The Center for Fiction and Theatre Communications Group Present STORY/TELLER ARTS: Branden Jacobs-Jenkins with Jocelyn Bioh

The Center for Fiction, a 200-year-old literary nonprofit that has created an immersive home for readers and writers in downtown Brooklyn, and Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for theatre, will co-present Story/Teller Arts: Branden Jacobs-Jenkins with Jocelyn Bioh on May 2 at 7pm ET at The Center for Fiction, 15 Lafayette Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11217, and via livestream. 

The evening will celebrate the publication of the new revised edition of Appropriate / An Octoroon. Currently on Broadway in a critically acclaimed and extended run, Appropriate unearths the buried secrets of a dysfunctional family as they gather at a former plantation home to sift through the belongings of their deceased patriarch. An Octoroon is an audacious investigation of an 1859 play about slavery with a metatheatrical, surreal punch. Award-winning Ghanaian-American writer/performer Jocelyn Bioh (Jaja's African Hair Braiding) joins Jacobs-Jenkins in conversation. After the event, Jacobs-Jenkins will sign copies of the book.

“We're thrilled to return to The Center for Fiction with this event after the inspiring conversation between Tony Kushner and Isaac Butler,” said Karena Fiorenza, interim chief executive officer, TCG. “TCG is proud to publish Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' groundbreaking work and to have featured the script of Jocelyn Bioh's Jaja's African Hair Braiding in the Winter 2024 issue of American Theatre. These two artists are expanding what's possible in our art form, and conversations like this are exactly why The Center for Fiction is an ideal partner to advance TCG's conviction that plays are literature.”

The event will take place at The Center for Fiction, 15 Lafayette Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11217 on Thursday, May 2, 2024 at 7pm ET. In-person and livestream tickets are $10. All registrants will receive a link to livestream the event. Learn more and acquire your tickets here. For press tickets, please contact Corinna Schulenburg at cschulenburg@tcg.org. 

This event represents the twelfth collaboration between The Center for Fiction and TCG, with past events featuring Tony Kushner and Isaac Butler; James Ijames and Jonathan McCrory; Will Arbery and Chloé Cooper Jones with Leslie Jamison; Jackie Sibblies Drury and Claudia Rankine; Annie Baker and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins; Heidi Schreck and Paula Vogel; Sarah Ruhl and Matthew Aucoin; Aleshea Harris and Nissy Aya; Lynn Nottage and Damon Tabor; Martyna Majok and Naveen Kumar; and Taylor Mac and Laura Collins-Hughes. Recordings of many of these previous events are available to view on The Center for Fiction's YouTube channel.

Since its founding in 1984, TCG Books has grown to become North America's largest independent trade publisher of dramatic literature, with 20 winners of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama on its booklist. The book program commits to the lifelong career of its playwrights, keeping all of their plays in print. TCG Books' authors include: Annie Baker, Nilo Cruz, Jackie Sibblies Drury, Larissa FastHorse, Athol Fugard, Quiara Alegría Hudes, David Henry Hwang, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Adrienne Kennedy, Tony Kushner, Young Jean Lee, Lynn Nottage, Suzan-Lori Parks, Sarah Ruhl, Heidi Schreck, Stephen Sondheim, Paula Vogel, and August Wilson. TCG Books events are supported in part by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Follow TCG Books on X and Instagram at @BooksTCG.

About the Artists

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is a Brooklyn-based playwright. Recent theatre credits include Purpose (Steppenwolf Theatre), The Comeuppance (Signature Theatre), Girls (Yale Repertory Theatre), Everybody (Signature Theatre), Gloria (Vineyard Theatre), and An Octoroon (Obie Award; Soho Rep, Theatre for a New Audience). Honors include a USA Artists Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship in Drama and Performance Art, a MacArthur “Genius” Grant, the Windham-Campbell Prize for Drama, and the inaugural Tennessee Williams Award from The Sundance Institute. He currently sits as Vice President of the Dramatists Guild of America and on the boards of Soho Rep, Park Avenue Armory, the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, and the Dramatists Guild Foundation. He teaches at Yale University.

Jocelyn Bioh is an award-winning Ghanaian-American writer/performer from New York City. Her written works for theatre include: Jaja's African Hair Braiding (Broadway, Manhattan Theatre Club, 2023), Merry Wives (Public Theater/Shakespeare in the Park, PBS Great Performances, winner of the 2022 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Adaptation), Nollywood Dreams (MCC Theater), book writer for the Broadway-bound musical Goddess (Berkeley Rep, 2022), and the multi-award-winning School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play which was originally produced at MCC Theater in 2017/2018 and has gone on to have over 60 regional productions, and premiered in the UK in 2023. Jocelyn has also written for TV on Russian Doll, Spike Lee's She's Gotta Have It (Netflix), Tiny Beautiful Things (Hulu), the upcoming new Star Wars series The Acolyte (Disney+), and she is also writing the live-action film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical Once on This Island for Disney.

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