Advocate Spotlight: Paul Stovall

Thank you to the Advocate for making me aware of another outgoing and influential black gay man doing his thang in Washington, D.C. Paul Stovall is an accomplished playwright and stage actor but is currently doing some side work for the White House. During the last presidential campaign he was in the streets making sure that Obama won the White House. Now he serves as an advance associate for the new administration.

What does his job entail? Stovall answers, "I’m the liaison between the White House and whatever city that the president, the first lady, or the vice president are planning to visit. So I’m there about 10 to 12 days in advance of them, working with our embassy and with the local media to arrange the media coverage."

How a person with this responsibility is able to pen, develop and perform another stage play is beyond me but that is exactly what he is doing. His new production CLEAR is the focus of the new article in the advocate. According to the writer it "I take the audience on a journey from my recognizing the adversity that’s inherent with being a black person to realizing the obstacle of my gay identity. Then I was in a horrible accident where I was shot and both my legs were paralyzed, so for a certain amount of time I was also in wheelchair. So I go from all that to now working for the first black president of the United States."

If I lived in New York I would so be attending this. But alas I reside in Phoenix, AZ. We're not totally void of culture but there are definitely opportunities here that can be explored. Kudos to Stovall for his many accomplishments and much success with CLEAR. Please get into the article by the advocate here.