T. NICOLE POWELL, MA, LCAT

she/hers

What I do and Where I’ve Been

Currently, I am licensed to practice creative arts therapy with a specialization in drama therapy. I am based in Brooklyn, New York. My goal is to bring The Rooted Rehearsal to life: a therapeutic theatre series that centers Black women and women of color.

I earned a Master of Arts in Drama Therapy from New York University (2024), a Master of Arts in Mass Communication and Media Studies from Howard University (2012), and a Bachelor of Arts in English and Theatre from Duke University (2008).

Before my career in mental health, I worked in the performing arts in various roles, both artistic and administrative. I have believed in the power of the creative and performing arts my whole life.

As a mental health professional, I am eager to facilitate healing spaces that foster openness, authenticity, community, creativity, and liberation for all, especially those from historically marginalized communities. My training has involved working with populations from several treatment environments, including hospital settings, nonprofit organizations, social service program settings, and therapeutic theatre projects. In all of these, I have worked with youth, young adults, adults with acute illness, and adults with special needs, most of whom are Black, Indigenous, People of color, and identify as being part of the LGBTQIA community, or other expansive identities that span across sex, gender, neurodivergence, and lifestyle.

As a theater artist, I consider myself an emerging playwright. My first short play, Afromemory, was produced at FRESHH Inc. Theatre's Next to Kin One-Act Festival, and a full-length version of the play was produced in a staged reading at the Kennedy Center's Page-to-Stage Festival in Fall 2018. Additionally, I was a Producing Playwright with The Welders, a playwrights’ collective in Washington, DC. Through The Welders, I produced my play Girls’ Night (with Spirits)in 2021.

My next project is S.A.T.U., a one-woman show in which I apply therapeutic theatre to explore the many parts of myself that make up who I am.

I also occasionally direct and perform. When the opportunity arises, whether it’s full-length plays, short plays, or readings, I jump at the chance to be a part of the magic.

As a spiritualist, I read tarot and oracle cards in my spare time, and I love reading the cards for divination, self-improvement, and guidance at special events. I enjoy meeting people and using cards to help them in whatever way they feel best, although my cartomancy practice and my mental health practice are entirely separate.

As a storyteller, I no longer accept that Black women don’t belong in fantastical stories. The genre known as speculative fiction, including science fiction and fantasy, is still pining for more Black women's voices and stories that expand the definitions of Black humanity, Black womanhood, and Black consciousness. There is beauty and wonder in the strength of Black women, and my prose and dramatic writing intend to place Black women characters in a 3-dimensional form with infinite possibilities of what they are truly capable of. Furthermore, my artistic goal in any project that I am involved in will always and forevermore compel the audience, the reader, the onlooker, the witness to view Black women as human, as complex people deserving of respect and agency, and most importantly, as formidable.

What else?

I try to live a creative life at all times. I love the performing arts and visual arts. I love seeing how art can connect with people and connect people, and I really do believe that art is a very viable form of care and can affect change in our communities. 

I support community activism, dismantling oppression, mental health services for everyone, and diversity. I support real, honest conversations about issues that affect us most, though at times very differently.

I am a proud member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. <3

I love to learn, and I am always looking for the next documentary. I love films; I love music; I love Chocolate.

I'm a Capricorn sun, Virgo rising, and Taurus Moon. :)