Avery Lamar Pope

About the Artist

Avery LaMar Pope is a storyteller, arts educator, and self-published author from Cleveland, OH. Avery tells stories through theater, literature, and music. Acting credits: Cleveland Play House, Playhouse Square, Great Lakes Theatre, Karamu House, Dobama Theatre, Cleveland Public Theatre, Cain Park, Idaho Shakespeare Festival, and Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe. Playwriting credits: Horizon Theatre Company, Dobama Theatre, and First Look Buffalo Theatre Company. Directing credits: Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble, Cleveland Public Theatre (asst.). A respected poet, selected commissions include MetroHealth’s Physician Suicide Awareness Week and Patient Experience Week, NAREB’s 75th Annual Convention, the Ohio Crisis TextLine Campaign, and WKYC’s Breaking Barriers Program. He is also a founding member of The Sparrow’s Fortune Spoken Word Collective. An avid poetry, music, and theatre arts educator, he has taught at Playhouse Square, Great Lakes Theater, Karamu House, Cleveland Public Theatre, Idaho Shakespeare Festival, and numerous theaters and schools across the city of Cleveland.

Awards/Recognitions: 2024 Karamu House Room in the House Performing Arts Fellow, 2024 Cleveland Arts Prize Verge Fellowship Finalist, and 2022 Nord Family Foundation Playwright Fellowship Finalist, 2021 New South Young Playwrights’ Festival selection. Avery graduated Cum Laude with a BFA in Performance from Ohio University. God is good. Jesus is Lord.

Artist's Connection to the Work

I've seen firsthand the impact a good story can have on the hearts and lives of an unsuspecting audience. It can generate perspective and conversation and bring emotions to the surface that would have stayed buried were it not for someone else experiencing those emotions right before them. I've been blessed to see this impact across various disciplines. God has allowed me to sing a tear into someone's dry ducts or deliver a poem that says what a person has been feeling for years but never had the words. The passionate dialogue born out of a challenging play is sometimes more engaging to watch than the play itself for the simple fact that it is organic, unplanned, spontaneous, and alive. This is the work I aim to create when I sit at my desk or stand on a stage: work that requires introspection and generates self-awareness. People love art because it allows a sense of escape, but the best art supplies less reason to escape and more tools to endure. It equips us with the ability to love and empathize and provides us with the language we need to push the needle of truth forward in our personal lives. If only an inch, a push nonetheless. My process and its resulting work are indicative of this mission.