This past Christmas, December 25, 2023, marked the day that 99-year-old theater legend and civil rights activist Vinie Burrows made her transition.
It is said that “if I can help someone along the way, then my living will not have been in vain.” These words, in so many ways, epitomize the life of Burrows, who was a staunch advocate for civil rights even into her later years. She had a spirit about her that was full of energy, love, warmth, and wisdom.
In hearing about her passing, I was quite saddened. I spoke to some of those who knew and loved her greatly and asked them to answer three questions: how long they knew her; what was their favorite memory of her; and what is her legacy.
Tony Award-winner Andre DeShields said, “I’ve known Vinie Burrows since the Civil Rights era. She, along with Ruby Dee, Lena Horne, Harry Belafonte, and Ossie Davis, part of the entertainment community there, were active in the Civil Rights Movement.
“I’ve known her personally since 2017. My favorite memory is when she said yes to my invitation to escort her to the Tony Awards in 2019. It was my third nomination. We had started to work earlier with Rachel Chavkin in her creative group called the TEAM. Vinie and I would go down as the elder members of the group. Once I came back from London and got the Tony nomination—it was my third, and I was thinking, ‘Who do I want to accompany me?” and I thought [about] how important it is for the younger members of the theater community to see the generations before them come together—[for]people in their 30s, 40s, and 50s can see people in their 70s, 80s, and 90s who came before them.
“I asked her if I could escort her to the Tony Awards and she was excited. I invited her to come to the matinee of ‘Hadestown.” I had a car pick her up, bring her to the matinees; she waited for me to change and then we took the car to the Tony Awards.
Vinie Burrows and Andre DeShields in 2019 when he won a Tony Award (Lia Chang photo)
“I consider that ancestral ritual part of the blessing of winning the Tony. We posted photos on the internet, on my social media, and people asked who I was with. She had lasted so long and had not been in the spotlight as [much as] many of us thought she deserved. You can shine a spotlight with this new technology, so why not shine it on Vinie Burrows?
“Her legacy is longevity, the maternal essence—everyone was her child. She blazed a trail in what was once a wilderness. That’s why I tried to pay homage to her in the most effective way I could by sharing my celebrity with her.
“The TEAM is planning to put together a memorial for Vinie. The TEAM involves an array of different personalities, so we are waiting for everyone to absorb what has happened. Sometime soon, the TEAM will do something to commemorate Vinie going home.”
Actress Rhonda Ross said, “We met in 2003—we were both cast in Daniel Alexander Jones’s play ‘Phoenix Fabrik.’ The show was in Minneapolis; it was a four-person show. The energy was very mother-daughter and we kept that chemistry [throughout] the 40 years of knowing each other. She was my mother, my mentor, and my friend, and I just adored her and I still do. “There are so many memories. One that comes to mind is one Thanksgiving before 2009. I asked what her plans were and did she want to spend it with my husband and me at my house. She said, ‘Every Thanksgiving, I do what I do every year. I go to Plymouth Rock and I protest with the Indigenous people,’ and she invited my husband and I to go, and we did. We were on the bus with her at 4 a.m.!
“That type of activism, that type of standing for the people, was so ingrained in her.
“I wanted the nurses and doctors to know the queen who was in their midst, the quality of human that they were caring for. As I would tell them, she would raise her fist and say, ‘I’m for the people, all the people.’
“She was a remarkable inspiration to hundreds and thousands of us students who sat at her feet and knew her value. As I told her in those weeks in the hospital, we took good notes and we will carry on in her name. She kept saying ‘Carry on, carry on,’ and we will. I feel beyond honored to have known her, worked with her, to have called her my friend, to have sat at her feet, and that she allowed me to care for her and love on her…
“I would sing to her, read poetry, kiss her head. The first few weeks, she was talkative. It was beyond an honor for me to have that opportunity. When she was in the hospital, they mentioned that she had a stream of people coming in to see her and the staff wondered who this person was. “We are here because of her heart, her spirit, and her love of the people in general and the people individually. I have never heard a cross, cruel word out of that woman’s mouth; nothing but words of upliftment and support. She supported other artists, she gave them guidance. She showed up at their shows and my shows.
“Before she was hospitalized, she lived independently and was still working at 99! Vinie Burrows leaves a legacy of deep and abiding and broad-spectrum, unconditional love and upliftment. A righteous love. And it comes from a foregone time. Our love is different now—it’s polarized, conditional, and segmented—but Vinie exemplified this broad-spectrum, unconditional, strong, and courageous love. Love that is in deed, not just in word or in concept.”
