Sticky Note Conversations

In this episode of Sticky Note Conversations, host Erika Washington sits down with actress, director, theater educator, and MFA artist Vanecia Boone for a wide-ranging conversation about building a creative, fulfilling life on her own terms.

Vanecia opens up about raising her eight-year-old son as a single Black mother — from navigating hypermasculinity and code-switching to the tough decision to pull him out of traditional school for homeschooling. She shares how motherhood transformed her from a free-spirited "couch surfer" into someone deeply intentional about safety, routine, and presence.

The conversation moves through Vanecia's lifelong love of theater, her upcoming role in Purlie Victorious at the International Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, NC, and the plays that changed her life. She and Erika dig into AI's growing role in the classroom and in playwriting, the acting techniques she teaches her students (and her son) for "taking off the mask," and her path to becoming an herbalist after her own mother's death.

They close with a candid discussion of reproductive justice, birth stories, legacy, and what the American dream really looks like for a 38-year-old single Black woman building community, land, and freedom for the next generation.

Topics covered:

  • Becoming a mother and redefining herself
  • Raising a Black son with self-awareness and freedom
  • Homeschooling and navigating judgment as a parent
  • Her journey into theater and upcoming performance in Purlie Victorious
  • AI's impact on education, playwriting, and authenticity in art
  • Mental health, acting technique, and "weathering"
  • Herbalism, reproductive justice, and her birth story
  • Legacy, identity, and reclaiming her name after loss
Learn more about the International Black Theatre Festival at NCBlackRep.org.
  • (00:00) - Introduction
  • (01:38) - Meet Vanecia Boone
  • (04:03) - Who Is Vanecia? Values and Faith
  • (07:44) - Becoming a Mother
  • (09:36) - Raising a Black Son
  • (18:01) - Parenting Never Stops
  • (21:29) - Her Journey Into Theater
  • (26:28) - Plays That Changed Her Life
  • (29:52) - Black Theatre Festival and Purlie Victorious
  • (33:25) - Balancing Rehearsal and Motherhood
  • (36:18) - The Homeschooling Journey
  • (44:09) - Teaching the Next Generation
  • (50:39) - AI, Theater, and Authenticity
  • (56:42) - Masking, Weathering, and Mental Health
  • (01:01:52) - Becoming an Herbalist
  • (01:06:02) - Reproductive Justice and Her Birth Story
  • (01:16:45) - Legacy and the American Dream
  • (01:18:20) - Closing Thoughts

Creators and Guests

Producer
Erika Washington
Composer
Wil Black

What is Sticky Note Conversations?

To keep my thoughts in order and my to-do lists remotely manageable I create arrays of sticky notes on my desk and wall. New idea? Stick note! Someone I want to meet with? Sticky Note! Need to remember to pay a parking ticket? Write it on a sticky note. Over the course of the last year, I have wanted to create a podcast that allowed me to dive deep into conversations with interesting people.. I wanted to have real conversations that were more than sound bites or regurgitated talking points about fluffy topics. My hope is that each episode feels like old friends catching up. Revealing great information but also humanity, struggle, victory, joy, grief, and possibly, a flicker of transcendence.

I hope you will enjoy these as much as I do creating them.
Join me here every Saturday as I pull a new sticky note off my desk.