Broadway Advocacy Coalition Announces Class of Fellows for 2023

Broadway Advocacy Coalition has announced the 2023 fellows selected to participate in the third annual BAC Artivism Fellowship, created to support artist-activists using their tools to have an impact on the world around them.

The selected fellows are Camille Thomas (she/her) and UGBA (pronoun inclusive).

This year's fellowship will support BAC's partner The Alliance for Quality Education in advancing their advocacy efforts on the Judge Judith Kaye's Solutions not Suspensions Campaign. Over the course of the fellowship, Camille and UGBA will work directly with AQE, Artivism Facilitator/Mentor Omari Soulfinger, Policy & Research Advisor Jazly Liriano with legal + policy research and support by The Center of Institutional & Social Change to create an original work. This year's fellowship will also include a writing retreat at Space on Ryder Farm and a final workshop presentation at a theater in NYC.

Each fellow will receive $14,000 in financial support, $4,500 in project support and mentorship / networking opportunities through BAC and AQE.

"We are honored to have Camille and UGBA as our fellows," said Co-Director of Programming Dria Brown. "In radically reimagining this year's Artivism Fellowship, it felt essential to ensure that BAC deepened our commitment to our artists through more intentional partnership models that engage experts in the field, and that we provide more financial support, focused mentorship and policy and legal support that can anchor the fellows' final projects in data. We will take that data and turn it into theater, knowing that theater speaks volumes, where data fails. Working with our longtime friends over at Alliance of Quality Education to advance their advocacy efforts is both an honor and a privilege and I can't wait to see what Camille and UGBA create."

"I anticipate Camille and UGBA will wield theatre like the agitational tool it is, and carve out the connection between punitive school policy and mass incarceration", said Omari Soulfinger, Artivism Fellowship co-facilitator and mentor. "I like to imagine the 'fourth act' of their forthcoming work has already been written; where the audience is emotionally provoked to pressure legislators to pass the SnS bill and bring restorative justice and trauma informed repair to the students who need it most."

BAC received more than 70 applications for the Fellowship from across the country for the inaugural class. In December, the mentors and application committee reviewed the applications, selecting the 2 individuals.

"The Alliance for Quality Education is so excited about collaborating again with our family at Broadway Advocacy Coalition. This year's Artivism Fellowship will help to elevate our statewide advocacy work with our coalition partners, and to get the Judge Judith Kaye Solutions Not Suspensions bill passed. The fellows' artivism projects will tell the story of the school to prison pipeline and illustrate the real harm it causes in students' lives - and more importantly they will show how the structural changes we're fighting for would prevent that harm for future generations of students." said Alliance for Quality Education's Deputy Director, Zakiyah Ansari.

Broadway Advocacy Coalition is an arts-based advocacy nonprofit dedicated to building the capacity of individuals and organizations to dismantle the systems that perpetuate racism through the power of storytelling and the leadership of people directly affected.

"We are incredibly excited to be able to support Camille and UGBA in their building of impactful pieces that center the Solutions not Suspensions campaign, and the work that AQE is doing to dismantle the school to prison pipeline," said BAC's Artistic Programming Coordinator Sierra Lancaster. "We envision UGBA and Camille's work to one day land on legislative floors and to be in rooms where policy is made, encouraging an educational system and structure that provides equitable opportunity for all students to succeed."

For more information, visit https://www.bwayadvocacycoalition.org/artivismfellowship.

ABOUT THE FELLOWS

CAMILLE THOMAS

is a Jamaican /African-American multi-hyphenate playwright, actor, solo performer, producer, and arts educator from Detroit, Michigan. As a playwright her plays have been featured with The Obie Award-winning Harlem9 and Detroit Public Theatre Company, The National Women's Theatre Festival, Dixon Place, Lime Arts Theatre Company, American Slavery Project, Blackboard playwriting series, The Red Curtain Theatre, and published with The Playground Experiment and Freshworks magazine. She is a current fellow of the 21-22 Reel Sisters Film festival for her web series "Gro Up". Additionally, she was a 2022 finalist for Art House Production's INKubator New Play Program.As an arts educator, she has taught with The Apollo Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club, Dreamyard, and Partnership with Children Center for Arts Education. She's an associate artist with Sanguine Theatre company, a company member with the Canady Foundation for the Arts, and a previous cohort member of Moxie Arts Incubator as a line producer. She is an alum of Broadway Advocacy Coalitions' Artivism course, The Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute's DEAR fellowship, The Theatre Producers of Color program, 24 Hour Play Nationals, and a former Acting Apprentice at Williamstown Theatre Festival. She is beyond honored to be named a Broadway Advocacy Coalition fellow and to be another drop in the bucket of social change that they are doing.

UGBA

Ungrateful Black Artist (UGBA - 'oog ba') is a queer poet, rapper, playwright, actor, and activist based out of Brooklyn, NY. His essays and poetry can be found in The Rumpus, The Root, Afropunk, Black Youth Project, The Grio, THEM and elsewhere. UGBA is the founder/host of CEREMONIES-a Brooklyn based monthly Black-Queer artist showcase held in honor of Essex Hemphill. UGBA is also the founder of "Dark-Skin Support Group '' a virtual support network for dark-skin Black Americans in need of a space to discuss the realities of colorism. In the summer of 2018, UGBA debuted his one-man show NEPTUNE as the headliner for Dixon Place's annual "Hot Festival." Following rave reviews and sold-out performances, NEPTUNE was then restaged as the 2019 kick-off event for Brooklyn Museum's acclaimed "1st Saturday'' series. In 2020, UGBA was named a "Black LGBTQ+ playwright you need to know '' by Time Out NY. He is an alumnus of The Public Theater's #BARS program. He is a current member of The Public Theater's Emerging Writers Group 2020-2023 cohort. He is a 2022 MAP Grant recipient, a 2020-2021 BAM Resident, former Senior Editor at RaceBaitr.com, and current Program Director at NY Writers Coalition.

ABOUT THE BROADWAY ADVOCACY COALITION

Founded in 2016 by members of the Broadway community as a direct response to the nation's pandemic of racism and police brutality, the Broadway Advocacy Coalition is a multidisciplinary organization which unites artists, legal experts and community leaders to create lasting impact on policy issues from criminal justice reform to education equity to immigration. In 2021, BAC received a Special Tony Award for providing an unparalleled platform for marginalized members of the theatre community and tools to help the theatre industry move toward a more equitable future. Via its partnership with the Center for Institutional and Social Change at Columbia Law School, BAC has collaborated with institutions across New York City, including the New York City Council, Bronx Defenders, and the Brooklyn District Attorney's office. To learn more about their work, and to get involved, visit their website at https://www.bwayadvocacycoalition.org/ or follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

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