North Carolina Central University is co-producing VOTER REGISTRATION DRIVE as part of The 19th Amendment Project. Hear what Stephanie Howard (Dr. Asabi) has to say about the project, systemic racism within college theater MFA programs, and more.
DR. ASABI (STEPHANIE HOWARD) (Director) is an Associate Professor of Theatre at North Carolina Central University, where she serves as Chair. She has received a Kennedy Center American Theatre Festival directing award (2014 & 2016) and NCCU College of Liberal Arts Awards in Outstanding Teaching, Scholarship, and Playwrighting. A graduate of North Carolina A&T State University and Wake Forest University, Asabi earned her doctorate at Regent University in Communication and Theatre. She has also taught at Norfolk State University and Bennett College, where she received The Board of Trustee’s Excellence in Teaching Award and The National Association of Bennett College Alumnae Faculty Service Award. As a performer, director, playwright and stage manager, Asabi aspires to immerse herself in nearly every aspect of theatre. She has directed shows such as The Bluest Eye and for colored girls’ & for black boys (her original compilation) which were selected features at the 2015 & the 2013 National Black Theatre Festivals; The Color Purple; Black Mama Monologues; Ruined; Sarafina; Slappin’ God in the Face (her original work); Fabulation; Shakin’ the Mess Outta Misery; From the Mississippi Delta; Blues for an Alabama Sky; and The Amen Corner. She also authored God Spoke My Name: Maya Angelou; Reaching for God with Dirty Hands and Tainted Blood and Distorted Beauty. Among many stage credits, she has performed in Four Queens No Trumps (a 2011 National Black Theatre Festival production), Steal Away, Intimate Apparel, Proposals, for colored girls…, and Having Our Say. Asabi co-directed Soul Rhythm; Sistahs Voices at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, South Africa, and The Mis-Education of Hip Hop in Florence, Italy. She is a contracted production manager with the NC Black Repertory Company. She is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated.