Mara Brock Akil’s Screenwriting Residency Announces Spring 2023 Cohorts

By BreAnna Bell | June 2. 2023 | VARIETY

The Spring 2023 cohorts of Mara Brock Akil’s Writers’ Colony have been announced. The list includes the names of several rising multihyphenates including Rhema Boston, Paris Crayton III, Latasha Mercer, and Tosin Morunfula.

The three-month screenwriting residency takes place in West Adams, Los Angeles next door to Brock Akil’s story 27 productions company. During the residency, writers develop an original script that demonstrates their voice. Over the course of their residency, they workshop their scripts and have conversations with varied entertainment professionals of all levels to prepare them to launch into the industry.

“Writers are not cogs in the machine. Writers craft complex stories that not only entertain, but reflect the times and human experience. Writers are the architects and the needed first step in our collaborative art form in the TV/film industry. And now, more than ever writers need support. That is what we are nurturing at the Writers’ Colony,” said Brock Akil. “I’m proud of what we were doing prior to the strike and am convinced of its’ necessity even more now. The Writers’ Colony’s approach is process-driven and community based. It allows burgeoning writers the time and space to hone their unique voice. It’s my belief that what distinguishes one writer from another is their specific point of view. Understanding one’s voice leads to compelling and urgent storytelling, thus allowing our next generation of writers, storytellers and perhaps eventually showrunners to have the staying power that could shape the industry.”

Read the entire Variety article here.