Panel Discussion: The Performance of "The Personal is Political"
"The Personal is Political" was a common phrase among the women's liberation movement. What is more personal than art as activism? Join us for a curated panel in partnership with Roundabout Theatre Company to explore the role of art, design, fashion, and storytelling in the continued work of communities amplifying their own stories and preserving their past.
Featured Panelists
OLARONKE AKINMOWO is a literary scholar, library worker and interdisciplinary artist who works in collage, paper making, printmaking, book arts, and stop motion animation. She works as a Set Decorator for TV and Film, and is the Creator and Director of The Free Black Women’s Library a social art project, reading room, literary hub, social site and community care space located in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. This space features a free store, period pantry, backyard garden, reading club weekly and book swapping session. It also offers a wide array of free public programs and a diverse collection of over five thousand books written by Black women and Black non-binary authors. All are welcome to read, write, work, rest and daydream in this space. Through her creative praxis she aims to offer radical and counter narratives around the constructs of beauty, safety, and sanity for Black women and marginalized peoples worldwide. She is guided by the tenets of Black Feminism, mutual aid, and Afro-Futurism. A proud mama, busy body and dance machine, she lives and thrives in Brooklyn, NYC.
- NICOLE T. BRYAN is the Branch Manager of the Macon Library at Brooklyn Public Library. She spent some of her career within the social services arena, developing programs and meeting constituents’ needs. Currently, she assesses the delivery of library services to diverse populations in public library branches and homeless shelters in Brooklyn, N.Y. Nicole is the recipient of the 2021 Whole Health Hero Award for her work in providing services to the community during COVID-19 and the 2022 Library Journal’s Movers and Shakers Award for her work as a community builder in the library field. She was also just awarded the 2023 Woman of Distinctions award from the 56th District Assemblymember. Nicole received her MLS degree from Long Island University and has been working in the library field for over 20 years.
JENNIFER WEISS-WOLF serves as executive director for strategy at Ms. and is a contributor to and editor of 50 Years of Ms.: The Best of the Pathfinding Magazine That Ignited a Revolution. A passionate writer on and advocate for issues of gender and politics, Jen was dubbed the “architect of the U.S. campaign to squash the tampon tax” by Newsweek. Her 2017 book Periods Gone Public: Taking a Stand for Menstrual Equity was lauded by Gloria Steinem as “the beginning of liberation for us all.” Jen’s writing has been published in the New York Times, Washington Post, TIME, Oprah Daily, and MSNBC.com, among others. She also leads NYU Law’s Birnbaum Women’s Leadership Center.
WHITNEY WHITE is an Obie and Lily Award-winning and Tony Award-nominated director, actor and musician, who showcases her bold and innovative approach of storytelling through her many productions, both on and off-Broadway. She will be honored at the 2025 Drama League Awards with the ‘Founders Award for Excellence in Directing.’
Currently on Broadway and in previews, Whitney directs the highly anticipated revival of THE LAST FIVE YEARS, starring Nick Jonas and Adrienne Warren. Opening on April 6, the show follows Jamie (Jonas) and Cathy (Warren) as their five-year relationship unfolds at this heart-racing theatrical event.
Recently, off-Broadway, she directed Bess Wohl’s feminist work, LIBERATION hailed by Vulture as their “favorite play this season” under her “assured direction.” The limited engagement runs through April 6.
Whitney will star in MACBETH IN STRIDE, an electrifying musical examination of ambition through the lens of Lady Macbeth, for which she also wrote book, music and lyrics. MACBETH IN STRIDE will run at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) from April 15 - 27. This summer, she is set to direct New York Theatre Workshop’s SATURDAY CHURCH, a new musical featuring songs by Sia and Honey Dijon. Additionally, her four-part musical cycle, ALL IS BUT FANTASY (including MACBETH IN STRIDE as part one), deconstructing Shakespeare’s women, is currently in development with the Royal Shakespeare Company (UK).
In 2024, Whitney earned her first Tony Award nomination for ‘Best Direction of a Play’ and was nominated for a Drama League award for ‘Outstanding Direction of a Play’ for her work on JAJA’S AFRICAN HAIR BRAIDING. The show was nominated for six Tony Awards, three Drama Desk Awards, three Drama League Awards and two Outer Critics Circle Awards.
As director, Whitney’s theatre credits include WALDEN, JORDAN’S, THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES, BY THE QUEEN, THE SPECTACULARLY LAMENTABLE TRIAL OF MIZ MARTHA WASHINGTON, SOFT, ON SUGARLAND, WHAT TO SEND UP WHEN IT GOES DOWN, OUR DEAR DRUG LORD, FOR ALL THE WOMEN WHO THOUGHT THEY WERE MAD, A HUMAN BEING OF A SORT, AN ILIAD, THE AMEN CORNER, OTHELLO, CANYON and JUMP.
Her film and TV acting credits include OCEAN'S EIGHT opposite Anne Hathaway, Freeform’s SINGLE DRUNK FEMALE, FX’s LOUIE and NBC’s THE PLAYBOY CLUB. She also wrote for Boots Riley’s I’M A VIRGO for Prime Video.
Whitney is originally from Chicago and currently based in New York.
BESS WOHL's many plays have been produced on and off Broadway, regionally, and internationally. They include Grand Horizons (Broadway, Tony Nomination for Best Play), Camp Siegfried, Make Believe, Continuity, Small Mouth Sounds, American Hero, Barcelona, Touched, In, Cats Talk Back and the musical Pretty Filthy. She recently made her feature film debut, Baby Ruby, starring Noémie Merlant and Kit Harington. The film premiered at the 2022 Toronto Film Festival and was released by Magnolia Pictures in early 2023. She also wrote for the Apple TV+ series, “Extrapolations.”
RSVP is recommended but not required. Seating will be first-come, first-served.
About Liberation: From Tony Award® nominees Bess Wohl (Grand Horizons) and Whitney White (Jaja’s African Hair Braiding) comes a provocative, revealing, and irreverent jolt of a play about what really goes on when women meet behind closed doors.
