Rain Pryor, 56, said that growing up, her family’s dinners included fried chicken and latkes.
Pryor, the daughter of famous stand-up comedian and actor Richard Pryor, grew up during the 1970s in Beverly Hills and explained, “There weren’t a lot of kids like me.”
By the end of 2005, Pryor’s father had passed away and she decided it was time to find a way out of Los Angeles. “I wanted to start over life outside of Hollywood,” she said.
So, not long after, she moved to Baltimore.
Since relocating to the East Coast, Pryor has been involved in many different projects, one of which was an art installation at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Baltimore’s Gordon Center for Performing Arts in 2023.
Then, in early 2025, Pryor said, the installation was moved to Third Space at Shaarei Tfiloh, where she met Rabbi Jessy Dressin and became involved in Baltimore’s Inheritance Theater Project.
The installation was about “healing bridges across the divide [in] Baltimore, and it involved Black Jews, Black people, white Jews and white people, and it was about building community,” Pryor explained.
Her longest running endeavor is her solo show, “Fried Chicken and Latkes,” which she is now working to turn into an animated series. The show explores her experiences growing up as a Black and Jewish woman in the 1970s. She’s been performing it for over 20 years.
What brought you to Baltimore?
Two friends and history. … On my mother’s side: my grandfather, my grandmother didn’t grow up here but they moved here in the 1920s and my grandfather worked in shipyards. And there’s still cousins that have stayed and remained in Pikesville in Maryland.
Then, my father’s side: my great-grandmother, Mama Marie, lived here on Preston Street with her first husband. … And my two friends that lived here. It looked appealing. I came here in 2005, performed at Murphy Fine Arts Center — “Fried Chicken and Latkes” — and said, ‘You know what? I really like the weather. I like the changing seasons. It’s not New York, so it’s not as expensive. Let me move to Baltimore,’ and it’s been [20] years, and my daughter is a Baltimorean, born and raised.
What led you to create “Fried Chicken and Latkes”?
When I was growing up … there weren’t a lot of kids like me and I’ve always been the type of person to [think] ‘How do I create something of belonging somewhere?’ I’ve never been one to fit into the box, ever. I needed to create something for myself that I could see myself in doing … and “Fried Chicken and Latkes” was that.
I realized how much more people connected to my story about being Black and Jewish. How many other Black Jewish kids I met through this and adults I’ve met through this process, and also, at the same time, how much more work is needed to even let people know that there are Black Jews that exist like there are. There are those who have Jewish mothers, or there are some that have converted. But we exist.
There are tribes in Ethiopia that have existed for years. There’s a very prominent tribe of Jews in Uganda that have existed for centuries. … There’s more than European white Jews out there, you know. And that is important to me for people to know and for people to have an experience that, yeah, at my table there was fried chicken and there’s latkes. You know, there’s brisket and collard greens.
Why do you feel it’s important to get involved with your community?
I think the only way that people, in general, can survive is to build community. I think right now, OK, we’re in a very big technological age where we’re all on our phones. … But the world, to me, was much better when we all could communicate with each other, and when there was an issue, we could go to a senior, elder in our community and talk about it, and together we built something. … I missed that and so having community, I think, strengthens everybody, and gives everyone a chance to — whether we agree with them or not — it gives them a chance to speak their point of view. And when we learn from each other, we can grow.
