Nuestro Planeta: HAITI by Phanésia Pharel

Through industrialization, migration and globalization, some of our most vulnerable communities now find themselves at the epicenter of the climate crisis, with little memory of their once harmonious connection to nature and no understanding of how to lessen their own human impact.

Hero Theatre and Hero Multimedia have launched Nuestro Planeta, a multimedia new works initiative. Nuestro Planeta is rooted in research around environmental justice issues happening in Latiné countries and the U.S. and how Latiné American families are directly affected. 

A series of films and plays that center on the relationship between Latiné communities and the earth, Nuestro Planeta focuses on specific countries in Latin America, beginning with Colombia. The project also includes California, where Latiné people are deeply affected by the climate crisis. 

For the next installment, Hero Theatre presents Nuestro Planeta: HAITI by Phanésia Pharel. Phanésia Pharel is a playwright who grew up on a dragon fruit farm in Miami. Grounded in poetry and Afrofuturism, she often writes about the divine metaphysical dilemma of colored girlhood. Her plays span revolutions, islands, and explore futures built on love by centering women’s pleasure, safety and joy: hopeful and magical survivor stories for the young, poor, women, colored and those audacious enough to be all of the above.

Her full length plays include Lucky (New York Stage and Film) and Black Girl Joy (Frank Moffett Mosier Fellowship for Works in Heightened Finalist Prize, Jane Chambers Finalist, Bay Area Playwrights Festival Finalist, O’Neill Semi-Finalist). Other Honors include City Theatre National Short Playwriting Finalist and Blank Stage “Future of Playwriting” Semi-Finalist. Phanésia is a member of the Obie award-winning EST/Youngblood group. Commissions include City Theatre Miami, the Latinx Playwrights Circle and Pregones/PRTT Greater Good Commission, and Thrown Stone Theatre. Residencies include New York Stage and Film, The Echo Theater Company in Los Angeles, the Playwrights Center Core Apprenticeship and the Inaugural 068 Magazine Thrown Stone Theatre Fellowship. Publishing: Concord Theatricals, Smith and Kraus Best Plays of 2020, Reset Coalition 2020 Anthology and the City Theatre Anthology.

​Phanésia also writes for TV and audio; recent credits include Single Drunk Female, Blood & Water, Maid, Red Collar and Homecoming. She is the recipient of a B.A. in Urban Studies from Barnard College of Columbia University and is currently an M.F.A: candidate at the University of California San Diego (class of ’25).