, like his future is rumbling in his chest. We don’t talk about it, we just let it happen. Time is our friend. We have plenty of it. Instead, we sing, we dance, we throw down daily: Rap battles, dance offs, the dozens— don’t matter, Col is ruthless. The heir apparent king of sass + sharp with those “yo mama” jokes. I try to keep up, but he’s got the rhythm of the ancestors in his bones… I’m just thankful to be his sparring partner. Our drives home from school though? Might be my favorite. The way he recaps the day with all its colors, people, moments, the sky, the way he rushes to to name them and turn his day into something we both can marvel at. And every night, every single night… he asks to slow dance. I pick him up and carry him. Still. He has to hunch over to lay his head in my crook and his legs are long; they knock the door frame, so I turn sideways to make it work. Sometimes he stands on the sofa to help me lift, knowing these days are numbered. What he doesn’t know? I’m doing a hundred pull-ups a day just to stretch these moments as long as they can last. As long as he’ll have me.

“…You ask too many questions for this to be an adventure!” -ancestors #blamecanada #virgoshateadventure #alexaplaynotlikeusonrepeat ••••••• Summer was very sweet. Roadtrips, dance floors, sunrises and sunsets in equal parts, many many many trees, hide and seek across state lines, playing with people I love + every body of water we could find seeping through cracks. Fill up, pour out. Rinse. Repeat.

🎂🎈 It’s my 37th solar return! 🎈🎂🎉 Entering 37 in deep, full thankfulness (and my infectious, lovable, unique brand of chaos 💁🏾) Knowing I’m going the right way. 🖤🖤🖤 #imevenlateformybday #wantthatcakecakecakecakecakecakecake #gentleparentinggonewrong ••• I’ve spent the last 12 months actively working on bringing harmony into my life, healing (physically, mentally, spiritually), getting unstuck and true rest. I’ve luxuriated in peace + quiet, tripped on red carpets + playground blacktops alike, prayed, cried, got lost in both the desert and a couple of parking structures, and spent hours + hours dancing all the gunk out. I started 37 on full with all the wild love. all the tenderness. and all the pleasure: the pleasure of creating better tomorrows, of being of use, the pleasure of daydreaming, of being of service, of interconnectedness, of kindness + all the mezcal + wheezing laughs + 8 hour play dates + basking in the gift of time. 🖤 37 finds me in a soft, inelegant landing, preparing for a gentle, expansive relaunch—- focusing on healing this body, feeding this spirit, eating well, drinking well + loving one another. 🖤 37 finds me sick and tired of this dusty armor that kept me safe, but I no longer need. 🖤 37 finds me arriving at myself, only to find so many of my people already here! It’s like they all got together—put together this huge group text + people actually responded + promptly signed up to bring something + broke bread, turned on the music, + waited for my always late ass with a huge sign that said “WELCOME HOME!” •••• thank you, love (@mcgeek16 ) for surprising me (actually surprise after surprise!) with a refreshing and thoughtful birthday weekend and thank you to our friends, Karah + Donna (@karahgravatt + @dgaleti ) for being so generous. And always, Chad + Col for keeping it real (life). 🙏🏾🌴🎂

Catching up and celebrating @dsimonejo ! So proud of you!! #MTMInc. #DonnaSimoneJohnson #Winner #NAACPAwards #BestSupportingActress #Theatre #PowerofSail #MyLife #TalentManager

happy solar return, my babes! may this next rotation bring more mountain range adventures, more pleasure, more ease, more community, more *knowing* and all the saturated joy. ✨ __________ kelly, every single day since the first, i wake up a little more in love with you. it’s such a privilege to witness you gently, patiently, intentionally build the rooted, passionate life you deserve. i’m so grateful I get to be a part of it. grateful you let me care for you + grateful for your soft eyes + big laugh. i am grateful you are very, very good at joy and even better at sharing it. grateful you trust me to hold you when you need rest and grateful you show up for your community + your highest self. you’re the most beautiful person I have ever met—-thank you for allowing me to see you. Sweet @mcgeek16 , you are the embodiment of “love is a verb” and i love you deep, wide + through as many rotations as you’ll have me. 🎈 x, ds