Black Women on Broadway Awards to Honor Natasha Yvette Williams, Joy Woods, and Nikiya Mathis

After a successful inaugural event, the Black Women on Broadway Awards expects more than 100 guests as it returns for its 2023 celebration.

In honor of the outstanding achievements of Black women in the Broadway space, three were chosen as recipients to be acknowledged for their work in commercial live theater.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, this year’s awards will honor Some Like It Hot’s Natasha Yvette Williams as its Audra McDonald Legacy Award recipient; Six the Musical’s Joy Woods, who was chosen as the recipient of the Florence Mills Shining Star Award, and wig designer Nikiya Mathis, who is set to receive the Kathy A. Perkins Behind The Curtain Award as a rising artist in the space.

“We saw with our first-year celebration how necessary it was, how people left in tears and were so elated to be in a space where they didn’t have to be anything other than the Black women they are. There was such a freedom in the room, a vulnerability that is not often felt,” BWOB co-founder and Tony nominee Danielle Brooks said.

“Natasha has been out here for a very long time, and we’re very excited to give her her flowers. Nikiya has been doing hair on Broadway and off-Broadway for years but also is an actor. And Joy Woods is up and coming; she was in Six and is now in Little Shop of Horrors. She’s the first Black woman to play Audrey full-time in the 2019 revival,” Brooks explained.

The goal for the awards is to maintain a guest list that includes 50% talent and 50% behind-the-scenes changemakers to celebrate every individual who takes part in the production process, from stage management to casting, producers, and swings, a member of the company who understudies several ensemble roles according to the New York Theatre Guide. “We want all of us to be in the space together and hold space together,” Brooks said.

Brooks founded Black Women on Broadway in 2019 alongside The Color Purple actress Amber Iman and Jocelyn Bioh. The 2023 Black Women on Broadway Awards will occur in New York at the Knickerbocker Hotel on June 5.