The New Black Fest’s Keith Josef Adkins

4:00 p.m.

The People Before the Park by Keith Josef Adkins, 

starring Russell G. Jones and directed by Vernice Miller

6:30 p.m.

Conversation with Keith Josef Adkins and artistic collaborators

7:30 p.m.

The Heat Will Kill Everything by Keith Josef Adkins,

performed by Francois Battiste and directed by Russell G. Jones

The People Before the Park: The people of Seneca Village, African-American and some Irish immigrants, have lived peacefully and away from the corruption of downtown New York City. However, when the city decides to build Central Park, their quiet hamlet becomes the target of demolition. One man decides he will not be moved.

The Heat Will Kill Everything: A one-person play about a Black father whose search for his missing daughter during an extreme heat event forces him to finally confront his internalized patriarchy and its destructive grip on his life.

Keith Josef Adkins is a writer and artistic director. His Great Migration play, The West End, had its world premiere at Cincinnati Playhouse and was a finalist for the 2022 Steinberg-ATCA New Play Award. Keith's other plays include The People Before the Park, Safe House, Pitbulls, The Last Saint on Sugar Hill, among others. He’s the recipient of the Helen Merrill Playwriting Award, Samuel French's Award for Impact and Activism in the Theater Community as well as National Black Theater's Teer Spirit Award. He is the artistic director of The New Black Fest, a 14-year-old theater organization committed to fostering insurgent voices from the African Diaspora. The New Black Fest was in residence at the Lark Play Development Center for six years and has commissioned three social justice anthologies, including Facing Our Truth, Hands Up, The Apollo Presents... A New Harlem Renaissance -- all published by Samuel French/Concord Theatrical. Keith and The New Black Fest was also commissioned by the Apollo Theater to develop work for their new Victoria Theater. Keith is also currently working on a collection of short memoir called The Men Within Me. Some of his TV writing credits include Accused, Outer Banks, The Good Fight. He's also developed TV projects with JJ Abrams, Don Cheadle/Steven Soderbergh and Regina King. Keith co-wrote the horror film Run Sweetheart Run that can be seen on Amazon Prime.

Francois Battiste is an award-winning actor known for his work on Broadway, O7-Broadway, TV and film. His most recent project was the role of Colonel Jock Martin in the World Premiere production of HERE WE ARE - the final musical by the Stephen Sondheim, written by David Ives, and directed by Tony Award winning director Joe Mantello. He received the 2023 AUDELCO award for Best Leading Actor for his starring role as Walter Lee Younger in A

Raisin in the Sun at The Public Theater, directed by Robert O’Hara. Francois also played the role of Malcolm X in the London premier of One Night in Miami at the Young Vic. TV and film credits include: Captain Randolph Southard in William Friedkin’s The Caine Mutiny, court-Martial (Showtime, NBC’s Law & Order Organized Crime and SVU, Godfather of Harlem (MGM+), New Amsterdam (NBC), Station 19 (ABC), EVIL (CBS), The Family (ABC), The Normal Heart with Mark Ru7alo (HBO). Francois is a graduate of the Juilliard School where he became the first African American to win the John Housman Award for excellence in Classical Theatre.

Russell G. Jones is an Audelco, Obie and SAG Award-winning actor and the founder of BLIND SPOT a campaign to promote critical thinking/action around systemic racial oppression. As a director: Gentrified: Metaphor Of The Drums by Levy Lee Simon Jr. (National Black Theatre/Workshop), Manhood by Dennis A. Allen II (National Black Theater’s Keep Soul Alive Residency), Pousada Azul by Nathan Yungerberg (The Fire This Time Festival), Good Grief by Ngozi Anyanwu (Intar), The Maltese Chicken by Fareed Nashid (Pure Pop Festival NYC), Change 4 A Dollar by The STEP Ensemble (Cleveland Public Theater), Undercover On Another Day of Absence by Derek McPhatter (48 Hours in Harlem), Lessons by Jerry Cofta (Mass Transit Street Theater). He was an active member of Labyrinth Theater Co. 1995- 2021, and through that community he is also known as a teaching artist, facilitator and moderator. His acting work can currently be streamed in Full Circle (HBO Max), Godless (Netflix), Tommy (Amazon), The Americans and Only Murders In the Building (Hulu). Www.russellgjones.com

Vernice Miller (Director) is a Jamaican-born Afro-Caribbean theater artist passionate about art as a universally accessible agent for positive social change. She has shared her work internationally, collaborating with leading artists and organizations in London, Denmark, South Africa, Poland, and more. Professional highlights include long-term collaborations with Pulitzer Prize-winning jazz musician Wynton Marsalis, opera legend Jessye Norman, HBO comedienne Hazelle Goodman, and Hip-Hop artist Malik Work. Miller co-founded A Laboratory for Actor Training Experimental Theatre Company with Joann Maria Yarrow, building on their work with Roberta Carreri at Eugenio Barba’s Odin Teatret. Her directing credits include Three Women (Break the Silence) at South Africa’s Market Theatre Lab, Nomansland with Subpoetics International, and Bee Trapped Inside the Window by Saviana Stanescu. On television, she shadowed director Felix Alcala on CBS’s Madam Secretary. As a performer, her solo show Medea Nine-Night, a Jamaican reinterpretation of Euripides’ Medea, earned her the London New Play Festival’s Best Actress Award. Miller is also an adjunct lecturer and mainstage director at CUNY’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice.