Downtown Urban Arts Festival (DUAF)

The Downtown Urban Arts Festival (DUAF), now in its 24th season, will present the works of 19 playwrights, including those by Artistic Director Reg E. Gaines, Kevin Powell, and Arturo Luíz Soria when the festival returns May 29-June 20 at Joe’s Pub (425 Lafayette Street) and La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club (66 E. 4th Street).

In 2001, the theater program at DUAF was founded with the purpose to build a repertoire of new American theatre that echoes the true spirit of urban life and speaks to a whole new generation whose lives defy categorizing along conventional lines. That purpose has been realized, as 232 writers have created and refined their work for the stage.

The Downtown Urban Arts Festival is produced by T. Marc Newell, and artistic directed by Reg E. Gaines. The technical director is Paul Jones, the creative director is Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez/Somos Arte, and the program coordinator is Sideeq Heard.

It was also announced that the DUAF Spotlight Playwrights of this year’s are Desi Moreno-Penson and Cris Eli Blak.

The Festival kicks off with a new solo work, The White Whale Journal by Arturo Luíz Soria at Joe’s Pub on May 29.

“New season, new voices. DUAF 2026 is focused on a reminder that inspiration is invaluable whether given or received,” said Artistic Director Reg E. Gaines. “This theme connects each play in hopes audiences are motivated to do likewise in not only creative endeavors but their personal lives.”

“The Downtown Urban Arts Festival isn’t just an event—it’s a living canvas where new voices, and those that are often overlooked, find vibrancy, rhythm, and space,” said Producer T. Marc Newell. “It matters because it transforms streets into stories, bringing communities together to celebrate identity, creativity, and the power of expression where it belongs: out in the open, for everyone. The wealth of talented writers in New York is staggering, and sometimes, they just need a chance. We are humbled that the Festival can be an incubator for new work by fresh, exciting writers.”

For tickets and more information, please visit www.duafnyc.com


SCHEDULE

SPECIAL HIGHHIGHTS

THE WHITE WHALE JOURNAL by ARTURO LUÍZ SORIA:
May 29th at 7:00PM and May 30th at 9:30PM at Joe’s Pub
Tickets $36. Available at www.duafnyc.com and www.joespub.com

2023 Obie Award-winning actor and writer Arturo Luíz Soria returns to the NYC stage in a new solo work, The White Whale Journal. This intriguing tale follows a writer, after the tragic death of his brother, who inherits a strange archive. What emerges is not an answer, but a widening: a brother restored not as a final act, but as a vast, unfinished human story still breaching the surface.

Under the Influence by Reg E. Gaines
June 5th and June 6th at 7:30PM at LaMaMa
Tickets $25. Available at www.duafnyc.com

“Under The Influence is an example of how art can inspire while focusing on the importance of paying homage to those who have forged a poetic path. I am excited to have an opportunity, along with Calvin Gaines & Mark Wilson, to share the musical/ poetic renderings with the 2026 DUAF audiences.” – Reg E. Gaines

my father could not read or write by Kevin Powell
June 19 and June 20 at 7:30PM at LaMama
Tickets $25. Available at www.duafnyc.com

GRAMMY-nominated poet Kevin Powell premieres an excerpt of his forthcoming choreopoem, GROCERY SHOPPING WITH MY MOTHER. The excerpt is titled “my father could not read or write” and will be performed by Kevin with live music. Coinciding with both Juneteenth and Father’s Day Weekend, the two performances, directed by Tyneshia Hill, explore fatherhood, abandonment, mental health, healing, and the many meanings of freedom.

JUNE 3rd – JUNE 20th @ LA MAMA
WEDNESDAY-SATURDAY. EVERY NIGHT AT 7:30PM

Tickets $25. Available at duafnyc.com

June 3
LET MEZALUCA BUY YOUR CAR by Desi Moreno-Penson
At a dark and lonely crossroads, a bickering Latine couple have experienced a car accident. She blames the car. He blames her nagging. And the car has quite a few opinions of his own.

four;interwoven by Erika Ji
four; interwoven is a concept quartet that explores what it means to choose love and togetherness, especially when it’s hard. Four musician-storytellers interweave their unique voices and instruments in this concept quartet blending folk band, theatre troupe, and choral music, composition with devising and improvising, singing without words.

