LIFT EVERY VOICE: BIPOC PLAY FESTIVAL to Debut at Multicultural Arts Center

The Multicultural Arts Center welcomes the first event of its 2026-2027 season, Lift Every Voice: BIPOC Play Festival, taking place October 1 - 2, 2026. A signature MAC program, Lift Every Voice amplifies the work of BIPOC playwrights, poets, and spoken word artists through staged readings and performances. Together, these works represent a wide range of voices, cultures, and storytelling traditions from across the BIPOC community.

This year's festival will feature five new works by the following emerging and established playwrights:

Featured Playwrights and Works

Michelle M Aguillon: AAPI theater artist Michelle Aguillon brings to the stage Unwrapped. In this story, the loss of their mother brings three sisters together to finally face some truths, while waiting for their flakey fourth sister to show up.

Hortense Gerardo: An award-winning playwright, anthropologist, and interdisciplinary artist, at this year's festival Hortense Gerardo presents Conditions of Readiness. This is an excerpt from the full-length play, 'Conditions of Readiness,' a comic tragedy that follows Logan as she joins the Humanities faculty at a small New England college and learns about the new requirements for active-shooter preparedness.

Jamie Lin: Taiwanese-American theater artist, Bay Area transplant, member of Boston's Asian American Playwright Collective (AAPC), and C1 Co-Lab alum, Jamie Lin brings her play Sibling Rivalry. The story takes place at a Taipei night market, where siblings face off for victory in a shrimp skewering race — but find themselves at a crossroads, too.

Shay McQueenie: A Boston-based theater artist and graduate of The Boston Conservatory with a B.F.A in Contemporary Theater, Shay McQueenie brings to this year's festival Peace Plan. In this short play, a young Black girl struggles with her mental health and we see how this affects the people closest to her.

Ciera-Sadé Wade: A performer, director, dramaturg, writer, and theatre activist in Boston, MA, Ciera-Sadé Wade studied theatre at Boston University with a semester of classical training at the London Academy of Dramatic Art. In her piece, Love & Hair, mother and daughter come together to find self acceptance and joy in who they are.

About the Multicultural Arts Center

The Multicultural Arts Center is a nonprofit arts organization dedicated to fostering diversity and inclusion through the performing and visual arts. Located in East Cambridge, the Center provides a platform for underrepresented artists, hosts community-driven programming, and creates space for meaningful dialogue and artistic collaboration.