Founded in 2009 by playwright Kelley Nicole Girod to provide a platform for early career playwrights of African and African American descent, the Obie Award-winning The Fire This Time Festival returns for its 15th season, but this time at a new home: The Wild Project in the East Village.
This year’s edition will feature new 10-minute plays by talents including Taylor A. Blackman, Kamilah Bush, Leelee Jackson, Monique Pappas-Williams, Nia Akilah Robinson and Joël René Scoville directed by Cezar Williams, the festival’s Producing Artistic Director. The works will all focus on Black women and the Black family, touching on subjects as varied as kinship ("both biological and chosen"), colorism within the Black community, female agency and autonomy, and the psychological toll of racism.