DR. NINA ANGELA MERCER 

(202)341-3996

 nina.mercer@gmail.com 

www.ninangelamercer.com 

EDUCATION 

• Doctor of Philosophy, Theatre and Performance. The Graduate Center – The City University of New York (June 2023).  

Dissertation title: Transnational Ritual Poetics of Blackness in Performance.  

• Master of Philosophy, Theatre and Performance. The Graduate Center, The City University of New York (February 2020).  

• Master of Fine Arts, Creative Writing – Fiction. American University, Washington, D.C. (May 2000). 

Thesis title: Blues, Come Down, a novel. 

• Bachelor of Arts, English. Howard University, Washington, D.C. (May 1995). 

ACADEMIC EMPLOYMENT

• Eleanor Traylor Post Doctoral Fellowship in Black Literary and Cultural Theory, Department of Literature and Writing at Howard University, Washington, D.C. (September 9, 2024 – present).

• Community Engagement Fellow, The Woodshed Center for Art, Thought, and Culture at The Racial Justice Institute at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. (July 2022 - June 2024.)

• Writing Director, Beyond Identity Program at the City University of New York – City College, New York, New York. (Fall 2020 to May 2021.)

  • developed and taught two online courses – Political Writing and Form: A Journey Inside Crossings and Political Writing and Research Methods: Decolonizing Research as Activist Intervention. I also mentored students as they completed their research projects.  

• Adjunct Assistant Professor, Drew University – Madison, New Jersey. Spring 2021. 

  • I taught Black Theatre as an online course. This course surveyed Black theatre and performance from the nineteenth century into the 21st century. Throughout the course, students were encouraged to reflect on how Black theatre consistently grappled with the intersections of collective and individual identity, belonging, self-determination, resistance, and activism. We also considered the historical and political contexts shaping the works studied in the course.  

• Adjunct Assistant Professor, The City University of New York – Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, New York. August 2017 to May 2019. 

  • I designed and taught The Oral Interpretation of Prose: Performance Ethnography as Embodied Research Method.   

• Lecturer, The City University of New York – Medgar Evers College, Brooklyn, New York. August 2008 to July 2015. 

  • I designed and taught the following courses:

    • The Oral Tradition in African American

    • Literature and Drama I: Playwriting. I also taught Composition I, Composition II, and  

    • Introduction to Literature. 

• Adjunct Lecturer, The City University of New York – Borough of Manhattan Community College, New York, New York. August 2009 to Spring 2010. 

  • I taught Composition through a rhetorical framework of analysis. I also included an embodied approach to argumentation through group projects centering Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed technique. I also taught Introduction to Literature. 

• Instructor, Howard University, Washington, D.C. August 2004-Spring 2006. 

  • I taught Composition I and Composition II through a rhetorical framework of analysis. 

  • Composition II included group research projects focused on local D.C. neighborhoods. 

• Graduate Instructor, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland. Fall 2002 to Spring 2004. 

  • I taught Composition I and Composition II through a rhetorical framework of analysis. 

• Adjunct Lecturer, American University, Washington, D.C. Summer 2000. 

  • I taught the African American Experience in the Performing Arts to undergraduate students. 

PUBLICATIONS 

Journals

Anderson, M., Tallie, M. E., Green, O. & Mercer, N. A., (2024) “Black Water Women 

Collective: A Theatre of Care Syllabus (Redux),” the Black Theatre Review 3(1), 79-91. doi: https://doi.org/10.2458/tbtr.6215

“Inside the Fishtrap: A Conversation with Choreographer Paloma McGregor,” Performance  Research Journal: A Journal of the Performing Arts, Vol. 24: 96-108, Spring 2020. 

“Performance as Participatory Policy-Making: Taja Lindley’s Trinity, Black Life as Burlesque,”  Continuum: The Journal of African Diaspora Drama, Theatre and Performance, Vol. 4. No. 1, August 2017. 

 Chapters in Anthologies

“Ritual Poetics: Hearing Space and Time,” in The Oxford Handbook of African American Women’s Writing, edited by Simone C. Drake. New York: Oxford University Press, forthcoming. 

“Inside Ebony Noelle Golden’s wash/d: Black Womanist Time Travel, Intimacy, and Strategy”  in Write Your Future: Collected Essays 2017, 2018, 2019 New York: Pepatián - Bronx Arts Collaborative, 2021. 