June 4
Fried Live Skin by Edwin Rivera-Arias
Tio Congo, who operates a front selling chucherías in the parking lot of Toñita’s Caribbean Grill in Flushing, thinks he’s the King of the Cocaine Coast. That is, until he reunites with Fran Iran, who catches him with his pants down—literally.

Amendable by Cris Eli Blak
At an elite East Coast college, four young women leading a progressive political club are forced into crisis when a controversial speaker is selected. Ideals of free speech collide with lived experience, exposing fractures of race, power, and performative allyship as a routine meeting spirals into an unflinching reckoning.

June 5-6
Under The Influence by Reg E. Gaines

June 10
40 Seconds by Jake Alexander
A journalist joins a famous graffiti artist at their favorite spot to tag, with limited time to make an impression before the next subway comes. Exploring art, risk, audience, and why we create.

AGON by Charlene Adhiambo
Moses Beatty, the artistic director of a leading NYC ballet company is pitched by VOGUE to interview controversial ballet veteran Lucinda St. James. The two hash out their resentment toward each other and their cutthroat industry in this sharp study of artistic ownership, mentorship, and the costs of Black excellence.

June 11
A Lesson in Captivity by Daniel Damiano
In an afterschool detention at an unnamed high school, a newly arrived teacher strives to maintain order between two very different students

Gin & Milk by Antony Raymond
A late-night encounter between a guarded British romantic and a wounded American actuary in a tiny New York apartment spirals from awkward date into boozy confession and fierce intimacy, as two freshly heartbroken strangers test whether one fleeting night can help them release their ghosts—or just expose how broken they really are.

June 12
Black Commie Bitch by Tyler Exum
A disillusioned NYC Congresswoman appointed to lead a new HUAC committee secretly joins a Black Communist book club in her district, setting her on a collision course with her career, her politics, and herself.

The Trial of Lucy Gunns by Joy
This is a one woman show about the cannibalistic effects of generational abuse. It deals with themes of loss, and loneliness which are also probable causes for Lucy’s insanity. Lucy isn’t a woman of many words until she drinks a glass of Pot Liquor, straight, no cornbread.

June 13
The Deep Play by Cece Suazo
Set in 1980s Brooklyn, this powerful dramedy follows 12-year-old Eduardo Garcia as he navigates the fragile boundaries of a Honduran family. When secrets of gender and trauma threaten to surface, the family must choose between devastation and unity. It is a universal story of survival, unmasking truth, and love.

Desert Flowers by GOODW.Y.N.
A Black, Queer female soldier becomes the lone survivor of a terrible car accident. While burying her grief, she is deployed to Iraq in 2003, and suffers from dangerous encounters.

June 17
Whiskey, Hope, and the Climate Clock by Marissa Raine Carlin (Book, Music, & Lyrics) & Carter Quinn Tanis (Book & Music)
Hope sits alone, watching the Climate Clock in Union Square tick down to zero. As an ‘End of the World Party’ rages on behind her, someone she would usually ignore sits beside her. They discuss the beauty of the past, anxieties of the present and their fear of the future.

Sing Truth to Power by Howard Ho
A KPOP star who sings anthems against an evil dictator learns the devastating truth that she has been unwittingly complicit in his tyranny. What do you do when your art is being co-opted?

June 18
Lo siento, mi español es tremendo mal. by Brandon Urrutia
Family, Faith, and Flan.Three of the defining features of Hispanic Culture, but can you participate when you don’t even speak the language?

An Audit at the Funeral Parlor by Alexander Perez
Estrella works at the family funeral parlor with her Mom, Dad, and Grandfather. When a surprise audit sends the patriarch to an early grave, deep family secrets make themselves known in hilarious and terrifying ways.

June 19-20
my father could not read or write by Kevin Powell

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHTS

CHARLENE ADHIAMBO
Charlene Adhiambo is a Kenyan-American playwright, musician, and director raised in Atlanta and based in Harlem. She is an MFA candidate in Playwriting at Columbia University where she is a Hansberry-Lilly Fellow. Adhiambo is a 2026 Finalist for the Crossroads Genesis Award for Excellence in Playwriting. She premiered her new punk rock musical LIL SIS & THE FURIES at Columbia University in April, and is excited to direct her play AGON as part of this year’s Downtown Urban Arts Festival.

