Fri June 12 - 12:30 PM
Level Forward's Storytelling Forward Workshop
Free Talks
| 90 MINUTES
Level Forward's Storytelling Forward workshop is a guided storytelling experience crafted with prompts, provocations, and practical skills that empower and equip artists for the future of narrative change. In this high-energy, interactive workshop co-created & facilitated by Andrea Ambam (Director & Host of Programming at Level Forward) and Dria Brown (The Creative Doula Studio), participants will learn and then apply the unique Storytelling Forward framework to generate new stories and hone existing ones for maximum social good. Participants will also engage with powerful creative tools from New America’s StoryCare5 and Power Frame Project. Ultimately, Level Forward's Storytelling Forward asks us all to consider: What is my responsibility as a culture-maker with the power to shape and tell stories? How can my messaging reshape the status quo? And most importantly, how many untold, liberatory stories emerge when we all commit to storytelling for social good?
Panelists
Dria Brown
"Dria Brown is a Black, queer producer and cultural strategist. In her leadership as Producing Artist Director at Broadway Advocacy Coalition, Dria helped steward the Tony Award-wining organization’s evolution into a nationally recognized nonprofit at the intersection of arts and justice. During her tenure, BAC has partnered with institutions including the Tribeca Film Festival and Sundance Institute and collaborated with acclaimed artists such as Dominique Morisseau, Jesse Williams, Lynn Nottage, The Bengsons, Tiffany Mann, John Clay III, Ephraim Sykes, Adrienne Warren, and Jerrie Johnson. The organization’s work was recognized with a Special Tony Award in 2021. A bi-coastal digital and live event producer working between New York City and Los Angeles, Dria’s producing work spans live performance, large-scale convenings, and digital civic experiences. Her projects include New INC’s Demo Festival at the New Museum, Theater of Change at Columbia Law School, and Broadway Advocacy Coalition’s Night of Artivism and annual culminating performances at venues across New York City including Signature Theatre, Abrons Arts Center, MCC Theater, and The Tank. During the 2020 uprisings, Dria produced the three-day digital convening Broadway for Black Lives Matter, which reached more than 10,000 viewers and received a Webby Award. Her touring and commercial production experience includes serving as tour manager and talent booker for Britton & The Sting with Sammy Rae & The Friends, as well as producing live music performances at Joe’s Pub, Baby’s All Right, Second Stage Theater, Rockwood Music Hall, and C’mon Everybody. Additional producing credits include performance programming with Alethea Pace at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through the Civil Practice Fellowship and production work on Terence Nance’s Biennial presentation at the Whitney Museum. Dria is the founder of The Creative Doula Studio. She uses the term Creative Doula to describe how she makes work and is committed to expanding its use across the arts as a way to name care-centered, process-driven creative leadership. She produces high-caliber events where production value and audience experience are treated as central. https://www.thecreativedoulastudio.com/"
Andrea Ambam
Andrea Ambam is an award-winning storyteller and truthteller whose roots sprout from Cameroon. Currently, Andrea is the Director of Programming at Level Forward – where she stewards and host the Anthem Award-winning audience engagement platform More To Talk About (previously seen at Sundance Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, SXSW, and monthly in NYC at Soho House). She is also the 2026-2027 Playwright-in-Residence at Working Theater, and under commission by the Perelman Performing Arts Center and Civis Foundation for her experimental new play TWELVE ANGRY BLACK WOMEN. Pulsating at the intersection of art and social change as a playwright, performance artist, and creative producer – Andrea has developed her unruly imagination and multi-hyphenated practice through residencies and fellowships with New York Theatre Workshop, PEN America, Hi-ARTS, Anna Deavere Smith, Broadway Advocacy Coalition, The Playwrights Realm, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Signature Theatre, EmergeNYC; collaborations with BAM Fisher, Rattlestick Theatre, JACK, The Billie Holiday Theatre, Working Theater, Classical Theatre of Harlem, NYU Verbatim Performance Lab, The Apollo, National Black Theatre, Harlem9, and more. Her plays include: Date of Release (Working Theater and Broadway Advocacy Coalition’s Stage Left Festival), Fragile State (Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference Semifinalist, Theatre503 International Playwriting Award Longlist), R(estoration) I(n) P(rogress) (NYU Educational Theatre/Provincetown Playhouse, 2023), Rehearsing Justice: A One-Woman Show (Brooklyn Arts Exchange), Angelina Weld Grimke (Classical Theatre of Harlem/Playbill, Broadway Podcast Network), and more. She’s been a finalist or semi-finalist for the Rattlestick Van Lier Fellowship, Portland Center Stage’s JAW New Play Festival, Fault Line Theatre’s Irons in The Fire, NewVictory Labworks, and Ars Nova Play Group. At a collegiate level, Andrea was a competitive public speaker/performer where she was awarded 10 national championships including "Top Speaker in the Nation'' three times, and went on to debate conservative pundits on live TV. Andrea lives in Brooklyn and holds a Masters degree in Art & Public Policy from NYU Tisch. www.andreaambam.com
Co-Hosted by:
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* Rush Tickets will be offered at venues when advanced tickets for a screening or event are no longer available (EXCLUDES: Beacon Theatre).
The Rush system functions as a standby line that will form at the venue approximately one hour prior to scheduled start time. Admittance is based on availability and will begin roughly 10 minutes prior to program start time. Rush Tickets are the same price as advance tickets and are payable upon entry.