Kamilah Forbes

Kamilah was born into a family of Jamaican immigrants and raised in Chicago. After graduating from Howard University with a theater degree, she began her first exploration into the genre that she coined “Hip-Hop Theater.”

In 2000, Kamilah founded the Hip-Hop Theater Festival (now known as Hi-Arts), which featured the interdisciplinary work of emerging Hip-Hop artists on issues of race, culture, gender and sexuality.

Kamilah has written, directed and produced several award-winning projects for stage and television – such as “What’s Going On”—the 40th anniversary celebration of Marvin Gaye’s iconic album featuring John Legend. She also created the celebration Nas’ “20 Year Anniversary of Illmatic”— accompanied with 96 players from the National Symphony Orchestra — all staged at the Kennedy Center.

In her role as the executive producer of the Apollo Theater, Kamilah leads the legendary cultural powerhouse dedicated to the projection of the African American narrative and its role in the development of American and global culture. Her recent projects include directing the world premiere and theatrical adaptation of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ New York Times Best-Selling novel “Between the World and Me.”

We’re honoring Kamilah for her leadership to identify and support emerging artists of color, her commitment to creative works by, for, and about Black artists, and the vision reflected in her own artistic work.