THE BTMR PROJECT: Support Our Award-Winning Play's Journey

Nxt Thrsdy is organizing this fundraiser.

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We are THE BTMR PROJECT - the Black To My Roots (BTMR) cast, creative team and producers - that makes up the threefold collaboration of the award-winning play and her two sister projects:

BLACK TO MY ROOTS: African American Tales from the Head and the Heart, co-written by Kathya Alexander and Reneschia Brown and her two sister projects
HAIR'S BREATH: Music Inspired by BTMR, featuring Adra Boo
MWEUSI MPAKA MIZIZI, Swahili translation of BTMR, by Muso Simekha

Black To My Roots tells the personal, social, and political implications of Black women’s hair and how it affects our self-esteem, social interactions, and career status based on society’s impressions about our hair. African American women have had a complex, convoluted, and unique relationship with hair. A relationship that is not only an important part of our collective American history, but deeply rooted in the personal, social, and political experience of Black women in the United States, popular culture, and the world.

After a successful 25th Anniversary production of Black To My Roots at the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute in Seattle this past November, Nxt Thrsdy in association with Brownbox Theatre and ajusticenetwork, have decided to:

take BLACK TO MY ROOTS: African American Tales from the Head and the Heart to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the world's largest and oldest theatre festival (August 1 - 25, 2025, in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK)
take the sister project HAIR'S BREATH: Music Inspired by BTMR to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (August 2025)
present a staged-reading of the sister project MWEUSI MPAKA MIZIZI, the Swahili translation of BTMR in Seattle (May 2025)
present an encore performance of BLACK TO MY ROOTS: African American Tales from the Head and the Heart in Seattle (November 2025)

This GoFundMe campaign is to raise the initial funding needed for THE BTMR PROJECT / BTMR Family:

Adra Boo, Actress
Brenda Melrose, Actress
Muso Simekha, Actress
Giavonna White, Actress
Tonya White, Actress
Kathya Alexander, Playwright
Justice Beitzel, Assistant Director and Co-Choreographer
Reneschia Brown, Playwright
Tyrone Brown, Director and Nxt Thrdsy Founder and Producer
Robin Campbell, Assistant Director and Co-Choreographer
Katarina Whitfield, Associate Producer
Blake Madden, Musician and Producer

Your contribution, no matter how big or small, will help cover upfront costs of:

Seattle and UK venue deposit(s)
festival registration fees
housing deposits
marketing
liability insurance
travel applications
UK venue deposits

Thank YOU in advance for contributing to THE BTMR PROJECT, for sharing our story with your friends, family, and colleagues, and for helping us on our journey to bring - BLACK TO MY ROOTS, HAIR'S BREATH and MWEUSI MPAKA MIZIZI - to audiences in Seattle, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK and beyond.

NXT THRSDY: Art | Event | Performance, is a Connecticut-based production company founded by Tyrone Brown.

BROWNBOX THEATRE: Re-Imagined Black Theatre, is a Seattle-based theatre company founded by Tyrone Brown, Reneschia Brown and Kathya Alexander.

ajusticenetwork, fiscally sponsored by Shunpike, a 501(c)3 organization, uses the arts to affect positive social change and bring the diversity of dance, theater, and performance art to communities worldwide. We encourage collaboration between artists as well as interaction between artist and audience. Our productions uphold and encourage unity, collaboration, diversity, and artistic excellence.

*Photo Credits: Justice Beitzel, Tyrone Brown and Jordan Somers

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