In Memoriam

Professor Michael D. Dinwiddie (1954-2025)

CSAAD is saddened to report the passing of Michael Dinwiddie on July 4, 2025. Michael was on CSAAD’s advisory board, and was a member of NYU’s faculty for nearly three decades, where he was Professor of Dramatic Writing in Gallatin’s School of Individualized Study. Establishing a sterling reputation as an interdisciplinary scholar of the arts, he was an accomplished playwright, composer, and theater historian, in 1995 receiving the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Playwrighting, and in 2005 NYU’s Distinguished Teaching Award. 

One of his signal accomplishments at NYU was spearheading the creation of “The African Grove Theatre.” The venue opened in 2023, but harkens back to the African Theater, created by the Caribbean-born William Alexander Brown. Black thespians comprised the African Company, and played to audiences from 1816 to at least 1823 and at a location in Greenwich Village that, together with its immediate surroundings, was known as the African Grove. Michael was co-chair of the Committee to Commemorate the African Grove.
 
He will be greatly missed.
 
CSAAD offers its sincere condolences to the Dinwiddie family.
 
Please see this page commemorating Michael Dinwiddie by his documentarian Lia Chang.
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