Quiara Alegría Hudes is a playwright, Distinguished Professor at Wesleyan University, barrio feminist, mother of two, and native of West Philly, Pa. Hailed for her work’s exuberance, intellectual rigor, and rich imagination, her plays and musicals have been performed around the world. They include Water By the Spoonful, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama; In the Heights, winner of the Tony Award for Best Musical and Pulitzer finalist; and Elliot, A Soldier’s Fugue, another Pulitzer finalist. Hudes is a playwright in residence at Signature Theater in New York, and the Profile Theatre in Portland, Ore. has dedicated its 2017 season to producing her work. Originally trained as a composer, Hudes writes at the intersection of music and drama. She has collaborated with renowned musicians including Nelson Gonzalez, Michel Camilo, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Erin McKeown, and The Cleveland Orchestra. She recently founded a crowd-sourced testimonial project, “Emancipated Stories.” It seeks to put a personal face on mass incarceration by having inmates share one page of their life story with the world.