People, Locations, Episodes

Jomandi Productions Debuts

The founding of Jomandi Productions, a Black Theatre Company in Atlanta in 1978, is celebrated on this date.

Jomandi was launched through an endowment of the Dr. Thomas W. Jones Memorial Scholarship of the Morehouse College Medical School. "Every Father's Child," the company's first production written by Thomas W. Jones II, was part of that tribute. The name Jomandi is a combination of the names of the Jones family members. Fittingly, in a Senegalese dialect, the name means "People gathered together in celebration."

Jomandi is Georgia's oldest and largest Black theater company. It has emerged as a leading theater nationally in producing new works and an important voice of its generation in American theater. Jomandi receives "first-time" awards and major grants from many large corporations and foundations. The company received the 1990 Governor's Award for the Arts and was the first Black theater presented at New York's Joyce Theatre American Theatre Exchange. Jomandi was invited for two years to perform at Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors and represented the South in Europe's "Other America" Festival.

In addition, Jomandi has been awarded eight of the sixteen nominations for the prestigious Helen Hayes Awards in Washington, D. C.

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