At the Tony Awards ceremony in New York last September, Jeremy O. Harris was seen walking the red carpet alongside his mother, 11-year-old niece and his former English teacher.

He designed his outfit himself: high-waisted black suit pants, a black jacket over a bare chest, platform shoes.

The American actor and playwright is two meters tall.

Tonight he wanted to appear even taller.

Almost superhuman.

He wanted to look like "a dream come true," he told Vogue.

It was to be a triumphant evening for him, one that could go down in the history of the most important American theater award.

Jeremy O. Harris was nominated for twelve awards that evening with his play “Slave Play”. Never before in the history of the awards had there been so many nominations for an actor. And one that deals radically with the trauma of slavery. Written by a black queer author just 32 years old. The play was a sensation, the nominations were a sensation. Jeremy O. Harris was a sensation.

In the end, Harris was left without a Tony.

Twelve nominations - and "Slave Play" failed in all categories.

That too had never happened before in the history of the Tonys.

A clear rejection was that, was read in the evening's discussions.

And Harris couldn't hide his disappointment at a party after the awards ceremony.

He didn't expect to win though.

But "I could have imagined it for a moment," he told the New York Times.

However, he also realized that it was pointless for someone like him to hope that the system he was challenging would reward him.

Like a defiant liberation

He still partied until five in the morning. "We still made history," he tweeted from the party. Just after midnight, he announced that Slave Play was returning to Broadway for a second season. That had been planned for a long time. Now it sounded like a defiant liberation. Not just for Jeremy O. Harris. But for the entire US theater world.

Harris has become something of a theatrical superhero over the past few years. The American magazine "Out" described him as the queer black savior of the theater world. The "Ssense Magazine" saw him as the first representative of a new category, the "culture celebrity". Comedian James Corden introduced him as one of America's top playwrights on his "Late Late Night Show" on CBS. Harris has modeled for Gucci, Telfar and COS, appeared on various magazine covers, appeared on podcasts, appeared on TV shows, hosted galas, moderated discussions, and his social media accounts had hundreds of thousands of followers combined. An it-boy - but who uses every opportunity to promote the theatre, launch new plays and promote experimental theater makers.