Joe's Pub Reveals 2024-25 Working Group: Mehrnam Rastegari, Jaime Cepero, Emma Jayne, and More

Joe's Pub, a program of The Public Theater, has announced the artist selections for the 2024-2025 Joe’s Pub Working Group (JPWG). Created in 2015, the program was conceived to address the rapidly shifting state of the performing arts in New York, and serve the overarching mission of Joe’s Pub: supporting artists on a cellular level and platforming underrepresented voices.

This year’s artist selections are: Afro-Latino, queer, and non-binary artist, actor, and activist Jaime Cepero; award-winning theater composer and lyricist Julian Hornik; singer-songwriter, comedian, and storyteller Emma Jayne; Persian musician and composer Mehrnam Rastegari; Brooklyn-based singer and composer Raina Sokolov-Gonzalez, who works in jazz, soul, and folk traditions. 

“This program is where we deep dive with a small cohort to investigate the process of making new work  - the nuts and bolts of an artist’s career. New York can be such an intense place to create so the group is one of our routes to carving out more community,  collaboration, and stability for these incredible artists,” said Alex Knowlton, Director of Joe's Pub. Past JPWG members include Celisse, Erin Markey, Michael Mwenso, Isaac Oliver, Samora Pinderhughes, Shaina Taub, Ikechukwu Ufomadu, and more. 

The working group nurtures the sustainability and growth of New York-based emerging and established artists by providing administrative resources, physical space, and curatorial services to cultivate a community where they can thrive.

Joe’s Pub also supports two other programs: The Vanguard Residency and New York Voices. The former celebrates the career and influence of a singular artist who has contributed to American life and pop culture, leading their own artistic community. The 2024-25 Vanguard is legendary comedian, actor, and activist Margaret Cho, who is curating a year of programming aimed at platforming young, Asian comics. The year includes Charlene Kaye, Youngmi Mayer, Nori Reed, Robin Tran, Sabrina Wu, Dylan Adler, and Sam Oh. 

New York Voices is an artist commissioning structure that, as part of The Public Theater’s long history of cultivating the country’s most celebrated artists, supports the creation of new works by critically-acclaimed musicians and performers. The program encourages artists to explore their storytelling, narratives and songwriting processes. This year’s artists are Dan Fishback, Jake Blount & Mali Obomsawin, Barsha & Jo Lampert, and Sarah Elizabeth Charles. Past artists include Bridget Everett, Jean Grae, Nona Hendryx, Murray Hill, Toshi Reagon, Allen Toussaint, and many more. 

Learn more about all these programs here.