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The Black Theater Alliance Awards (BTAA) were initiated in 1995.
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Muhal Richard Abrams was an American educator, administrator, composer, arranger, clarinetist, cellist, and jazz pianist in the free jazz medium. He recorded and toured the United States, Canada and Europe with his orchestra, sextet, quartet, duo and as a solo pianist. His musical affiliations constitute a "who's who" of the jazz world, including Max Roach, Dexter Gordon, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Art Farmer, Sonny Stitt, Anthony Braxton, and The Art Ensemble of Chicago.
Roscoe Mitchell is an American composer, jazz instrumentalist, and educator, known for being "a technically superb – if idiosyncratic – saxophonist". The Penguin Guide to Jazz described him as "one of the key figures" in avant-garde jazz; All About Jazz stated in 2004 that he had been "at the forefront of modern music" for more than 35 years. Critic Jon Pareles in The New York Times has mentioned that Mitchell "qualifies as an iconoclast". In addition to his own work as a bandleader, Mitchell is known for cofounding the Art Ensemble of Chicago and the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM).
George Emanuel Lewis is an American composer, performer, and scholar of experimental music. He has been a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) since 1971, when he joined the organization at the age of 19. He is renowned for his work as an improvising trombonist and considered a pioneer of computer music, which he began pursuing in the late 1970s; in the 1980s he created Voyager, an improvising software he has used in interactive performances. Lewis's many honors include a MacArthur Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship, and his book A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music received the American Book Award. Lewis is the Edwin H. Case Professor of American Music, Composition & Historical Musicology at Columbia University.
Leroy Jenkins was an American composer and violinist/violist.
Defiant Theatre was a Chicago-based theatre company founded in 1993 by a group of students from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, which includes Nick Offerman. The eclectic troupe specialized in productions that emphasized inventive stagecraft, perverse and controversial topics, and skillful stage combat. While the company is highly regarded for original plays such as Action Movie: The Play and Godbaby, Defiant Theatre received notable attention for productions of plays by Caryl Churchill, Alfred Jarry, Sarah Kane, and William Shakespeare. Chicago Magazine named Defiant the "Best Experimental Theatre" in their August 1999 Best of Chicago issue. The company disbanded in 2004.
Paul Carter Harrison was an American playwright and professor. Harrison was known for works such as his Obie Award winning play The Great MacDaddy and scholarly writings on theater and performance. Between 1962 and 1982, he produced or directed numerous American and Dutch plays and screenplays.
J. D. Parran is an American multi-woodwind player, educator, and composer specializing in jazz and free improvisation. He plays the soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, and bass saxophone, as well as the E-flat clarinet, alto clarinet, bass clarinet, contra-alto clarinet, piccolo, alto flute, bamboo flute, Native American flute, bamboo saxophone, and nagaswaram.
Black Saint and Soul Note are two affiliated Italian independent record labels. Since their conception in the 1970s, they have released albums from a variety of influential jazz musicians, particularly in the genre of free jazz.
The Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts, commonly known as CAPA, is a magnet school in South Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at the edge of the Christian Street Historic District. It is a part of the School District of Philadelphia. Students major in one of seven areas: creative writing, instrumental music, visual arts, theater, dance, vocal music, and media, design, television & video (MDTV). Students may also minor after their freshman year as long as they meet the audition requirements. The school is located on South Broad Street, in the former Ridgway Library. Notable alumni include Boyz II Men, Questlove and Black Thought of The Roots and Leslie Odom Jr.
Thurman Barker is an American jazz drummer.
Nicole Mitchell is an American jazz flautist and composer who teaches jazz at the University of Virginia. She is a former chairwoman of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM).
Chicago High School for the Arts (ChiArts) is a public four–year college preparatory visual and performing arts high school located in the Humboldt Park neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Operated by the Chicago Public Schools district, The school opened for the 2009–10 school year.
ETA Creative Arts Foundation, founded in 1971, is an African-American theatre and art museum in Chicago.
American Blues Theater is a nonprofit, professional Equity theater company in Chicago, Illinois, United States. The ensemble currently has 30 members.
David Barr III is an American writer and playwright of African descent.
Marcus Shelby is an American bass player, composer and educator best known for his major works for jazz orchestra, Port Chicago, Harriet Tubman, Soul of the Movement: Meditations on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Beyond the Blues: A Prison Oratorio. He has led the Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra since 2001 and has recorded with artists as diverse as Ledisi and Tom Waits.
Abena Joan Brown (1928-2015) was an African-American businesswoman and theater producer who founded the Creative Arts Foundation in Chicago to enable black artists to work. Known as the "mother of Chicago's black arts community", she received honors and awards for her work in both theater and social programs. Brown was inducted into the Chicago Women's Hall of Fame and interviewed as a subject of the archival program The HistoryMakers.
The M Ensemble Company is the oldest operating African American theatre company in Florida and has been serving the Miami-Dade County community for more than 45 years. The company has tackled an eclectic mix of theatre performances including musicals and contemporary, classical and original plays. M Ensemble also consistently facilitates theater workshops for children and adults and presentations for Kwanzaa and Black Music Month.
Tony Llorens is an American musician, composer, pianist, and actor, known for the films A Wedding (1978), No God, No Master (2013) and Heavens Fall (2006). He has worked as music director for Chicago based ETA Creative Arts Foundation theater. He also worked as keyboardist, bandleader, and producer for Albert King and worked with ZZ Top and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Jason Moran is his second cousin.