These workshops will be held in person at the Harlem Library. Attendance at all sessions is highly encouraged. If you need large print material, please email [email protected]

Program description

Join multi-hyphenate artist, Vickie Tanner, curator of artistic workshops designed to spark the creative process. Craft and create your own story, essay, monologue, play, song, poem, speech, and/or theatrical performance pertaining to BIPOC identity: past, present, and future. We will explore primary sources from the Harlem Library and the production, Primary Trust at Roundabout Theatre Company, as well as various social justice movements and art movements, as inspirational spark points.

Essential Question: How are artists inspired by social movements, environment, and circumstances in creating art?

In the following inter-generational workshops, participants will collaborate to create their own 10-minute pieces exploring various writing techniques which will culminate in communal sharing in the summer.

Free tickets to see Roundabout shows will be available, please see Library staff for more information.

In-person workshops, please register for all events:

• July 11, 2023, from 3 pm-4:00 pm
• July 13, 2023, from 3 pm-4:00 pm (an hour session instead of 90 minutes this week)
• July 19, 2023, from 3 pm-4:30 pm
• July 20, 2023, from 3 pm-4:30 pm
• July 24, 2023, from 3 pm-4:30 pm
• July 26, 2023, from 3 pm-5 pm (Week of the communal sharing)

Primary Trust: Meet Kenneth a 38-year-old man living in a small town outside of Rochester, New York. For 15 years his life has been exactly the same: he worked at the bookstore during the day and enjoyed mai-tais with his friend Bert at night. However, when the bookstore owner closes the shop, it forces Kenneth to make changes and push past his comfort zone — sometimes that means making new friends and sometimes that means reconciling with the past.

Roundabout Theatre Company celebrates the power of theatre by spotlighting classics from the past, cultivating new works of the present, and educating minds for the future. A not-for-profit company, Roundabout fulfills that mission by producing familiar and lesser-known plays and musicals; discovering and supporting talented playwrights; reducing the barriers that can inhibit theatergoing; collaborating with a diverse team of artists; building educational experiences; and archiving over five decades of production history. Learn more about Roundabout Theatre Company.

Teaching artists’ bios

Vickie Tanner, Actor/Writer/Producer

Theatre credits include: Rhythms of Being/Dorrance Dance, Joyce Theatre, STOMP (NYC and Europe), TANTALUS (Denver/British tour with Dirs. Peter and Ed. Hall), and TWO DAYS (Donald Margulies with Lisa Peterson at Long Wharf). Her solo play, RUNNING INTO ME has played in New York at 59E59 Street Theaters, La Mama, Cherry Lane Studio Theatre, Nuyorican Poet’s Cafe, Irondale Theatre, in L.A. at Whitefire Theatre and at Edinburg Fringe Festival, Underbelly, Cowgate.

Film credits include: Home (a Netflix short, Dir. Ellie Foumbi), Paris is in Harlem, Acts of Worship, Drop Back Ten, No Way Out and The Apology. Television: Kaleidescope (Neflix), STOMP Out Loud, Wonderland (TV series, Dir. Peter Berg), Law and Order SVU, NYPD Blue, and One Life to Live.

Vickie is the creator, co-writer and producer of ONE CUCKOO web series which has screened at Lift-Off New York and Harlem Film Festivals. One Cuckoo was also a SAG Indie Award finalist and received a partial scholarship for Stowe Story Lab 2021. She is a master teaching artist with Park Avenue Armory and Roundabout Theatre Company and director of the Brooklyn Youth Company with Manhattan Class Company. Vickie will be attending Stony Brook University as an MFA student in Filmmaking this fall.

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Free!

Registration