Audible Theater Announces “In Love and Struggle, Volume 3”

Audible is pleased to announce that In Love and Struggle, Volume 3: The Future is Around Us will be performed live for three performances only, Thursday, December 14 – Saturday, December 16, at Audible’s Minetta Lane Theatre (18 Minetta Lane, between MacDougal & 6th Avenue—one block south of W. 3rd Street), Audible’s creative home for live performances in New York. In Love and Struggle, produced with The Meteor, will also be recorded live and released as an Audible Original next year, extending its reach to millions of Audible listeners around the world.

Now in its third year, In Love and Struggle brings together a group of visionary Black women and nonbinary people for a series of unforgettable evenings filled with storytelling, music, comedy, and monologues. This year’s theme is inspired by science fiction writer Octavia Butler and other futurists, featuring an outstanding, eclectic, wildly creative cast. Contributors include voice actor Cree Summer, comedian and actress Zainab Johnson, Lincoln Center’s inaugural poet-in-residence Mahogany L. Browne, multidisciplinary artist SOL, actress and social activist Amanda Seales, vocalist, songwriter and multimedia artist Nona Hendryx, and writer adrienne maree brown, with more to be announced.

This new installment follows In Love & Struggle (performed at the Minetta Lane and released in 2020) and In Love & Struggle, Volume 2 (released in 2021).

In Love & Struggle is produced by The Meteor. The Meteor team includes executive producer Cindi Leive, executive producer and curator Rebecca Carroll, executive producer Kamilah Forbes, and creative director Monica L. Williams. The creative team also includes sound design by Justin Ellington and lighting design by Charlotte McPherson. Monét Thibou serves as production stage manager and Nic Steffes serves as assistant stage manager. Technical supervision is by Hudson Theatrical Associates’ Sean Gorski with general management by Baseline Theatrical’s Jonathan Whitton.

Tickets are on sale at www.audible.com/minettalane.

BIOGRAPHIES

adrienne maree brown grows healing ideas in public through her multi-genre writing, her music and her podcasts. Informed by 25 years of movement facilitation, somatics, Octavia E Butler scholarship and her work as a doula, adrienne has nurtured Emergent Strategy, Pleasure Activism, Radical Imagination and Transformative Justice as ideas and practices for transformation. She is the author/editor of several published texts, cogenerator of a tarot deck and a developing musical ritual.

MAHOGANY L. BROWNE, selected as Kennedy Center's Next 50 and Wesleyan's 2022-23 Distinguished Writer-in-Residence, the Executive Director of JustMedia, Artistic Director of Urban Word, is a writer, playwright, organizer, & educator. Browne has received fellowships from All Arts, Arts for Justice, Air Serenbe, Baldwin for the Arts, Cave Canem, Poets House, Mellon Research, & Rauschenberg. She is the author of recent works: Vinyl Moon, Chlorine Sky (optioned for Steppenwolf Theater), Woke: A Young Poets Call to Justice, Woke Baby, & Black Girl Magic. Founder of the diverse lit initiative Woke Baby Book Fair, Browne is currently touring her latest poetry collection Chrome Valley received a starred review from Publishers Weekly and was highlighted in the New York Times. She is the first-ever poet-in-residence at the Lincoln Center and lives in Brooklyn, NY.

NONA HENDRYX is a revolutionary art-rock, new-wave goddess, a vocalist, songwriter, musician and multimedia artist. Tackling social issues, love and politics, Hendryx’s career spans decades of sound and style evolution. Longtime Nona Hendryx fans know her as one of the groundbreaking group Labelle and their No.1 worldwide hit 'Lady Marmalade' (Voulez Vous Coucher Avec Moi C'est Soir?) The Songwriter, Hendryx, came into her own as a solo artist post Labelle on Rock infused albums. Her 2012 album Mutatis Mutandis (changing those things which need to be changed), Hendryx blends her music with lyrics expressing a global social and political zeitgeist. Nona is an Ambassador for Artistry in Music for Berklee College in Boston Conservatory and BerkleeNYC. She curated and performed in a production she created for The Metropolitan Museum, ‘Nona Hendryx and Disciples of Sun Ra in the Temple of Dendur.’ Nona composed music for The Roundabout Theater ‘s production of the Broadway debut of Trouble in Mind by Alice Childress, directed by Charles R. Wright, and received a grant from Jazz South Arts to compose music for a new play about people of Color in the fields of science, ‘Young Nerds of Color by Melinda Lopez,’ directed by Dawn Meredith Simmons at Boston’s Central Square Theater. An Afrofuturist and visionary, Nona develops XR installations, incorporating Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality. Nona is passionate about Music, Visual Art and Technology and continues to be a prolific artist.

ZAINAB JOHNSON is a stand-up comedian, actress, and writer. Zainab’s comedy is based on her unique point-of-view, which was shaped growing up in Harlem as one of thirteen siblings in a black Muslim family. After getting a degree in Education and Math and taking a job as a teacher, she quickly learned that she had a different calling. Zainab is currently a series regular on the Amazon Original hit series titled Upload from Greg Daniels, she is one of the hosts for Netflix's show 100 Humans, and starred as Dr. Hanniel in the brilliantly written web series Avant-Guardians. She made her first late-night stand-up appearance on NBC's Late Night with Seth Meyers, and had breakout appearances on HBO’s All Def Comedy, NBC’s Last Comic Standing, and has performed at the JFL Comedy Festival in Montreal first as a "New Face of Comedy", then as one of "Variety's Top 10 Comics to Watch", and most recently on the longest running JFL show Just For The Culture. She is a paid regular at The Comedy Store, The Improv, and Laugh Factory in Los Angeles as well as the Comedy Cellar in New York City. Her first hourlong special, Hijabs Off, is now available to stream on Amazon.

AMANDA SEALES is a comedian and creative visionary with a Master’s in African American studies from Columbia University. Seamlessly blending humor and intellect, her unique style of smart funny content spans various genres across the entertainment and multimedia landscape. She is best known for her iconic role as “Tiffany DuBois” of HBO’s Insecure and her debut comedy special, I Be Knowin. Ms. Seales is a former co-host on daytime talk show, The Real, host of NBC’s Bring the Funny and the host/writer of the groundbreaking 2020 BET Awards. Amanda speaks truth to change via her wildly popular Instagram, weekly podcast Small Doses, and book by the same name. Centering community building in her comedy, she is also the creator and host of the touring variety game show, Smart Funny & Black. Late last year, Amanda Seales officially added “radio host” to her ever-growing list of achievements. With the launch of The Amanda Seales Show, a partnership partnered with Radio One and Reach Media, Seales became the first Black woman with her own syndicated radio show, which reaches Houston, Philadelphia, Charlotte, Columbus, Richmond, Toledo, and more. Her newest special, In Amanda We Trust, will be available via Pateron August 18th.

SOL is a writer, dancer, actor and filmmaker based in New York City. In 2023 she was named one of Instagram’s inaugural “Futuremakers” for her work as an avant-garde artist. SOL received her early arts training from Oakland School for the Arts where she studied classical ballet and modern dance. She later attended Harvard University where she earned her Bachelor's degree in Art, Film and Visual Studies, graduating with highest honors in 2022. While at Harvard, SOL received numerous recognitions for her work as a multidisciplinary artist, including the University’s Council Prize in Visual Arts, the David McCord Prize for Outstanding Artistic Achievement and the Rudolf Arnheim Prize for Excellence in Visual Arts. She is a frequent speaker and writer on topics of race, class, gender, and spirituality.

CREE SUMMER most recently appeared in recurring arcs for both Pamela Adlon’s Better Things and Ava DuVernay’s Queen Sugar. She also can be seen as a guest star on the hit shows Atlanta and What We Do in The Shadows for FX. Cree is best known for playing Winifred "Freddie" Brooks on the NBC sitcom “A Different World.” She remained a regular cast member of the show from 1988 through its end in 1993.  Summer has voiced hundreds of animated characters between 1983 and now. These have spanned video games, cartoon television series, animated films and commercials. Among her most famous roles was in Inspector Gadget as Penny (a role she reprised in the Robot Chicken episode "Adoption's an Option"), WB's Tiny Toon Adventures (1990) as Elmyra Duff (which she reprised for Pinky, Elmyra & The Brain) and Mary Melody, Susie Carmichael in Nickelodeon's Rugrats and its spin-off “All Grownup!,” Cleo the Poodle in PBS Kids' “Clifford the Big Red Dog,” Miranda from Nickelodeon's As Told By Ginger, Foxxy Love in Drawn Together,” Dulcy the Dragon in Sonic The Hedgehog, octogenarian villain Granny May on Wordgirl, Nebula in Guardians Of The Galaxy and Witch Haggar in Voltron: Legendary Defender. Summer has sung since an early age and joined her first band at 13. In 1993 she released an album with her band Subject to Change. In 1999, Summer released her solo album Street Faërie produced by and featuring guest artist Lenny Kravitz. A number of Summer's portrayed characters (animated or otherwise) are singers or sing songs within the soundtrack of a show.

ABOUT OTHER AUDIBLE THEATER PRODUCTIONS AT THE MINETTA LANE

In Love & Struggle, Volume 3 joins Audible Theater’s diverse lineup of upcoming shows at the Minetta Lane Theatre. Other upcoming productions include:

The Energy Curfew Music Hour featuring the Grammy-winning band Punch Brothers.

• Wednesday, November 15 at 7PM
• Saturday, December 2 at 7PM
• Wednesday, December 6 at 7PM
• Sunday, December 10 at 7PM

Laura Benanti: Nobody Cares, a three-night-only show starring Tony Award winner Laura Benanti, who will sing all original music created with Todd Almond.

• Friday, February 2 at 7PM
• Saturday, February 3 at 7PM
• Sunday, February 4 at 7PM

The world premiere of Dead Outlaw, Audible Theater’s first commissioned musical by the Tony Award-winning creative team behind The Band’s Visit, with a book by Itamar Moses, music and lyrics by Erik Della Penna and David Yazbek, and directed by David Cromer.

• Previews begin Wednesday, February 28, 2024
• Opening Sunday, March 10, 2024
• Limited engagement through Sunday, April 7, 2024