Ty Defoe (Ghiizig) Indigiqueer citizen of Oneida and Anishinaabe Nations. A writer, interdisciplinary artist, and Grammy Award winner. Works created and authored: Trail and Tears (w/ Dawn Avery). Ajijaak on Turtle Island, The Lesson (w/Avi Amon and Nolan Doran), and Firebird Tattoo, Trans World (Breaking the Binary Theater Festival) among others. Current release of VR and digital mediat projects ANAKWAD (w/ Dov Heichemer and _alpha), CIRCLE, and Strong Like Flower (w/ Katherine Freer). Revolving Sky (UTR, THe Public Theater, All My Relations Collective). Awards: 2021 Sundance Fellow and Helen Merrill Playwriting Award, Jonathan Larson Award, Cultural Capital Fellow w/ First People's Fund, Theatre ACCELERATOR, Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, Robert Rauschenberg Residency, OSF's Artistic Honoree, and Kennedy Center Next 50! Director: The Winer Bear (Preservance Theater), Midsummer Night's Dream (Arizona Shakespeare Company). Movement Direction: Mother Road, Dir. Bill Rauch (OSF); Manahatta, Dir. Laurie Woolery (OSF + Yale Rep); 1491's Between Two Knees, Dir. Eric Ting (Yale Rep) and Choreographer for Tracy Lett's The Minutes, Dir. Anna Shapiro (Broadway). Appeared on the Netflix show "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt," Spirit Rangers, and Broadway debut in Young Jean Lee's Straght White Men. Publications: Casting a Movement: The Welcome Table Initiative, Routeledge Press, and The Methuen Drama Book of Trans Plays for the Stage, among others. Degrees: CalArts, Goddard College + NYU Tisch. Lives in NYC + loves the color clear. www.allmyrelations.earth/present & www.tydefoe.com

Drew Woodson is a member of the Te-Moak Band of Western Shoshone peoples in Nevada. A graduate from the University of California Berkeley with a degree in Theater and Performing Arts, Drew was also the recipient of the 2021 Young Indigenous Playwrights Award at Yale for his play Your Friend, Jay Silverheels, which he is currently developing. An actor and playwright in Berkeley, California for the past six years, Drew currently resides in New York City where he is attending NYU's MFA in Dramatic Writing.

Garlia is a writer, producer, photographer and mother from Detroit, MI.  In 2008, Garlia founded Blackboard Plays, a monthly series devoted to Black Playwrights.  She is one of the founding producers of Harlem9, OBIE Award winners for, “48Hours in…™Harlem”.  Her Essays and articles have appeared in "The New York Times", "The Washington Post”, "Salon.com" and “American Theatre”.  Her work as a playwright has been supported by the cell, The Fire This Time Festival and #24viralmonologues.   She was a guest artist at Wayne State University 2020-2021, where she also taught a Playwrighting Workshop for MFA Actors.   She worked on an MA in African American and African Diaspora studies at Indiana University before coming to New York for her MFA in Playwrighting which she earned at The New School for Drama. Garlia is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America.  She is the Producing Director of PAAL, where she also received one of their first childcare grants in 2019. Finally, Garlia was a Line Producer at The Public Theater, working on: “Socrates”, “Much Ado About Nothing”, (filmed for Great Performances on PBS), “Mojada”,  “for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enough, “Coal Country”, “The Visitor”.  She was also the Line Producer for Mobile Unit’s Summer of Joy, Shakespeare: Call and Response - August 2021.  Garlia was the Co-Creative Producer of #ToBeBlack, released on Juneteenth 2020 and Co-Producer of “Forward Together” a Virtual event, in support of The Public.  During the Fall of 2020, Garlia was the co-developer and Curator of the #Saytheirnames projection installation.  In April 2022, Garlia was promoted to the first ever Director of Innovation and New Media at The Public.  Outside of New York, Garlia is the Senior Creative Producer for the Obsidian Theatre Festival in Detroit, MI. Finally, she is the Executive Producer of the Black Motherhood and Parenting New Play Festival (#BMPFest), a festival focused on the stories of Black families from Black artists with families.  #BMPFest just completed its 2nd year!

is a Detroit based arts professional and community organizer.  Sloan is the lead organizer for Black Lives Matter Detroit, and Director of Operations, The Detroit Safety Team. BFA, Musical Theatre Performance, The University of Michigan. Sloan spent over fourteen years working in New York, LA, several regional theatres, and on the national tour of Disney’s The Lion King.  He is the Founding CEO/Artistic Director of GhostLight Creative Productions, and Producing Artistic Director of The Obsidian Theatre Festival, a Detroit based festival focusing on Black stories, now in its 3rd year. He serves as the Film Producer for the Black Motherhood and Parenting New Play Festival.  Recent Composer and Lyricist credits include Hastings Street and #24viralmonologues. Recent Director Credits: Gem of the Ocean, Detroit Repertory Theatre., Passing Strange, Detroit Public Theatre and Flint Rep, New Works Festival 2023.

