The DC History Center is pleased to announce its participation in Mosaic Theater’s upcoming H Street Oral History Festival, on March 16 and 17 at the Atlas Performing Arts Center. The festival celebrates the finale of Mosaic’s multi-year H Street Oral History Project, spearheaded by the Andrew W. Mellon Playwright-in-Residence Psalmayene 24. Free to attend, the festival includes public readings of new plays written by local Black playwrights inspired by oral history interviews of H Street NE residents. There will also be a community party welcoming residents from every corner of DC to the area, and panels and discussions with artists, scholars, and community members curated in collaboration with the DC History Center.
The H Street Oral History Festival aims to deepen understanding of the DC community’s relationship to the historically Black neighborhood of the H Street NE corridor and amplify the voices of this under-recognized community through art, gathering, and discussion. The project is designed to engage DC residents in artistically and intellectually vibrant discussions about our shared history and varying senses of home, protest, and displacement.
Three plays will be debuted during the festival. The playwrights, Dane Figueroa Edidi, Gethsemane Herron-Coward, and James J. Johnson, interviewed residents from the H Street corridor and used those oral histories as inspiration for their new works.
At the outset of the project, the Mosaic team reviewed materials in the DC History Center’s Kiplinger Research Library, including oral histories rooted in the 1968 uprisings.
The DC History Center is serving as a historical resource partner for the festival. This partnership, supported by HumanitiesDC, is enabling artistic interpretations of history to act as catalysts for community dialogues.
As part of the festival, the DC History Center is hosting a panel discussion about the past, present, and future of the H Street Corridor. The conversation at 1 pm on Sunday, March 17 puts historian Kyla Sommers, cultural journalist Courtland Milloy, and esteemed dramaturg Jordan Alexandria Ealy in conversation, covering the community’s transformation leading up to and after 1968.
About The Playwrights
Dane Figueroa Edidi is a Helen Hayes Award winning playwright whose works include Klytmnestra: An Epic Slam Poem (2020); For Black Trans Girls…; Ghost/Writer; The Diaz Family Talent Show; Quest of The Reed Marsh Daughter; and The Dance of Memories. Dane is also an advocate, dramaturg, a two-time Helen Hayes Award nominated choreographer (2016, 2018) and co-editor of the Black Trans Prayer Book.
Dane is the founder of The Inanna D Initiatives, which curates, produces and cultivates events and initiatives designed to center and celebrate the work of TGNC Artist of Color. Considered one of the most prolific artists of our time, she is the first Trans woman of color to be nominated for a Helen Hayes Award (2016), and the first Trans woman in DC to publish a work of fiction Yemaya’s Daughters (2013). She is the curator and a co-producer of Long Wharf Theatre’s Black Trans Women At The Center: An Evening of Short Plays. Her radio play, Quest of The Reed Marsh Daughter, can be heard on the Girl Tale’s Podcast, and her play The Diaz Family Talent Show can be read on the Play at Home website. She wrote episode 9 (“Refuge”) of Round House Theater’s web series Homebound, and was one of the writers for Arena Stage’s short film The 51st State.
James J. Johnson (J. J.) is a professional actor and writer. He currently resides in the DC Metro area with his wife, Sonal. He has appeared with many theaters across the area, including the historic African-Continuum Theatre Co., Mosaic Theater Co., Arena Stage, Olney Theatre Center, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Ford’s Theatre, Theater J, Rep Stage, Kennedy Center and 1st Stage. In 2020, he received a Solo Works commission from 1st Stage in Tyson’s Corner, VA, which led to the creation of his solo show, CONUNDRUM. He co-wrote the award-winning short film, Silent Partner, which was conceived by (and starred) Roderick Lawrence, directed/co-written by Aristotle Torres (Story Ave) and featured the Tony Award nominated actress, Kara Young. J. J. also narrates audiobooks for the Library of Congress and his voice has appeared in various podcasts. He is a proud member of both SAG-AFTRA and Actors’ Equity Association. He received his B.F.A. from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1997, graduating magna cum laude. A fervent believer in community, J. J. is a co-founder of Galvanize DC, a DMV support network for Black theater artists.
Gethsemane Herron is a playwright from Washington, DC. She has developed work with JAG Productions, The Hearth, The Fire This Time Festival, The Liberation Theater Company, Roundabout Theatre Company, The Playwright’s Center, Ars Nova, and WP Theater. She is a Resident Artist with Ars Nova’s Play Group, a 2020-2022 member of the WP Lab, a 2021-2022 Jerome Fellow, and a 2022-2023 Many Voices Fellow at the Playwright’s Center. Additional residencies from VONA and the Millay Colony. Gethsemane is the 2022 winner of the Helen Merill Award; inner of the Columbia@Roundabout Reading Series; winner of the 45th Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival; finalist for Space on Ryder Farm’s Creative Residency, the Van Lier New Voices Fellowship at the Lark, and the Founders Award at New York Stage and Film. She received her MFA from Columbia University. Gethsemane splits her time between New York City and Minneapolis, where she is a proud member of the Dramatist’s Guild. She is enamored with Sailor Moon and other magical girl warriors. She writes for survivors.
Materials from our collections:
- 1968 Riots Oral History collection (MS 0769)
- The Context for Today program on Comparing 1968 and 2020
- Reconsidering 1968