“In Process with Candace Tabbs,” in Write Your Future: Collected Essays 2017, 2018, 2019.  New York: Pepatián – Bronx Arts Collaborative, 2021. 

“At the Corner of Chaos and Divine: Black Ritual Theater, Performance, and Politics,” in Are  You Entertained? Black Popular Culture in the Twenty-First Century, edited by Simone 

C. Drake and Dwan K. Henderson. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2020, 207-228. 

 Creative Works: Poetry, Plays, Lyrical Essays

“For Anacostia Park and My Father on the Occasion of Gogo’s Return to the River” in Black  Ecologies Zine, edited by JT Roane. New Brunswick, NJ: Institute for the Study of Global Racial Justice, Rutgers University, 14-17. https://globalracialjustice.rutgers.edu/sites/default/files/2023-

08/ISGRJ%20Blackecologies%208_17final.pdf. Accessed October 24, 2023. 

“a caul,” in So We Can Know: Writers of Color on Pregnancy, Loss, Abortion, and Birth,  edited by Aracelis Girmay. Chicago, IL: Haymarket Press, 2023, xi-xii. 

“Charisma at the Crossroads,” in Represent! New Plays for Multicultural Youth, edited by Lisa  Brenner and Christopher Cerasso. New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2021, 185-200. 

“Poem for the Bronx River,” in A Gathering of the Tribes Online Magazine, edited by Quincy  Troupe, A Gathering of the Tribes.Org. Last modified December 2020, 

https://www.tribes.org/tribesorgpoetry-1/2020/12/14/nina-angela-mercer. Accessed May 31, 2023. 

“Passage,” in A Gathering of the Tribes Online Magazine, edited by Quincy Troupe, A 

Gathering of the Tribes.Org. Last modified December 2020, https://www.tribes.org/tribesorgpoetry-1/2020/12/14/nina-angela-mercer. Accessed May 31, 2023. 

“Root Song for Daughter,” in The Break Beat Poets, Volume 2: Black Girl Magic Anthology,  edited by Mahogany L. Browne, Idrissa Simmonds, and Jamila Woods, Chicago, IL: Haymarket Press, 2018, 180-186. 

“Gypsy and The Bully Door,” in Black Renaissance Noire, edited by Quincy Troupe, Vol. 14,  Issue 2: 152-165, Fall/Winter 2014. 

“Gypsy and The Bully Door,” in The Killens Review of Arts and Letters: Impact Beyond  Boundaries, edited by Clarence V. Reynolds, Fall/Winter 2013. 

Writing Editor

3 Rites Zine, Brooklyn, NY: DELIRIOUS Dances, 2023. 

Write Your Future: Collected Essays 2020, New York: Pepatián – Bronx Arts Collaborative,  2022. 

 Works in Progress:

“In the Round, A/Crossroads, & Under Water: A Praxis” forthcoming. 

“When They Send For Me,” forthcoming. 

PRODUCTIONS OF PLAYS AND DANCE-THEATRE: 

Gypsy and The Bully Door, playwright and producer  

• The Lorraine Hansberry Experimental Theater Laboratory with Ocean Ana Rising, Inc. and The Woodshed Center for Art, Thought, and Culture at The Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics (Phase I) and The Devine Studio Theater at the Davis 

Performing Arts Center (Phase II), Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. (July 5, 2023 – October 8, 2023) 

• The American Theatre of Harlem’s GRIND Development Lab at the former Dumbo Sky, Brooklyn, NY (October 2013) 

• Stage reading at Brooklyn Public Library at Grand Army Plaza for the Center for Black Literature, co-produced by Ocean Ana Rising, Inc. (OAR), Brooklyn, NY (April 2013) 

• The Warehouse Theatre, produced by Ocean Ana Rising, Inc. (OAR) with D.C.’s Capital Fringe Festival, Washington, D.C. (July 2011) 

A Compulsion for Breathing, playwright and producer for OAR 

• A five-day laboratory and workshop production produced by Ocean Ana Rising, Inc. 