don't forget the K.) is a Brooklyn based Post Audio Mixer & Sound Designer with over a decade of experience in multiple formats.  Originally from Metro Detroit & with a background in music recording, video editing, and producing, he understands the full post-production process and works to create high quality mixes that enhance and guide the visual content.  Some recent work includes, The Obsidian Theatre Festival (2022), Turning Tables w/ Robin Roberts (S2, Disney+), Firebrand ('23 Short Film), PublicSquare2.0 Podcast ('23 The Public Theater NYC) www.JustinKSloan.com

is currently the Editorial Manager at New York City Center. New work dramaturgy: Coal Country (The Public Theater); Little Black Book; White Rose: the Musical; Poupelle of Chimney Town the Musical; Van Gogh; etc. Production dramaturgy: Pippin (Reagle Music Theatre), HAIR (New Rep); Kiss of the Spider Woman (Lyric Stage); In the Heights (Wheelock Family Theater); Cabaret, Barnum, The Wild Party (Moonbox Productions); The Roaring Girl (Theater Row); NOMI (Theater on Fire). Her writing is published on HowlRound Theatre Commons. Member, Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas. Awards: LMDA/KCACTF Dramaturgy Regional and Program Note Awards. BA, Emerson College.

Garlia is a writer, producer, photographer and mother from Detroit, MI.  In 2008, Garlia founded Blackboard Plays, a monthly series devoted to Black Playwrights.  She is one of the founding producers of Harlem9, OBIE Award winners for, “48Hours in…™Harlem”.  Her Essays and articles have appeared in "The New York Times", "The Washington Post”, "Salon.com" and “American Theatre”.  Her work as a playwright has been supported by the cell, The Fire This Time Festival and #24viralmonologues.   She was a guest artist at Wayne State University 2020-2021, where she also taught a Playwrighting Workshop for MFA Actors.   She worked on an MA in African American and African Diaspora studies at Indiana University before coming to New York for her MFA in Playwrighting which she earned at The New School for Drama. Garlia is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America.  She is the Producing Director of PAAL, where she also received one of their first childcare grants in 2019. Finally, Garlia was a Line Producer at The Public Theater, working on: “Socrates”, “Much Ado About Nothing”, (filmed for Great Performances on PBS), “Mojada”,  “for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enough, “Coal Country”, “The Visitor”.  She was also the Line Producer for Mobile Unit’s Summer of Joy, Shakespeare: Call and Response - August 2021.  Garlia was the Co-Creative Producer of #ToBeBlack, released on Juneteenth 2020 and Co-Producer of “Forward Together” a Virtual event, in support of The Public.  During the Fall of 2020, Garlia was the co-developer and Curator of the #Saytheirnames projection installation.  In April 2022, Garlia was promoted to the first ever Director of Innovation and New Media at The Public.  Outside of New York, Garlia is the Senior Creative Producer for the Obsidian Theatre Festival in Detroit, MI. Finally, she is the Executive Producer of the Black Motherhood and Parenting New Play Festival (#BMPFest), a festival focused on the stories of Black families from Black artists with families.  #BMPFest just completed its 2nd year!

is a Detroit based arts professional and community organizer.  Sloan is the lead organizer for Black Lives Matter Detroit, and Director of Operations, The Detroit Safety Team. BFA, Musical Theatre Performance, The University of Michigan. Sloan spent over fourteen years working in New York, LA, several regional theatres, and on the national tour of Disney’s The Lion King.  He is the Founding CEO/Artistic Director of GhostLight Creative Productions, and Producing Artistic Director of The Obsidian Theatre Festival, a Detroit based festival focusing on Black stories, now in its 3rd year. He serves as the Film Producer for the Black Motherhood and Parenting New Play Festival.  Recent Composer and Lyricist credits include Hastings Street and #24viralmonologues. Recent Director Credits: Gem of the Ocean, Detroit Repertory Theatre., Passing Strange, Detroit Public Theatre and Flint Rep, New Works Festival 2023.

don't forget the K.) is a Brooklyn based Post Audio Mixer & Sound Designer with over a decade of experience in multiple formats.  Originally from Metro Detroit & with a background in music recording, video editing, and producing, he understands the full post-production process and works to create high quality mixes that enhance and guide the visual content.  Some recent work includes, The Obsidian Theatre Festival (2022), Turning Tables w/ Robin Roberts (S2, Disney+), Firebrand ('23 Short Film), PublicSquare2.0 Podcast ('23 The Public Theater NYC) www.JustinKSloan.com

is currently the Editorial Manager at New York City Center. New work dramaturgy: Coal Country (The Public Theater); Little Black Book; White Rose: the Musical; Poupelle of Chimney Town the Musical; Van Gogh; etc. Production dramaturgy: Pippin (Reagle Music Theatre), HAIR (New Rep); Kiss of the Spider Woman (Lyric Stage); In the Heights (Wheelock Family Theater); Cabaret, Barnum, The Wild Party (Moonbox Productions); The Roaring Girl (Theater Row); NOMI (Theater on Fire). Her writing is published on HowlRound Theatre Commons. Member, Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas. Awards: LMDA/KCACTF Dramaturgy Regional and Program Note Awards. BA, Emerson College.