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Kristen Adele Calhoun is a writer, actor, producer and curator who
loves Black people. Her work is inspired by red clay roads, her benevolent ancestors, the Atlantic Ocean, bloodline healing, fugitivity, sensuality, uprising and joy. She is a writer for HBO’s adaptation of Toni Morrison’s SULA created and helmed by showrunner, Shannon M. Houston. Kristen is also on the writing team for BLKNWS directed by Kahlil Joseph, produced by A24 and Participant. She is an I AM SOUL Playwriting Resident at Dr. Barbara Ann Teer’s National Black Theatre, the founding Program Director of ArtChangeUS, an Assistant Editor of Contemporary Plays by Women of Color and a co-producer of InterFest, an intersectional arts and ideas festival that began at the Harlem School of the Arts. She is an Executive Producer for The Astronaut Who Lost His Helmet. Kristen is the co-curator of BLKSPACE along with InterFest co-producer, Nikki Vera. Time at BLKSPACE is granted to Black artists whose work forwards Black liberation. BLKSPACE seeks to simultaneously provide an expansive dreaming space for the individual and a collective practice ground for freedom. A native of Dallas, Texas, she splits her time between Ghana, Mexico and the United States of America. |
The role of the artist is to make the revolution irresistible.” |
Still from EVERYTHING I WHISPERED TO DOROTHY by Fitzgerald Junior
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Kristen's plays include Canfield Drive, Black Cypress Bayou, Now, She Is Rising, Starshine & Clay, The Oldest Town in Texas, A Pocket Full of Dandelions, and Quilombo.
Her play Black Cypress Bayou will be produced in the 2023 - 2024 season of The Geffen Playhouse under the direction of Tiffany Nichole Greene. Television and film acting credits include House of Cards, Orange is the New Black, Elementary, Blue Bloods, The Good Wife, The Kids Are Not Alright and Everything I Whispered to Dorothy. Theatre collaborations as an actor and or playwright include: Denver Center Theatre Company, Portland Center Stage, Cleveland Playhouse, Geva Theater, Hartford Stage, The Acting Company, Arvada Center for Performing Arts, The Clarence Brown Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Colorado Shakespeare Festival, 59E59, Shadow Theatre Company, Curious Theatre Company, Premiere Stages, The St. Louis Black Rep, Chale Wote Street Art Festival and the National Black Theatre Festival. |
Photo by Ryan Landell
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Awards and residencies include:
The National Black Theatre’s I AM SOUL Playwriting Residency;
Library of Africa and the African Diaspora / SCCA Tamale Writing Residency;
The Cultural Diaspora Residency at the Camargo Foundation in Cassis, France;
SPACE on Ryder Farm;
The Lett's Rise Award, Lett's Rise Productions, Beverly Hills, CA;
and the Diversity and Community Excellence Award at the University of North Texas.
Grants and scholarships include:
Dramatist Guild Foundation; Authors League Fund; Berkshire Leadership Summit; The National Performance Network; Denver Arts and Venues Imagine 2020; The Levin Scholarship and The Kelly Kriedeman Memorial Award, Rutgers University.
Commissions include:
The NAACP, Penumbra Theatre, The St. Louis Black Rep, 651 ARTS, and The Black American West Museum.
Publications by:
Book Bar Press (West Book Awards Nominee).
She has taught at:
Rutgers University, The University of Montevallo, West Dallas Community School and CCA.
She has been a speaker/panelist for:
PBS, Wellness of We, Dallas Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation, Hi-ARTS,
The Cooler Summit, The Minority Retort, BOLD, and Citizen University.
BFA: University of North Texas.
MFA: Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University.
The National Black Theatre’s I AM SOUL Playwriting Residency;
Library of Africa and the African Diaspora / SCCA Tamale Writing Residency;
The Cultural Diaspora Residency at the Camargo Foundation in Cassis, France;
SPACE on Ryder Farm;
The Lett's Rise Award, Lett's Rise Productions, Beverly Hills, CA;
and the Diversity and Community Excellence Award at the University of North Texas.
Grants and scholarships include:
Dramatist Guild Foundation; Authors League Fund; Berkshire Leadership Summit; The National Performance Network; Denver Arts and Venues Imagine 2020; The Levin Scholarship and The Kelly Kriedeman Memorial Award, Rutgers University.
Commissions include:
The NAACP, Penumbra Theatre, The St. Louis Black Rep, 651 ARTS, and The Black American West Museum.
Publications by:
Book Bar Press (West Book Awards Nominee).
She has taught at:
Rutgers University, The University of Montevallo, West Dallas Community School and CCA.
She has been a speaker/panelist for:
PBS, Wellness of We, Dallas Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation, Hi-ARTS,
The Cooler Summit, The Minority Retort, BOLD, and Citizen University.
BFA: University of North Texas.
MFA: Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University.