Yunina Barbour-Payne

Dr. Yunina Barbour-Payne is a scholar/artist whose interdisciplinary scholarship involves Africana studies, Appalachian studies, folklore, and performance. Her teaching and research areas include Black performance theory, Black theatre and performance, Theatre with and for Youth, Black feminisms, Black Appalachian performance traditions and Affrilachian (Black artists experiences in Appalachia) aesthetics. Barbour-Payne earned a Ph.D. in Performance as Public Practice from the University of Texas at Austin where she was a Donald D. Harrington Fellow.

As a scholar/artist, Barbour-Payne has experience as a performer, dramaturg, director and playwright. As an actor, some of her favorite roles include Clyde in Ground Floor Theatre’s production of Lynn Nottage’s Clydes, Edna Thomas in Penfold Theatre’s world premiere of War of the Worlds, and Sally Mae in the Ensemble Theatre’s production of Too Heavy for Your Pocket. In addition to her onstage work, she is a dramaturg with Gesel Mason Performance Project’s Yes AND, a performance project that re-centers Black womanhood as the norm and operating force in the creative process.

Her scholar/artist performance work have been presented at Fusebox Festival in Austin, Texas, the International Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem North Carolina, Hillwood Estates in Washington DC, Fade to Black Play Festival in Houston, Texas and Boulder Fringe Festival in Boulder Colorado.