Photos from Girl Be Heard performances at the United Nations (far right), in Sarajevo (second from right) and with GBH special advisors Lin-Manual Miranda and Gloria Steinem.

GIRL BE HEARD

Ash is the founding artistic director of the United Nations recognized NGO Girl Be Heard which started in 2008 as Project Girl Performance Collective. Instead of writing and directing a “girl power” show at the EstroGenius Theater Festival in NYC as commissioned, Ash invited the cast of twelve young women from diverse racial and socioeconomic backgrounds to tell their own stories. The result was transformative.

Over the years, Girl Be Heard has grown into a dynamic, multi-faceted organization that reaches over 700 youth annually across multiple Title-1 schools and community-based sites citywide and engages 30,000+ in audiences via MainStage, their annual show, and community-based performances. Girl Be Heard company members have been invited to perform at The White House, United Nations, US State Department, TED Talks, the Women’s March, CBS This Morning national broadcast, and Girls, Inc, among others.

Girl Be Heard's presence has also expanded internationally, with global tours taking place in Denmark, London, Switzerland, Sarajevo, and Trinidad and Tobago. In 2017, Girl Be Heard’s Trinidad and Tobago program launched with support from the United States State Department/US Embassy of Trinidad and Tobago. Today, it is a thriving program serving the local and migrant communities.

Girl Be Heard performance at TED Women.

CO-OP THEATRE EAST

Ash is the co-founder of the theatre collective Co-Op Theatre East (COTE) with NYU classmates Robert A.K. Gonyo and Casey Cleverly. Co-Op Theatre East was active for over a decade from 2008 through 2022. The COTE Ensemble created many original plays, readings, radio plays, and immersive productions. Through COTE Ash directed My Name is Rachel Corrie, The Vagina Monologues (immersive production in various locations throughout a Harlem apartment building), developed Building A Real Boy, a documentary theatre project about the life and work of activist Aaron Swartz, and performed in numerous touring murder mystery productions throughout the northeast. Co-Op Theatre East lives on in monthly Living Radio produced by Robert A.K. Gonyo.

DOCBLOC

In 2021, Ash founded Docbloc, dedicated to bringing together artists, scholars, and journalists working across nonfiction genres for creative collaborations in live performance. Docbloc believes in the power of documentary storytelling and that solidarity is created when artistic movements are connected, and collaborations are fostered.

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