“Put a Little Honey in my Sweet Tea”

“Put a Little Honey in my Sweet Tea”: The Third Annual Ann J. Abadie Lecture in Southern Studies at the 49th annual Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference.

“Put a Little Honey in my Sweet Tea” is a performance by E. Patrick Johnson based on the oral histories of LGBTQ southerners that Johnson has collected over the past two decades. Focusing on marginalized individuals based on their racial, sexual, gender, and regional identity, Johnson elevates these voices by embodying their stories, moving them from margin to center. The performance is free and open to the public at Nutt Auditorium.

Patrick Johnson is Dean of the School of Communication and Annenberg University Professor of Performance Studies and African American Studies at Northwestern University. He is a 2020 inductee into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

He has additional appointments in the Gender and Sexuality Studies and American Studies programs. A scholar/artist, Johnson performs nationally and internationally and has published widely in the areas of race, gender, sexuality and performance. Johnson is a prolific performer and scholar, and an inspiring teacher, whose research and artistry has greatly impacted African American studies, Performance studies, and Gender and Sexuality studies. He is the author, editor, or co-editor of several award-winning books, including his most recent two: “Black. Queer. Southern. Women.—An Oral History” (University of North Carolina Press, 2018) and, “Honeypot: Black Southern Women Who Love Women” (Duke UP, 2019). He has received multiple awards for his scholarship, including the Lilla A. Heston Award, the Errol Hill Book Award, Hurston/Wright Legacy Book Finalist, Stonewall Book Award Honor Book, Lambda Literary LGBTQ Studies Book Award Finalist, theRandy Majors Memorial Award for Outstanding Contributions to LGBT Scholarship in Communication, Publishing Triangle Judy Grahn Award for Lesbian Nonfiction Finalist, Lambda Literary LGBTQ Anthology Award Finalist.

Johnson’s performance work dovetails with his written work. His staged reading, “Pouring Tea: Black Gay Men of the South Tell Their Tales” is based on his book, “Sweet Tea,” and has toured to more than 100 college campuses from 2006 to the present, and his full-length stage play, “Sweet Tea—The Play,” premiered in Chicago and toured to Austin, Texas, Washington, DC, New York, Los Angeles, Providence, Rhode Island, Durham, North Carolina and the National Black Theater Festival.

Johnson has also received awards for his performance work, including the Leslie Irene Coger Award for Outstanding Contributions to Performance from the National Communication Association, the Bert Williams Award for Best Solo Performance, from the Chicago Black Theater Alliance, and the René Castillo Otto Award for Political Theater.

He is the star and co-executive producer (with John L. Jackson, Jr.) of the documentary, Making Sweet Tea, based on the book and play. In 2010 he was inducted into the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame.