Your Source for Black Theatre and Entertainment

Black Masks is a long-established Black theatre and entertainment magazine. Created in 1984, this publication has gained the support of both Black theatre and entertainment practitioners and audiences. The founder and publishing editor is playwright Beth Turner.

Now in its 41st year of publication, Black Masks has stopped publishing with this last Winter/Spring 2026 commemorative issue. We leave behind a treasure trove of articles in tribute to the many theatre artists, practitioners and audience members who have created and sustained this unforgettable legacy of excellence in Black theatre.

In the course of its 40 plus years of publishing Black Masks has had subscribers throughout the U.S., in Canada and in the Caribbean, and occasionally in Europe and Africa. It started out as a monthly publication, but in the last decade, it has been published quarterly. The magazine has featured articles on Black performing artists and Black arts groups, and overviews of important Black theatre and entertainment issues. Each edition also carries comprehensive listings of current U.S. and occasionally international Black theatre and entertainment events. The articles in Black Masks are based on original interviews and research. Print and electronic versions of the final Winter/Spring 2026 issue may still be purchased: both print and electronic for only $12; print only, $10; electronic only, $5.

Winter/Spring 2026

Beth Turner's Black Masks: 40 Years Come and Gone

Begun in 1984 as a newsletter on Black theatre, Black Masks has prevailed across forty years to celebrate Black theatre and its artists, administrators and audience.

Autumn 2025

Dunbar Repertory Theatre: Thriving Beyond New York City's Glow

Born, raised, and educated in New Jersey, Darrell Lawrence Willis Sr. has forged a New Jersey theatre company that has endured for thirty-eight years and is now thriving in its Middletown Arts Center theatre, some fifty miles from the New York City theatre scene.

Summer 2025

Tonya Pinkins: Gusto, Resilience, Perseverance

As evidenced by her outstanding performances in Jelly's Last Jam, and Caroline, or Change on Broadway, and Hurt Village and Milk Like Sugar Off-Broadway,Tonya Pinkins overcomes her life's challenges to bring her full self and talent to her work, providing her audiences with transformative theatrical experiences.

Spring 2025

Theatre in His Bones: Wren T. Brown

Multi-hyphenate Wren T. Brown, an actor, director, and artistic director of Ebony Repertory Theatre (the only Black Equity company in Los Angeles), adds nonfiction writer to his credits with the publication of his book about his family's four-generation legacy in entertainment.

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