[ Meet the Founder ]

Welcome to the Avenue! Founded in January of 2018 and launched on June 7th, 2018, the Avenue Blackbox Theatre is directed executively and artistically by local and international "artivist", Reenah Golden. Many have showered Reenah, who was born and raised in Rochester, NY with compliments and praise for "re-igniting local theatre" as a "community treasure" for this latest leap of faith. To that she would humbly say that the community she has cultivated is in fact the treasure and she is proud to extend her light to the Avenue. 
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To the Avenue, Reenah brings an unparalleled passion to the development of performing arts, which she has done tirelessly for over 20 years locally, nationally and abroad, using the stage to educate, effect social change and create new ways of thinking. Reenah is a three-time New York State Council on the Arts individual artist awardee, a Poets & Writers grant recipient and a 2018 Association of Resident Theater (A.R.T) New York Creative Opportunity Fund awardee. Internationally, Reenah has been sponsored to present and deliver residencies, workshops and professional development for educators, community workers and youth in Antigua, Belize, Trinidad, Spain, Greece and Montreal. She is also invited to present regularly at arts, cultural and education conferences including; CommonGround, National Conference of Teachers of English (NCTE), American Educational Research Association (AERA), Partners of the Americas, Words Beats & Life. Reenah has been invited to present, guest lecture and/or deliver workshops for several universities including NYU, University of Rochester, State University of New York at Brockport, Nazareth College, St John Fisher College, McGill University, Calgary University, Universidad de Granada, Universidad de Barcelona, Indiana University Northwest, Clarion University, Hogeschool Utrecht, and Howard University.
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From 2009-2014, Reenah appeared in the touring one-woman show, No Child… by Nilaja Sun, about arts equity in public school education and the transformative power of arts. This powerful show in which she plays 16 characters has played to sold-out audiences in Rochester (Geva Theatre Center, 2009 & 2013) and Syracuse Stage (Fall 2010) and several other theatres, schools and universities around the globe. As an accomplished producing director, the bulk of Reenah's work includes multi-disciplinary collaborations; the most recent of which, BirthWrite a collaborative literary work with her women’s writing collective We All Write packed both Lyric Theatre (2017) and Geva Theatre's Fielding Stage (2018) received rave reviews at Rochester Fringe Festival (2017, 2018). 
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Reenah is committed to developing a solid culture for arts & cultural education at The Avenue to improve the lives of the young and emerging creatives who find a home in this inclusive space. In 2006, she founded Slam High, a high-school and community performance poetry program for teens that has received national acclaim and graduated 100% of its residents at various local high schools. This work was funded but New York State Council on the Arts, 2006 Writers & Books Teacher of Young People Literary Awardee. Since then Reenah has received several local, national and international grants for her work with youth and community including from Edith Glick Shoolman Children’s Educational Foundation, Dr. Dawn Lipson Foundation, NYSCA,  Partners of the Americas, and the Critical Pedagogy & Transformative Leadership Congress. A Reenah has participated on several Rochester City School District boards, arts committees and school improvement committees including school based planning team, PTA (past-president), and administrator selection committees. In 2016, Reenah designed and founded the Achieve Blackbox Theatre at PUC Achieve Charter School to promote literacy, arts integration, cultural responsiveness and community engagement. The youth performance troupe, noDrama club formed subsequently and now resides at The Avenue Blackbox Theatre and also tours their plays, remixes, improv sketches and spoken word in conjunction with the Avenue Children's Theatre Project (ACT).
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Reenah is also co-founder of Kuumba Consultants; an arts-in-education agency dedicated to matching artists-of-color with youth agencies and schools seeking quality arts & cultural programming. Kuumba Consultants writes and delivers curriculum-based programs including arts residencies, workshops, and performances throughout Rochester, NY and will now be a residing community partner here at the Avenue.
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Reenah is most definitely a citizen of the world but when she's home she resides in Rochester's beautiful 19th ward neighborhood.