JOSEPH HALL (39)
Executive Director, Kelly Strayhorn Theater

Growing up in a small, mostly white town, Joseph Hall relied on the arts to understand himself. Now, he creates art that helps people of all ages reckon with our world.

“Art is not something that has to present, necessarily, a reality. It’s a space where we can dream much bigger,” he says. “We need culture, which I say is the soul of the community, and art to really express that soul and to grapple with issues in that soul.”

He took the top position at the century-old Kelly Strayhorn Theater in East Liberty in March 2020 — just when the country shut down because of the coronavirus pandemic. Full programming is now back, and Hall has established a newly defined mission to create a home for creative experimentation, community dialogue and collective action rooted in the liberation of Black and queer people.