The National Black Theatre Festival is a biannual event in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It was created in 1989 by Larry Leon Hamlin, the North Carolina Black Repertory Company?s founder and artistic director. The famous poet and author Maya Angelou also took part in establishing the festival, helping Hamlin to raise half a million dollars worth of grants and contributions for financing the operations.

The National Black Theatre Festival?s main goal is to ?unite black theatre companies in America to ensure the survival of the genre into the next millennium?. It showcases the best in Black theatre twice a year.
Despite difficulties and troubles along the way, the National Black Theatre
Festival continues to produce the best in African American Theatre today. The biggest setback took place when Hamlin passed in 2007, which was also the last time the event took place. The next one is scheduled in August 2011.