(OAR) at Target Margin Theater, Sunset Park-Brooklyn, NY (June 22, 2019 to July 2, 2019) 

• The Schomburg Center for Black Culture for Changing Perceptions Theater Company, Harlem-New York, NY (May 19, 2018) 

Deep Soul in the Temple, playwright and producer for OAR 

• For the “I Am Soul” series at Dr. Barbara Ann Teer’s National Black Theatre, coproduced by Ocean Ana Rising, Inc. (OAR), New York, NY (April 25, 2016) 

Elijaheen Becomes Wind, playwright 

• Anacostia Arts Center for the “Next To Kin Afro-Futurism One Act Play Festival,” Washington, D.C. (April 27, 2018 to April 29, 2018) 

Mother-Wit and Water-Born, playwright  

• For the “I Am Soul” series at Dr. Barbara Ann Teer’s National Black Theatre, Harlem, New York, NY (November 2015)

• Sparrow, playwright  

• The Langston Hughes House for Changing Perceptions Theater Company, Harlem, New York, NY (May 19, 2017) 

Itagua Meji: A Road and A Prayer, playwright, performer, director, producer for OAR 

• The Nuyorican Poets Café, New York, NY (August 9, 2015) 

• Rutgers University- New Brunswick, NJ (September 5-6, 2014) 

• Alternate Roots Annual Meeting, Arden, NC (August 2010) 

• The Women on Wednesdays Art and Culture Project at The Brecht Forum, co-produced by Ocean Ana Rising, Inc. (OAR), New York, NY (February 2010) 

Gutta Beautiful, playwright and producer for OAR 

• The Little Carib Theatre, produced by Griot Productions, Woodbrook, Trinidad 

(November-December 2011) 

• Henry Street Settlement/Abrons Arts Center, produced by Woodie King Jr’s New Federal Theatre, New York, NY (October 11-November 11, 2007) 

• Woolly Mammoth Theatre, produced by Ocean Ana Rising, Inc. (OAR) with D.C.’s Capital Fringe Festival, Washington, D.C. (July 21-26, 2006) 

• The Warehouse Theatre, produced by Ocean Ana Rising, Inc. (OAR), Washington, D.C. (July 23-25, 2005) 

Performance Work in Development

“Mirrors, Shadows, This Body, and Tea,” an installation and solo performance project, forthcoming. 

COLLABORATIONS IN DANCE THEATRE

Haint Blu, collaborating writer and performer 

A three-year developmental process of a site responsive and evening length work by Urban Bush Women. Urban Bush Women, founded in 1984, galvanizes artists, activists, audiences, and communities through performances, artist development, education, and community engagement. 

Haint Blu development residencies: 

• Hampton House with Live Arts Miami, Miami, FL (November 2022) 

• MoCADA House at Governor’s Island, New York, NY (August 2022) 

• André Cailloux Center for Performing Arts and Cultural Justice with Junebug Productions, New Orleans, LA (August 2022) 

• MassMOCA with Williams College and Jacob’s Pillow, The Berkshires-North Adams, MA (November 2021 and April 2022) 

• The Yard, Martha’s Vineyard, MA (March 2022, May 2022, August 2022) 

• The Climate Museum at Governor’s Island, New York, NY (August 2021) 

• Lumberyard, Catskills, NYC (August 2021) 

• Harvest Works at Governor’s Island, New York, NY (July 2021) 

Haint Blu performances: 

• André Cailloux Center for Performing Arts and Cultural Justice with Junebug Productions, New Orleans, LA (January 2023) 

• Hampton House with Live Arts Miami, Miami, FL (March 2023) 

• MassMOCA with Williams College and Jacob’s Pillow, The Berkshires-North Adams, MA (April 2023) 

• St. Mary’s Church, Harlem-New York City, NY (June 2023) 

Building a Better Fishtrap, co-writer and performer 

An iterative dance-theatre work by Angela’s Pulse. Angela’s Pulse, founded by Paloma and Patricia McGregor, creates and produces collaborative communities across generations and geographies. 

• Building a Better Fishtrap/A/we deh ya (We Are All Here)– research and development residency, performance, and dialogue in partnership with VCU Arts, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA (April 2024)

• Building a Better Fishtrap/A/we deh ya (We Are All Here)– research and development residency in partnership with VCU Arts, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA (October 2024)

• Building a Better Fishtrap/A/we deh ya (We Are All Here)– research and development residency in partnership with Caribbean Museum of Art, St. Croix, Virgin Islands (July 2024)

• Building a Better Fishtrap/A/we deh ya (We Are All Here)– a virtual working group at Movement Research at Barnard, College, New York, NY (May-November 2021) 

• Building a Better Fishtrap: from the river’s mouth at Starlight Park, New York Live Arts, New York, NY (April 2018 to July 2018) 

• Building A Better Fishtrap: from the river’s mouth for Live Stream at New York Live Arts, New York, NY (April 2017 to July 2017) 

DEVISED WORKS

• (In)Visible Freedom, workshop facilitator and director 

Devised, written, and performed by Theater for Social Change for the College 

Community Fellowship Program, a program for formerly incarcerated women continuing their higher education and supported by the Auto-Ethnography and Theater program at the Center for Humanities, CUNY at The Segal Center. New York, NY (October 2018). 

