Charlotte Brathwaite

Headshot of Charlotte Brathwaite

Director Charlotte Brathwaite’s genre-defying works illuminate the realities and the dreams of the marginalized and center unheard, unseen, and overlooked stories. Dealing with subject matter from the historical past to the present and the distant future, her work brings to light issues of social justice, race, sex, power and the complexities of the human condition. “Chapter & Verse: The Gospel of James Baldwin” created with musician Meshell Ndegeocello features content via print, video and a toll free phone line. “The Future is Present (TFP)” a performance laboratory that amplifies the life-affirming demands of young black and indigenous activists and artists. “Omar”, an opera by Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Ables and “Forgotten Paradise: Grazettes Sun” a feature-length film, installation and book on family lineage via the lens of the transAtlantic slave trade. Awards: Princess Grace, Creative Capital, United States Artist, Map Fund. Associate Professor Theater Arts, MIT. Brathwaite’s live art has been presented across the globe including: New York –The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Park Avenue Armory, The Public Theater/Under the Radar Festival, the Bronx Academy of Arts & Dance (BAAD!), The Living Theater, Joe’s Pub, La MaMa E.T.C, The Highline, Jack Performance Space, Bushwick Starr, BRIC Arts Center, Harlem Stage, Central Park Summer Stage, the Studio Museum of Harlem, 651 Arts, D.C. Arts Commission 5×5 Projects (Washington D.C.), The International Festival of Arts and Ideas (New Haven), FORM Festival (Arcosanti), Moss Arts Center (Virginia), MDLive Arts (Miami), Segerstrom Arts Center (Orange County), Wow Festival (San Diego), Contemporary Arts Center (Cincinnati), Right About Now Festival (Amsterdam, The Netherlands), Test! Festival (Zagreb, Croatia), Het Veem Theater (Amsterdam, The Netherlands), The Little Carib Theater (Port of Spain, Trinidad), Culture Station Seoul 284 Festival (Seoul, Korea), Hebbel am Ufer (Berlin, Germany) as well as in Kolkata, India and Accra, Ghana. Brathwaite’s the recipient of several awards and citations including a Creative Capital award, a United States Artist Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Fellowship, a Rockefeller Bellagio residency, multiple Map Fund Awards and the Princess Grace George C. Wolfe Award amongst others. She received her MFA at Yale School of Drama, a BA in Physical Theater at the Amsterdam School for the Arts (the Netherlands), and is a freelance director and Associate Professor in Music and Theater Arts at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).