We Will Dream: New Works Festival

Warrior Writers is a veteran-focused arts organization that fosters artistic exploration and expression through casual, welcoming workshops and retreats. By reflecting and creating in a comfortable space, we encourage and support healing and community building. Art making becomes the creative tool through which we understand and transcend experiences of trauma and emotional disruptions that are not easily identified but constantly felt.

The first year of the We Will Dream: New Works Festival was a success! To close out this amazing experience, join No Dream Deferred at their closing fundraising event, the Juneteenth Liberation Ball. This event will honor Chakula Cha Jua, Karen-Kaia Livers, Lance Nichols, Zardis, and multi-award winning playwright Erika Dickerson-Despenza. Our guest speaker will be the 2022 Pulitzer Prize winner, James Ijames.

Join Art Equity for the screening premiere of Talking Back 2, a three-part web series engaging with Black creatives including playwrights, founding Artistic Directors, newly appointed leaders, and activists across the U.S., followed by a panel discussion and opportunities for dialogue with: Nissy Aya, Nicole Brewer, Mica Cole, Kelvin Dinkins, Jr., Aleshea Harris, Cloteal L. Horne, Lauren Turner Hines, Zell Williams and Josh Wilder.

Cris Eli Blak is an emerging Black playwright whose work has garnered him recognition from The Negro Ensemble Company, Kairos Italy Theater, Austin Film Festival, Barrington Stage Company, TEDxBroadway, and Ignition Arts. Here he sits down to share how his dream of writing and premiering Sons of Liberty became a reality.

This pre-show discussion was facilitated by Michele Seymour of Project Butterfly New Orleans, Playwright, Philana Omorotionmwan, and Producing Artistic Director of No Dream Deferred, Lauren Turner Hines. They address important themes and takeaways that were present in The Defiance of Dandelions.

Philana Imade Omorotionmwan is writing to save her body and spirit from a world that seems hell-bent on destroying them. She sits down to share how her dream of premiering The Defiance of Dandelions became a reality.

This is a pre-show conversation with Playwright Brian Egland, Director Lauren Turner Hines, & Facilitator Dr. Laura Adderley as they cover important themes that are present during Where The Suga Still Sweet.

2021 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize finalist Erika Dickerson-Despenza speaks at the André Callioux Center for the We Will Dream: New Works Festival.

Hosted by Intimacy Coordinators of Color, the Global Majority Intimacy Director Reception is a gathering of stage and screen intimacy professionals, artists, educators, directors, and producers to connect, learn, and inspire. Keynote by Kaja Dunn.

Featuring monologues by HBCU college students. The HBCU Theatre Summit is for Black theatre students as they navigate the world of the arts.

Playwright Brian Egland, sits down to share how his dream of premiering Where The Suga Still Sweet became a reality.

Keynote speech delivered by actor Doug Spearman (Noah's Arc). The HBCU Theatre Summit is for Black theatre students as they navigate the world of the arts.

A pre-show discussion featuring playwright M.D. Schaffer, M. D. Schaffer, Director David Kote, & Facilitator A Scribe Called Quess? as they cover important themes that are present during Drapetomania.

M.D. Schaffer (they/they) is a queer, non-Binary, African American writer born in Houston, Texas and currently residing in New York City. Their previous works include F***in’ Howard Phillips with the JaYo Theatre Company, Hotel On Fremont at The Lewis Center for the Arts, and A Rodeo Clown with the Obsidian Theatre Festival.

Hosted by Mark Caesar featuring the Glaspy Experience, the Black Film Festival of New Orleans (BFFNO) is a multi-day event designed to celebrate independent films and filmmakers. Through BFFNO, creatives have a home that advances African American cinema and cultivates local film and television in classic New Orleans style.