WRITER

SCREENPLAYS

• Squad Goals
  2012. A hangout-film about Black kids where no one gets shot in a drug deal. Set in the Conservative, affluent (white) suburbs of North Carolina. The five Black students of Carolina Prep's senior class are trying to get into college, but like also enjoy the best days of their lives under the gorgeous Carolina blue sky, and like also survive the KKK.
  Starts Conversations About: summerrrrrr, college, the homecoming dance, driving, Tom Petty, binders full of women, the dougie, G-wagons, jollof, the SAT, Nike Elite socks, Sperry Top Siders, microaggressions, macroaggressions, fishing, student government, Black hair, Black excellence, the Black Table, avocado toast, nothing was the same...
  * Selected for the 2023 Athena Film Festival Writers Lab.

• La Méduse
  1816. Based on a true story. After a period of great revolution, monarchy returns to France and with it, the nobility reclaim their power. The frigate The Meduse, with its mixed-class crew and passengers, journeys across the ocean to settle the colony of Senegal -- but with the dual punch of a tempest and tempestuous leadership, most never arrive. When the frigate is shipwrecked off the coast of Mauritania, the elite commandeer the life rafts and sail to safety, leaving the least-of-these to fight for their lives on a ramshackle raft in the treacherous tropical waters. 

Starts Conversations About: shipwreck, politics, privilege, competence, nepotism, class, patria, citizenship, equality, honor, resources, velvet robes, tradition, hazing, sailing, the open sea, SHARKS!, worst case scenario... 
* This is Averi's personal favorite project, and she will gladly talk to you about this research for an hour. If you would like to fund a research trip to the Louvre, she would also gladly accept that. *UPDATE* Louvre trip scheduled! 

• • • • "The writer did a great job of creating suspense and drama. Watching the passengers struggle to survive was gripping and I couldn’t stop reading." - BlueCat Reader

• Black Gold
  1910. Historical fiction. When Jones Morning becomes "property of the state" after a wrongful conviction in the backcountry of Chicory Creek, Alabama, Grace-- the matriarch of the Morning family-- treks into the dangerous world of Ashby Mines to rescue her husband and keep their family unit intact.
  Starts Conversations About: criminal justice reform, Reconstruction, coal mining, the Black Family, the burden of Black Women, US history, displacement, authority, reification of the human body, literacy, sacrifice, Black-Indigenous relationships
  * Scored within the top 15% of The Academy Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting.

  • • • "The writing is strong, with a good command of language and craft. Many of the sequences have a poetic feel yet they still propel the story at a good pace while painting a picture of the surroundings and times. The writing is clear and offers a voice which evokes beauty even in the midst of the terrible events that are portrayed. This contributes to the magic of the piece as well."  - Nicholl Reader One

      • "It’s a look into a world that in some ways still feels too familiar and that helps make this script relevant for today’s audience."  - Nicholl Reader Two

      • "The idea touches on an important and little recognized ugly history in the United States when these types of schemes were employed. (For that matter, a Judge in Pennsylvania was recently convicted in a similar kickback scheme involving juveniles). So this idea is both fresh and still timely in some ways."  - Nicholl Reader Three

• 14:23
  1970s -1980s. Based on a true story. A young boy from Camden, NJ discovers his talent in athletics and uses his abilities to achieve a better life for himself and his family despite the fact that the universe seems to be against his success.
  Starts Conversations About: football, high school, family,"underserved communities", NFL, ACL, KFC, perseverance, college, scholarship, Black athletes with non-traumatic backgrounds, Averi's dad
  * Quarterfinalist in 2016 BlueCat Screenwriting Competition.

• DeSal
  Future. Romeo and Juliet in the not-so-distant future, set on an island without freshwater.
  Starts Conversations About: surfing, climate change, police brutality, love, prison, colorism, stereotypes, angsty youth, California, Willy Shakes, adaptation 

PLAYS

• Amber Ambrose and the Lank
  Amber is approaching 30 and is trying her best...​
  Starts Conversations About: race, gender, mental health, puppies, poetry, police brutality, public v private suffering, Becky, self-medicating, somatic healing, dating apps bruh, that guy, the loneliness epidemic, dancey dance, realms of reality, the absurd

• Benihana: The Musical! (in progress)
  Starts Conversations About: nationality, immigration, patriotism, belonging, The American Dream, WWII, chain restaurants, 1960s and 1970s NYC, magic, family, rock 'n' roll, glitter, celebrity, empire, materialism, happiness is _____, success is ______