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Happy Birthday, Dr. Barbara Ann TeerLAND OFVISION2.02.0A DAY TO CELEBRATENATIONAL BLACK THEATRE’S FOUNDERDR. BARBARA ANN TEERNONA HENDRYX CARL HANCOCK RUXLIZA JESSIE PETERSONMAHOGANY L. BROWNE CARRIE MAE WEEMSNATIONAL BLACK THEATRE CEO SADE LYTHCOTTwith panelistsmoderated by

National Black Theatre & Lincoln Center PresentsHappy Birthday, Dr. Barbara Ann TeerLAND OFVISION2.02.0A DAY TO CELEBRATE NATIONAL BLACK THEATRE’S FOUNDERDR. BARBARA ANN TEERNONA HENDRYX CARL HANCOCK RUXLIZA JESSIE PETERSONMAHOGANY L. BROWNE CARRIE MAE WEEMSwith panelistsmoderated bySADE LYTHCOTTCEO OF NATIONAL BLACK THEATRE

Sade Lythcott Nona HendryxCarl Hancock Rux Mahogany L. BrowneLiza Jessie PetersonCarrie Mae WeemsMODERATOR AND PANELISTS

Nona HendryxNona Hendryx is a multidisciplinary artist with 25 studio albums and featured onmany more. Nona was a founding member of Labelle, one third of the music trio whomade the hit song “Lady Marmalade,” and notably known for her work as a soloartist exploring cutting edge, experimental musical genres. She’s a Grammynominee and the first recipient of the Joe’s Pub Vanguard Residency Award and anAmbassador for Artistry in Music for Berklee College of Music, Boston. Nona hascurated and performed the iconic celebrations of singer Betty Davis at SymphonySpace. Nona is a 2023 Open Society Foundation, Ford Foundation and MellonFoundation, Duke Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts and CreativeCapital Grant Recipient, supporting the Nonaverse and her Dream MachineExperience, a work in progress being presented at Lincoln Center, June 2024. Nonacreates, develops, and presents music-driven storytelling AI/AR/VR immersiveexperiences.Carl Hancock RuxCarl Hancock Rux is an award-winning American poet, dramatist, librettist, novelist,essayist, recording artist, curator, theater director, radio journalist, visual artist, andsocial activist. Mr. Rux is Co-Artistic Director of Mabou Mines (an award-winningNew York City-based experimental mixed media theater company founded in 1970by Lee Breuer, Ruth Maleczech, Joanne Akalaitis, and Philip Glass, among others);Associate Artistic Director/Mellon Foundation Curator in Residence of Harlem Stageat The Gate House; Resident Artist at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts;multidisciplinary editor of The Massachusetts Review (recipient of 2021 WhitingAward Magazine Prize). He is the author of the collection of poetry Pagan Operetta,the novel Asphalt, and the OBIE award-winning play Talk; and is a noted musician,having recorded several albums since his first release on Sony/550. His mixed mediaworks have been included in several galleries and museums. Mr. Rux also createdthe lead role in The Temptation of St. Anthony (composed by Bernice Johnson Reagonand directed by Robert Wilson), the first all-African-American opera to premiere atthe Paris Opera.Liza Jessie Peterson Liza is an artivist; an actress, playwright, poet, author and youth advocate who hasworked steadfast with incarcerated populations for more than two decades. Hercritically acclaimed one woman show, The Peculiar Patriot, was nominated for aDrama Desk Award, Elliot Norton and a recipient of a Lilly Award. The play is alsoavailable on Audible. Liza performed The Peculiar Patriot in 35 prisons across thecountry and a documentary, Angola Do You Hear Us; Voices from a PlantationPrison, features her historic performance of The Peculiar Patriot at Louisiana StatePenitentiary (aka Angola) which is streaming on Paramount Plus and Amazon Prime,and was shortlist for an Academy Award. She has developed a TV pilot based on herensemble play SistahGurls and the Squirrel.ABOUT THE PANELISTS

Liza is author of a memoir ALL DAY: A Year of Love and Survival TeachingIncarcerated Kids at Rikers Island (Hachette Publishing) and was commissioned byThe Old Globe Theater to adapt the book into a stage play, and has developed a TVseries based on the book. Liza was featured in Ava DuVernay’s Emmy award winningdocumentary, The 13th, and was a consultant on Bill Moyers documentary Rikers(PBS). Also known for her exceptional poetic skills, Liza began her poetry career atthe Nuyorican Poets Café and appeared on two episodes of HBO’s Def Poetry. Lizaappeared in Showtime’s mini-series Everything’s Gonna Be All White by SachaJenkins. She can be seen in A Luv Tale (BET+), Love the Hard Way (co-starring withPam Grier and Adrien Brody) Spike Lee’s Bamboozled, and K. Shalini’s A Drop of Life.Liza wrote and starred in two short films, MERLINA and Black Love Manifesto. Formore info on her projects, visit her website at www.lizajessiep.com.Mahogany L. BrowneMahogany L. Browne, a Kennedy Center's Next 50 Fellow, is a writer, playwright,organizer and educator. Browne received fellowships from All Arts, Arts for Justice,Air Serenbe, Baldwin for the Arts, Cave Canem, Poets House, Mellon Research,Rauschenberg, UCross, & Wesleyan University. Browne’s books include Vinyl Moon,Chlorine Sky (optioned for Steppenwolf Theater), Black Girl Magic, and banned booksWoke: A Young Poets Call to Justice and Woke Baby. Founder of the diverse litinitiative Woke Baby Book Fair, Browne currently tours Chrome Valley (highlightedin Publishers Weekly and The New York Times) and is the 2024 Paterson Poetry Prizewinner.She is the inaugural poet-in-residence at the Lincoln Center and works on her firstadult fiction in Brooklyn, NY.Carrie Mae WeemsCarrie Mae Weems, a conceptual artist, unpacks and confronts constructions of raceand femininity in the pursuit of new models to live by. Grounded in the specificity ofher lived experience as a Black woman but universal in its explorations of familyrelationships, cultural identity, power structures and social hierarchy, her artisticpractice is primarily photographic but also incorporates text, fabric, audio,installation, and video. Informed by narrative storytelling, folkloric traditions andthe observational methodologies of the social sciences, her approach to image-making ranges from staged and serialized narrative to appropriation and adaptationof archival and ethnographic imagery. Weems takes aim at the complicity of thephotographic medium in propagating dehumanizing tropes and the historicalomission of Black women from fine art institutions and canons.ABOUT THE PANELISTS

