Avery LaMar Pope

Avery LaMar Pope is a multi-hyphenate storyteller and arts educator from Cleveland, OH.

Avery tells stories through theater, literature, and music.

Acting credits: Cleveland Play House, Playhouse Square, Great Lakes Theater, Karamu House, Dobama Theatre, Cleveland Public Theatre, Cain Park, Idaho Shakespeare Festival, and Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe.

Playwriting credits: Horizon Theatre Company, Dobama Theatre, Ensemble Theatre, and First Look Buffalo Theatre Company.

Directing credits: Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble, Cleveland Public Theatre (asst.).

A respected poet, selected commissions include MetroHealth’s Physician Suicide Awareness Week and Patient Experience Week, NAREB’s 75th Annual Convention, the Ohio Crisis TextLine Campaign, WKYC’s 2024 Breaking Barriers Program, and All Our Babies. He is a founding member of The Sparrow’s Fortune Spoken Word Collective and in 2023, self-published his first chapbook, A Dozen Roses (and other flowers too). An avid educator in poetry, music, and theatre, he has crafted curricula for and taught at countless regional theaters, schools, and arts organizations across Cleveland and beyond.

Awards/Recognitions: Cleveland Arts Prize Verge Fellow (2026), Karamu House Room in the House Performing Arts Fellow (2024), Nord Family Foundation Playwright Fellowship Finalist (2022), and New South Young Playwrights’ Festival Selection (2021). Avery graduated Cum Laude with a BFA in Performance from Ohio University. God is good. Jesus is Lord.