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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 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. A native of Dallas, Texas, she splits her time between Ghana, Mexico and the United States of America. In 2022, Kristen is co-curating the BLKSPACE Residency at Ryder Farm 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. |
The role of the artist is to make the revolution irresistible.” |
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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,
Television and film acting credits include House of Cards, Orange is the New Black, Elementary, Blue Bloods, The Good Wife, 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. |
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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 2021 Writing Residency; SPACE on Ryder Farm; the Lett's Rise Award, Lett's Rise Productions, Beverly Hills, CA; and the Diversity and Community Excellence Award, 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, 651 ARTS, The St. Louis Black Rep, 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, Hi-ARTS, the Minority Retort, BOLD, and the Art and Racial Justice Panel for Citizen University.
BFA: University of North Texas.
MFA: The 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 2021 Writing Residency; SPACE on Ryder Farm; the Lett's Rise Award, Lett's Rise Productions, Beverly Hills, CA; and the Diversity and Community Excellence Award, 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, 651 ARTS, The St. Louis Black Rep, 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, Hi-ARTS, the Minority Retort, BOLD, and the Art and Racial Justice Panel for Citizen University.
BFA: University of North Texas.
MFA: The Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University.