NYC
Actor | Director
Producer | Jazz Vocalist

Rome Neal w/ Patience Higgins and the Sugar Hill Quartet
Rome Neal's Banana Puddin' Jazz
Produced by Rome Neal
Celebrating 23 years of
Banana Puddin' Jazz!

Rome Neal's Banana Puddin' Jazz is an award winning, long-standing, celebrated Jazz series in New York City that blends live music, community spirit, and audience interaction with the rich legacy of Black theatre and Jazz. Each show ends with an open mic, BPJ poem, and comes with a serving of Rome's famous, complimentary banana pudding.
Launched at the historic Nuyorican Poets Cafe in 2003, the series delivers top-tier entertainment every month, featuring world-renowned musicians, vocalists, poets, and more. The prestigious Rome Neal Shekere Award has honored many industry greats, including some now remembered as beloved ancestors.
Coming Up...

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THANK YOU FOR 23 YEARS OF MARVTASTIC SUPPORT.
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The Reviews:
Rome Neal's Beautiful Tribute to Woodie King Jr. held at Theater For The New City in the East Village honored a man I didn't personally know. On this night, the pudding, the poem, the prayer and the people all became part of the offering. Through them I met Woodie King jr.
- Raquel Aubrey - Beacon
Rome Neal's superb Banana Puddin' Jazz tribute to Woodie King Jr.
- Don Thomas, Editor's Note, Beacon
Actor, Producer, and Jazz Vocalist Rome Neal continued the public celebration with "Jazzy Thespians," a public celebration of Woodie King Jr. as part of his Banana Puddin' Jazz series. In the words of Rome, "Woodie was not simply a King, he was a Mansa, A King of Kings, an Emperor of a Black Theatre Dynasty..."
- Dr. Brenda Greene - Our Time Press
The evening opened with libation and prayer, followed by live Jazz that carried Woodie King'sm spirit through the room. Renowned musicians including pianist Andre Chez Lewis and Patience Higgins both celebrated for their work on Broadway and Off Broadway delivered soul stirring performances
- Dr. Jennifer Pinkney Pastor, Amsterdam News
An honor to be acknowledged by Woodie King Jr.
(July 27, 1937 – January 29, 2026)
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current happenings!
Theater produced and created by African-Americans helped mold generations influenced by their performance art and helped shape cultures.
Now, a new documentary hopes to show these Black creators, past and present, seeking stages to share their voices, entertain and inform on issues in front of a live audience and other performance platforms.
On November 1, 2024, the Nuyorican closed its iconic doors for a $24 million 3-year renovation project called the "Nuyoricanstruction" phase ushering us into the next 50 years.
Rome Neal, Artistic Theatre Director / Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe

CONGRATULATIONS
to ROME NEAL
who in 2022, received the
Lifetime Achievement Award at the
AUDELCO Awards Spectacular 50th Celebration of Black Theatre Excellence!






/director
Rome Neal
Rome's directorial credits includes his adaptation of William Shakespeare's "JULIUS CAESAR SET IN AFRICA," Sekou Sundiata's "THE CIRCLE UNBROKEN IS A HARD BOP" Amiri Baraka's "MEETING LILLIE," "SHANGO de IMA," "Prism," Ishmael Reed's "THE C ABOVE C ABOVE HIGH C" and Amiri Baraka's "PRIMITIVE WORLD: AN ANTI- NUCLEAR JAZZ MUSICAL," all performed at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe and National Black Theatre Festival in Winston Salem North Carolina.
Rome directed Wesley Brown's "LIFE DURING WARTIME" at the Cafe and The National Black Arts Festival in Atlanta Georgia. His production of Alex McDonald's "PRISM" was performed at the Ex-Ponto Festival in Slovenia, Eastern Europe.
His acting credits include Dan Owen's "FOREVER MY DARLIN’," directed by Daune Jones at the Richard Allen Center, and later by John Amos, and Judi Ann Mason's "A STAR AIN’T NOTHIN BUT A HOLE IN HEAVEN" directed by Mikel Pickney.
Rome’s film acting credits include Michael Almereyda’s "HAMLET" Spike Lee’s "SUMMER OF SAM" and Leon Ichaso’s "PINERO."












