NOVA CYPRESS BLACK (dey/dem/NOVA) writes deir name in all caps as a reminder to take up space as a disabled Black gender-expansive lighthouse. This genre-defying writer, ancestrally-led choreographer, budding documentarian & passionate educator pledges allegiance to liberation & pleasure. NOVA was a Staff Writer on season 3 of Showtime’s The L Word: Generation Q. Dey were also a 2024 Sony Pictures Entertainment Fellowship recipient; a Writing Fellow in Film Independent’s 2024 Project Involve; & a TV Writing Fellow in Lambda Literary's 2024 Writers Retreat, Outfest's 2021 Screenwriting Lab, & Lena Waithe's 2021 Hillman Grad Mentorship Lab. NOVA was also 1 of 7 trans writers who made the 2022 GLAAD List. NOVA's first produced short film, SWEET TOOTH, premiered on RevoltTV’s Short & Fresh series–in a Damn Write Originals compilation. The short/proof-of-concept for NOVA's solo directorial debut, (dey/dem): a choreo-doc, has been included in curriculum at Spelman College & University of California, Riverside. The experimental documentary has been a recipient of grants from Southern Documentary Fund; National Black Arts; Arts & Entertainment Atlanta; & Idea Capital & won Cycle 2, Season 2 of ATLFilmParty during deir time as Sequoia Ascension’s 2023 Artist-in-Residence. NOVA’s poetry has graced the pages of Fifth Wheel Press; 580 Split; Zone 3 Press; etc. Dey penned, choreographed, & produced the ensemble choreoplays: “another goddamn lesbian movie / a choreopoem.” (NYC, 2017) & “somewheres: a world-in-progress,” (NYC, 2020). Deir first solo, (POST-OP): a-well-in-progress, came out of NOVA’s 2023 Summer Artist-in-Residence with Fly On A Wall. This nomadic Libra is an inaugural participant in the 2024-5 Black Trans Ethical World(un)making Lab & a Memory Workers Fellow for The Autistic Voices Oral History Project (tAVOHP).