Interdisciplinary artist and playwright Daniel Alexander Jones was also glad to share. “I knew Ms. Vinie for 23 years. She was a dear friend and guiding light; we worked together many times. I have so many memories of her; vivid imprints of her acting, oratory, and political activism, but I always recall an afternoon when I ran into Ms. Vinie walking up the street with her shopping cart outside her building in the Lower East Side. Synchronicity. She didn’t even say hello—it was as though we were simply continuing our years-long conversation. She met my eye, grabbed my arm, and shook me, saying in her inimitable voice: ‘Life is motion, life is motion, life is motion!’
“She dropped my arm, her message delivered, and walked away. I made that the chorus of a song, and always credit her for reminding me never to get stuck, to always stay in the flow of life. She saw across time, I believe.
“Ms. Vinie’s legacy? She loved humanity and never abandoned her commitment to justice, making each performance or appearance an offering to deepen and elevate our compassion, bravery, and deep witness. She will be remembered for the extraordinary span and excellence of her art. But for those who knew her well, we will remember her as a perfect embodiment of absolute, unwavering, fierce love.”
Rome Neal, actor, playwright, jazz singer, producer, and director, had a beautiful friendship with Ms. Burrows. He recalled, “She won the AUDELCO Award for ‘Shango’ in 1994, and we go back a few more years because she worked on an Ismael Reed play, ‘Hubba City.’ We’ve known each other for over 30 years. She did readings of Ismael Reed’s plays. She did the tribute to Miguel Algarin in a memorial service we held for him and she read one of his poems and she turned it out. She was stupendous! She read with such vigor and dramatic flair, and she was 94 then.
“She set the standard for all those who came after her.
“There’s a few (favorite moments). One of them is seeing her at age 89 dancing with this young man to hip hop music at the African Market on 116th Street, when we had just left Gertrude Jeannette’s memorial service. She was just getting down with this young boy and everyone surrounded her and was just cheering her on and she was in her zone.
“The other would be seeing her with so much fire, energy as she was Obatala in ‘Shango’—she was the mother of Shango, who was played by the late Lloyd Goodman. Both of them won AUDELCO Awards for lead actors.
“Her dramatic flair was par excellence!
“The last one for me would be to visit her in the hospital and on her last month and to sing to her, and she was singing back and she was rejoicing. As I was singing ‘Here’s to Life,’ I did a Yoruba chant to Elegba, she raised her hands in the air and shook her body and smiled with so much fierce fire in her eyes and a smile of appreciation, and you could see she wasn’t going anywhere any time soon.
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“When I told her that it was a blessing that she was still here and I was able to visit her and share that special moment with her, it meant so much, because if she had left, I couldn’t have had that special moment with her. She shared with me that she was ready.
“My wife, my daughter, and I visited her on Christmas Eve…She was weak, but you could still see that energy in her, and then the next day, she was gone.
“Her legacy is all the great works that she’s done over the years: theatrical productions from the Nuyorican to New York Theatre Workshop, her work on Broadway at a very young age, and her solo shows that she toured the world with. Her being the GOAT—the greatest of all time—and that was one reason why Andre DeShields had her on his arm when he received his Tony Award.”
Woodie King Jr., retired New Federal Theatre founder, had a tenderness, respect, and love in his voice as he said, “I’ve known Vinie for 40 to 50 years. My favorite memories are when New Federal Theatre was doing a production of ‘Rose McClendon,’ directed by Douglas Turner Ward, and rehearsals of that play daily for a month and the fun we had—Vinie played the lead role and she wrote the work as well.
“Another memory is her last birthday, at St. Mark’s Church in the Bowery. She’s sitting and we’re laughing; that’s a memory.
“What it all boils down to is whenever I was with Vinie, it was fun, never upsetting. She was 98 at that birthday. We all cherished her, spoke highly of her—Rome Neal and Alan Lee Hughes were there, along with so many others, and each person shared their love for her.
“Vinie’s legacy was staying power and commitment to the Black theater; although she worked in television and all over, she was committed and that’s what the Black theater needs. Vinie Burrows was/is a part of the Black Theater Movement. She was a fine actress.”
God blessed our community with such a lovely lady!