City of Asylum has named its new executive director — and he already knows his way around the office. Andrés Franco, nonprofit leader as well as orchestral conductor, will return to the role he held from 2020-2023.
Andrés Franco Named New Executive Director of City of Asylum
Currently the executive director of dance-theater company Attack Theatre, Andrés Franco will step into the executive director role at City of Asylum beginning May 1. It’s a position he held previously. Franco served as the nonprofit’s executive director from 2020-2023, before taking leadership roles at Attack Theatre and New York-based arts organization DNAWORKS.
Franco is also an accomplished conductor, having served as resident conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and the Forth Worth Symphony Orchestra, as well as music director for the Philharmonia of Kansas City and the Signature Symphony.
“As an artist and an immigrant, City of Asylum’s mission resonates with me profoundly,” Franco said in a statement released Tuesday. “I am honored to return to help steward it at a moment when this work feels especially urgent.”
A Home for Writers in Exile
City of Asylum, founded in 2004, is a residency program that focuses on writers in exile — the largest such organization dedicated to persecuted writers. Recent residents include Haitian poet Bertony Louis and Ukrainian writers Olena Boryshpolets, Oleksandr Frazé-Frazénko and Volodymyr Rafeyenko. (Rafeyenko’s new play, Signals of Being, gets its staged reading on March 17.)
The organization also hosts a number of public-facing programs — including the enduring Jazz Poetry Month series and its annual LitFest — and operates the Alphabet City performance space and bookstore.
Hannah East, City of Asylum’s acting executive director, will remain with the organization as chief operating officer.
Meanwhile, programming continues uninterrupted at City of Asylum, including jazz from musician Anton DeFade this Thursday and a book release and reading from Pittsburgh-based poet Sony Ton-Aime this Sunday.
Story by Sean Collier
Photo by James Korn
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