Century of Black Theater Making: Living Legacy Gwendolen Hardwick

The Apollo Theater will host an evening in celebration of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Cultures centennial honoring the legendary Harlem based theater artist and writer Gwendolen Hardwick. In the late 1970s, Hardwick co-founded the Flamboyant Ladies Theater Company with writer and activist Alexis De Veaux. A dynamic performer, visionary theater maker, and devoted community organizer, Hardwick for over four decades has helped shape and sustain vital creative spaces for Black and queer women writers and performers in New York. The evening will feature scene readings and poetry drawn from Hardwick's expansive body of work alongside excerpts by Dominique Morisseau and Claro de los Reyes performed by Morriseau, de los Reyes, LaVonda Elam, and Nsangou Njikam—all of whom have studied under Hard.