• Black Women Artists for Black Lives Matter, co-coordinator and co-director 

The performance was devised and performed by the performance working group for the closing action at Simone Leigh’s, The Waiting Room, residency and exhibition at The New Museum, NY, NY (September 2016). 

DRAMATURGY

• Building A Better Fishtrap/through the river’s mouth and Building A Better Fishtrap/A’we deh ya, choreographed and directed by Paloma McGregor, Angela’s Pulse at various locations in NYC; St. Croix, VI; Richmond, VA (2017-18, 2021, 2024-25)

• Gypsy and The Bully Door, written by Nina Angela Mercer and directed by Eric Ruffin for the Lorraine Hansberry Experimental Theater Laboratory at The Woodshed Center for Art, Thought, and Culture (July 2023-October 2023) 

• There Is A Portal, written and performed by Kayhan Irani at Queens College-CUNY in Flushing, NY (January 2019 to December 2019) 

• Building a Better Fishtrap: from the river’s mouth, conceived, choreographed, and directed by Paloma McGregor for Angela’s Pulse at Starlight Park in Bronx, NY (May 2017-July 2018) 

• 125th and Freedom, conceived, choreographed, written and directed by Ebony Noelle Golden for the National Black Theatre, Harlem-New York, NY (October 2018-July 

2019) 

PANELS AND PRESENTATIONS

• Presenter, “In the Round, A/Crossroads, and Under Water: A Praxis,” Works in Progress Series, Department of Writing and Literature, Howard University (April 2, 2025)

• Presenter, “Doing Language (a lecture and workshop),” GESA’s Crafting Longevity: Literary Arts, Aesthetic Inquiries, & Legacies, Department of Literature and Writing, Howard University, Washington, DC (March 27, 2025)

• Moderator, Play Development Laboratory: Playwright Michelle Tyrene Johnson’s 40 Acres and a Laptop, directed by Prof. Denise Hart, Ira Aldridge Theatre, Chadwick Boseman College of Fine Arts, Howard University, Washington, DC (March 15, 2025)

• Panelist, “Producing Art for Our Audiences,” International Black Writers Festival, Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University, Washington, DC (September 2024)

• Presenter, “Dramatic Readings” International Black Writers Festival, Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University, Washington, DC (September 2024)

• Panelist, Black Nativity post-show discussion at the Department of Theatre Arts in the Chadwick Boseman School of Fine Arts at Howard University, Washington, D.C. (November 3, 2023). 

• Moderator, Racial Justice Institute Meet and Greet, Healey Student Center, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. (September 21, 2023). 

• Presenter, “Mirrors, Shadows, This Body, and Tea,” a presentation or the Embodied Research Working Group at the International Federation for Theatre Research 2023 – The 

Stories We Tell: The Myths, Myth-Making, and Performance. Accra, Ghana (July 24-29, 2023) 

• Presenter/Participant. Surya, a convening of The Earth Commons and The Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. (March 30-April 1, 2023. 

• Plenary presenter, “In the Fugitivity of Becoming: The Ring Shout as Tactical 

Choreographic and Improvised Technology of Intimacy and Activism” for the American Society of Theatre Research (ASTR) 2021 – Theatre and Performance After Repetition. San Diego, CA (November 2021) 

• Moderator for the Keynote Summit, the Center for Black Literature’s 15th National Black 

Writers’ Conference (virtual) - Activism, Identity, and Racism: Playwrights and Screen 

Writers at the Crossroads, the City University of New York at Medgar Evers College, Brooklyn, NY (November 2020) 

• Roundtable participant, “Telling Our Stories: Transcending Barriers and Boundaries on 

