JD Stokely

JD Stokely (they/he) is a trickster-in-training who creates and curates work around Black queer movement, cultural memory, and public space. Stokely is a co-founding member of Unbound Bodies Collective, a multidisciplinary arts lab for QTBIPOC creatives centered around healing, embodiment, pleasure, and joy. Stokely is also a part of the curating team for Hot Bits, an annual traveling erotic queer film and performance festival, and a 2019 artEquity cohort member. Stokely received an MA in Advanced Theatre Practice from Royal Central School of Speech & Drama in 2014 and is currently a doctoral student in Theatre Arts & Performance Studies at Brown University.

Podcast

Preserving and Transmitting American Ensemble-Based Theatre Part One: Participant Perspectives

17 October 2024

Eleven participants share their experiences at the 2023 National Endowment for the Humanities Preserving and Transmitting American Ensemble-Based Theater Institute, which highlighted the impact of devised and physical theatre, its application in professional and university settings, and the limited scholarship around it.

Essay

Remembering Ways of Knowing

A Conversation between JD Stokely and Javiera Benavente

16 March 2022

JD Stokely and Javiera Benavente discuss the ways the navigate they complexities of commoning while embracing listening, unlearning, and care in their creative practices and educational paths.

Essay

Speculating Black Queer Futures

27 April 2021

JD Stokely and Nkenna Akunna speculate about what a Black queer future looks like, speaking to sleep and rest, spirit, cyclical time, and more.

Essay

The Promise of the Commons

10 October 2019

In honor of World Commons Week 2019, a working group of eleven US-based arts and cultural makers share their vision on how adopting a commons-based approach can help transform the arts into a more equitable and just field.

Essay

Welcome to the New HowlRound

2 October 2018

Today, we are proud to welcome you to a brand new HowlRound website!

Essay

How We Produced a Green Convening

12 August 2018

Associate Producer Ramona Ostrowski and Fellow JD Stokely reflect on how HowlRound made the Theatre in the Age of Climate Change Convening on 8-10 June 2018 our greenest convening yet.

Essay

Seven Years in

HowlRound Theatre Commons Evolves

9 January 2018

HowlRound staff articulate HowlRound's mission, vision, and values, and discuss how folks can participate in creating the commons.

Essay

Meeting at the Corner of Chaos and Divine

9 June 2026

In October 2025, eighteen artists gathered in Maine for a weekend of sharing artistic practice as part of the MicroCosmos project. JD Stokely reflects on the embodied learnings of the convening, what it meant to come together at a crossroads, and how this was only the beginning of what’s to come.

List

2018 Trans Week of Awareness/Trans Day of Resistance

In honor of 2018 Trans Awareness week (12-19 November), Trans Day of Remembrance (20 November), and Trans Day of Resistance (21 November), here's a list of some of my favorite HowlRound content for and by trans and non-binary theatremakers.

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