Black Diaspora: Suzen Baraka

Black Diaspora events are open to a Black- or Afro-Latinx-identifying audience only.

About Suzen Baraka

Emmy Award-winning poet and SAG-AFTRA actor Suzen Baraka left her career in investment banking in 2018 to train at the Atlantic Theater Company Acting Conservatory. As an American actress and woman of Black and Korean descent, Suzen prays her work serves as a bridge reimagined.

Suzen starred in Everlasting, winner of the Viewer’s Choice Award at the 2020 Cannes Short Film Festival, and won a regional Emmy for VOTE, a lyrical short later published in Kevin Powell’s literary anthology.

Most recently, Suzen co-starred on HBOMax’s The Other Two and CBS’ Blue Bloods. She’s the writer and face of Theraflu’s Right to Recover Campaign, which advocates for women’s right to paid sick leave. Suzen wrapped lead and supporting roles in My Asian, Things That Remain, Two Frozen Turkeys, If You See Something, and Against Protocol.

About Black Diaspora

Conceived by curator Eva Yaa Asantewaa during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter uprising, Black Diaspora launched its first activities in September 2020 as a Zoom-based peer support program serving up-and-coming, Black-identified dance and performance artists from various cultural backgrounds and aesthetic traditions.

With the support of Gibney, Black Diaspora has offered numerous peer group discussions, workshops led by notable guest artists, and conversations between artists. We celebrate the resourcefulness, accomplishments, and generous wisdom of Black creatives, educators, and activists.

Headshot by John Jay.