OPEN DOORS NYC

Ten years ago, we began as a writing workshop for younger, formerly incarcerated nursing home residents, living with spinal cord injuries from gun violence. We called ourselves the Reality Poets and shared our stories and wisdom with youth. We grew into a creative community making music, visual art, theater, and film. During the pandemic, we organized for the dignity and safety of nursing home residents and staff everywhere. Tragically, in these past ten years, eight Reality Poets have passed away. Their legacies continue to shape our work. Their deaths remind us what can happen when disability, race, poverty, and institutionalization intersect in a world not built for us. Our fight is for them. Help us raise $10,000 to propel OPEN DOORS into its next ten years!

In 2019, the Reality Poets debuted FADE, a raw, electrifying play set in a Harlem barbershop where the talk got real about masculinity, survival, and transformation. Originally made up of Black and brown men—most living with spinal cord injuries from gun violence—the group has since evolved to include women and artists with a range of disabilities. Three members have passed away since FADE’s premiere, including Jay Molina, co-director of the award-winning PBS documentary Fire Through Dry Grass. Jay loved FADE and dreamed of bringing it back bigger and better and documenting behind-the-scenes action.  FADE 2: The Musical is Jay’s dream realized—and a love letter to those we’ve lost. Set once again in the barbershop, FADE 2 turns the space into part support group, part comedy club, part afterlife. The chairs become confessionals, the mirrors portals between worlds. As the Poets gather to talk, realism cracks open and ghosts walk in through poetry, song, and projection. The story confronts the precariousness of being Black, poor, and disabled in America. Casting will center actors with disabilities, and sets and choreography will integrate wheelchairs, lifts, and other adaptive equipment as extensions of rhythm and design.