The Downtown Urban Arts Festival Reveals 24th Season At La Mama And Joe's Pub

The Downtown Urban Arts Festival (DUAF), now in its 24th season, will present the works of 19 playwrights, including those by Artistic Director Reg E. Gaines, Kevin Powell, and Arturo Luíz Soria when the festival returns May 29-June 20 at Joe's Pub (425 Lafayette Street) and La Mama Experimental Theatre Club (66 E. 4th Street).

The Downtown Urban Arts Festival is produced by T. Marc Newell, and artistic directed by Reg E. Gaines. The technical director is Paul Jones, the creative director is Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez/Somos Arte, and the program coordinator is Sideeq Heard.

It was also announced that the DUAF Spotlight Playwrights of this year's are Desi Moreno-Penson and Cris Eli Blak. The Festival kicks off with a new solo work, The White Whale Journal by Arturo Luíz Soria at Joe's Pub on May 29.

Highlights

THE WHITE WHALE JOURNAL by ARTURO LUÍZ SORIA

May 29th at 7:00PM and May 30th at 9:30PM at Joe’s Pub

Tickets $36. Available at https://www.duafnyc.com and https://www.joespub.com

2023 Obie Award-winning actor and writer Arturo Luíz Soria returns to the NYC stage in a new solo work, The White Whale Journal. This intriguing tale follows a writer, after the tragic death of his brother, who inherits a strange archive. What emerges is not an answer, but a widening: a brother restored not as a final act, but as a vast, unfinished human story still breaching the surface.

Under the Influence by Reg E. Gaines

June 5th and June 6th at 7:30PM at LaMaMa

Tickets $25. Available at https://www.duafnyc.com

“Under The Influence is an example of how art can inspire while focusing on the importance of paying homage to those who have forged a poetic path. I am excited to have an opportunity, along with Calvin Gaines & Mark Wilson, to share the musical/ poetic renderings with the 2026 DUAF audiences.” - Reg E. Gaines

my father could not read or write by Kevin Powell

June 19 and June 20 at 7:30PM at LaMama

Tickets $25. Available at https://www.duafnyc.com

GRAMMY-nominated poet Kevin Powell premieres an excerpt of his forthcoming choreopoem, GROCERY SHOPPING WITH MY MOTHER. The excerpt is titled "my father could not read or write" and will be performed by Kevin with live music. Coinciding with both Juneteenth and Father's Day Weekend, the two performances, directed by Tyneshia Hill, explore fatherhood, abandonment, mental health, healing, and the many meanings of freedom.

Festival Dates

June 3

LET MEZALUCA BUY YOUR CAR by Desi Moreno-Penson

At a dark and lonely crossroads, a bickering Latine couple have experienced a car accident. She blames the car. He blames her nagging. And the car has quite a few opinions of his own.

four;interwoven by Erika Ji

four; interwoven is a concept quartet that explores what it means to choose love and togetherness, especially when it’s hard. Four musician-storytellers interweave their unique voices and instruments in this concept quartet blending folk band, theatre troupe, and choral music, composition with devising and improvising, singing without words.

June 4

Fried Live Skin by Edwin Rivera-Arias

Tio Congo, who operates a front selling chucherías in the parking lot of Toñita's Caribbean Grill in Flushing, thinks he's the King of the Cocaine Coast. That is, until he reunites with Fran Iran, who catches him with his pants down—literally.

Amendable by Cris Eli Blak

At an elite East Coast college, four young women leading a progressive political club are forced into crisis when a controversial speaker is selected. Ideals of free speech collide with lived experience, exposing fractures of race, power, and performative allyship as a routine meeting spirals into an unflinching reckoning.

June 5-6

Under The Influence by Reg E. Gaines

June 10

40 Seconds by Jake Alexander

A journalist joins a famous graffiti artist at their favorite spot to tag, with limited time to make an impression before the next subway comes. Exploring art, risk, audience, and why we create.

AGON by Charlene Adhiambo

Moses Beatty, the artistic director of a leading NYC ballet company is pitched by VOGUE to interview controversial ballet veteran Lucinda St. James. The two hash out their resentment toward each other and their cutthroat industry in this sharp study of artistic ownership, mentorship, and the costs of Black excellence.

June 11

A Lesson in Captivity by Daniel Damiano

In an afterschool detention at an unnamed high school, a newly arrived teacher strives to maintain order between two very different students

Gin & Milk by Antony Raymond

A late-night encounter between a guarded British romantic and a wounded American actuary in a tiny New York apartment spirals from awkward date into boozy confession and fierce intimacy, as two freshly heartbroken strangers test whether one fleeting night can help them release their ghosts—or just expose how broken they really are.

June 12

Black Commie Bitch by Tyler Exum

A disillusioned NYC Congresswoman appointed to lead a new HUAC committee secretly joins a Black Communist book club in her district, setting her on a collision course with her career, her politics, and herself.

Pot Liquor by Joy

This is a one woman show about the cannibalistic effects of generational abuse. It deals with themes of loss, and loneliness which are also probable causes for Lucy’s insanity. Lucy isn’t a woman of many words until she drinks a glass of Pot Liquor, straight, no cornbread.

June 13

The Deep Play by Cece Suazo

Set in 1980s Brooklyn, this powerful dramedy follows 12-year-old Eduardo Garcia as he navigates the fragile boundaries of a Honduran family. When secrets of gender and trauma threaten to surface, the family must choose between devastation and unity. It is a universal story of survival, unmasking truth, and love.

Desert Flowers by GOODW.Y.N.

A Black, Queer female soldier becomes the lone survivor of a terrible car accident. While burying her grief, she is deployed to Iraq in 2003, and suffers from dangerous encounters.

June 17

Whiskey, Hope, and the Climate Clock by Marissa Raine Carlin (Book, Music, & Lyrics) & Carter Quinn Tanis (Book & Music)

Hope sits alone, watching the Climate Clock in Union Square tick down to zero. As an ‘End of the World Party’ rages on behind her, someone she would usually ignore sits beside her. They discuss the beauty of the past, anxieties of the present and their fear of the future.

Sing Truth to Power by Howard Ho

A KPOP star who sings anthems against an evil dictator learns the devastating truth that she has been unwittingly complicit in his tyranny. What do you do when your art is being co-opted?

June 18

Lo siento, mi español es tremendo mal. by Brandon Urrutia

Family, Faith, and Flan.Three of the defining features of Hispanic Culture, but can you participate when you don't even speak the language?

An Audit at the Funeral Parlor by Alexander Perez

Estrella works at the family funeral parlor with her Mom, Dad, and Grandfather. When a surprise audit sends the patriarch to an early grave, deep family secrets make themselves known in hilarious and terrifying ways.

June 19-20