Black Trans Women at the Center

Beginning June 15, 2026: scroll down and press play on the video at the bottom of this page to hear the plays.

Talkback LIVE: June 15, 2026 || 7:00 PM ET
Facilitated by Eva Reign | | BIO

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Long Wharf Theatre, in partnership with Breaking the Binary Theatre and The Theater Offensive, presents Black Trans Women at the Center curated by Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi.

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Join us for the 6th annual Black Trans Women At The Center: A New Play Festival, showcasing five new short radio plays by Black trans women.  

Led by Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi, the festival offers powerful glimpses into the lived experiences of the Black trans community. We celebrate creative works that challenge oppression, honor trans lives, illuminate histories, and envision transformative futures. 

This year, the festival premieres radio plays by Mercedes Loving-Manley, Garnet Williams, Kineen Mafa, Grant Evan, and Ibimina Dominique Thompson with sound design by Zarina Crockett and audio engineering by Chris Darbassie. Stage Manager: Shiku Thuo

To listen to the plays, please click the YouTube link below. To read the plays, please click on the link to follow along beneath each play's description. 
 

AUNTIE NELL’S by Mercedes Loving-Manley

As Cynthia contemplates the meaning of everything she has lost and the love she may gain, she seeks the wisdom of Auntie Nell. Strong, loving, and sharp, Auntie Nell reflects on her own life, hoping that her story will help to remind her niece how deserving she is. Auntie Nell’s invites us to think about accepting the joy we deserve and a life that is waiting to be made.

Follow along: FULL SCRIPT

Cast: 
Nell - Ianne Fields Stewart | BIO
Cynthia - Javon Q Minter | BIO
 

A CRASH IN THE DARK by Garnet Williams

When Clarence is released from jail, he comes home to see Roanna covered in blood. As accusations fly, and revelations are spewed, the two old friends battle over what is right. Set in a Dystopian Future, A Crash In The Dark offers a contemplation on believability and who gets to be seen as innocent in the face of systematic harm.  

Follow along: FULL SCRIPT

Cast:
Roanna - Sis Thee Doll | BIO
Clarence - TL Thompson | BIO

NY’KEECE Un'muefala’s True Heir by Kineen Mafa

Haunted by nightmares, Ny’Keece has had many restless nights. But when the stars align and she is forced into The World of Dreams, Ny’keece discovers everything in her life has always been more than what it seemed.

Ny’Keece Un’Muefala’s True Heir is a sci-fi tale that invites us to refuse to run from our dreams and become who we were always meant to be.

Follow along: FULL SCRIPT

Cast:
Ny’Keece - Amari Flynn | BIO
Eeleista - Kineen Mafa | BIO

JACOB HAVE I LOVED… by Grant Evan

With the death of her twin, Jakiah must return home to lay his affairs to rest. But when a collision with her mother opens old wounds and cries of accountability, the two women are willing to wage a war just to be seen. Jacob have I loved is a soul stirring story that asks us to reflect on how to heal even as there is so much to mourn.

Follow along: FULL SCRIPT

Cast:
Genieve - Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi | BIO
Jakiah - Mariyea Jackson | BIO

CLOCK IT… A PLAY ON PERCEPTION AND CREATION by Ibimina Dominique Thompson

While on a date with Kai, OG finds herself hoping this is real. As the night progresses, her thoughts dance between her time with Kai and a Nigerian story she tells on her podcast. Searching within the story’s lessons, OG wonders if it could hold the answer to her question. Shifting between a first date and the telling of an ancestral story, Clock It… reminds us that we have always been here.

Follow along: FULL SCRIPT

Cast:
OG - Ibimina Abrahim | BIO
Kai - TL Thompson | BIO

Breaking the Binary Theatre is a new work development and community building hub wherein transgender, non-binary, and Two-Spirit+ (TNB2S+) artists come together to reclaim our artistic license and liberty through a number of initiatives and programs, including the annual all-TNB2S+ Breaking the Binary Theatre Festival each October. Founded and led by George Strus (they/them), since Breaking the Binary Theatre’s launch in July 2022, the organization has produced over twenty-five workshops and readings of new works by TNB2S+ artists, commissioned over fifty TNB2S+ artists, hosted over fifteen community events, launched a free educational Summer Intensive for emerging TNB2S+ performers, partnered with Playbill and BroadwayCon, been in-residence at Playwrights Horizons, Williamstown Theatre Festival and New York Stage and Film, and paid out paid out over $325,000 to over 300 TNB2S+ artists. This summer, they produced an off-Broadway run of the late Cecilia Gentili's Red Ink featuring Jes Tom, Angelica Ross, and Peppermint. This fall, they will co-produce the world premiere of Sarah Mantell’s In the Amazon Warehouse Parking Lot alongside Playwrights Horizons. Breaking the Binary Theatre is powered by Producer Hub. For more information, please visit www.btb-nyc.com or @BreakingtheBinaryTheatre on Instagram.

THE THEATER OFFENSIVE
Founded in 1989 during the height of the AIDS crisis, The Theater Offensive (TTO) is a Tony Award-nominated organization that presents liberating art by, for, and about Queer and Trans people of Color (QTBIPOC) in Boston and beyond. What began as an act of protest and cultural resistance has evolved into one of the nation’s leading Queer cultural institutions, grounded in radical kinship, artistic innovation, and community care. TTO is more than a theater company. It is a cultural institution, a living think tank, a spiritual studio, and a performance lab guided by and built for QTBIPOC communities. For more than three decades, the organization has created space for artists and audiences to gather, imagine, heal, and challenge dominant narratives through bold, socially resonant performance and cultural programming. Born from a moment of profound grief, urgency, and defiance, TTO has always understood art as a tool for survival and transformation. Its work is rooted in the belief that theater can do more than entertain. Theater can preserve memory, build connection, provoke dialogue, and help shape more just futures. TTO does not create work for tolerance alone. It creates work for liberation. Grounded in Black, Brown, Indigenous, Queer, and Trans histories, TTO champions artistic experimentation, radical imagination, and culturally rooted storytelling that centers QTBIPOC voices and experiences. Across its work, the organization prioritizes joy, complexity, and collective transformation, while creating spaces where communities can feel fully seen, affirmed, and supported. Community is central to TTO’s mission and impact. The organization transforms stages into sanctuaries and performance into a practice of collective care. Through artistic programming, partnerships, public events, and cultural organizing, TTO fosters intergenerational exchange and deep community engagement throughout Boston and beyond. Its work exists at the intersection of art, advocacy, and social change, continually expanding what a theater institution can be and whom it can serve. TTO also plays a vital role in supporting artists and strengthening the broader cultural ecosystem. By investing in emerging voices, interdisciplinary collaboration, and community-centered creative practices, the organization helps cultivate new generations of artists, organizers, and cultural leaders. Its programming reflects the layered realities and intersectional experiences of QTBIPOC communities, honoring the fullness of race, gender, sexuality, disability, immigration, and class within contemporary Queer life. Today, TTO continues to build toward its vision of becoming a permanent cultural hub for Queer futures in Boston and beyond. The organization remains committed to creating work that challenges, heals, and imagines new possibilities for collective liberation. At its core, TTO believes art is not simply entertainment. It is memory, medicine, worldbuilding, and wholeness. TTO exists as both a challenge and a call: to the field, to community, to history, and to everything coming next.