SAN DIEGO, CALIF.: The Old Globe and the Public Theater have announced the 10 participants selected for cultural critic Jose Solís’ BIPOC Critics Lab during both theatres’ 2026-27 seasons. This season marks the program’s first bicoastal expansion, with five writers forming a newly established West Coast cohort, joining forces with five East Coast counterparts with the aim of diversifying and reshaping the landscape of arts journalism. The 2026-27 BIPOC Critics Lab cohort brings expertise in literary psychoanalysis, multilingual ethnodrama, environmental and geopolitical justice, community-engaged education, and multi-genre musical composition to the collective.
Following three years at the Public Theater in New York, this cross-country partnership with the Old Globe scales the program into a coast-to-coast movement. The joint cohort creates a vital educational space for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) writers, jumpstarting careers in arts journalism and cultural criticism. Sessions for the Lab span the course of the 2026-27 season. Primary instruction takes place virtually, punctuated by in-person opportunities at both the Old Globe in San Diego and the Public Theater in New York City.
The five West Coast cohort members include content strategist Katana Dumont; UC San Diego playwright and dramaturg Juliette Lin; published short story writer and journalist Kasper Owen; Emmy-winning journalist and producer Lucía Serrano; and playwright and actor Katelin Shum. They bring widespread experience in regional theatre administration, bilingual reporting, public relations, and cultural commentary to the incoming class.
“Bringing the BIPOC Critics Lab into a bicoastal partnership alongside our partners at the Public Theater marks a transformative moment for arts journalism,” said Old Globe artistic director Barry Edelstein in a statement. “We know that theatre cannot fully matter without a vibrant, diverse chorus of voices to chronicle, explore, and illuminate what happens on our stages. By welcoming the 2026-27 cohort members, we are actively fostering the sharpest minds of the next generation of critical thinkers. Their insights will profoundly elevate the cultural conversation, bridging artistic communities from coast to coast with the broader national landscape.”
Representing the East Coast are Palestinian writer, poet, and ex-scientist Dina AbdulHadi; veteran educator, author, and actor Pamela Fordham; writer and death doula nancy jie huang <黄洁>; SoCiviC Theatre founder and community-engaged theatre maker Geboli Long; and MacDowell Fellow, performer, and cultural critic LOUR. This cohort will infuse the lab with backgrounds in public cemetery design, multi-genre musical composition, educational theatre, and literary publication.
“When I created the BIPOC Critics Lab in 2020, I wanted to build the kind of room many of us had been left out of, a space where critics of color could be met with care and real opportunity,” shared program founder Jose Solís in a statement. “To see that room become a movement and now grow into a bicoastal partnership between the Public Theater and the Old Globe fills me with enormous pride and awe. At a moment when the value of diversity is being questioned in so many cultural spaces, this expansion affirms something I have always believed: American theatre is richer, sharper, and more alive when more of us get to help shape how it is seen and remembered.”
According to both theatres, this shared initiative directly aligns with their deep-seated civic missions, including the Public’s Cultural Transformation Plan, which acknowledges historical exclusions within arts journalism, and the Old Globe’s Social Justice Roadmap and its core commitment to equity, diversity, inclusion, and access. Together, these aligned values underscore a shared investment in expanding who gets to shape critical discourse and ensuring a more inclusive American theatre.
Alumni from past cohorts of the BIPOC Critics Lab have achieved significant success, holding freelance posts and editorial positions at notable outlets including The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, TDF Stages, American Theatre, 3Views on Theater, The Hat, The Brooklyn Rail, Elle, and more.
To add these individuals to your press lists or to inquire about future commissioning opportunities, please email BIPOCCriticsLab@publictheater.org or BIPOCCriticsLab@theoldglobe.org.
The East Coast Cohort
Dina Abdulhadi is a Palestinian writer and ex-scientist from the U.S. South. She writes about the climate crisis and her dreams for a liberated Palestine. A 2024-25 Emerge-Surface-Be Fellow at the Poetry Project, her work has been published by Room, Reckoning, Breakwater Review, The Worcester Review, Brooklyn Poets, Mizna, and Haymarket Books.
Pamela Fordham is an educator and writer in Western New York. Before retiring, she taught English/Language Arts, as well as theatre and public speaking classes. Pam also created and taught a Race in America elective. Her most recent publication is Who Will Tell My Story? Finding Hope for the Best (and Worst) Days of Your Life. Follow Pam on Instagram @pamfordham or visit www.pamelafordham.com.
nancy jie huang <黄洁> is a writer and death doula. She is obsessed with literary psychoanalysis, fine art in the digital age, and public cemetery design. She has received fellowships from VONA, Lambda Literary, Sewanee Writers Conference, and Vermont Studio Center. She has a poetry MFA from NYU and is writing a book about folklore.
Geboli Long is a theatremaker, educator, and founder of SoCiviC Theatre. Originally from a Miao (Hmong) community in Southwest China, she creates community-engaged, documentary, and participatory theatre exploring identity, migration, belonging, and representation across cultures. Her recent work includes Farewell, and Erase, a multilingual ethnodrama she wrote and directed. Geboli received her M.A. in Educational Theatre from New York University, where she focused on Theatre for Social and Civic Engagement.
LOUR (Lour Yasin) is a New York-based Palestinian performer, composer-lyricist, writer, and cultural critic. Born in Jerusalem and raised in the West Bank, her work explores Palestinian identity, pop culture, and the politics of who gets to tell their own story, often blending Arab musical traditions with pop, punk, and hip-hop. Her works include AREA D, The Happy Sunshine Facility, Arabica, and The Flintstons.
The West Coast Cohort
Katana Dumont is a San Diego-based writer and content strategist with more than seven years of professional writing experience. She has built a career writing about culture, entertainment, personal finance, and public policy, and is now bringing that experience to theatre criticism. She enjoys seeing stories unfold live and being part of the conversations that follow. She is excited to join the BIPOC Critics Lab to learn more about theatre journalism and develop her voice as a critic. @katana_prime on social media.
Juliette Lin is a playwright and dramaturg attending UC San Diego. Having lived in Shanghai for a while, she has a hunger for translated and transnational theatre. @juliette_moli on Instagram.
Kasper Owen is a short story writer, journalist, and poet invested in storytelling as the interaction between individual lenses and bodies in spaces. They create to explore uncomfortable truths about the human condition. Their work has been published in New Forum, Culture OC, and Her Campus. B.A. in Literary Journalism, UC Irvine. mediasurgeon on Tumblr.
Lucía Serrano is a bilingual and binational journalist, theatre producer, and publicist driven by mission-focused storytelling and community engagement. A UCLA graduate with a degree in Art History, she began her journalism career as an editor at The San Diego Union-Tribune en Español, where she received a 2023 Pacific Southwest Emmy Award. @oye.lucia on social media.
Katelin Shum is a playwright, actor, and arts administrator from San Diego, California. Select playwriting credits include Robber for Cheese and Turtle, which have been developed and shared locally, and BJORN AGAIN, an interactive, autobiographical play in which she also starred. Other accomplishments include:CANCELINA by Beth Hyland, Hamlet at LAMDA, and the new musical The Lunchbox. She has worked regionally at theatres such as La Jolla Playhouse, Berkeley Rep, and the Ojai Playwrights Conference. @kkatelin.ss on Instagram.
