ROUND 2
Alan C. Edwards, Qween Jean, Brittany Bland, Christopher Darbassie, Dominique Fawn Hill, Kameron Neal, Mika Eubanks, Nehprii Amenii, nicHi douglas, Nikiya Mathis, Ramaj Jamar, Taylor Lilly, Teniece Divya Johnson, Teresa L. Williams, Twi McCallum
ARTIST BIOS
ALAN C. EDWARDS
is a lighting designer who had the pleasure of designing plays, musicals, and special events including: Off-broadway: Harry Clarke (The Vineyard) for which he received the Lucille Lortel Award, Kill Move Paradise (National Black Theatre) [Drama Desk nominee], Fires In The Mirror (Signature) [Lortel nominee], The First Noel (Apollo/CTH), American Moor (Red Bull) and Bluebird Memories feat. Common (Audible @ The Minetta Lane Theatre). His regional work includes: Lights Out: Nat King Cole (Geffen, People’s Light), Detroit Red (Arts Emerson), Twisted Melodies (Centerstage Baltimore, Apollo, Mosaic), Henry IV Part 2, Fingersmith (OSF), Penny Candy, Stagger Lee (Dallas Theatre Center), We Are Proud To Present (The Guthrie), Man of La Mancha (Westport Playhouse), Sweeney Todd (CT Rep). On Broadway he was the associate to Jennifer Tipton on The Testament of Mary. Alan is a graduate of Ithaca College and the Yale School of Drama, where he also serves on the lighting faculty. www.alancedwards.com
QWEEN JEAN
is a New York based Stage and Film Costume Designer and Storyteller. She has committed her voice to advocating for marginalized communities; specifically black trans people. Her passion is creating stories for unsung heroes and people who are often overlooked. She feels that they matter, and that their stories are valuable. Her shows include; Our Dear Dead Drug Lord, One in Two, Siblings Play Amen Corner, Rags Parkland, Good Grief , Othello, Wig Out!, Playboy of the West Indies, A Doll’s House and highly acclaimed What to Send Up, When it Goes Down by Aleshea Harris. She is a native of South Florida and began her career at Florida School of the Arts. Andy has earned a degree in Business Communications at the University of North Carolina and Costume Studies at Greensboro College. She has an MFA in Design from NYU Tisch School of the Arts.
Qween Jean has made a donation to Black Trans Femmes in the Arts (BTFA), a collective of Black trans women and non-binary femmes who are dedicated to creating space for Black trans femmes in the arts. To learn more about this organization and offer support follow on Instagram at @btfacollective.
BRITTANY BLAND
is a storyteller who has dedicated her life to the proliferation of empathy. As a projection designer for the stage, she has designed for theater, dance, and opera. Her work as a video artist often explores the ideas of legacy, memory, and connection. Her recent design credits include Cuttin Up (Classical Theater of Harlem), Rage (Quinnipiac University), Florencia en el Amazonas (Shubert Theater), Alice (Yale University Theater), Black History Museum (Here Arts Center), Twelfth Night (Yale Repertory Theater). Originally from Atlanta GA, she holds a BA in Technical Theater and Production from Catawba College and MFA in Design from the Yale School of Drama. Bcbmediadesign.com
Brittany Bland has made a donation to National Queer and Trans Therapists of Color Network, a healing justice organization committed to transforming mental health for queer and trans people of color (QTPoC). To learn more about this organization and offer support visit www.nqttcn.com
CHRISTOPHER DARBASSIE
is a Black Queer artist that works to center the complex experiences of Black people in their art. But in an Anti-Black and pandemic energized world, Chris is constantly negotiating the ethical values of art making and consumption in a capitalistic empire. When Black people are dying, is the answer really producing a new play? When art is political but not politic, what more can the arts industry do for Black people, beyond the gilded presentational offerings of “inclusion.” What more can the arts industry do then “see” those catching fire. With a fervor love for creation and collaboration, Chris still chooses to reckon with the consideration that art isn’t the solution. Abolition is. www.darbassiedesign.com
Christopher Darbassie has made a donation to Black Hills Legal Defense Fund, a National Indigenous-led organization dedicated to building the collective power of Indigenous People, communities, and Nations. To learn more about this organization and offer support visit www.bhlegalfund.org
DOMINIQUE FAWN HILL
