Dhari Noel (he/him/they/them/Dhari) is a Queer Black-Caribbean-Harlemite playwright/performer/educator. Dhari’s writing often explores the incoherence of race, the failures of gender, and inherited ways of being. As a teacher, Dhari uses storytelling, social justice, and interdisciplinary studies, all in an effort to examine systems of power. Readings and performances of Dhari’s work have been generously supported at several artistic such as: Money Shot (Brown University), Penguin Sex With Mr. Morgan (ANTfest @ Ars Nova, Brown University); Man Made, Spirit Junkie (Cherry Picking/The Wild Project); and Keep The Orange (ECFS).
Dhari performs in much of his own work and has had the pleasure of collaborating with many dear friends. Recent performances include Penguin Sex With Mr. Morgan (ANTfest @ Ars Nova, Brown University); Man Made, Spirit Junkie (Cherry Picking, The Wild Project); Black Exhibition (Bushwick Starr); In The Penal Colony (Next Door @NYTW); The Essential Ella Maythorne (Dixon Place); Telegraph Bois (ANTfest @Ars Nova). In the summer of 2023, Dhari was a Tennessee Williams Scholar at Sewanee Writers Conference and an Emerging LGBTQ Voices fellow at Lambda Literary’s writing retreat. Dhari’s graduate studies are supported by an Adele Kellenberg Seaver 1949 Fellowship in Creative Writing. Dhari received a BA in Sociology from Columbia University and is currently pursuing an MFA in Playwriting at Brown University. www.dharinoel.com
Marissa Joyce Stamps is a Black, Haitian-American NYC-born and based writer, director, actor, and educator who creates vortexes that center, celebrate and amplify Black folks through an Afrosurrealist lens, often in dialogue with kinetics and landscape dramaturgy. She was the recipient of the 2023 Princess Grace Playwriting Award/New Dramatists Residency. She is a member of Lucille Lortel’s Alcove, Roundabout’s Directors Group (Cohort 6), The New Georges Jam, EST/Youngblood, and TAG at The Tank; she was a member of Clubbed Thumb's Early-Career Writers Group, a Finalist for The National Black Theatre's I AM SOUL Playwrights Residency, and a Mercury Store Lead Artist. Marissa has directed and assistant directed the development of new work of playwrights and of herself through productions and workshops with The National Black Theatre, The Vineyard, BAM, New Dramatists, Exponential Festival, Mercury Store, Conch Shell Productions, The Brick, SFX Festival, Breaking & Entering Theatre Collective, NYU/Tisch, and more. Select playwriting work: BEING UP IN HERE… (Princess Grace Winner, Exponential Festival, Brick Aux), LETICHE… (O'Neill NPC Finalist, National Black Theatre Special Project, Bushwick Starr SRS), TWISTED JUNIPER… (O'Neill NPC Finalist; Chautauqua Theater Company's New Play Workshop; Workshop Theater's Fall Intensive), BLUE FIRE… (Exponential Festival; Orchard Project’s Performance Lab), ROLLBACK (Clubbed Thumb’s ECWG), DOUBLE COLUMN (SFX Festival), and DEADBODYDEADBODYDEADBODY (Ars Nova ANT Fest). Marissa has also collaborated with The Public Theater, 24 Hour Plays, Moxie Arts, The Fire This Time Festival, 48 Hours... in Harlem, Dixon Place, Irondale, The Anthropologists, New Ohio Theatre, Keen Company, Wild Project, BUFU, and more. MFA Playwriting: Brooklyn College. marissajoycestamps.com