JAKE ALEXANDER
Jake Alexander is CT-born playwright and theatre artist whose work has been produced by The Maker’s Ensemble, Equity Library Theatre, Christopher Newport University, Soop Theatre Co., the Player’s Theatre of the West Village, Jakespeare Virtual Theatre Co., NY Theatre Festival, Chestnut Street Playhouse, Broward College, Emerging Artist Theatre Co., and Rockford New Words Theatre Co. Jake has been published by 1319 Press, and in Qu Literary Magazine and Literature Today Webzine. Jake’s newest one-person show is being produced at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August 2026. Jake is a contributing writer for the Broadway Beat.

CRIS ELI BLAK
Cris Eli Blak’s work has been produced and performed around the world. He was a staff writer on the hit series Power Book III: Raising Kanan. He is the inaugural winner of the Black Broadway Men Playwriting Initiative, the 2024 Charles M. Getchell New Play Award, and the Atlanta Shakespeare Company’s inaugural winner of the Muse of Fire BIPOC Playwriting Festival. He is currently the recipient of the 2025-26 Signpost Fellowship, a 2024-2027 Core Writer with The Playwrights Center, and the inaugural LDK Productions Writers’ Residency.

MARISSA RAINE CARLIN
Marissa Raine Carlin is a composer, lyricist, and librettist. Marissa graduated from Berklee College of Music, where she majored in Songwriting and minored in Musical Theater Writing. Also a singer-songwriter and screenwriter, her feminist-horror screenplay “THE DIRECTOR” was selected as a semi-finalist in the Big Apple Film Festival Screenwriting Competition and a finalist in the A Night of Horror International Film Festival. DUAF marks her NYC stage debut and she’s honored to be among such incredible playwrights. She offers endless thanks to her co-writer Carter Quinn & Reg. E Gaines and Sideeq Heard for taking the time to believe in us.

DANIEL DAMIANO
Daniel Damiano is an Award-Winning Playwright, Actor, Novelist and Pushcart-nominated Poet based in Brooklyn, NY. He was the 2024 Recipient of the David A. Einhorn Playwriting Award. His plays have been performed throughout many areas of the U.S., as well as London, England and Sydney & Melbourne, Australia. His three novels include THE WOMAN IN THE SUN HAT (2021), GRAPHIC NATURE (2022) and ADVICE FROM A CAT (2024), published by fandango 4 Art House. His two poetry books are 104 DAYS OF THE PANDEMIC (2021, fandango 4 Art House) and THE CONCRETE JUNGLE AND THE SURROUNDING AREAS (2024, Bottlecap Press). www.danieldamiano.com

TYLER EXUM
Tyler Exum is a proud native New Yorker whose work centers the Black queer femme experience, and the Black political imagination. The question currently driving her practice is: how is the ancestral archive carried in the body? Tyler began playwriting through MCC Theater’s Youth Company Playwriting program. Her work has been selected and produced by SapphFest NYC, WriteClub NYC, and is a member of New Perspective Theater Company’s Short Play lab cohort.. At the heart of her work is a commitment to building an embodied theatrical archive that honors, and amplifies the voices of Black femmes in New York City.

REG E. GAINES
reg e gaines is a two time Tony nominee, Grammy nominated lyricist, author of (4) books of poems & artistic director of the NYC Downtown Urban Arts Festival. His latest piece, Under The Influence premiered at Hillsborough CC, Jan 2026 & Jersey City’s Meadow Room and Free Public Library in Feb 2026. Original music by Calvin Gaines and Mark Wilson. reg’s new album, “listen” will be released June 2026.

GOODW.Y.N
Nicole Goodwin aka GOODW.Y.N. They are longlisted for The Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for 2023, the 2023 RWW Creative Nonfiction Fellow, as well as the 2018 Ragdale Alice Judson Hayes Fellowship Recipient, while advancing to the 2nd Round of the 2018 Creative Capital Awards. They published the articles “Talking with My Daughter…” and “Why is this Happening in Your Life…” in the New York Times’ parentblog Motherlode. Additionally, their work “Ain’t I a Woman (?/!): Poems,” was longlisted for The Black Spring Press Group’s The Christopher Smart-Joan Alice Prize for 2020.