Regional Credits: Where the Mountain Meets the Sea at The Actors Theatre; Hedwig & The Angry Inch at Portland Center Stage; One night in Miami at City Theatre Company; School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play at The Kansas City Repertory Theatre; Pipeline at The City Theatre Company; Julius Caesar at The Asolo Repertory Theatre. Other Design/Assisting Credits: For Colored Girls Have Considered Suicide/ When The Rainbow Is Enuf (Assistant Designer) The Public Theatre, 125th & FreeDOM at The National Black Theatre; A Streetcar Named Desire at The Boston Court Theatre; Beauty and The Beast at The Cumberland County Playhouse; Chicago and Clybourne Park at The Sonoma Summer Theatre; After-love and The Engine of our Ruin at The Chautauqua Theatre Company. She is the 2019 Usitt/USA Prague Quadrennial recipient for Costume Design and holds a MFA, from The University of California, San Diego dominiquefhill.com
Dominique Fawn Hill has made a donation to The Brotherhood-Sister Sol, whose mission is to provide comprehensive, holistic and long-term support services to youth who range in age from eight to twenty-two. To learn more about this organization and offer support visit https://brotherhood-sistersol.org
KAMERON NEAL
is a queer Black visual artist, video designer and performance-maker based in NYC. Forbes described Kameron’s solo exhibition at Detroit Art Week 2019 as “an absurd escape that simultaneously provokes and entertains.” His work has been featured in music videos for Billy Porter and Rufus Wainwright. Kameron is currently in residence at CultureHub, The Public’s Devised Theater Working Group and the Bemis Center. As a Resident Artist at Ars Nova, he co-created MukhAgni, an irreverent multimedia performance memoir, with Shayok Misha Chowdhury; the piece was curated in Under the Radar 2020. His video self-portrait Liquid Love was awarded Best of Show at Digital Graffiti Festival 2017. Kameron’s work has also been seen in NatGeo, HYPEBEAST and Studio Magazine, and at New Orleans Film Festival, Vox Populi, Williams College Museum of Art, New York Theatre Workshop, Joe’s Pub, Bushwick Starr, La MaMa, Signature Theatre and BAM. www.kameronneal.com/
Kameron Neal has made a donation to the Lupus Foundation of America, whose mission is to improve the quality of life for all people affected by lupus through programs of research, education, support and advocacy. . To learn more about this organization and offer support visit www.lupus.org
MIKA EUBANKS
received her MFA in Costume Design at Yale School of Drama where she has designed Death of Yazdgerd and Tent Revival. Other work includes Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again., In the Red and Brown Water, School girls; or The African Mean Girls Play, The Purple Flower (Yale Cabaret); Feeding Beatrice (Repertory Theatre of St. Louis); Harry and the Thief (Strand Theater); Animals out of Paper (Silver Spring Theater); and The Clothesline Muse (National Black Theatre Festival). Currently in New York, but hailing from Baltimore, Mika has worked at Center Stage, the Hippodrome, and Morgan State University. She earned the Leo Lerman Graduate Fellowship in 2019, the Jada Pinkett Smith Applied Arts Award in 2015, and holds a BFA from Maryland Institute College of Art. In Spring 2019 she designed Twelfth Night at the Yale Repertory Theatre, which she received the Connecticut Critic Circle Award for outstanding costume design. http://mikaeubanks.com
Mika Eubanks has made a donation to The Loveland Foundation, whose mission is to bring opportunity and healing to communities of color, and especially to Black women and girls. To learn more about this organization and offer support visit https://thelovelandfoundation.org
NEHPRII AMENII
(MFA Sarah Lawrence) is a Director, playwright, and visual theatre artist. She’s worked with Penumbra Theatre, The Flea, Pan Asian Repertory, Bushwick Starr, La MaMa, Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre, Virginia Stage, Ashville Creative Arts, LumberYard Performing Arts, The Holland Festival, Minnesota Orchestra, Bread and Puppet, Cirque Du Soleil, The Apollo Theatre, Alvin Ailey, and the NY Philharmonic. She’s been awarded from LMCC, the puffin foundation, the Stanley and Evelyn Lipkin Prize for playwriting, and was US delegate for the Women Playwrights International Conference. She is a member of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab, the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, and is a sponsored artist of New York Foundation for the Arts. She has taught at Minneapolis Community College, University of Western Cape, and Sarah Lawrence. Nehprii is Artistic Director of Khunum Productions, a platform for Creative Anthropology. http://www.nehpriiamenii.com
Nehprii Amenii has made a donation to the Innocence Project, whose mission is to exonerate the wrongly convicted through DNA testing and reform the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice. To learn more about this organization and offer support visit www.innocenceproject.org.
