Dubbed "the ancient jazz priestess of Mother Africa", Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi is a Black African, Cuban, Indigenous, American Trans performance artist, author (Yaya's Daughters, Brew, Wither, Baltimore: A Love Letter, Keeper, Remains: a Gathering of Bones, Incarnate, For Black Trans Girls..., Solace, Infrastructure Of A Nation). A Helen Hayes Award winning Playwright (Klytmnestra: An Epic Slam Poem (2020), For Black Trans Girls…, Ghost/Writer, The Diaz Family Talent Show, Quest of The Reed Marsh Daughter, The Dance of Memories), Advocate, Dramaturg, a 2x Helen Hayes Award Nominated choreographer (2016, 2018) and co-editor of the Black Trans Prayer Book. She is the founder of The Inanna D Initiatives, which curates, produces and cultivates events and initiatives designed to center and celebrate the work of TGNC Artist of Color.

Inda Craig-Galván is a playwright and screenwriter. Inda's currently developing new works of theater on commission with Primary Stages, Company One, and The Old Globe. Produced plays include Black Super Hero Magic Mama and I Go Somewhere Else. Awards: Kesselring Prize, Jeffry Melnick New Playwright Award, Blue Ink Playwriting Prize, Jane Chambers Student Award for Feminist Playwriting, and Stage Raw Best Playwright Award. Her work has been seen at the Ojai Playwrights Conference, Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Black Swan Lab, The Old Globe Powers New Voices Festival, Black & Latino Playwrights Conference, WomenWorks, Humanitas, Skylight Theatre, San Francisco Playhouse, Trustus Theatre Playwrights Festival, Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, Intiman, and others.

Across two decades Idris Goodwin has forged an impactful career as a multiple award-winning playwright, breakbeat poet, director, educator, and organizer. Passionate about cultivating new audiences in the arts, Idris is the Director of The Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College, the first Black man to hold the position in its 100 year history. Prior to this, he served two seasons as Producing Artistic Director at StageOne Family Theatre in Louisville, Kentucky. He actively serves on both the advisory boards of TYA USA and Children's Theatre Foundation Association. Idris is the author of over 50 original plays ranging from his Hip Hop inspired breakbeat series to historical dramas to works for young audiences, including works like And In This Corner Cassius Clay, How We Got On, Hype Man: A Break Beat Play, and the ground breaking Free Play: open source scripts for an antiracist tomorrow.

Playwright, poet, and educator Candrice Jones is from Dermott, Arkansas. Candrice has been honored to have been a fellow at Callaloo for poetry at Brown University and in London. She has also been a VONA Playwriting Fellow and a CalArts MFA Critical Studies recipient. She is the author of the full-length plays Crackbaby (2010 Wasserstein Prize Nomination) and FLEX. She has been a resident fellow at Ground Floor housed by the Berkeley Rep, the Bay Area Playwrights’ Festival, and MacDowell’s Colony of the Arts. Candrice, who was a 2019-20 Many Voices Fellows, is amazed and grateful to have been chosen for a 2nd year fellow at the Playwrights’ Center, this time as a Jerome Fellow. She believes that in these times of peril “story and art matter more than ever.”

Addae Moon is an Atlanta based playwright, dramaturg, director, and teaching artist. He is the Associate Artistic Director at Theatrical Outfit. He has served as a resident dramaturg with WorkingTitle Playwright’s Ethel Woolson Lab working on development projects with local playwrights Neely Gossett, Johnny Drago, and many others. As the former literary manager at Horizon Theatre Company, he served as dramaturg on the early development projects of many nationally renowned playwrights including Marcus Gardley, Lauren Gunderson, Tanya Barfield, and Janece Shaffer. Addae received his BA in Theatre Arts from Clark Atlanta University and an MFA in Playwriting from the Professional Playwright’s Program at Ohio University.

Nick Hadikwa Mwaluko is a third-culture, queer, nonbinary, trans, Tanzanian-American. Nick’s plays include Silence Is A Sound, 37, S.T.A.R: Marsha P. Johnson, and Waafrika 123. Residencies include the nationally recognized and nominated Resident Playwright Initiative with Playwrights’ Foundation, Resilience and Development (R&D) Writers’ Lab, New York City’s EWG (Emerging Writers’ Group) at The Public Theater sponsored by Time Warner Co., New York City’s Groundbreakers Group, Djerassi Artist Residency, Freedom Train Productions, Ragged Wing Ensemble, and more. Nick is a 2018 finalist for Africa’s Gerald Kraak Award; a two time recipient of the Creativity Fund issued by The Public Theater and Time Warner, and a 2017 Spring grantee of a Theatre Bay Area (TBA) Individual Artist Cash grant.