Stage and Screen,” The Center for Black Literature’s 15th National Black Writers Conference (virtual) – Activism, Identity, and Racism: Playwrights and Screenwriters at the Crossroads, the City University of New York at Medgar Evers College, Brooklyn, NY (November 2020)  

• Presenter, “Exploring the Choreopoem with Bridges – A PanAfrikan Arts Movement” for 

Women of Words Online Poetry Festival (virtual) with Impephop Press, Pretoria, South Africa (September 26, 2020) 

• Roundtable presenter, “Africana Dance Dramaturgy – What It Is” for the “Africana Dance Dramaturgies: The Ebb and Flow of Representation” roundtable conversation at the Collegium for African Diaspora Dance (CADD), Duke University, Durham, NC (February 2020) 

Panelist, Creative Site-Making: Trouble, Hope, and Healing, a public conversation at The 

Forum for Scholars and Publics at Duke University, Durham, NC (February 26, 2019) 

Moderator, “#Me Too and The Movement: Black Women Writers Conjuring the 

Continuum” for the Mosaic Literary Conference at The Bronx Museum of Art, Bronx, NY (November 17, 2018) 

• Panelist, Artist Talk for Visionary Aponte: Art and Black Freedom exhibition at New York University’s King Juan Carlos Center, NY, NY (May 14, 2018) 

• Presenter, “The Ring Shout as Choreographic and Improvised Plan for Something Different,” Global Black Desires: Freedom and Constraints at the Institute for Research on the African Diaspora Graduate Student Symposium, The Graduate Center at The City University of New York, NY, NY (May 14, 2018) 

• Panelist, “Process and Product,” The Brooklyn Arts Exchange’s Artist Services Weekend (February 10, 2018) 

• Presenter, “The Kalûnga Line in August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone and Gem of the Ocean,” at An August Occasion: A National Conference to Assess the Life and Legacy of August Wilson, Howard University, Washington, D.C. (October 6, 2016) 

• Roundtable participant, “Women’s Work: Exploring the Embodied, Ephemeral, and Gendered Labor of Dance,” the Association for Theatre in Higher Education Conference (ATHE), Chicago, IL (August 2016) 

• Panelist, Open Season for National Human Rights Day, The Human Rights Project of the Urban Justice Center at National Black Theatre, Harlem-New York, NY (December 2015)

•  Panelist, Abdias Nascimento and Candomblé, Santeria, and Afro-Latino Politics in the 

Americas at Godwin Ternbach Museum, The City University of New York at Queens College, Flushing, NY (April 10, 2013) 

• Moderator, Restoring Community: Black Writers Respond to the Environmental Crises, the 10th Annual National Black Writers Conference at The Center for Black Literature, The City University of New York at Medgar Evers College (March 28, 2010) 

• Panelist, “Beyond the Realistic Center” at the National Conference of Women of Color Writing Drama, Chicago, IL (September 4-7, 2008) 

GUEST LECTURES

• “Comparing Shapkespeare’s sonnet 128 to Ntozake Shange’s Hydraulics Phat Like Mean” for Dr. Elisa Oh’s Adaptations of Shakespeare in the African Diaspora course in the Writing and Literature Department at Howard University, Washington, DC (April 22, 2025)

• “Exploring Sylvia Wynter’s Maskarade,” for Dr. Carole Boyce Davies Caribbean Literature Graduate Seminar in the Writing and Literature Department at Howard University, Washington, DC (September 2024)

• “Interventions in Media Representation, a virtual lecture” for Dr. Roslyn Satchel’s Media Representation course at Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, GA (November 2, 2023). 

• “Ritual Poetics: Hearing Space and Time,” a talk for the Music, Dance, Theatre, and 

Performance Research Group (a virtual research seminar series) at Portsmouth University, United Kingdom (December 2022) 

• “Tracing the Genealogy of the Choreopoem” for Urban Bush Women’s Generative Dancer Workshop (May 2021, virtual) 

• “Representations of Ritual in Zora Neale Hurston’s Writing,” for Dr. Vanessa Valdés’s Activist Arts and the Harlem Renaissance course at City College at the City University of New York, NY (March 5, 2020) 

• An artist-talk for Dr. Aimee Cox’s Performance Ethnography course at Yale University, New Haven, CT (November 2017) 

An artist-talk for Dr. Aimee Cox’s Poetics and Politics in Black Performance course at 

Fordham University, NY, NY (April 2017) 