nicHi douglas
Brooklyn-based performer, choreographer, director, playwright, ART-IVIST. she is the Head of Movement in the NYU/Tisch Playwrights Horizons Theater School studio. she has developed original work at Denver Center, Berkeley Rep, and The Public Theater, among other theaters. she is developing an interactive dance exhibit for the National Museum of African-American Music. her sacred offering for Black womxn, (pray), co-composed by Starr Busby & Jerome Ellis, has been commissioned by Ars Nova. recent stage credits: A Time Like This: Music for Change (Carnegie Hall, Stage Director), Girl From the North Country (Public Theater, Associate Choreographer), where love lies fallow (Open Call/The Shed, The Public Theater, Playwright/Choreographer/Director), SKiNFoLK: An American Show (The Bushwick Starr/National Black Theater, Choreographer). upcoming: The Harriet Holland … Cotillion ... (The Movement Theatre Company/New Georges, Choreographer) BFA, Tisch/NYU; MFA, The New School www.mynameisnichi.com | @mynameisnichi
nicHi douglas has made a donation to S.O.U.L. Sisters Leadership Collective, whose mission is to mobilize systems-involved girls and femmes of color – black, brown, and indigenous – to interrupt cycles of state violence, poverty, and oppression.. To learn more about this organization and offer support visit https://soulsistersleadership.org
NIKIYA MATHIS
is a stylist & actresses. She created ActTRESSES Hair Consulting as a means of providing natural hair support for actors of color in Theater, TV & Film. Her hair/wig designs for "Blacktresses" have appeared on shows such as Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, She's Gotta Have It, & Charmed, among others. She has designed and consulted on productions at The Public Theatre, Signature Theatre, MCC, Soho Rep, Women's Project, Ars Nova, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Classical Theater of Harlem, National Black Theater, Hartford Stage, Huntington Theatre, Longwharf Theatre, Berkshire Theatre, Theatre Works, NYU Tisch & AMDA. Nikiya also does Hair/Wig Design master classes for Costume Design Students on how to support & design for actors of color. @our_black_tresses | ActTRESSESHair.com
Nikiya Mathis has made a donation to NAACP of Newark, NJ, whose mission is to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate race-based discrimination. To learn more about this organization and offer support visit https://naacpnewark.org
RAMAJ JAMAR
is an American costume and scenic designer. They are also a notable visual artist who practice the art of alchemy. They received the Princess Grace award in 2018. Their recent work includes: Bayano (National Black Theatre, Dir. Jeffrey Page), Paul Robeson (Crossroads Theatre, Dir. Marshall Jones III), The Woman/ The Man: A Funnyhouse of a Negro & The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World ( Lenfest Center for the Arts, Dir. Jeffrey Page) and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (NYU, Dir. Colette Robert). They are also known for their costume illustrations for the Netflix series When They See Us. To learn more about them, visit www.Ramajjamar.com
Ramaj Jamar has made a donation to DEAFinitely DOPE, whose mission strives to educate and unify the hearing and ASL cultures through a love of music and sign language.. To learn more about this organization and offer support visit www.deafinitelydope.org
TAYLOR LILLY
“Artists use lies to tell the truth.” -V, V for Vendetta (2006) As an artist and designer, I am asking the audience to believe in the fantasy of the art to help them find its underlying truth. I find visual storytelling to be a deeply compelling medium whether the synthesis is between the artists, their paint, and canvas or a designer, their co-workers, and the stage. Regarding theater, I am drawn by the immense amount of collaboration it takes to draw out truth from the world we create on the stage. Taylor Lilly, originally from Maryland, currently resides in Brooklyn. She earned a BFA in Production Design concentrating in Lighting design from Savannah College of Art and Design. She has enjoyed helping to tell unique stories while designing and assisting around NYC. She also enjoys reading, painting, and talking about the complexity of time whenever possible. TaylorLilly.com
