Playwriting student Anterior Leverett was awarded the Hansberry-Lilly Fellowship from the Dramatists Guild Foundation, created to support generations of female-identifying playwrights of color.
The fellowship was founded in honor of the American playwright and civil rights activist Lorraine Hansberry, whose groundbreaking 1959 play A Raisin in the Sun was the first to be produced on Broadway by a Black woman. It provides a $25,000 stipend for each year of a playwright's MFA program, intended to support all of the costs of living that are not covered by scholarships or subsidized tuition to ensure protected time to write and develop meaningful, career-enduring relationships with peers and mentors.
This year's recipients were selected by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and actress Eboni Booth (Primary Trust, Paris). "I was so inspired by Brittany and Anterior's work," Booth told Broadway World. "Their voices are so alive, their theatrical concerns so immediate, their dive into the complexity of human relationships so complete. It was the best thrill to encounter these two writers exploring what it means to be human during these chaotic, fragile times. I'm grateful for their contributions to American theater."
Hailing from Savannah, Georgia, Leverett is a playwright, performer, and scholar-artist who has performed and written for the Atlanta History Center and Black AF Comedy in Atlanta. She was a member of the 2018/2019 Horizon Theatre AppCo (Sinking Further, Paula's Playground, I Never Dreamed You'd Leave in Summer), a Working Title Playwright Rosalind Ayers-Williams Scholarship Recipient, a member of the 2023/2024 Alliance Theatre Lead Reiser Artist Lab, and a 2024 SheATL Finalist. Her play Yanni Stone & the Honeypot Trap was selected for the 2022/2023 Synchronicity Theatre Stripped Bare New Play Incubator Project, a Hush Harbor Lab Workshop Development, and a National Black Theatre Micro Development Lab.
"It is such an honor to be named one of this year's Hansberry-Lilly Fellows," Leverett said. "I am excited for the financial relief the fellowship provides, which will definitely allow me to focus on my work as a playwright."
