The Classical Theatre of Harlem presents ICONS 4: Significant Immigrants, the newest edition of its acclaimed ICONS series: an intimate theatrical experience bringing history’s under-sung visionaries vividly into the present.

Through newly commissioned monologues performed live, Significant Immigrants honors the artists, thinkers, leaders, and cultural forces whose journeys helped shape Harlem, New York, and the American imagination. Building on ICONS’ tradition of illuminating extraordinary lives from the Harlem Renaissance and beyond, this edition explores migration, reinvention, legacy, and the indelible impact of those who crossed borders, geographic, artistic, political, and personal, to transform the world around them.

Dennis A. Allen II is a multi-hyphenate in the world of theatre. As a playwright, his play The Mud is Thicker in Mississippi won the 35th annual Off Off Broadway Samuel French Festival. He is the recipient of Atlantic Theater Company’s inaugural Launch Commission, Clubbed Thumb’s Early-Career Writer’s Group, and National Black Theatre’s “I Am Soul” Playwright Residency. Allen is an associate producer for The New Black Fest and served as the National Playwriting Program Vice Chair for the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival region 1. He is an adjunct professor at Montclair State University, The New School and is the Co-Program Director for the MFA Playwriting program at Brooklyn College. Dennis received his MFA from Brooklyn College's Playwriting program.

Nambi E. Kelley is an award-winning actor, playwright, and television writer-producer whose work bridges history, politics, and intimate human storytelling. As an actor, she has performed regionally, internationally, and on television, including productions playing opposite greats such as Phylicia Rashad and Alfre Woodard, multiple productions at Goodman Theatre and Steppenwolf Theatre Company, with television appearances on Chicago Med, Elementary, Person of Interest, Madam Secretary, Chicago P.D., and Chicago Justice. Recent stage credits include Goodman Theatre's critically acclaimed Joe Turner's Come & Gone, MacArthur Genius Dominique Morisseau’s Pipeline, and off-Broadway in Jeff Sweet’s Kunstler. Kelley has written and produced for television on shows such as Peacock's Bel-Air, and Apple's Lady in the Lake, earning a Black Reel Award nomination for her work on the latter; additional television writing credits include Showtime's The Chi and Fox's Our Kind of People. Her acclaimed adaptation of Native Son received productions nationwide, including at Yale Repertory Theatre and in New York with The Acting Company, earning an AUDELCO Award for Best Production and a Drama League nomination for Best Revival. Personally selected by Toni Morrison to adapt her novel Jazz, Kelley continues to develop bold new theatrical work, including Broadway aimed projects with Tony Award winner Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Laurence Fishburne, and Ken Davenport. She's developed a television project with political icon, Stacey Abrams, and is currently in development with Grammy Award winning rapper Nas and Oscar and MacArthur Genius Award winner,Tarell Alvin McCraney. Kelley is the founder of First Woman LLC, a family-centered production company creating work across theatre, film, and television. First Woman produced the internationally award-winning film adaptation of Jabari Dreams of Freedom, which also toured nationally as a play after premiering at New Victory Theater in New York City. The company is currently developing its upcoming 2026–27 touring season, a new play by frequent collaborator, Daniel Carlton. Kelley holds a B.F.A. from The Theatre School at DePaul University and an M.F.A. in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College.

www.nambikelley.com

Nia Latriese (her/she) is a mischievous multi-hyphenate actor, writer, and cultural organizer from Los Angeles and is currently based in NYC. Nia holds a B.A. in African-American Studies & Theater from UCLA. She's trained at the Yale Conservatory for Actors (2019) and the National Theater Institute (2022). She is currently developing Beautiful Chocolate Baby, a play exploring inner-child healing and the intergenerational relationships between mothers and daughters, which was featured at the 2025 Miranda Fellowship Summit.Credits: A Heated Discussion (Robey Theater), OMWAN’EKHUI: Person of Dark Skin (Short Film), and her directorial debut, How To Kill A First Date (Short Film). Awards: Mabel P. Robinson Emerging Artist Award (2022) from North Carolina Black Repertory Theater and Miranda Family Fellow (2022). Nia is devoted to telling stories to honor her ancestors and inspire loving radical action towards liberation for Black Women and the Global Majority. More at nialatriese.com

Jes Washington is a New York actress, writer, and singer born in Memphis, TN. OFF-BROADWAY: PREDICTOR, Coping Mechanism; White Woman, Black Boy; North Carolina; Danny & the Deep Blue Sea. THEATER: Who Will Sing for Lena, an international one-woman show; Clybourne Park; Paradise Blue. WORKSHOPS: DEEP AZURE, director N’Sangou Njikam & creative consultant Phylicia Rashad; Caucasian Chalk Circle, director Awoye Timpo; American Rot, director Estelle Parsons; Black Is Beauty, director Kareem Lucas; and The Great White Hope, director Steve Broadnax III. FILM: A Wall Apart. TELEVISION: HBO’s The Gilded Age, CBS’s The Equalizer, Half the History: Belinda Royale Story. VOICE OVER: Greater Boston, What’s the Frequency? SERIES: The Board. AWARDS: Best Lead Actress; People’s Choice; Best Production; winner of AACT National Festival 2019 & 2021; 2021 Mondial du Théâtre in France. Acting MFA in NYC. Lifetime member of Actors Studio. 

Rudy Bamenga is a French-born, NYC-based artist of Congolese descent. Having spent the first decade of his life in Paris and the following two growing up in NYC, he has come across several questions about the intricacies and intersectionalities of one's identity, which is a recurring theme in his works. Rudy has had the pleasure of hosting a reading of his religious dramedy, Cardinal Confession, through National Black Theatre’s Keep Soul Alive Micro Development Series and developed his pandemic era serio-comedy, Last Call at Libby's, through Liberation Theater Company’s Writing Residency Program, which was then selected as a winning play to receive a staged reading as a part of Houston’s inaugural Fade to Black Arts Festival in June of 2025. He recently developed a political satire for The People's Theatre Playwrights Unit entitled The Satire of Oneism. As well as being a writing assistant to Dominique Morisseau for her revival of Sunset Baby at Signature Theatre, Rudy has been providing his services as writing associate to Angelica Chéri on the upcoming broadway production of Wanted the Musical. He grew up not seeing stories that resembled his and he wants to change that, for his younger self and for the future generations to come. www.rudy-writes.com

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