NEW YORK CITY: Producers Brian Moreland (Blue) and Arvind Ethan David (Jagged Little Pill) have announced #WhileWeBreathe: A Night of Creative Protest. The evening will feature at least 11 world premiere short works written and produced in response to the current moment in American history. #WhileWeBreathe will premiere on July 29, 2020 at 9 p.m. ET on YouTube Live, Facebook Live, and #WhileWeBreathe‘s website.

The works will be presented to benefit the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the Bail Project, Black Organizing for Leadership and Dignity (BOLD), BYP100 Education Fund, Forced Trajectory Project (FTP), The Justice Committee, and SONG. Donations for these organizations are being accepted here.

Casting for #WhileWeBreathe: A Night of Creative Protest is ongoing and will be announced at a later date. Announced is an evening that will include new works written by Lee Edward Colston II (The First Deep Breath, For Life), Arvind Ethan David (Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency), Cheryl Davis (The Bones of Giants, Law & Order: SVU), Nathan Alan Davis (Nat Turner in Jerusalem, Sorry For Your Loss), Steve Harper (God Friended Me, American Crime), Bianca Sams (At Rivers End, Charmed), Keenan Scott II (Thoughts of a Colored Man, A Luv Tale), Aurin Squire (Fire Season, Good Fight), Khari Wyatt (Stomping Down at Sugar’s Love, Africana!), and Karen Zacarias (Native Gardens, Destiny of Desire).

Directors will include Steve Broadnax III (The Hot Wing King, The Hip Hop Project), Bianca LaVerne Jones (Armed, FEAST), Patricia McGregor (Lights Out, Nat King Cole the Public’s Hamlet), Pratibha Parmar (Nina’s Heavenly Delights, Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth) and Charles Randolph-Wright (Motown: The Musical on Broadway, TV: OWN’s “Greenleaf”). Shannon Baker Davis will be the head editor, and Mandi Price is the postproduction supervisor.

Following the premiere, all of the works will remain available for viewing online after the event has ended. Those interested in participating in future #WhileWeBreathe events can find more information online.

#WhileWeBreathe issued the following statement along with the announcement:

“We are a group of BIPOC Artists and Allies, unconditionally committed to ending police and state brutality, institutionalized racism and the interrelated structural issues of racial and economic injustice, both in the broader world and in the theatre and entertainment industries.

These issues have been with us too long and are now tragically exacerbated by the corona virus pandemic.

We know that Black Lives Matter.

We are optimistic that this crux moment can bring reform and meaningful systemic change. We are motivated by the fierce energy of now.

We believe that as storytellers, we have an obligation to contribute to this moment. We have the platform and the freedom and the breath to speak truth to power and tell the stories that reveal the common truth in us all.

‘I can’t breathe’ cried George Floyd, cried Eric Garner and too many untold others before they were murdered.

We can breathe, and While We Breathe, we will use our breath to tell our stories, and use those stories to raise awareness, to raise funds and to make change.

Our words have power, they have fire, they have force.

While We Breathe: listen, learn, act.”