Brooklyn's Home for Black Theater & Performing Arts
The Billie is one of the few remaining theaters (the only one in Brooklyn) forged in the aesthetic and sociocultural kiln of America's civil rights/black arts movements.
The Billie Holiday Theatre is more than just a legacy theatre. It’s a cultural center that fosters an inclusive and innovative creative community where artists flourish, young people see the arts as a viable path, and dialogue, civic engagement, and community connection are sparked through the transformative power of the arts.
OUR MISSION
Our mission is to convene unapologetic, authentic voices to make American Black Theater and other performing arts a rigorous space to disrupt and foster social change. We present, preserve, and promote Black theater and culture by nurturing artists, producing bold new work, and engaging audiences from all walks of life. Our core values center community, integrity, equity, and inclusion.
OUR STORY
The Billie Holiday Theatre, The Obie, AUDELCO, and National Medal for the Arts recipient, is the only multi-platform performing arts center with a presenting, institutional residency, and education program led by and for the nation’s most prominent African American community of Central Brooklyn. Located in the heart of Bed-Stuy, we provide unparalleled access to world-class arts and cultural programming — rooted in social justice — for one of the most historically underrepresented communities in NYC. Birthed out of necessity for cultural preservation and resistance in 1972, The Billie became a cultural beacon of Black artistic excellence for Central Brooklyn and beyond. Luminaries, such as Pauletta Washington, Samuel L. Jackson, Ruby Dee, Ruben Santiago Hudson, Stephen McKinley Henderson, and Debbie Allen, have graced the stage and produced works by Lynn Nottage, Dominique Morriseau, and Sonia Sanchez.
For bold and daring artists and audiences from around the corner and around the world who look to The Billie as a rigorous artistic space that tackles racial injustices, presents new and unapologetic voices, and imagines a world where all people can flourish...welcome home!
OUR BOARD
Dr. Durell Cooper
Chair
Founder & CEO, Cultural Innovation Group, Adjunct Professor, New York University, Creator, Executive Producer, and Host of the PBS network series Flow with Dr. Durell Cooper and the Podcast Fluency
Roger Lee
Vice Chair
Founder & CEO, Roger Lee Arts, LLC
Taneshia Nash Laird
Treasurer
Executive Director, Project REAP; Associate Professor of Africana Studies, Berklee College of Music
Marilyn Nyanteh
Secretary
Associate Director, Affiliate Finance Operations at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
Rasu Jilani
Member
Executive Director, Brooklyn Arts Council Member
Wendell Pierce
Member
Actor, producer and businessman.
Octavia Taylor
Member
Senior Counsel for CBS Media Ventures
Antonia “Toni” Yuille Williams
Member
Former Director of Regional and Community Affairs, Con Edison, Creator and Executive Producer, Brooklyn Savvy TV and Art Movez_ Radio/Podcast
September 2026
Dear Billie Family,
Our 2026–27 season, A Revolutionary Love, is officially here—and after the year we’ve shared, it feels especially meaningful to begin this next chapter with you.
Before we look ahead, I want to thank you for everything you brought to The Billie last season. You filled our theatre & studios, joined the conversations, celebrated our artists, shared our work, and reminded us again and again what it means to be rooted in community. That love carried straight through SummerFest 2026, where you showed up bigger than ever. To our partners, staff, parents, artists, supporters, and every family member, friend, and neighbor who gathered with us at The Billie & Restoration Plaza: thank you. You made this past season one to remember.
Now, we’re carrying that energy into A Revolutionary Love—a season exploring Black love in all its fullness, from family, friendship, and romance to self-love and agape. Through theatre, music, dance, film, visual art, and conversation, we’ll celebrate love as a source of joy, a force that sustains our communities, and a radical act in the face of adversity. As bell hooks reminds us, “The moment we choose to love, we begin to move toward freedom.”
We begin this month with The Billie Community Conversation: From Brooklyn to Broadway, celebrating National Black Theatre Day with Marcia Pendelton, Marcus Paul James, Adriane Lenox, Lillias White, and Lynn Nottage. In October, we’ll also welcome Kamilah for the season’s first BILLIE & BEYOND—our music series inspired by Billie Holiday’s legacy and dedicated to dynamic women artists whose voices reach far beyond any single genre. And next, we will be the home of the Bed-Stuy Film Festival with screenings and panel discussions. It’s a powerful way to open the season, and we want you in the room with us.
We also have an important goal to reach together. To receive Brooklyn Org’s full $10,000 matching grant, The Billie must first raise $10,000 from our community by September 30. So far, you’ve helped us raise a little over $2,000, which means we have about $8,000 left to go.
This is the moment for our Billie Family to step up together. If 10,000 people give $1, we reach the goal. If 1,000 people give $10, we reach it. If 100 people give $100, we reach it. Pick your part. Help us unlock the match. Brooklyn Org will double every eligible gift.
Every contribution moves us forward and helps sustain the artists, the students, stories, conversations, and gatherings that make The Billie a cultural home for Black storytelling in Central Brooklyn. $20,000 allows us to maintain free and low-cost access to world-class art, artists, and training. We’ve seen what this community can make possible when we move together—and we believe we can do it again.
A new season is here, Billie Family. Help us build it, come experience it, and let’s begin A Revolutionary Love together.
With love and gratitude,
Shadawn Smith
Executive Director, The Billie Holiday Theatre
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