NATIONAL BLACK THEATRE (NBT) is a Tony and Emmy Award-nominatedinstitution founded in 1968 by the late visionary artist Dr. Barbara Ann Teer.The nation’s first revenue-generating Black arts complex, NBT is the longest-running Black theatre in New York City, one of the oldest theatres foundedand consistently operated by a woman of color in the nation, and has beenincluded in the permanent collection of the National Museum of AfricanAmerican History and Culture in Washington, D.C. NBT’s core mission is toproduce transformational theatre that helps to shift the inaccuracies aroundAfrican Americans’ cultural identity by telling authentic stories of Black lives.As an alternative learning environment, NBT uses theatre arts as a means toeducate, enrich, entertain, empower and inform the national consciencearound current social issues impacting our communities.Under the leadership of Sade Lythcott, CEO, and Jonathan McCrory, ExecutiveArtistic Director, NBT helps re-shape a more inclusive American theatre fieldby providing an artistically rigorous and culturally sensitive space for artists ofcolor to experiment, develop and present new work. NBT has worked withtrailblazing artists from Nona Hendryx to Jeremy O. Harris, and most recently,has helped launch the careers of Dominique Morisseau, Radha Blank, MfonisoUdofia, Saheem Ali, Lee Edward Colston II, and Ebony Noelle Golden.ABOUT NATIONAL BLACK THEATREHidden Conversations, 2023

NBT’s cultural production remains unparalleled as they incubated ObieAward-winning companies like The Movement Theatre Company andHarlem9’s 48 Hours. NBT welcomes more than 90,000 visitors annually, hasproduced 300+ original works, has won countless awards such as 2 Obieawards, 58 AUDELCO Awards, and a CEBA Award of Merit, and has beennominated for multiple Drama Desk awards. Located in the heart of Harlem,NBT is embarking on a historic major capital redevelopment project that willtransform the current property into a 21st-century destination for Blackculture through theatre.NBT is supported by grants from Booth Ferris Foundation, Open SocietyFoundations, Ford Foundation, New York Community Trust, ShubertFoundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, Jerome Foundation, MellonFoundation, Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corporation,City Council of New York, City of New York Department of Cultural Affairs,New York State Council on the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, andprivate donations.Follow NBT on Facebook (@NationalBlackTheatre) and X/Instagram (@NatBlackTheatre).ABOUT NATIONAL BLACK THEATRELearn To Love Yourself, 2023

Sade Lythcott | Chief Executive OfficerJonathan McCrory | Executive Artistic DirectorBarrie Koegel | Chief Operating OfficerToyosi Adebayo | Marketing & Communications CoordinatorAshley Antwi | Development ManagerValerie Caesar | Graphic DesignerAlea Curry | Operations CoordinatorBrittany Davis | Executive Assistant to the CEO & Executive Artistic DirectorAbisola Pat Faison | Director Of FinanceDenzel Faison | Operations ManagerNabii Faison | Director Of Entrepreneurial Arts ProgramKevin Ferguson | TAP Production CoordinatorRaekwon Fuller | Development CoordinatorBelynda M’Baye | Soul Series L.A.B & Special Projects Program ManagerAva Novak | Artistic Production AssociateMalik Pierre | Marketing & Communications ManagerMandesia Sibiya | Alternative Learning & Social Impact CoordinatorNikki Vera | Director Of MarketingAdam Wassilchalk | TAP Production CoordinatorStaffBoard of DirectorsMichael F. Lythcott | Board ChairLinara Davidson | TreasurerVelma Banks | SecretaryDe’Ara BalengerDenise Bradley-TysonAnthony Roth CostanzoDavid Alan GrierVan JonesAlia Jones-HarveyZoë KravitzLeslie Odom, Jr.Tracey RyansCleo WadeJonathan WigginsMichelle Wilson

National Black Theatre’s programs are made possible by our brilliant funders:NBT Additional Institutional FundingAxe-Houghton FoundationArt for Justice Fund, a sponsored project of Rockefeller Philanthropy AdvisorsBloomberg PhilanthropiesConsulate General of the Netherlands in New YorkCreatives Rebuild New York, a project of Tides CenterFan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels FoundationGranville Family FoundationLucille Lortel FoundationMacMillan Family FoundationMiranda Family FundNew England Foundation for the ArtsPublic Welfare FundRockefeller Brothers FundThe Christine Jean Chambers FoundationThe Scherman FoundationThe Shubert FoundationTheatre Communications GroupTow FoundationVictor & Clara C. Battin Foundation