Diversity * Inclusion * Respect
ATTENTION PLAYWRIGHTS – WE NEED YOU!
Submit your one-act plays to participate in ITOWNY’s monthly reading series “Know Your Neighbor(s).”
Rolling submissions. Please consider submitting your work and sharing our call!
Questions? More Info? Submissions? inclusivetheaterofwny@gmail.com.
ITOWNY’s Special Saturday Series returns THIS SATURDAY, July 11, 2020 at 8pm EDT on Zoom with the magnificent Verneice Turner!
To register in advance, please email inclusivetheaterofwny@gmail.com. For the safety of our attendees, the zoom meeting information will be .posted on our Facebook page Saturday. We look forward to this incredible event!
About Verneice:
Verneice Turner, performance artist, Artie award winning actor, a director is a native of Buffalo, NY. She started out at the African American Cultural Center, studying drama under June L. Saunders-Duel.. She continued her studies in the performing arts at SUNY at Buffalo. She has worked with directors Edward G. Smith, Saul Elkin, Richard Gant, Lorna C. Hill and others. Verneice is happy to be a guest of ITOWNY!
Verneice has performed in numerous productions here in WNY as well as in New York City (off off & off-Broadway), Washington, D.C. and other cities as an actor, singer, dancer and poet. She ran the art space Buffalo East from 2009-13 and grateful to have shared that experience with so many other artists & young people.
Verneice is thankful to and for all who contribute to her growth as an artist, a person, especially late husband, Douglas H. May & their daughter, Jasmine L. May.
This Saturday, June 13, 2020 at 8pm EDT, poet Julio Valentin joins ITOWNY’s Special Series on inclusion in the arts! This week we’ll also discuss social justice issues and their impact on the arts.
The event, as always, is free and open to the public. ALL are welcome!! Hope to see you there!!
(For the safety of our visitors, the link to the event will be posted in the comments of this post at 7pm on 6/13)
More about Julio:
Julio Montalvo Valentin (they/them) is the author of three chapbooks, Those Who Pray to Rice (NightBallet Press, 2019), Don’t Give up the Ship and Ship Lost (CWP Press, 2016; 2017). Julio was a guest editor for Mutata Re, Plurality Press, Portrait, and co-founder of the late Cringe-Worthy Poets Collective. Their work has been published in Thimble Literary Magazine, Cavity, Bangor Literary Journal, and Aisthesis: The Interdisciplinary Honors Journal. Their work has been anthologized in Boricua en la Luna: An Anthology of Puerto Rican Voices, A Flash of Dark, Mansion, and My Next Heart: New Buffalo Poetry. Aside from being a Poetry Editor for Coffin Bell Journal and Variety Pack, Julio is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in English Literature while working on their next project; converting a school bus into a poetry caravan.
CONGRATULATIONS to Erin Nappe Bellavia – the winner of ITOWNY’s Inaugural “Show Us Your Monologues Contest!”
You did an INCREDIBLE job! Way to go!
Thanks to all who entered the contest! We loved each and every submission and are so thankful that you shared your talents with us!! (PS this was a pretty fun contest – should we do another?!)
Watch ITOWNY’s interview with Christina Abt NOW!
Thank you for spending your Saturday night with us Christina
And be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to see all of the cool things we are up to – during COVID AND BEYOND!
ITOWNY’s Statement on the Killing of George Floyd and on the Persistence of Racism in America
The members of Inclusive Theater of WNY (ITOWNY) are horrified by and abhor the murder of George Floyd by members of the Minneapolis Police Force on 25 May 2020. The lives of Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmad Aubrey, and a tragically long list of other black Americans lost to the hands of racial injustice and police brutality in recent years is cause for despair, especially because the stories are not new.
It is easy to look to the arts in moments of crisis such as the present, when we seek an understanding of the incomprehensible persistence of political, economic, and social discrimination against persons of color. It may seem harder to remember the outrage we feel in this moment when we return to our theaters and performing art spaces.
However, ITOWNY resolves to keep these troubling aspects at the forefront of our work going forward. There is, of course, much to celebrate in the artistic work that we do, but our passion should never blind us to injustices.
We must never let that indifference to human suffering become our own. We must never deaden our hearts to the pain of others. Our fundamental values demand that we care.
We must bridge the differences of our individual thoughts, to make space for the conversation! This is how we can move forward and sustain momentum, to bring about real change!
Inclusive Theater of WNY
And now it’s time to hear from Avery “The Definitive” Gill – Straight Out of Compton and his submission for the 2020 “Show Us Your Monologues” Contest.
You can view and vote (give it a like!) And be sure to follow our YouTube page!
Contest ends on 5/31/2020! Send your submissions to inclusivetheaterofwny@gmail.com!
Inclusive Theater of WNY (ITOWNY) 
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