About TS Hawkins

TS HAWKINS is an international author, performance poet, art activist, playwright, trauma-informed & award-winning educator, and member of the Dramatists Guild.

Plays, short works, and books include Seeking Silence, sweet bread peaches (formerly, Cartons of Ultrasounds), Too Late to Apologize, In Their Silence (formerly, They’ll Neglect to Tell You), #RM2B, The Secret Life of Wonder: a prologue in G, AGAIN, #SuiteReality, “don’t wanna dance with ghosts...”, #SuiteTea, the Are We Free Yet? project, Sugar Lumps & Black Eye Blues, Confectionately Yours, Mahogany Nectar, Lil Blaek Book: all the long stories short, The Hotel Haikus, and Becoming Saturn: a collection of rhymes, roses, and resistance. Hawkins’ one-act choreopoem, AGAIN, was acknowledged for having the “Best Theater Moment of 2017”. #SuiteReality received the 2017 “Theatrical Reality Check” Surya Bonaly Award, an international publication in WORDPEACE Literary Journal, showcased in Chicago at the Goodman Theatre for the Black Lives, Black Words International Theatre Festival, and shares residence at the Carnegie Mellon University Hunt Library. Cartons of Ultrasounds had the pleasure of returning to New York for a limited off-Broadway run to rave reviews. Recently, The Secret Life of Wonder: a prologue in G graced Australian stages as part of Antipodes Theater Company's Ricochet Reading Series!

Hawkins' residency credits include Penn LGBT Center Scholar in Residence, National Black Theatre SOUL Producing Resident, Azuka Theatre - Rising Writers Cohort, Kaleid Theatre Final Project Writer-in-Residence, Swim Pony Performing Arts TrailOff Writer-in-Residence, 1812 Productions’ Jilline Ringle Solo Performance Residency, Out of Exile Artist-in-Residence, Irondale Ensemble “To Protect, Serve, and Understand”, Painted Bride Art Center’s Souls of Black Folk & Power to the Prompt, and Alphabet Arts Puppets & Poets.

Notable writing contributions include Rising Voices: Poems Towards a Social Justice Revolution (University Professors Press), Closet Cases/Queers on What We Wear (Et Alia Press), Family Legacies (SONKU Collective Magazine), Fragrance of Love (Poet Tree), WORDPEACE Literary Magazine/vol. 2 Spring Edition, Long Wharf Theatre Blog Series, The Dramatist - Motivation Issue, and Pandemic of Violence Anthology - vol. 1 & 2 (North of Oxford Press).

Featured playwriting opportunities include the Frank Moffett Mosier Fellowship for Works in Heightened Language Semifinalist & Dramatists Guild Foundation National Fellowship Finalist 2024-25.

Ongoing projects: TrailOff, Community Capital: an Afrofuturism South Philly Walking Experience, and Becoming Saturn; Hawkins’s first studio poetry album with HawkHatt Music. 

Publications

• Sugar Lumps and Black Eye Blues
• Confectionately, Yours
• Mahogany Nectar
• Lil Blaek Book: all the long stories short
• The Hotel Haikus
• The Secret Life of Wonder: a prologue in G
• Becoming Saturn: a collection of rhymes, roses, and resistance

Plays and One-Acts

• the Are We Free Yet? project (based on the book Are We Free Yet? The Black Queer Guide to Divorcing America by Tina Strawn)
• sweet bread peaches (formerly, Cartons of Ultrasounds)
• The Secret Life of Wonder: a prologue in G
• #SuiteReality
• "don't wanna dance with ghosts..."
• AGAIN,
• #RM2B
• Seeking Silence
• In Their Silence (formerly They'll Neglect to Tell You)
• #SuiteTea
• Too Late to Apologize

Awards and Acknowledgements

• TONY Awards Excellence in Theatre Education - 2025 Honorable Mention
• PGN's 48 Most Influential LGBTQ+ Leaders - Artists and Creatives
• Frank Moffett Mosier Fellowship for Works in Heightened Language Semifinalist - In Their Silence
• Penn LGBT Center Scholar in Residence
• Dramatists Guild Foundation National Fellowship Finalists 2024-25 (top 25)
• Barrymore Award - Victory Foundation Award for Excellence in Theatre Education Program
• Best of Philly - TrailOff
• Carnegie Mellon University Hunt Library - #SuiteReality
• Best Theater Moment by Bonaly Reviews about AGAIN,
• Surya Bonaly Recognition Award for #SuiteReality
• "10 Philly Poets To Watch For/National Poetry Day" - Philadelphia Tribune
• "7 Poets Keeping the Rhythmic Tradition Alive in Philadelphia" - Philly Voice
• LOE Top 50 Media Moguls of 2014 Nominee
• click here for a complete listing!

Contributor to

• Reel Love [PGN]
• Caring Package: experiments in love [Kaleid Theatre Mixxtape]
• Pandemic of Violence vol. 2 [North of Oxford Press] - ft. we be peaches by TS Hawkins
• National Poetry Month with Tiffany Bacon [WURD Radio 96.1FM/900AM] ft. black joy by TS Hawkins
• The Motivation Issue [The Dramatist] - ft. the "pause" the world needed... by TS Hawkins
• Innovative Dramatists [The Dramatist] by Gabriel Dean, TS Hawkins, Krista Knight, and Joey Stocks
• Pandemic of Violence Anthology [North of Oxford Press] - ft. across the pillow, we... by TS Hawkins
• Rising Voices: Poems Towards a Social Justice Revolution [University Professors Press] - ft. from (an elegy, too) by TS Hawkins
• Long Wharf Theatre/4 Part Blog Series - ft. For Spirit, With Love: an exploration of voice, value, and verity for womynx in the here and now by TS Hawkins
• SONKU Collective/vol. II "Family Legacies" - ft. Suite Nana (for memory and eulogy of Bessie Lee) by TS Hawkins
• Closet Cases/Queers on What We Wear [Et Alia Press] - ft. Adornment by TS Hawkins
• WORDPEACE Literary Magazine/vol. 2 Spring Edition - ft. #SuiteReality by TS Hawkins
• The Fragrance of Love by Anna Maria Dallolio & Poet Tree - ft. The "love" Poem by TS Hawkins

Notable Facilitations and Panels

• PlayWRITE Now! Intermediate Masterclass at People's Light w/ TS Hawkins
• Purpose, Poetry, & Power: Tools for Thriving in a Shifting Society w/ TS Hawkins - QPenn Scholar in Residence Keynote
• Thriving Ain't Easy Masterclass at Temple University for Raise Your Voice 3
• Thriving Ain't Easy: Finding Peace Through Poetry at the Stockton Rush Bartol Foundation
• Restorative Healing (for Actors/Performers/Writers) at Theatre Exile
• Backstage & Ring of Keys present: Queering Casting & Authentic Representation
• Temple University POWER Poetry Workshop - Watch Here
• Thriving Ain't Easy 101: Choreopoem Masterclass at Theatre Exile
• Philadelphia Writers Conference
• National Communication Association: Social Justice Exchange
• #CouchCon: Writing & Activism Panel
• Long Wharf Theatre's The Artistic Congress: State of The Union
• TS Hawkins & Zulynette (co-facilitators) - Download Facilitation Workbook

For Masterclasses and General Bookings

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