The 2021 Black Playwright's Festival, a partnership of BlackCAST and the Office for the Arts, presents a keynote conversation with playwright Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu '02.  This virtual event is free and open to the public. 

Nwandu is a New York-based playwright and TV writer, whose play Pass Over was the first full-length, live theatrical performance on Broadway after the Covid pandemic shutdown.

A filmed version of the Jeff-award winning Steppenwolf production of the same play, directed by Spike Lee, was filmed by Amazon Studios. Last February, In 2018, Victory Gardens produced the world premiere of her play Breach: a manifesto on race in america through the eyes of a black girl recovering from self-hate. Nwandu is a MacDowell Fellow, a Dramatists Guild Fellow, and an Ars Nova Play Group alum. Supporters of her work include The Sundance Theatre Lab, SPACE on Ryder Farm, Ignition Fest, The Cherry Lane Mentor Project, Page73, and PlayPenn. Honors include the 2018 Whiting Award, the 2017 Paula Vogel Playwriting Award, and spots on the 2016 and 2017 Kilroys lists. Nwandu  has also written for Spike Lee’s “She’s Gotta Have It” (Netflix).