Psalmayene 24 (a.k.a. Gregory Morrison) is an award-winning playwright, director, and actor. He is currently The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Playwright in Residence at Mosaic Theater and The Doris Duke Artist-in-Residence at Studio Theatre. His plays include Les Deux Noirs (2020 Charles MacArthur Award Nomination for Outstanding Original New Play or Musical and Venturous Capital Grant recipient), and The Frederick Douglass Project (six 2019 Helen Hayes Award nominations). He has received commissions from the African Continuum Theater Company, Arena Stage, Imagination Stage, The Kennedy Center, Solas Nua, Mosaic Theater Company, and Theatrical Outfit. Among other awards, the plays of his Hip-Hop Children's trilogy have earned two development grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Walt Disney Corporation grant, and two Helen Hayes Award nominations for Outstanding Production, Theatre for Young Audiences.

Stacey Rose’s work celebrates and explores Blackness, Black identity, Black history, body politics, and the dilemma of life as the “other.” She is a 2019-20 McKnight Fellow, 20-22 Playwrights’ Center Core Writer, 18-19 Goodman Theatre’s Playwrights Unit writer, and member of The Civilians R&D Group. Her play America v. 2.1 won the inaugural Burman New Play Prize and premiered in 2019. America v 2.1 and As Is were featured on the 2019 Kilroys list (Legacy Land, Honorable Mention). She received a 2019 Virginia B. Toulmin Fdn. Womens Commissioning Grant with Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre. Her work has been presented at UNC Charlotte, On Q Productions, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, The Fire This Time Festival, The Brooklyn Generator, The Bushwick Starr Reading Series, Mosaic Theatre, The Amoralists Theatre Company, National Black Theatre, and Pillsbury House Theater.

Keenan Scott II is a playwright, poet, actor, director, and producer. His work has been workshopped and produced at theaters such as National Black Theater, New York Theater Workshop, Arena Stage, and Woolly Mammoth. His critically acclaimed piece Thoughts of a Colored Man world premiered at Syracuse Stage for their 2019-2020 season, finding its current home at Golden Theater for the upcoming 2021-2022 Broadway Season, his debut. His work Hashtag Me Not was featured in a benefit for NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. called #WhileWeBreathe. He has been chosen to be a part of the 2021 TED Fellow cohort. His latest work The Migration LP is currently being developed at New York Stage and Film, while his other stage plays are in various stage of development.

^{Photo by Brenna Merritt}

James Anthony Tyler's plays include Some Old Black Man (Berkshire Playwrights Lab at St. James Place), All We Need Is Us (Keen Company, currently streaming on all podcast platforms), hop thA A (currently streaming on Audible), Artney Jackson (Williamstown Theatre Festival, 2018 Edgerton Fdn. New Play Award), and Dolphins and Sharks (LAByrinth Theater, Finborough Theatre, London). He’s a 2021-2018 MacDowell Fellow, 2021 Hermitage Artist Resident, 2018 Djerassi Fellow, 2018-2019 Amoralists Wright Club Playwright, 2017-2018 Nashville Rep Ingram New Works Playwright, 2016-2017 Ars Nova Play Group Resident, 2016 Working Farm Playwrights Group Resident at SPACE on Ryder Farm, 2015-2016 Playwrights’ Center Many Voices Fellow, 2014-2015 Dramatists Guild Fellow, and he was a member of Harlem’s Emerging Black Playwrights Group.

Cheryl L. West’s plays have been seen on Broadway (Play On!), Off-Broadway, and in England as well as numerous regional theaters. Her plays include: Shout Sister, Shout!; The Watsons Go To Birmingham, 1963; Fannie; Last Stop on Market Street; Akeelah and the Bee; Pullman Porter Blues; Motherhood Out Loud; Addie, an American Girl Story; and Jar the Floor. She has written TV and film projects at Disney, Paramount, MTV Films, Showtime, TNT, HBO, CBS, and is the Webby-nominated writer for the original web series Diary of a Single Mom. Ms. West is currently working on commissions for Chicago’s Goodman Theatre, Seattle Rep, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Chicago Children’s Theater, Minneapolis Children’s Theatre, Seattle Children’s Theatre, and UC Santa Barbara’s LAUNCH PAD Program.

Josh Wilder is a playwright and producer from Philadelphia. His work has been developed, commissioned, and produced at theaters and festivals across the country including The Fire This Time Festival, Classical Theatre of Harlem, New York Theatre Workshop, True Colors Theatre Company, The Kennedy Center, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, and Yale Rep. Awards include the Holland New Voices Award, The Lorraine Hansberry Award, The Rosa Parks Award, and The ASCAP Cole Porter Prize. Josh is a former Jerome Fellow and the first national recipient of the Jerome Many Voices Fellowship at The Playwrights’ Center. Currently, he’s stationed in Los Angeles leading the next generation of emerging writers at The Playwrights Workshop, and serves as Artistic Associate at Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor, NY.