Mission
Grounded in the lived experiences of Black Trans and Queer folk, HomeGrown Visions Arts Collaborative nurtures community creative partnerships. Through offerings like: workshops and other performance opportunities, artist development, reading groups, and performance HomeGrown Visions provides space for Black Trans and Queer creatives to connect and share their stories with the world.
Offerings
Da Black Queers Be Writing (Writing Group)
Black Trans Play Development Lab
HomeGrown Visions Actor and Directors Database
Da Black Queers Be Writing
Da Black Queers Be Writing is a virtual writing group that was started in January 2023.If you are a Black Queer and/or Trans Writer in search of a writing community, this group is for you. The group includes poets, novelists, playwrights, scholars, essayists, screenwriters, lyricists, etc.
Co-working Sessions
We host free weekly co-working sessions. Each session is two hours. This is a tool to strengthen your writing practice with community. Folks are encouraged to come when they can for however long they can. There is no commitment to joining every session.Spring Sessions will be held January 11th -May 10th
Every Sunday 6-8pm EST
2nd and 4th Mondays 4-6pm EST
1st, 3rd, & 5th Wednesdays 9:30am-11:30am ESTSummer sessions will be held June 3rd- August 3rd. Fill out this form if you are interested.
FeedBack Sessions
Feedback sessions are held bimonthly and are open to all Black Queer writers. Each session will feature the work of three writers who are looking for feedback for their work. This is an opportunity to support the work of fellow writers or receive feedback on your own work. You do not have to attend the co-working sessions to participate in the feedback sessions.Feedback Sessions for 2026
February 7th
April 4th
June 6th
August 1st
October 3rd
December 5th
Black Trans Play Development Lab
HomeGrown Visions Arts Collaborative’s Black Trans Play Development Lab is an opportunity for (3) three Black and Trans Playwrights to develop their work in an environment dedicated to fostering Black and Trans stories, experiences, and joy.
SEASON ONE COHORT
NOVA CYPRESS BLACK (dey/dem/NOVA)
Set in a studio apartment in South L.A., CHIRP follows a Black American T4T couple trying to celebrate their three-year anniversary on a terrible, no good, very bad day. As their conflicting visions of domestic intimacy unravel flashbacks of pivotal moments throughout their relationship, this two-hander asks what it means to build a future together when your country keeps sounding the alarm.
Denali Joie (she/they)
An overworked Caribbean seamstress clings to faith as both refuge and weapon, determined to save her child whose identity disrupts the order she depends on—and herself—from forces she believes are closing in. In Threadbare, devotion, fear, and love collide as a haunting presence shadows a mother’s attempts to correct what she cannot understand. As her inner world frays alongside the garments she creates, the question lingers: when survival demands control, how much of the self can be sacrificed before nothing is left to hold together?
Maz Hedgehog (they/them)
Eurydice Had Been Loved is a contemporary Black Lesbian retelling of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. The doomed lovers attempt to build a life despite their wounding until Eurydice's life is brutally interrupted by a hate crime.
About
T. Chester, PhD is the Director and Founder of Homegrown Visions Arts Collaborative. As a scholar, organizer, and artist they center storytelling as a way to understand difference, promote empathy, and create change. T. specializes in new play development and dramaturgy, and their research and pedagogical interests are Black Studies, Women and Gender Studies, Performance Studies and Theatre Studies. For over 13 years they have taught at the university level, developing courses like Staging Black Queer Lives for both graduate and undergraduate students. Currently, they are teaching in the School of Social Transformation at Arizona State University. T. works with A.W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts to train students and faculty in anti-racist theatre practices. Together with Dreyfoos theatre students, T. directed and devised their Spring 2021 play “We Make the Future.” They have been a reader and judge for several national and local playwriting competitions including The National New Play Network, The Athena Project, Palm Beach Dramaworks, and The New Harmony Project. In addition, they were a 2022 Hillman Grad Acting Fellow. They are currently a 2024 Forge Fellow. T. writings has been published in edited anthologies and academic journals. For the last two years T. has facilitated a Black Queer and Trans Virtual Writing Group that offers both co-working and development opportunities.They are passionate about artist development and nurturing talent in others.
Events
Performances
Homegrown Visions Arts Collaborative will be producing a staged reading of CHIRP by NOVA CYPRESS BLACK as a part of The Queerly Festival. Queerly is FRIGID’s annual celebration of all things artistic and LGBTQIA2S+.Performances will take place UNDER St. Marks (94 St. Marks Place NY,NY)Accessibility Details: The theatre is in the basement and not accessible via wheelchair. High Quality respirators (K-95 or better) are required and provided. Air purifiers will be in operation.June 12 2026 @ 7pm EST
June 19 2026 @ 9pm EST
The Juneteenth performance will be reserved for Black & Trans Folk.Streaming options available
Tickets $20-25
Click here to purchase tickets!!!
BLOOM: A Black Trans Gathering
Applications are due June 6, 2026 11:59pm EST