Ossie Davis (1917-2005) was a writer, actor, director, and activist. Born in Cogdell, Georgia, Davis was educated at Howard University before moving to New York to join the Rose McClendon Players. His playwriting credits include Purlie Victorious (1961) on Broadway (in which he co-starred with his wife, Ruby Dee) and its musical adaptation, Purlie (1970). His additional stage credits include A Last Dance with Sybil at New Federal Theatre; Bingo! at Amas Repertory Theatre; Paul Robeson, All American at Crossroads Repertory Theatre; and Escape to Freedom by the Performing Arts Repertory Theatre. As a screenwriter, Davis’ credits include Cotton Comes to Harlem; Countdown at Kusini; and For Us, The Living: The Medgar Evers Story.  As an actor, Davis made his Broadway debut in 1946 in Jeb. His subsequent Broadway credits include The Wisteria Trees, Jamaica (for which he received a Tony award nomination), Purlie Victorious, The Zulu and the Zayda, and I’m Not Rappaport. Davis’s notable screen credits include Miss Evers’ Boys, The Client, Jungle Fever, Do the Right Thing, The Cardinal and The Scalphunters, as well as the television series Evening Shade, King, and With Ossie and Ruby.  Davis was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame in 1994. With Ruby Dee, Davis was a Kennedy Center honoree and the recipient of SAG’s Lifetime Achievement Award.  

Psalmayene 24 is an award-winning director, playwright, and actor. Directing credits include The Colored Museum, Good Bones, Flow, and Pass Over at Studio Theatre; Metamorphoses at Folger Theatre; Tempestuous Elements at Arena Stage; Necessary Sacrifices: A Radio Play at Ford’s Theatre; Native Son at Mosaic Theater Company; and Word Becomes Flesh at Theater Alliance. Playwriting credits include Young John Lewis (book & lyrics) at Theatrical Outfit; Monumental Travesties, Dear Mapel, and Les Deux Noirs at Mosaic Theater Company; Out of the Vineyard at Joe’s Movement Emporium; An Eloquent Fugitive Slave Flees to Ireland (part of The Frederick Douglass Project) at Solas Nua; and Zomo the Rabbit: A Hip-Hop Creation Myth at Imagination Stage. His solo play Free Jujube Brown! is published in the anthology Plays from the Boom Box Galaxy: Theater from the Hip-Hop Generation. Psalm’s acting credits include Ruined at Arena Stage, Free Jujube Brown! at The African Continuum Theatre Company, and HBO’s The Wire. He is the writer/director of the short film The Freewheelin’ Insurgents. Psalm is the recipient of two Helen Hayes Awards for Outstanding Direction of a Play and has received the Imagination Award from Imagination Stage. His work has received grants from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Walt Disney Corporation. Psalm is currently the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Playwright in Residence at Mosaic Theater Company. He is a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, Dramatists Guild, and Actors’ Equity Association. On social media at @psalmayene24 (Instagram).