HOWARD HO
Howard Ho is a Chinese-American playwright/composer. His works include BEETHOVEN’S THIRD (Samuel French OOB Winner), RESET (Moving Arts, O’Neill NPC Finalist), END OF THE LINE (licensed by MTI), PARITY (Pan Asian NuWorks Festival), MOLL-E (Bay Area Playwrights Festival Semi-Finalist), and WHERE I’M FROM (OOB Finalist, Pan Asian NuWorks Festival). His sound design has been featured at PAC NYC and has earned multiple Ovation and SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle nominations. His Youtube channel (youtube.com/HowardHoMusic) has over 150,000 subscribers and was recognized by Lin-Manuel Miranda. His HAMILTON analysis book is forthcoming from Smith & Kraus. IG:@howardwho

ERIKA JI
Erika is a cross-genre composer-storyteller who loves soaring melodies, dream worlds, and stories that challenge our preconceptions about what is true, good, or worth wanting. Works include Yoko’s Husband’s Killer’s Japanese Wife, Gloria (Winner of the Vivace Award; 5th Avenue Theatre, American Playwriting Foundation, NAMT, O’Neill National Music Theater Conference), VISARE (New Voices Project Winner, Tokyo International Songwriters’ Showcase), Starsong (Rattlestick Theater, Kaufman Music Center). Erika has been artist-in-residence at Greenwich House, Jentel, Millay, NYSCA, VCCA, and the Wurlitzer Foundation. As a pianist, accordionist, and vocalist: Broadway (Cabaret, Kimberly Akimbo), national TV (CBS Sunday Morning). BS Stanford, MFA NYU. erikaji.com

JOY
I am imagination, born and raised in New Haven CT aka Elm City, the stomping grounds for my story telling.

DESI MORENO-PENSON
MFA in Dramaturgy/Brooklyn College. Her work is produced/developed @The Flea, Ense
mble Studio Theatre (EST), SPF-Summer Play Festival, Cherry Lane, Urban Theatre Company (Chicago), among others. Most Recent: GENESISTER (2025 Estrogenius Short Play Festival @The Rat NYC, directed by KM Jones). EL BACALAO: The Catfish Man (Finalist for 2023 Jane Chambers Excellence in Feminist Playwriting Award). BEIGE (Winner, 2016 National Latine Playwriting Award @Arizona Theatre Company. Finalist for both O’Neill NPC and Bay Area Playwrights Festival). Received Honorable Mention on The Kilroys List. Plays published by Broadway Play Publishing, Routledge, Smith and Kraus, and Applause Theatre and Cinema Books.

ALEXANDER PEREZ
Alexander Perez is a Cuban-American Playwright/Cartoonist/Dad making it work in the Big Apple. His plays have been produced in NYC, London, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and beyond.

KEVIN POWELL
Kevin Powell is one of the most celebrated political, cultural, literary, and hip-hop voices in America. He is a GRAMMY-nominated poet, a human and civil rights activist, a journalist, a filmmaker, a former two-time candidate for the United States Congress in New York City, and a public speaker who has been to all 50 American states and 5 of the world’s 7 continents. Kevin is also the author of 17 books, including A Poem for Evangeline, And Other Songs, his newest collection of poetry; and The Kevin Powell Reader, which represents 30plus years of his life work as a writer, public speaker, and social justice advocate. Kevin’s 18th book will be a biography of Tupac Shakur, who he interviewed several times while a senior writer for Quincy Jones’ Vibe magazine. Kevin is currently a frequent opinion columnist for Newsweek magazine and regular Sirius XM radio guest host. Kevin’s writings have also appeared in a wide range of publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Ebony, Essence, NPR, The Guardian, Complex, and HuffPost. Kevin’s new documentary film, When We Free The World, is a deep dive about healthy manhood versus toxic manhood, through the lens and lives of five generations of Black males. A native of Jersey City, New Jersey, Kevin is a proud and long-time resident of Brooklyn, New York. You can reach him via email: kevin@kevinpowell.net, or follow him on all social media platforms by typing poet kevin powell

ANTONY RAYMOND
Award-winning writer and director based in New York City, Antony Raymond has built a diverse body of theatrical work over the past two decades. A classically trained actor turned playwright and director, his New York productions include Apartment 301 (Access Theater), Elsinore County (Theatre Row, Cherry Lane), Yeah, I Met This Girl (Zipper Factory), and Pretty Babies (13th Street Rep). Raymond also directed Bette Davis Ain’t for Sissies (Edinburgh Fringe, 59E59) and Bluff (Provincetown). He most recently wrote and directed the award-winning short Sleeping With Gus, which premiered at the Katra Film Series in NYC.

