SISTAS ON FIRE to Light Up the Stage at New York New Works Theatre Festival

The personal becomes the political when four passionately-opinionated African American women speak their minds on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Black Lives Matter, missing women and girls, racial stratification on Long Island, sexual exploitation, black-on-black crime, and male/female relationships in a soul-stirring mix of song, dance, spoken word poetry, and prose. The interrelated dramatic monologues range from tragedy to comedy in a musical revue that examines pressing social issues from an African-American female perspective. Sistas on Fire! uses theatre to provoke thought, encourage social activism, and build bridges that cross race, class, gender and culture. In short, It's For Colored Girls for the New Millenium.

Sistas on Fire! was written by Marcia McNair and Anissa D. Moore, two professors at Nassau Community College. Moore is the first African American woman to be elected to the Long Beach City Council. A former assistant editor at Essence Magazine, McNair is also the producer of the play. Director, AhDream Smith is an actress known for the films Nomad: The Legendary Fighter and Emotional Intelligence. Music contributions provided by Nat "Ne' Richa" Richmond, the founder of LiteShado Productions, Monique Siaw, Sista Gurl (Gail Halliburton), Tiffany Renee Thompson, and Canitra Billups.

The Sistas on Fire cast and production includes:

Cast Members

Jennifer Burks

Jenelle Simone

Desi Waters

Canitra Billups

Chorus/Ensemble Members

Tiffany Renee Thompson

Vickie Carson-Clemons

Ashley Taylor Greaves

Production Members

Oleander Furman, Stage Manager

About the Playwrights

Marcia L. McNair was an assistant editor at Essence Magazine and is currently an Associate Professor of English, Journalism, and Women's Studies at Nassau Community College. She is the former coordinator of the NCC African American Read-In and a current member of the Black History Month Committee and the Secretary for the Black Women's Initiative (a student retention program). In addition, she was an adjunct professor of English at Molloy College, where she taught African American Literature, for over five years. She served on the Uniondale Community Council Executive Board for two years. She has lived in both Harlem and Queens, but has resided on Long Island for over twenty years.

In 2006 and 2007, she received a grant from the Long Island Council for the Arts for her collaborative performance, Diary of a Mad Black Feminist, now known as the award-winning Sistas on Fire! Her poem Long Island Just Isn't Long Enough is featured in Seasoned Women (QuadraSoul, 2008), an anthology of women's poetry and performed by Composer Leonard Lehrman at the opening of Hofstra University's Suburban Conference on Diversity in 2009. An excerpt from her first novel, E-Males (Aya Press, 2007), was performed at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in 2009.

She is also the Executive Director and Founder of Long Island Girl Talk, a program for teen girls interested in media, and a co-host on Café Long Island, a public access television series. McNair's essay, It Takes a Lioness to Raise Young Lions, appears in Issues in Feminism/ An Introduction to Women's Studies/Fifth Edition (Mayfield, 2001). Her creative nonfiction story, Before We Were Gangstas, won honorable mention in the National New Millennium Writers Creative Nonfiction contest in 2003 and appears in the anthology, Memoirs in the Light of Day (Lamberson Corona Press, 2008).

Anissa D. Moore, a Brooklyn native, attended Hunter College, City University of New York where she received her Master of Arts degree in Communications/ Media Studies. Anissa joined the full-time Communications faculty at Nassau Community College, State University of New York in 1996. She was the first African American to secure a tenured position in the Communications Department. In July 2006, she was elected Chairperson of the Communications Department. She is the first African-American woman to serve as the Academic Chairperson. In January 2011, Prof. Moore was appointed as the Dean of Social & Behavioral Sciences at Nassau Community College. She is the first African American woman to serve in this administrative position. Anissa is currently a Full Professor at Nassau.

Anissa is a playwright, poet and choral director. Ms. Moore's creative works include the collaboration: Sistas on Fire! a drama newsical regarding the African-American woman experience. Furthermore, she served as a Contributor for the Judson Press book: Women at the Well: Meditations for Quenching Our Thirst Vol. 2. She recently completed Mad Girl: Reflections on Race, Class and Gender, a collection of personal essays which will be released in Fall 2017. Anissa is a recent recipient of the John L. Kearse Trailblazer Award granted by the Economic Opportunity Commission of Nassau County for her outstanding leadership in Nassau County. On November 3, 2015, Anissa D. Moore became the first African-American woman elected to the Long Beach City Council. Anissa Moore embraces the motto of her shero, Shirley Chisolm: "I am and always will be a catalyst for change."

Performance Dates & Time (Approximately 20 Minutes):

Saturday, October 7th, 2017 at 7 PM EST

Venue: DUKE THEATRE, 229 W 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036

You can purchase tickets HERE.

For more information visit www.SistasonFire.com.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRc3-ZtA54E