Shakespeare in Transition: Black, Queer, and Non-Binary Reinterpretations

Janelle Lawrence will lead a panel and discussion featuring New York-based artists, directors, and scholars who are actively “queering” and “decolonizing” the work of William Shakespeare. Together, we will explore how adapting 400-year-old plays serves as a tool for modern social justice, Black liberation, and trans visibility. While Shakespeare is a staple of literary education, his works are often taught through a narrow, traditional lens. We explore crawling into that lens, rearranging, and expanding the prism of his anthology. This project is presented in partnership with OutHudson, and it is made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrants Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered by CREATE Council on the Arts.