EDUCATION PROGRAMS
WRITE IT OUT!
A TEN-WEEK PLAYWRITING WORKSH0P FOR ARTISTS LIVING WITH HIV.
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
Write It Out! is a free, 10-week virtual playwriting program that helps artists living with HIV sharpen their playwriting skills as they find and develop their voices. The program aims to create a community for people of similar lived experiences to express themselves freely, while amplifying the visibility of HIV+ artists in theater in tandem.
Creator Donja R. Love is an Afro-Queer HIV-positive, award-winning playwright, and arts educator. Love led intensive workshops designed to challenge—as well as support— emerging artists as they find their unique voices and navigate through their status. The final presentation will unveil each student’s work and explore themes of Identity and Community.
Applications for the 2023 Cohort of Write It Out! will open in July 2023.
“Oftentimes, as people living with HIV, we can feel so alone. Due to stigma, there is a level of shame that grips us so tightly, adding to our loneliness. When we are able to navigate through these feelings and attempt to creatively express ourselves, there aren't resources or safe space specifically for us. The WIO! Prize, much like the program, is here to change that. This prize is for any playwright living with HIV who aims to center themselves and their work on their terms.” - Donja R. Love, Program Creator
THE INAUGURAL WIO! PRIZE
This award is funded by Emmy Award-winning actor Billy Porter, known for his roles on the hit TV show Pose and the musical Kinky Boots, and the LGBTQ media nonprofit GLAAD. The WIO! Prize honors and holds space for writers living with HIV and working in the American Theater.
The 2021 Write It Out! Prize was awarded to Dominic Colón!
In January 2022, part of Colón's new play WHERE'S OUR ANGELS? was presented as a staged reading directed by Jacob Padrón at The Dramatists Guild.
WHERE'S OUR ANGELS? Is the final play in a trilogy that explores the impact of HIV on the Latinx Community in the Bronx from the late 1980s through the COVID-19 pandemic, following the same characters over the course of thirty years.
PHOTOS FROM "WHERE'S OUR ANGELS?" READING
MEET THE TEACHING ARTIST
Donja R. Love (he/him) is Black, Queer, HIV-Positive and thriving, and a Philly native. He is the recipient of the Antonyo Awards’ inaugural Langston Hughes Award, the Helen Merrill Award, the Laurents/Hatcher Award, and the Princess Grace Playwriting Award. Other honors include The Lark’s Van Lier New Voices Fellowship, the Playwrights Realm’s Writing Fellowship, and the Philadelphia Adult Grand Slam Poetry Champion. He is the co-founder of The Each-Other Project, an organization that helps build community and provide visibility, through art and advocacy, for LGBTQ+ People of Color. Plays include soft, one in two (The New Group), Fireflies (Atlantic Theater Company), Sugar in Our Wounds (Manhattan Theatre Club, Lucille Lortel and Outer Critics Circle Nominations), and The Trade. Love is a graduate of the Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program at The Juilliard School.
Write it Out! is presented in partnership with Mobilizing Our Brothers Initiative, and The Each-Other Project, with the support of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.
MOBILIZING OUR BROTHERS INITIATIVE (MOBI) is a series of curated social connectivity events for gay and queer men of color to see their holistic self while promoting community, wellness, and personal development.
THE EACH-OTHER PROJECT is an organization that helps build community and provide visibility, through art and advocacy, for LGBTQ+ People of Color.
BROADWAY CARES/EQUITY FIGHTS AIDS helps men, women, and children across the country and across the street receive lifesaving medications, health care, nutritious meals, counseling, and emergency financial assistance.
