Yusef Komunyakaa (librettist) served as New York’s 11th State Poet Laureate. His books of poetry include Neon Vernacular: New and Selected Poems (1993), for which he received both the Pulitzer Prize and the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award.
Komunyakaa’s libretti and performance pieces have been performed locally, nationally, and internationally and include the operas Wakonda’s Dream (2007) with composer Anthony Davis directed by Rhoda Levine at Opera Omaha ; Shangri-La (2003) with composer Susie Ibarra directed by Tania Leon at Passage Theatre; Sandy Evans’s Testimony (1999) at Australian Music Center ; Susie Ibarra’s Saturnalia; T. J. Anderson’s Slip Knot (adapted and arranged for production at Northwestern University by Rachael Gates, Noel Koran and Rhoda Levine); Bill Banfield’s Ish-Scoodah at Princeton Atelier (directed by June Ballinger); Gilgamesh: A Verse Play (2006) with dramaturge Chad Gracia. Additional theatre include The Deacons (2007) at Passage Theatre directed by Kemati Porter; Somewhere Near Here Bright Darkness; Jupiter Invincible (2021), For Lost Words with Vince DiMura at Passage Theatre.
Additional Poetry publications include Dien Cai Dau (1988), which won The Dark Room Poetry Prize; Thieves of Paradise (1998), which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; Pleasure Dome: Collected Poems (2001); Talking Dirty to the Gods (2001); Warhorses (2009); The Chameleon Couch (2011), which was a finalist for the National Book Award; The Emperor of Water Clocks (2015); and most recently Everyday Mojo Songs of Earth: New and Selected Poems, 2001-2021 (2022).
Komunyakaa is the recipient of the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize from the Poetry Foundation, and the Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets. His other honors include the William Faulkner Prize (Université Rennes, France), the Hanes Poetry Prize, and fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, the Louisiana Arts Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts. He was elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2021, he was awarded the Griffin Lifetime Recognition Award, the Zbigniew Herbert International Literary Award, and the Lannan Foundation’s Award in Literature for Lifetime Achievement.
Vince Dimura (Composer) is a concert jazz pianist, composer, arranger and musical director; appearing on concert stages and theatres throughout North America, Canada, Europe and Latin America. He is currently the Resident Musical Director and Composer for the Lewis Center of the Arts at Princeton University, where he has served since 1987. He has conducted seasons at The Bethesda Nederlander Theatre, Laguna Playhouse, El Portal Theatre, Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre, the Augusta Barn Theatre, Artpark and Company, Tennessee Repertory, The Asolo Theatre Company, Florida Studio Theatre, American Stage, Passage Theatre, Act II Playhouse, The Arden Theatre Company, The Muhlenburg Summer Theatre Festival, The American Theatre Group, The Barter Theatre, Arkansas Repertory Theatre, Flat Rock Playhouse, Blowing Rock Stage, The Little Theatre in the Rockies and Endstation Theatre in Virginia.
Best known for his arrangements for Summerwind Productions, his shows have had over 1000 productions nationally and internationally; including My Way: A Tribute to Frank Sinatra, Christmas My Way, Simply Simone, I Left My Heart: A Tribute to Tony Bennett, and A Swinging Christmas Bash. Mr. Di Mura has fulfilled numerous compositional commissions from the likes of Princeton University’s Department of Theatre and Dance, Rutgers University, Rider University, the Pingry Foundation, the University of Colorado, The Scioto Society, Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre, Passage Theatre, the University of Northern Colorado, American Stage, Princeton University Ballet, The Jazz Disciples, and a host of scores for People’s Light and Theatre Company. Mr. di Mura is also the author and curator of A Conversation With The Blues, a 14-part web instructional series on improvisation through the Blues, produced by Soundfly Inc.
He holds composition and jazz fellowships from the William Goldman Foundation, Temple University, Meet the Composer, CEPAC, the Union County Foundation, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, the Puffin Cultural Forum and the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation. Vince has 8 CDs on the market including his most recent releases, Ybor City Preludes, and Echoes of the Great Migration. In 2023, he became the musical director/arranger and pianist for Summer Breeze Chinese Jazz Fusion Ensemble. Mr. di Mura’s film credits include “Grace” and the award winning indie film, “Breathe.”
June Ballinger (Producer) ) served as the Producing Artistic Director of the Passage Theatre Company from 1996-2017 focusing on the production of new plays. Passage produced new works by established and emerging playwrights including William Mastrosimone, Leslie Ayvazian, Yusef Komunyakaa, Matt Smart, Caridad Svitch, Cori Thomas, Laura Maria Censabella, Tanya Siracho, David Lee White and more. After becoming eligible in 2010, Passage received two Barrymore Awards and nominations for two more during the last 7 years of her tenure. Additional awards include Awards of Excellence from New Jersey Theatre Alliance and admission into The New Jersey Women’s Hall of Fame (2013).
In addition to developing and producing new plays she presented over 50 solo plays in Passage’s annual Solo Flights Festival including her own solo piece Remembrance Day directed by Janice L.Goldberg. June and playwright David Lee White devised the interview-based plays Trenton Lights and Profiles. Earlier in her career she founded the Word for Word Ensemble which devised musical plays composed from the writings of school children. She continues to work in NYC as an actor with credits on Broadway, off-Broadway, television and film.
She served on the Board of the NJ Theatre Alliance for 8 years and currently serves on the boards of NYC’s New Federal Theatre, one of the leading Black theatre companies in the country, and Impact Theatre, a physical theatre company committed to social change.