In partnership with Black Studies at the University of Texas, The New School proudly presents a stage reading of Dinner, a new comedy written by Presidential Visiting Scholar, Lisa B. Thompson. The reading will be followed by a panel with the playwright and cast, moderated by Toni R. Israel of REALEMN Productions. 

Dinner spotlights the first meeting between the parents of engaged couple Joanna and Jonathan. As Joanna struggles preparing an elaborate meal to impress her future in-laws, she finds herself at the center of a battle between the Black middle class and the Nigerian upper class. “Guess who’s coming to dinner” and discover what’s on the cultural and political menu when the African diaspora gathers to dine.

The reading features Alinca Hamilton as Joanna and Kayodè Soyemi as her fiancé, Jonathan. Seasoned actors Chantal Jean-Pierre and Eddie Blackman play Joanna’s parents and Tomike Ogugua and Daralyn Jay are Jonathan’s parents, with Alexis Slade as our bride’s best friend. 

 Lisa B. Thompson is The New School's 2022-2023 Presidential Visiting Scholar. The program builds on an important aspect of The New School’s history—the tradition of bringing to campus outstanding academics, artists, and activists known for their bold research, pedagogical innovations, and groundbreaking ideas to engage with the university’s faculty and students.

Thompson is the Bobby and Sherri Patton Professor of African and African Diaspora Studies and the advisor to the dean for Faculty Mentoring and Support at the University of Texas at Austin’s College of Liberal Arts. She is an award-winning theater artist, teacher, and scholar whose plays employ character and story to thoughtfully explore the Black family, motherhood, migration, racial violence, and sexuality.

Thompson has written four books—Beyond the Black Lady: Sexuality and the New African American Middle Class, Single Black Female, Underground, Monroe, and The Mamalogues: Three Plays, and The Mamalogues. Thompson’s plays have been produced off-Broadway, around the United States, and internationally. She has received support for her work from institutions such as the American Council of Learned Societies, Hedgebrook, MacDowell, Millay Arts, the National Performance Network, the University of Texas’ Center for the Study of Race and Democracy, and Harvard University’s W. E. B. Du Bois Research Institute at the Hutchins Center.