5th Annual SHINE: Illuminating Black Stories

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27TH, 7:30PM ON GILLIAM STAGE

SHINE: Illuminating Black Stories is an annual event of powerful theatrical storytelling celebrating the Black experience in Appalachia, curated by Barter Theatre's Black Stories Black Voices initiative. Inspired by the local Black community and the Appalachian landscape, the event features original monologues and scenes by Black playwrights from across the nation. Performed and directed by Barter's artists, these works provide a platform for voices that are often unheard. We hope you'll join us!

Content Advisories: (IL) – Intense language. More information.

Meet the Playwrights

India Nicole Burton

India Nicole Burton is a Chicago-based director, playwright, deviser, and producer. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Nebraska-Omaha in 2022. India’s work has been recognized nationally through programs such as the National New Play Network (NNPN) Producer in Residence program, which she completed over two years at Cleveland Public Theatre, and the NNPN Bridge Program grant in 2021.

One of her most celebrated works is the choreopoem Panther Women: An Army for the Liberation, which received a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere. The production earned critical acclaim and was nominated for two Jeff Awards in 2024, as well as two Chicago Black Excellence Awards.

India’s play Safronia’s Daughter was featured as part of The New Harmony Project’s IndyFest, hosted by The Phoenix Theatre Indy in 2026. She was also selected for The New Harmony Project’s prestigious playwright residency in 2024, located in New Harmony, Indiana.

As a performer, India was part of American Dreams, which received a Drama League Award nomination in 2021. She was named Best Local Playwright by Cleveland Scene Magazine in 2023 and was The Chicago Reader’s 1st Runner-Up for Best Playwright in 2024. India is a 2024/25 participant in the Theatre Communications Group Rising Leaders of Color program and was a semifinalist for the Princess Grace Award in 2024.

In the summer of 2025, her trilogy The Ascension Plays was featured in the National New Play Network’s New Play Showcase. She currently serves as a Board Member of the National New Play Network.

India has directed for The Karamu House Inc., Company One, Cleveland Public Theatre, Dobama Theatre, The Playwrights’ Center, and more. She is a resident playwright at Chicago Dramatists and a NNPN board Member. India is also an Assistant Professor of Theatre at Chicago State University, and a Teaching artist at Court Theatre

Darius Ahmond Cabell

Darius Cabell was born on February 27th 2006. He grew up in Clarksville Tennessee, later moving to Panama City Florida at 15 years of age where he found his love for the Performing Arts at Rutherford High School. While he was there he managed to be cast and perform in 9 shows in 3 years in his local high school. From there he began competing in various competitions with Florida Thespian Festival, Bay Arts Alive, Solo and ensemble, Florida vocal association ranking one of the highest scoring students in the county. Which allowed him to be inducted into the International Thespian society. Over the course of his time he has written a total of 5 plays. He then began to further his education at Troy University, where he is currently seeking a degree in the theatre. His latest accomplishment is becoming an official member of The National Honor Theatre Society Alpha Psi Omega. Darius is continuing to work hard at his craft and believes "this is just the beginning.”

Brenda Fulmore

A seasoned leader with a wealth of experience across corporate, public, and nonprofit sectors, Brenda earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of North Carolina at Pembroke and spent 27 years in corporate America, primarily within the financial sector. Later, she worked at Winston-Salem State University, a nationally recognized HBCU, for 12 years, before retiring in 2022. One of her most notable contributions was her role as a leader in the Winston-Salem Creative Corridors Coalition, Inc., a non-profit, where she served eleven years on the executive board, design steering committee, and as fifth chair of the organization for two years which produced three iconic bridges over the Salem Parkway through Winston-Salem: the Twin Arches, Strollway Bridge, and the Green Street Pedestrian Bridge. Through this work, she decided to publish two books, a children’s coloring book and the main historical book about iconic bridges
entitled “Highways Divide, Bridges Connect Communities” and their impact on communities.

Her dedication to community engagement continues as she serves as vice chair on the Winston- Salem Community Appearance Commission Board.A passionate volunteer, Brenda enjoys partnering with local and regional city officials to foster
collaborative initiatives. Her deep love for community and family, along with her experience in leadership, inspires her to share her journey and insights.

Born in Lumberton, North Carolina, and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Brenda is the youngest of fifteen children. She moved to Winston-Salem in 1993 and is a proud single parent of two adult daughters and a grandmother of eight. In her free time, Brenda enjoys playing an electric bass guitar, a certified Pickleball instructor, and continues to be an active member of her community. Brenda serves on the board of Winston-Salem Writers.

Jerry L. Jones

A native of Glade Spring, Jerry L. Jones grew up in southwestern Virginia during the era of segregation. For grades one through seven, he attended the Rosenwald-built Black elementary school in his home town and was bused to the all-Black Douglass High School in Bristol, Virginia, where he graduated as valedictorian in 1965. His bachelor’s and master’s degrees are from the historically-Black Virginia State University and  his doctorate is from Virginia Tech.

Beginning as a high school business instructor in Baltimore, Jones’s  teaching career continued for twenty-seven years as a professor of computer information systems at Reynolds Community College in Richmond, followed by twenty years at Emory & Henry College.

His first book, Structured Programming Logic, was a computer programming logic textbook which ended up being used at various colleges in Virginia and other schools during the 1980s. His second book, a memoir, was Go and Come Again: Segregation, Tolerance, and Reflection; and his third book, another memoir, was They Included Me: A five-Decade Teaching Career.

Gifted with the ability to pay the piano without any music training, Jones has been a musician for more than 65 years. He has played piano at numerous area churches, events on the campus of Emory & Henry, and Abingdon’s Highlands Festival. Additionally, he has been a member of the Glade Spring Town Council, certified Methodist lay speaker, member of William King Museum Board, and a public speaker as well as Commencement speaker at Emory & Henry.

For several years, Jerry Jones’s mother, Mary Waugh Jones, worked in the Glade Spring home of Robert Porterfield, founder of the Barter Theatre.

Chandra Thomas

Chandra Thomas is an award-winning multihyphenate storyteller and proud New Yorker. As a playwright, her work has been presented at Primary Stages, McCarter Theatre, Barrow Group, Naked Angels, Echo Theater, Road Theater, Athena Arts Theater, Downtown Urban Theatre Festival, Vivid Stage, Passage Theatre, among others. Chandra's full-length plays, rom-com-drama THE BUZZER and multigenerational-family circus play ...OF CHAMPIONS, were named Finalists in the Blue Ink Playwriting Award. She was also a nominee for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.

Chandra's also a writer of television, film and narratives (Emmy Award-winning comedy MOM) as well as a performer (New York Theatre Workshop, LAW & ORDER: SVU). She earned BA degrees in Theatre and Sociology from Vanderbilt University, and holds an MFA from Columbia University. In the tradition of her vibrant immigrant family, Chandra's storytelling centers characters who are pushed to the margins while blending humor with emotional heart and social bite.