Join us for an engaging discussion featuring Mahogany L. Browne, a renowned Artist, Poet, and Activist, and Jonathan McCrory, the Executive Artistic Director of NBT. This is a captivating two-part series delving into the themes of our 56th season, Defiance of our Bloom.

Browne and McCrory will explore the tools and strategies that empower us to shine in the face of adversity and conflict. Together, as a unified community, we'll investigate how we define our unique brilliance and explore the myriad of ways we collectively illuminate the challenges of our time.

Mark Your Calendars

Date: Monday, November 27th, 2023

Where: Live-streamed on Facebook and YouTube

Time: 1 pm

  • Mahogany L. Browne

    Artist, Poet, and Activist

    It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more.Mahogany L. Browne, selected as Kennedy Center's Next 50 and Wesleyan's 2022-23 Distinguished Writer-in-Residence, the Executive Director of JustMedia, Artistic Director of Urban Word, is a writer, playwright, organizer, & educator. Browne has received fellowships from All Arts, Arts for Justice, Air Serenbe, Baldwin for the Arts, Cave Canem, Poets House, Mellon Research, & Rauschenberg. She is the author of recent works: Vinyl Moon, Chlorine Sky (optioned for Steppenwolf Theater), Woke: A Young Poets Call to Justice, Woke Baby, & Black Girl Magic. Founder of the diverse lit initiative Woke Baby Book Fair, Browne is currently touring her latest poetry collection Chrome Valley received a starred review from Publishers Weekly and was highlighted in the New York Times.

    She is the first-ever poet-in-residence at the Lincoln Center and lives in Brooklyn, NY.

  • Jonathan McCrory

    Executive Artistic Director @ NBT

    McCrory is a two Obie Award-winning, Harlem-based artist who has served as Executive Artistic Director (Creative Doula) at National Black Theatre since 2012 under the leadership of CEO, Sade Lythcott. He has directed numerous professional productions and concerts which include: A Drop Of Midnight, The Gathering: A Sonic Ringshout, How the Light Gets In (NYMF), Klook and Iron John (NAMT), Dead and Breathing, HandsUp, Hope Speaks, Blacken The Bubble, Asking for More, Last Laugh and Enter Your Sleep. He has worked at ETW at TISCH NYU with Emergence: A Communion and evoking him: Baldwin and at Suny Purchase directing Exit Strategy, & A Beautiful Day in November on the Banks of the Greatest of the Great Lakes. As an artist-in-residence at AllArts created a short film called The Roll Call : The Roots To Strange Fruit. He has been acknowledged as a finalist for the The Hermitage Major Theater Award and as an exceptional leader through Craine’s New York Business 2020 Notable LGBTQ Leaders and Executives.