Joe's Pub Reveals Artist Selections for 2025-26 Joe's Pub Working Group

Joe's Pub has revealed the artist selections for the 2025-26 Joe’s Pub Working Group. Launched over ten years ago, the program was conceived to address the rapidly shifting state of the performing arts in New York, and serve the overarching mission of Joe’s Pub: supporting artists on a cellular level and platforming underrepresented voices.

This year’s class is an incredible range of artists and performers. Mafer Bandola is a Bandola Llanera player, producer, researcher, and community organizer from  Venezuela. Daniel Emond and Kate Douglas, both also previous Jonathan Larsen Grant recipients, make music and theater works that push the boundaries of the art forms. Pooja Reddy is a writer and stand-up leading the way for South Asian voices in the comedy world.  Gregory Richardson is a composer and multi-instrumentalist, working in the dance world. 

“After a decade of the Joe’s Pub Working Group, we can truly see its impact: through the exciting careers of our alumni and the global community it has become. This year we welcome the tenth cohort of the JPWG, with artists who we believe reflect the present and future of Joe’s Pub. They are some of the best performers of music, theater, comedy, and storytelling in New York City right now, and remind us of how essential this program is.” said Isabel Kim, Associate Director of Joe’s Pub. Past JPWG members include Becca Blackwell, Celisse, Jaime Cepero, Isaac Oliver, Samora Pinderhughes, Shaina Taub, Ikechukwu Ufomadu, Julian Velard, Esraa Warda, and more.

The working group nurtures the sustainability and growth of New York-based emerging and established artists by providing administrative resources, physical space, and curatorial services to cultivate a community where they can thrive.

Joe’s Pub also supports The Vanguard Residency and New York Voices. The former celebrates the career and influence of an artist who has contributed to American life and pop culture, leading their own artistic community. The 2025-26 Vanguard is cabaret legend, performer, writer, and activist Dr. Justin Vivian Bond,  who will curate a year of programming at Joe’s Pub. The year includes Garnet Williams (Cats: The Jellicle Ball), Bianca Leigh (Oh Mary!), and more to be announced. 

New York Voices is an artist commissioning structure that encourages artists to explore their storytelling, narratives and songwriting processes to create new original works. This year’s artists areTaylor Mac, Lisa Stephen Friday, and Lampert & Barsha. Past artists include Bridget Everett, Jean Grae, Nona Hendryx, Murray Hill, Toshi Reagon, Allen Toussaint, and many more. 

About the 2025-26 Joe’s Pub Working Group Artists 

Mafer Bandola

(she/her/ella) is a Bandola Llanera player (a four-stringed instrument), producer, researcher, and community organizer from Barquisimeto, Venezuela, based out of New York. As she grew up with an Afro-Indigenous oral tradition inspired by the relationship of the inhabitants of the Plains (Los Llanos) with nature, she developed a grounded understanding of the bandola (male-dominated) traditions. She focused on bringing the instrument to a new artistic path through composition, performance, and improvisation. In addition, Mafer innovated within the practice, investigating and channeling the female experience of a Latinx musician in a globalized world. 

Mafer is a co-founder and performer in the Latin alternative powerhouse band LADAMA, which has released two albums. She also leads the production of the online Latínica conference, a platform exploring the Latinx experience within the music industry. 

Mafer holds a degree in journalism and focuses her research on the experiences of female instrumentalists in Venezuela's musical oral traditions. 

Kate Douglas

(she/her)  is a writer/performer and composer. Recent shows include My Dog is Dead (Ancram Center for the Arts), The Apiary (Second Stage: Outer Critics Circle Award nomination), and hagwith Grace McLean (Vivace Award). She is a recipient of the Jonathan Larson Grant for music & lyrics as well as the Next Forever Commission from The Civilians/Princeton University. Previous performance credits include Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More (where she also held the title of Associate Artist) and Liz Phair's 30th Anniversary Tour of her seminal album Exile in Guyville.

Daniel Emond

(he/him) is a composer and performer based in Queens, who makes big lush things that resemble musicals. He’s covered topics from Moby-Dick to Freudian psychoanalysis. Peak Performances at Montclair State University has commissioned the second draft of the latter, Mind Canary: A Freudian Musical. He is a 2023 Jonathan Larson grant recipient, a 2023 Saw recording grant recipient, a 2023 NYFA grant recipient, and a 2023 CREATE finalist with the American Composer's Forum.

Pooja Reddy

(she/her) is a Brooklyn-based comedy writer and stand-up comedian, raised in rural Kentucky with roots in Hyderabad, India. She began her career in Washington, DC, working for First Lady Michelle Obama before transitioning to public-private partnerships at the United Nations. Pooja’s writing and performances have been featured in New York Magazine and in the Emmy nominated special, Voices Rising: What’s Next for Asian Americans in the Arts? on WNET. She is an on-air contributor for both Disney’s Localish Network and PBS’ ALL ARTS Network. 

Pooja is also the co-host of Kutti Gang, a New York Times and Time Out NY recommended comedy show celebrating women and queer South Asian voices. Kutti Gang has headlined Carolines on Broadway, been featured in the New York Comedy Festival, and released a special on PBS’ ALL ARTS Network. Pooja’s solo show is called Pooja Reddy is White Trash.

Gregory Richardson

he/him) is a composer and multi-instrumentalist focusing on upright and electric bass, and guitar. He is the co-founder and co-artistic director of Music From The Sole and the musical director of Dorrance Dance. As a composer for dance, he’s created work for Lincoln Center, Jacob’s Pillow, The Yard, Guild Hall, Works & Process, BAM, The Joyce, and New York City Center, most recently in collaboration with actor Bill Irwin. Other credits include performing with Toshi Reagon in her opera Parable of the Sower, touring with indie band Darwin Deez, and playing with Grammy-winning artists Keyon Harrold and Marcus Gilmore.