Taylor Lily has made a donation to CancerCare, the leading national organization dedicated to providing free, professional support services including case management, counseling, support groups, educational workshops, publications and financial assistance to anyone affected by cancer. To learn more about this organization and offer support visit www.cancercare.org
TENIECE DIVYA JOHNSON
MA (Lehigh University, Sociology), MFA (University of Florida), is a student of life, stunt performer and certified intimacy coordinator and intimacy director for television, film and stage. They are a Creative Team Member of (IDC) Intimacy Directors & Coordinators and some of Teniece's credits include HBO’s Succession, Lovecraft Country, RAMY, HULU's Wu-Tang: An American Saga, FX's POSE, Run the World directed by Millicent Shelton, The Hunters on Amazon, West Side Story directed by Steven Spielberg and the limited series The Underground Railroad written and directed by Barry Jenkins. Teniece is also honored to have worked with Claire Warden on Slave Play at the Golden Theater and NYTW. And they love working with the students at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts as a fight director and intimacy director. Teaching and performing for over a decade, Teniece uses a multidisciplinary approach to cultivating self-healing and creative wellness practices. Driven to keep actors safe but the story dangerous Teniece’s devised theater experience, movement training and spoken word poetry lends for a natural curiosity and commitment to honoring and dissecting what is on the page in order to develop a captivating movement dialogue of action and reaction. They are also an outspoken advocate for diversity, inclusivity, LGBTQ community and consent culture. https://linktr.ee/TenieceDivyaJohnson
Teniece Divya Johnson has made a donation to Poetic Theater Productions , whose mission is to define the modern genre of “poetic theater” by connecting and fostering a community of artists who are passionately creating relevant and accessible work and reinvigorating a conscious theater of language. To learn more about this organization and offer support visit www.poetictheater.com
TERESA L. WILLIAMS
is a scenic designer from New Orleans, LA. She is currently pursuing her MFA in Scenic Design for Stage and Film from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. As a devoted storyteller, she aims create new worlds for viewers to become engulfed in unique experiences. Recent design credits include Juggernaut (Columbia University, Dir. Kelly O’Donnell), Detroit ’67 (NYU Tisch Grad Acting, Dir. Brandon Dirden), Chartruth (NYU Tisch Dance), Are You Hearing Me (NYU Tisch Grad Film), Two Bodies (NYU Grad Film) https://www.tlwilliamsdesign.com
Teresa L. Williams has made a donation to No Dream Deferred, whose vision is for equitable and inclusive theatre in New Orleans. As a community-anchored theatre that prioritizes the New Orleans audience, they produce culturally relevant work written by playwrights that have been historically marginalized. To learn more about this organization and offer support visit www.nodreamdeferrednola.com
TWI McCALLUM
is a sound designer in NYC, by-way of Baltimore, MD. Her favorite theatrical credits include Frankenstein at Kansas City Rep (regional), My Baby at WP Theater (off-Broadway festival), and assisting Megumi Katayama on Pride & Prejudice at Long Wharf Theatre (regional). She also has production assistant credits for companies like HBO, ABC, and Warner Bros. She is a current mentee of Wingspace Theatrical Design, and an incoming student in Yale School of Drama’s one-year sound internship. Aside from designing, she is a firm believer in “artists as activists” so she dedicates resources every month towards organizations focused on race/gender intersectionality, education disparity, immigration, food access, and other artists in need. https://www.twibackstage.me
Twi McCallum has made a donation to See Lighting Foundation, a fundraiser for immigrant theater artists financially impacted by COVID-19. To learn more about this organization and offer support visit www.seelightingfoundation.com