EDWIN RIVERA-ARIAS
Edwin Rivera-Arias is a resident playwright with New Dramatists (2024-2031). He was awarded a 2024 Prose Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, The Lippmann Family “New Frontier” Award for Travel in 2025, and residencies from Willapa Bay AiR, the Blue Mountain Center, Dramatic Question Theatre, The New Jersey Play Lab, Art House Production’s INKubator Program, and the Norman Mailer Center. In 2019 his first play, In the Palace of the Planet King, was staged at The Wild Project as part of the Downtown Urban Arts Festival. He is represented by the Gurman Agency.

ARTURO LUIZ SORIA
Arturo Luíz Soria is an award winning actor, writer, producer, and the founder of VagaMundo Productions. His solo show Ni Mi Madre premiered off-Broadway at Rattlestick Theater and went on to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, winning Obie and Offie awards. His play Novios has been a semifinalist/finalist for The O’Neill, Ojai, PlayPenn, New Harmony Project, Seven Devils New Play Foundry, Austin Film Festival, and an honorable mention for the Relentless Award. It has been developed at Yale Cabaret, Pride Plays at Woolly Mammoth Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop Mondays @ 3 reading series, and the Latinx New Play Festival at La Jolla Playhouse. He has received a micro-commission from the Lucille Lortel Alcove Development Program, two NYSCA grants, and a MacDowell fellowship. His next solo show The White Whale Journal has been developed at Rattlestick Theatre, The Flea, Theaterlab, and Downtown Urban Arts Festival at Joe’s Pub. Arturo is adapting the novel Bodega Dreams to screen with Black Bar Mitzvah Productions and Votiv Films, slated to be directed by Ángel Manuel Soto. As an actor, recent credits include Broadway’s Tony Award winning play The Inheritance; off-Broadway’s Wet Brain (World Premiere), Hit the Wall (World Premiere); and many regional productions across the country. His TV/Film credits include CIA, Found, Insatiable, The Blacklist, East New York, and the upcoming features, Pimp Shit and Mermaid — which premiered at CineQuest earlier this year. Arturo was part of the inaugural class of TV writers in the Hillman Grad Mentorship Program. He holds a BFA from The Theater School at DePaul University, an MFA in Acting from Yale School of Drama, and will be at The Juilliard School’s Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program in the fall.

CECE SUAZO
Cece Suazo is a afro-latina trans playwright, and 2022 Women in American Theater Honoree. A trailblazer in the industry, she served as the first Black Trans woman at WOW Café Theatre for 16 years. Cece was a member of the inaugural “Black Trans Women at the Center” cohort (Long Wharf Theatre) and Donja R. Love’s WIO. Her credits include Executive Producing the film Lavender Men by Roger Q. Mason and choreographing its Skylight Theatre stage production. From the 2018 Advocate Legacy Honor to the 2026 Downtown Urban Arts Festival, Cece’s work remains a “tour de force” of healing and radical stewardship.

CARTER QUINN TANIS
Carter Quinn Tanis (they/them) is a composer, lyricist/librettist, and music educator with degrees from Berklee College of Music (B.M.) and BerkleeNYC (M.A.) in Writing and Design for Musical Theater. Their original musical Take A Quack At It! has been performed in the US and abroad, most recently completing its second national tour in Taiwan. In Minneapolis, they were selected for the renowned Nautilus Composer-Librettist Studio. Carter Quinn is grateful to have their work featured in DUAF and honored to collaborate with their co-writer and dear friend, Marissa.

BRANDON URRUTIA
Brandon Urrutia (they/them/él) is from South Florida (born and raised). Their work is influenced by their relation to the Hispanic community and their desire to feel closer to it. Urrutia is the recipient of the ENGAGE@GableStage grant and was awarded “As Miamense as Possible” by the Antiheroes Project for their Solo Performance “Lo Siento mi Espanol es Tremendo Mal”. They are also Co-Founder and Artistic Director of LakehouseRanchDotPNG. They graduated from Florida International University with a BFA in Theatre in 2020.

www.DUAFNYC.org