CELEBRATES BLACK PLAYWRIGHTS AND THEIR ROLE IN BLACK HISTORY - HOSTED BY RICHARD WESLEY -- FEATURING ACTORS READING SHORT SCENES & MONOLOGUES FROM PLAYWRIGHTS SUCH AS - AMIRI BARAKA, RON MILNER, ALICE CHILDRESS, JEREMY O. HARRIS, CHERYL WEST, SUZAN-LORI PARKS, LYNNE NOTTAGE, GEORGE C. WOLFE, BRANDEN JACOBS-JENKINS, ED BULLLINS, NTOZAKE SHANGE, LORRAINE HANSBERRY, LONNE ELDER III...

BIO -- Richard Wesley was born in Newark, New Jersey and graduated from Howard University. His plays include: THE BLACK TERROR, SIRENS, THE MIGHTY GENTS, THE TALENTED TENTH and AUTUMN. He has written the libretti for the operas, PAPA DOC, KENYATTA, W.E.B. and BOOKER T, and SCOTT, GARNER, GRAY says JAMES BALDWIN, all for the Newark-based Trilogy Opera Company. He was also the librettist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize winning CENTRAL PARK FIVE, music composed by Anthony Davis.

Mr. Wesley has shared two NAACP Image “Best Picture” Awards for the motion pictures, UPTOWN SATURDAY NIGHT and LET’S DO IT AGAIN, both of which starred Sidney Poitier and Bill Cosby. Among his other motion pictures: NATIVE SON (1984) and FAST FORWARD (1985).

In television, he has authored the scripts for the movies, THE HOUSE OF DIES DREAR (PBS, 1984), MURDER WITHOUT MOTIVE (NBC, 1992), MANDELA and DE KLERK (Showtime, 1997), and co-wrote the scripts for BOJANGLES (Showtime, 2002) and DEACONS FOR DEFENSE (Showtime, 2003). He has also written episodes for the series FALLEN ANGELS (Showtime, 1996), ONE HUNDRED CENTER STREET (A&E Cable Networks, 2000 and 2001) and MIRACLE’S BOYS (2005).

Mr. Wesley is currently an Associate Professor in the Tisch School of the Arts at New York Univertisty, and has just completed eight years as the Chair of the Rita and Burton Goldberg Department of Dramatic Writing there. He currently sits on the Selection Committee for the Black Film Festival of the Newark Museum, the Board of Directors, Manhattan Theatre Club in New York City and is an Advisor to the Center for Black Literature at Medgar Evers University in Brooklyn, NY.