“Community Theatre and Political Activism” for Prof. Lumumba Bandele’s Community Theatre course at Pratt University, Brooklyn, NY (March 2017) 

WORKSHOPS 

• Workshop facilitator and presenter, “Black Water Women and A ‘Theatre’ of Care,” presented in collaboration with Mysia Anderson, Omiyemi Artisia Green, and Mariahdessa Ekere Tallie for the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) 

Conference – Building From the Rubble, Centering Care, Austin, TX (August 3-6, 2023) 

• Workshop instructor, Playwriting at The Hurston Wright Foundation’s Summer Writers’ Week Retreat at Howard University, Washington, D.C. (June 26-30, 2023) 

• Community workshop facilitator, “Black Girls: The Silent Crisis,” a symposium for the Black Studies department at Ohio State University, Columbus, OH (September 13-14, 2013) 

• Facilitator, Safe Spaces: From Trauma to Triumph Workshop for Ocean Ana Rising, Inc. at the Women on Wednesdays Arts and Culture Project’s Teach-In and Healing Cypher at The Brecht Forum NYC, NY (February 19, 2011) 

• Facilitator, Safe Spaces: Arts Outreach Workshop at Alternate Roots Annual meeting for Ocean Ana Rising, Inc. Arden, North Carolina (August 2010) 

• Facilitator, Safe Spaces: Arts Outreach Workshop for Ocean Ana Rising, Inc. at The Amnesty International Human Rights Arts Festival in Silver Spring, MD (April 24, 2010) 

• Facilitator, Safe Spaces Arts Outreach Workshop for Ocean Ana Rising for Barrios Unidos Youth Summit, Bethesda, MD (September 2006) 

• Facilitator, Safe Spaces: Meditation Workshop and Safe Spaces: Mask-Making Workshop for D.C. Crime Victims’ Compensation Unit, Washington, D.C. (June 2006-

September 2006) 

EXHIBITIONS:

“Legacy, Lineage, and Liberation: An Examination of Urban Bush Women’s Art-Making and Community Organizing Praxis, contributing writer

• Apollo Theater, New York, NY (January 15- April 26, 2025)

“Invocation for José Antonio Aponte, Lamina 26,” writer and performer of the video poem for the Visionary Aponte: Art and Black Freedom touring exhibition 

• Pensacola Museum, Pensacola, FL (October 22- March 27, 2021) 

• Jean & Alexander Heard Libraries Fine Arts Gallery at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN (January 9-March 8, 2020) 

• Centro de Desarrollo de las Artes Visuales, Plaza de Havana, Cuba (September 20October 25, 2019) 

• Galeria Oriente, Parque de Cespedes, Santiago de Cuba, (November-December 2019) 

• The Power Plant Gallery at Duke University, Durham, NC (September 19-November 17, 2019) 

• King Juan Carlos Center, New York University, NY, NY (February 22, 2018-May 4, 2018). 

• Little Haiti Cultural Arts Center, Miami, FL (December 8, 2017-January 20, 2018) 

OCEAN ANA RISING, INC. (OAR) 

Executive Director and Founder (January 2006 – present) 

Founded and incorporated in 2006, Ocean Ana Rising, Inc. (OAR) is an arts organization dedicated to co-creating social change through the development of theatre and multimedia works by artists at all stages. OAR’s programs include The Lorraine Hansberry Play Laboratory for Experimental Theatre, The FIRE Practicum and Play Laboratory, OAR Live on Stage, Safe 

Spaces Workshops, and The Women on Wednesdays Arts and Culture Project at the former Brecht Forum in collaboration with Betty’s Daughter Arts Collaborative (BDAC). OAR’s community partners over the years include the Theatre Arts Department at the Chadwick Boseman College of Fine Arts at Howard University, Black Theater Mechanics, Soul Center, Changing Perceptions Theater Company, Museum of Contemporary Arts (MoCADA), Dr. Barbara Ann Teer’s National Black Theatre, and Betty’s Daughter Arts Collaborative. 

