 "A Double-Threaded Life" came about on the suggestion of a friend of hers, Jinx Johnson from Hinton.The particular free form of "A Double-Threaded Life" finds its origin in Lee's work as a street theatre director, in 1950s Harlem, where she fashioned scripts out of the oral histories brought to her by the actors, who improvised on given situations during rehearsal.Part of the rationale for this method was to encourage actors to acquire "the self-perception and ultimately the communal experience that Lee believes in so fervently", according to William French.