Biography
McKennzie Boyd (she/her) was a generally shy kid from Chicago before she discovered writing poetry was a way for her to speak up about what she was experiencing. From there, McKennzie has realized how vital the arts are to expressing serious topics and reaching many groups of people. McKennzie has been a part of the Viola Project, a program that teaches non-men an alternate way to feminize Shakespearean text in order to bend or break ancient gender roles. She has acted at various theatres in the Chicagoland area, including with the City Lit Acting Company, where she did The Voice of Good Hope. Little did she know, it was just the beginning. Since then, she has acted in various plays with American Blues Theatre and the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, which introduced her to #Enough. McKennzie has managed different plays at her school and organized assemblies and classes related to Black history month on liberating Black voices. This was when she began to adapt some of her poems into plays to combine both of the worlds she loved. Currently, McKennzie is a part of Steppenwolf’s Young Adult Council and fights to challenge the silence that confines Black and LGBTQ+ voices in addition to continuing on toward her dream of being a famous playwright.
