Tamara Tunie and Clifton Davis Will Co-Chair International Black Theatre Festival

The International Black Theatre Festival, considered the biggest event in Black theatre, will mark its 35th year in Winston-Salem, July 29 to August 3.

Over six days, the festival will present more than 100 theatrical performances performed by national and international professional Black theatre companies at multiple venues throughout Winston-Salem. It typically draws a large cohort of celebrated Black stage, television, and film professionals, as well as an audience of over 65,000 attendees.

The 2024 festival season officially kicked off last week with the announcement of Tamara Tunie and Clifton Davis serving as celebrity co-chairs of the festival.

Tamara Tunie is an award-winning actor, singer, director, and producer. She portrayed the mother of Whitney Houston in "I Wanna Dance With Somebody," and has also played Dr. Melinda Warner for 23 seasons on "Law And Order: SVU."

Clifton Davis is a Tony and Grammy-award nominated actor, singer, composer, and more. He recently completed a four-year run in Broadway's "Aladdin." Before he became an actor, he wrote The Jackson 5's hit song "Never Can Say Goodbye."

At the reception, Tunie said, “I can't wait till July to come down and celebrate. Every single person that I know who has participated believes they have left the festival inspired; they have left the festival vibrating on a whole different level. I want some of that!”

Davis added, “So much growth has happened...[I love] seeing the way this festival has exploded and become something so much more than it was in the beginning.”