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Billie Holiday Theatre

New York, Italy

Billie Holiday Theatre

The Billie Holiday Theatre (a.k.a. the "Billie," or the "BHT,") is an AUDELCO and Obie Award-winning theatre that aims to provide "complete and authentic portrayals" of the African diaspora experience, as well as "artistic and institutional residencies and ... educational programming to people of al

l ages." Founded in 1972, with roots in both the Civil Rights and the Black Arts Movements, the Billie has been called "one of the nation’s premier Black playhouses." In 2023, it was recognized with a National Medal of the Arts, the nation's highest arts award. U.S. President Joe Biden called the theater "an incredible place ... nurturing a new generation of Black playwrights, performers.” The first Black theatre to transfer a hit play to Broadway, along with 50 percent of the financing from the Black community, the Billie has cultivated some of the "[n]ation’s most renowned Black actors, writers, designers, and musicians," including Lena Horne, Smokey Robinson, Ben Vereen, Samuel L. Jackson and Jay-Z. In 2020, the Billie was awarded a $5 million-dollar "Black Seed" grant by the Mellon Foundation to help Black theatres nationwide "forge national partnerships and new commissions." In 2022...

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