Joni

Author Biography: Joni Ravenna is an award-winning playwright, TV writer and journalist whose articles appear regularly in national newspapers. She was host and head writer of the TV series, Earth Trek (PBS) and the ACE-nominated series, Great Sports Vacations - at one time The Travel Channel’s highest rated show – while also writing and hosting select segments for E! and ESPN. In 2019/early 2020, several of her plays were produced including the critically acclaimed, “Beethoven and Misfortune Cookies,” (Smith & Kraus, Aug. 2021) which is based on the life of Kabin Thomas, a black music professor teaching in the deep South who was fired after a white student complained about his radical style. The oft-produced play became a New Works of Merit Honoree (2016) after Woodie King Jr. optioned it for his Federal Theatre (NYC, 2014).