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES AND SERVICES

• Co-host, “State of DC Black Theatre: The Convening,” Eaton Workshop, Washington, DC (February 13, 2025)

• Poet, “This is Your Poem: A Tribute to Nikki Giovanni with Tricia Elam Waker, Nina Angela Mercer, Holly Bass, and Maria Fernanda at Politics and Prose Union Market, Washington, DC (February 09, 2025))

• Peer Reviewer, The Journal of American Drama and Theatre (JADT) (present) 

• Mentor for Black Diaspora Dance mentorship program at Gibney, New York, NY (August 2022 to present) 

• Assets for Artists Program, The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (2019-2020) 

• Generative Dancer Workshop: Process and Dramaturgy with Urban Bush Women At Gibney, New York, NY (May 18-22, 2019) 

• Understanding Domestic Violence: Essentials and Intersections at CONNECT Training Institute, New York, NY (Spring 2016) 

• Brown’s “The Gathering,” a workshop facilitated by Paloma McGregor and Shani Jamila at New York Live Arts (January 2016) 

• The Norman Mailer Center’s Playwrights’ Workshop at Brooklyn Heights, NY (August 2013) 

• The Norman Mailer Center’s August Blues Poetics Workshop, facilitated by Paul Carter Harrison at The Norman Mailer House, Provincetown, MA (July-September 2012) 

• Harry Belafonte’s “Gathering for Justice,” Haley Farm, Clinton, TN (October 2006) 

• Harry Belafonte’s “Gathering for Justice,” Onondaga Reservation (June 2006) 

• Forum Theatre and Cop-In-The-Head workshops, facilitated by Theatre of the Oppressed Laboratory at the former Brecht Forum, NYC (May 2004 and July 2004) 

FELLOWSHIPS, PRIZES, AND AWARDS 

• Eleanor Traylor Post Doctoral Fellowship in Black Literary and Cultural Theory, Department of Literature and Writing, Howard University (September 2024 – August 2025)

• Community Engagement Fellowship, The Woodshed Center for Art, Thought, and Culture at The Racial Justice Institute, Georgetown University (July 2022 to June 2024) 

• Schomburg Scholars Dissertation Fellowship at The Schomburg Scholars Program at The Schomburg Center for Black Culture (September 2021-June 2022) 

• Dissertation Fellowship at the Institute for Research of the African Diaspora in the Americas (May 2021 to May 2022) 

• Toni Cade Bambara Fellowship, The Center for the Humanities at The Graduate Center at The City University of New York (Summer 2020) 

• Dean K. Harrison Research Fellowship, The Graduate Center at The City University of New York (August 2019 to May 2020) 

• Women and Performance Journal play development award for A Compulsion for Breathing (Summer 2019) 

• Auto-Ethnography and Theater Fellowship, The Center for Humanities at The Graduate Center at The City University of New York (February 2018-October 2018) 

• Graduate Assistantship in Theatre and Performance at The Graduate Center at The City University of New York (August 2015 to May 2020) 

• August Wilson Blues Poetics Scholarship at The Norman Mailer Center, Provincetown, MA (2012) 

• Black Women Playwrights’ Group Fellowship for the 1st National Conference of Women of Color Writing Drama, Loyola University, Chicago, IL (2008) 

• Ministry of Enyimyam Ambassadors, Accra, Ghana (2004) 

• Scholarship for Research in University of Maryland’s Study Abroad Program: African Brazilian History and Culture, University of Maryland Study Abroad Program in Salvador da Bahia and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (December 2003-January 2004) 

• University of Maryland’s English Departmental Fellowship (August 2002-May 2004) 

• Lannan Fellowship, Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C. (1998-1999) 

• Special Opportunity Fellowship, Creative Writing-Fiction program at American University, Washington, D.C. (August 1997-May 2000) 

GRANTS

• DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities General Operating Support Grant (FY2025)

• The National Endowment for the Arts for Ocean Ana Rising, Inc. as a member of the collective Black Theater Mechanics (June 2022) 

• The Black Seed Fund for Ocean Ana Rising, Inc. as a member of the Black Theater Mechanics (January 2021 to June 2023) 

• Doctoral Student Research Grant, Theatre and Performance at The Graduate Center at The City University of New York (August 2020) 

• Digital Media Grant for Digital Storytelling, Black Women Playwrights Group (2014) 

AFFILIATIONS 

• American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR) 

• Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) • The Dramatists Guild 

• International Federation for Theatre Research (IFTR) 

• Ubuntu Climate Initiative (UCI)

CERTIFICATION 

• Domestic Violence training and certification. Completed 28 hours of “Understanding Domestic Violence: Essentials and Intersections” at CONNECT Training Institute, Harlem-New York, NY (Spring 2016)