Germono Toussaint
Germono Toussaint (he/him) is a multi-award-winning composer, arranger, playwright, and producer. He is one of the founding playwrights of the Obie award-winning The Fire This Time Festival, the Founding Artistic Director of A Mile In My Shoes, Inc., and the owner of Brown Liquor Music, LLC.
His plays have been featured in the Not for Broadway Theater Festival, Horse Trade Theater Group, The Drafts Festival, All Out Arts Play Festival, New York Madness, The Fire This Time Festival, National Black Theatre's Keep Soul Alive reading series, and 48 Hours...in Harlem.
Toussaint has also written, arranged, and produced music for independent artists, professional theater productions, and concerts like Ritual (Stanley Bennet Clay), B-Boy Blues: The Play (James Earl Hardy), Sistas: The Musical (Dorothy Marcic), Bring The Beat Back (Derek McPhatter), Hoodoo Love (Katori Hall), The Lost Boys Live at 54 Below (for Dyllon Burnside of Pose), “Brand New Day” (Rapper J Keys), Crux Podcast, Foxology Podcast, The Reparations Show, and The Gatekeepers Collective's promotional video. His first full album, Brown Liquor & Blessed Oil, was released on July 4, 2021.
Toussaint has received awards and honors from The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, The Obies, The Puffin Foundation, National Alliance for Musical Theatre, and All Out Arts.
He’s participated in Tofte Lake Center’s 10th Annual Emerging Artist Program, was a Sheen Center Theater Artist Fellow, a Rhymes Over Beats Artist in Residence, and is a recent recipient of Broadway producer Ken Davenport’s Dr. Kenny Encouragement Fund Scholarship. He is excited to be included in the 2022 cohort of Hi-ARTS Artists in Residence.
As a same-gender-loving (SGL) composer, playwright, producer, and former ordained minister, much of my creative exploration focuses on the SGL, African American, spiritual community. Additionally this year I have recognized and accepted that I’ve also used my creative explorations to reconcile and heal past traumas.
I have also witnessed others have revelations, epiphanies, and transformative experiences through my work, which has motivated them to pursue their own healing. This has caused me to more fully embrace the charge to educate, uplift, challenge, transform, and even heal through my creative work.
— Germono Toussaint
As a CRITICAL BREAKS resident, Germono will continue the development of The Last Gatekeeper, a three-act, Afro-Futurist, musical theater experience inspired by the teachings of West African shaman Malidoma Patrice Somé (Jan 30, 1956 - Dec 9, 2021). The term “Gatekeeper” refers to the indigenous belief that those who express themselves as same-gender-loving (SGL) maintain the portals between the physical and spiritual world.
Image credit: Ricky Day
