Nina Angela Mercer

Nina Angela Mercer is a cultural worker and theater artist currently teaching at Brooklyn College within the City University of New York (CUNY) system. She concurrently serves as a Level II doctoral fellow in Theatre and Performance at The Graduate Center-CUNY and co-directs Ocean Ana Rising (OARinc), an organization dedicated to creative expression and social justice initiatives.

Her educational foundation includes an undergraduate degree from Howard University and a Master of Fine Arts from American University. These credentials underpin her interdisciplinary approach to performance and community engagement.

Mercer's creative scholarship centers on theater as a catalyst for social transformation, with emphases on African diaspora narratives, queer feminist frameworks, and autoethnographic methodologies. Her original works—including the trilogy MOTHER WIT & WATER BORN and plays like GUTTA BEAUTIFUL—explore intersectional identities through experimental staging. Collaborative projects such as the video-poem "Invocation for Jose Antonio Aponte" demonstrate her commitment to cross-disciplinary artistic activism.

Her recognition includes:

• Theater and Performance Doctoral Fellowship (Level II), The Graduate Center-CUNY
• Autoethnography and Theater Fellowship, Center for Humanities and College Fellowship Program, CUNY

Mercer actively mentors through Ocean Ana Rising while developing community-based performance projects. Her 2018 events "Theater for Social Change: (In)Visible Freedom" and "Staging Queer Feminist Perspectives Today" exemplify her focus on using theatrical spaces for dialogue around racial and gender justice.

As co-founder of Ocean Ana Rising, she leads initiatives connecting artistic practice with movement-building, notably through partnerships with Betty’s Daughter Arts Collaborative, Angela’s Pulse, and BWA for BLM.