In the Bricks Festival For the Culture Events

Now that the In the Bricks Festival has wrapped, take a look back at our For the Culture events hosted by the NYTW Education & Community Engagement team in collaboration with our presenting partners, community partners, and artists on stage. Through meaningful conversations to new connections while breaking bread on East 4th St, we had a blast connecting with so many communities surrounding the Festival’s celebration of our shared humanity. Be sure to join us next season for even more talkbacks, community events, and opportunities to gather with one another!

For the Culture: In the Bricks Festival

Community Mixer
Tuesday, May 19 – 6:00-7:30PM
83 E 4th Street

Join us for the NYTW Community Mixer, an evening to gather, connect, and celebrate the artists, neighbors, partners, and collaborators in our community. Whether you’re a longtime friend or new to our community, this is a space to meet fellow creatives, spark new ideas, and strengthen the relationships that keep our theatre vibrant. Come for the conversation, stay for the community.

Longest Table – A Table for Stories & Community
Thursday, May 28 – 5-6:30PM
Outside at 79 E 4th St

Artists, audiences, neighbors, and partners gather for a shared meal and facilitated conversation. Inspired by the themes of In the Bricks, this Longest Table centers storytelling, listening, and connection across difference. Guided prompts encourage reflection on joy, resilience, creativity, and what it means to gather in community. 

For the Culture: The Peculiar Patriot

AfterWords – Unpacking The Complex: The Forgotten Patriot
Thursday, May 7 – Post-Show (following 7PM performance)
New York Theatre Workshop

Unpacking The Complex: The Forgotten Patriot centers incarcerated individuals as vital members of our shared civic fabric, despite systemic erasure. It highlights the broader impact of incarceration while advocating for recognition, restoration, and change.

Featuring: Assemblyman Al Taylor & Selwyn R. Fergus, LCSW-R

 

Open Salon – Liberation, Art, & Story
Thursday, May 7 – Post-Show (following 7PM performance)
New York Theatre Workshop

Following the performance of The Peculiar Patriot, this Open Salon welcomes artists and community members impacted by the criminal legal system to share poetry, monologues, music, and conversation. The evening is designed as a supportive gathering that centers creativity and community as a tool for healing, liberation and action. The salon invites audiences to listen, witness, and connect across lived experience.

This event was presented in partnership with The Fortune Society and Re-Entry Theatre of Harlem.

AfterWords – Unpacking The Complex with Wallo267
Saturday, May 9 – Post-Show (following 6PM performance)
New York Theatre Workshop

Join us for an intentionally curated post-show gathering immediately following The Peculiar Patriot as part of AfterWords: Unpacking the Complex. This series of town hall–style conversations, held after selected performances, brings together audience members, community leaders, and artists to create a space for communal reflection and digestion.

Featuring: Wallo267

AfterWords – Unpacking The Complex: The Mother’s Impact by Bars
Sunday, May 10 – Post-Show (following 2PM performance)
New York Theatre Workshop

Unpacking The Complex: The Mother’s Impact by Bars centers the generational impact of maternal incarceration on families and communities. It highlights the ways cycles of separation shape childhood, care, and collective well-being.

Featuring: Soffiyah Elijah, Lena Waithe, & Kimberlé Crenshaw

MAY 16: AfterWords – Unpacking The Complex: Imagine Liberation
Saturday, May 16 – Post-Show (following 1PM performance)
New York Theatre Workshop

Unpacking The Complex: Imagine Liberation centers collective visioning as a pathway toward systemic change. It explores how communities can move from survival toward freedom through shared power and transformative justice.

Featuring: Jamie Maleszka-Tate & Alex Anderson

AfterWords – Unpacking The Complex: The Road To Restoration
Thursday, May 21 – Post-Show (following 7PM performance)
New York Theatre Workshop

Unpacking The Complex: The Road To Restoration explores what it truly means to rebuild after incarceration, both individually and collectively. It examines the pathways, barriers, and possibilities for healing, accountability, and reintegration.

Featuring: Sharon White-Harrigan & Darren Mack

AfterWords – Unpacking The Complex: The Power Game
Sunday, May 24 – Post-Show (following 2PM performance)
New York Theatre Workshop

Unpacking The Complex: The Power Game interrogates how power is constructed, wielded, and withheld within systems that shape freedom and confinement. Framed around Memorial Day, it questions who is honored, who is forgotten, and how power defines both.

Featuring: Judge Milton Tingling & Darlene Bruce

AfterWords – Unpacking The Complex: Sisterhood Is Bond
Thursday, June 4 – Post-Show (following 7PM performance)
New York Theatre Workshop

Unpacking The Complex: Sisterhood Is Bond centers the relationships and resilience formed among women navigating incarceration and its aftermath. It highlights how connection, care, and solidarity become tools for survival and transformation.

Featuring: Dr. Topeka Sam & Mariame Kaba

AfterWords – Unpacking The Complex: The Town Hall
Saturday, June 6 – Post-Show (following 6PM performance)
New York Theatre Workshop

Unpacking The Complex: The Town Hall creates space for open dialogue, bringing community voices into direct conversation around incarceration and its impact. It invites collective reflection, accountability, and shared visioning for change.

Featuring: Darlene Bruce

AfterWords – Unpacking The Complex: Common Justice Practitioners
Wednesday, June 10 – Post-Show (following 7PM performance)
New York Theatre Workshop

Join us for an intentionally curated post-show gathering immediately following The Peculiar Patriot as part of AfterWords: Unpacking the Complex. This series of town hall–style conversations, held after selected performances, brings together audience members, community leaders, and artists to create a space for communal reflection and digestion.

