EXILED TONGUES IS A NYC BASED THEATER COLLECTIVE THAT PROVIDES FINANCIAL, ARTISTIC AND COLLABORATIVE SUPPORT TO ARTISTS OF COLOR WHO CENTER DIASPORIC CONSCIOUSNESS. WE REALIZE THAT MAINSTREAM AMERICAN THEATER SUFFERS FROM A SEVERE LACK OF REPRESENTATION AND DESERVES SERIOUS DISCUSSION ON COLONIZATION AND THE LEGACY OF POST-COLONIALISM ESPECIALLY WITHIN THE AMERICAN CONTEXT. OUR PRODUCTIONS SHOWCASE THE COMPLEX STORIES OF PEOPLE OF THE GLOBAL MAJORITY AND ACKNOWLEDGE INTERSECTIONAL IDENTITIES. WE USE OUR INTERSECTIONAL IDENTITIES AS A FORM OF THEATRICAL EMPOWERMENT AND SEEK TO MAKE CHANGE BEYOND THEATER AND INTO OUR COMMUNITIES.

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Our inaugural 2020/2021 season featured our first production, "CUT WOMAN", which was presented at the Prelude NYC 2020 Festival. Our second production, "CON DOUGH: Stories of 1 in 5 Gentrified" was commissioned by the Center at West Park in February 2021, and  premiered at The Tank in May 2021. "CON DOUGH" is a fiscally sponsored project by the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA).

EXILED TONGUES' 2021/2022 season features, "Kept in the Dark" (New Ohio Theatre), "Diasporic Dreams From a Boy Who Wished He Could" (Rogue Theater Festival), "First Sight: A Queer Indonesian Love Story" (The Tank, Rogue Theater Festival), "(Re)imagining Greenpoint's Green Waters" ("Tending The Edge"), "Our Bang For Their Buck: No Pipeline for LNG" (recipient of the NYSCA 2022 Individual Artist Grant), "Querencia" (Jamaica Performing Arts Center), supported by the NYC City Artist Corps Grant "Mixed Asian Media Fest", "After the Cut" (Queens Theatre), supported by the City Artist Grant and"Ghana, Guinea, or Guatemala? A Historiography on Guyana by Jim Jones (Fifth Avenue Theater)

T.J. LEWIS

ARTISTIC AND INSTITUTIONAL CONSULTANT

MANAGING DIRECTOR

THE 2021/2022 season is EXILED TONGUES' second season! Our first production of the season "Diasporic Dreams From a Boy Who Wished He Could" written and directed by Ray Jordan Achan premiered at Rogue Theater Festival in July 2021. "First Sight: A Queer Indonesian Love Story" written and directed by Dena Igusti premiered at Rogue Theater Festival in July 2021, and premiered at the Tank's Lime Fest in August 2021. "Ghana, Guinea or Guatemala? A Historiography on Guyana by Jim Jones, a one-man show written, directed, and performed by Ray Jordan Achan premiered at the Fifth Avenue Theater in October 2021. EXILED TONGUES was a part of "Now In Process" at the New Ohio Theatre and produced, "Kept in the Dark", an original show written by Dena Igusti. 

We are developing two site specific documentary theater pieces, "(Re)Imagining Greenpoint's Green Waters", a piece about the history of environmental violence at Newtown Creek; and "Our Bang For Their Buck: No Pipeline For LNG", a piece documenting the experiences of activists and community members negatively affected by the proposed installation and extension of the North Brooklyn Pipeline, proposed by National Grid. "(Re)Imagining Greenpoint's Green Waters" was featured in "Tending The Edge", and "Our Bang For Their Buck" is the recipient of the 2022 NYSCA Individual Artist Grant. 

We co-sponsored, "Querencia", an original play by Artist-in-Resident, Francis Madi about a Venezuelan immigrant family dealing with the trials and tribulations of living in America while still connected to their land of origin. EXILED TONGUES has also co-sponsored the first annual, "Mixed Asian Media Fest", a five day festival filled with programming highlighting the diversity of talent amongst Asian creatives.