(Playwright)

Keith Josef Adkins is a playwright, screenwriter and artistic director. His plays include Last Saint on Sugar Hill (National Black Theatre, New York; MPAACT Theatre, Chicago), Sugar and Needles (Epic Theatre, New York), The Underside of Jackfruit and Papaya (Working Theatre, New York), The Bug Pods (radio play, The Greene Space/Flea Theatre, New York), Sweet Home (MPAACT Theater Company, Chicago), The Final Days of Negro-ville (Playwrights Foundation Rough Reading Series, San Francisco; Represent Festival at A.C.T., Seattle), Pitbulls, Safe House, among others. His awards include a 2010 Gateway commission from the Obie Award-winning Epic Theatre, a 2010 A Contemporary Theatre/Hansberry Project Commission, a 2009 New Professional Theater Playwright Award, a 2009 New York State Council on the Arts playwriting grant, a 2008 Kesselring Fellowship nomination, among others. Keith co-founded and serves as artistic director of The New Black Fest, a festival of new and provocative playwriting, music and discussion from the African Diaspora, and also co-founded The American Slavery Project.