Featuring: Ernest Johnson, Mckayla Warwick, & C. Fausto Cabrera

AfterWords – Unpacking The Complex: The Politics of Policy
Friday, June 12 – Post-Show (following 7PM performance)
New York Theatre Workshop

Unpacking The Complex: The Politics Of Policy examines how legislation and political agendas shape the realities of incarceration and justice. It unpacks the systems behind the system, revealing the power and consequences of policy decisions.

Featuring: DeRay Mckesson & Marlon Peterson

AfterWords – Unpacking The Complex: Naming Next Steps
Saturday, June 13 – Post-Show (following 1PM performance)
New York Theatre Workshop

Unpacking The Complex: Naming Next Steps moves from dialogue to action, identifying tangible pathways forward for individuals, communities, and institutions. It calls for intentional commitment to building more just and restorative futures.

Featuring: Alethea Taylor & Judge Raymond Bruce

AfterWords – Unpacking The Complex
Sunday, June 14 – Post-Show (following 7PM performance)
New York Theatre Workshop

Join us for an intentionally curated post-show gathering immediately following The Peculiar Patriot as part of AfterWords: Unpacking the Complex. This series of town hall–style conversations, held after selected performances, brings together audience members, community leaders, and artists to create a space for communal reflection and digestion.

Featuring: Lena Waithe, La La Anthony, & Liza Jessie Peterson

For the Culture: The Unexpected 3rd

ShopTalks with Kathryn Grody
New York Theatre Workshop

Writer & performer Kathryn Grody hosted an informal “book club” style discussion with fellow audience members following 10 performances of The Unexpected 3rd. Her son, Gideon Grody-Patinkin, joined for one of the conversations as well.

AfterWords – In Conversation with the Creatives – The Unexpected 3rd
Saturday, May 16 – Post-Show (following 6PM performance)
New York Theatre Workshop

Join the creatives behind The Unexpected Third in conversation about process, inspiration, and themes.

Featuring Kathryn Grody and moderated by Catalina Guzman-Charleston

For the Culture: Mention My Beauty

AfterWords – In Conversation with the Creatives – Mention My Beauty
Tuesday, May 19 – Post-Show (following 8PM performance)
4th St Theatre

Join the creatives behind Mention My Beauty in conversation about process, inspiration, and themes.

AfterWords – What is Beautiful? with Martyna Majok
Tuesday, June 2 – Post-Show (following 8PM performance)
4th St Theatre

Join Leslie Ayvazian in conversation with NYTW Trustee Martyna Majok discussing the topic “what is beautiful?”.

AfterWords – What is Beautiful? with María Jose Contreras
Saturday, June 13 – Post-Show (following 3PM performance)
4th St Theatre

Join Leslie Ayvazian in conversation with artist and scholar María Jose Contreras, discussing the topic “what is beautiful?”.

AfterWords – What is Beautiful? with Sarah Cole
Sunday, June 14 – Post-Show (following 6PM performance)
4th St Theatre

Join Leslie Ayvazian in conversation with Sarah Cole, Dean of the School of the Arts at Columbia University, discussing the topic “what is beautiful?”.

For the Culture: Sardines

Masterclass with Chris Grace – An Introduction to Improv
Monday, May 4 – 5:30PM-7:00PM
Alpha Omega Dance Studio (70 E 4th St) 

Join us for a fun, low-pressure workshop led by Chris Grace, writer/performer of Sardines. Through a variety of games and scenes, we’ll embrace spontaneity and build our confidence as we connect and just play together. This session is the perfect opportunity for anyone looking to dip their toes into improv or try something new—no experience necessary!

AfterWords – In Conversation with the Creatives – Sardines
Thursday, May 14 – Post-Show (following 8PM performance)
4th St Theatre

Join the creatives behind Sardines in conversation about process, inspiration, and themes.

For the Culture: The Horse of Jenin

Tatreez Circle Gathering
Friday, April 24 – 7-9PM
Healing Bean Cafe, 7904 3rd Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11209

Come learn Palestinian cross-stitch in south Brooklyn! PlayCo & NYTW present a relaxed, communal Tatreez Circle from artist Sabri Sundos to deepen one’s practice of tatreez, or Palestinian embroidery, April 24, 7 to 9PM at Healing Bean Cafe in Bay Ridge. In this open-studio format, participants are invited to work at their own pace, learn from one another, and connect over shared creative practice. Sundos will be on hand to help refine technique, troubleshoot tricky patterns, and share knowledge. Rooted in generations of Palestinian storytelling and resistance, tatreez is more than a craft: it’s a living archive of identity, place, and perseverance. Refreshments, aida cloth, tapestry needles, thread and a selection of traditional motifs with translations will be provided. Space is limited!

Palestine Comedy Night
Sunday, May 3 – 7PM
Top Secret Comedy Club, 44 Avenue A, New York, NY 10009

PlayCo, New York Theatre Workshop, and the New York Arab American Comedy Festival, in association with 55B Productions, present a hilarious showcase of Palestinian comedians, Sunday, May 3, at 7pm at Top Secret Comedy Club (44 Avenue A in Manhattan). Featuring an All-Star lineup: Suzie Afridi, Eman El-Husseini, Mohanad Elshieky, Nina Kharoufeh, Dean Obeidallah, Atheer Yacoub, Maysoon Zayid and more!

 

NYTW Community Night @ The Horse of Jenin
Friday, May 8 – 7:30PM
Cinema Village (22 E 12th St)

NYTW Community Night is a designated performance that brings together staff, community partners, fellows, and invited neighborhood guests to experience The Horse of Jenin together. The evening emphasizes welcome, shared experience, and collective presence. This event was presented in partnership with Artistic Freedom Initiative.

 

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You can find more information about our In the Bricks Festival partners by reading more here.

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Categories: 2025/26 Season and For The Culture. Tags: Education & Engagement, For The Culture, and In the Bricks.