Omar Columbus is an Advisory Board Member of Poetic Theater Productions’ Veteran Voices Program.
Omar is a photographer, poet, curator, advocate, and an Air Force veteran. A native of Washington, North Carolina, he enlisted after high school and served for 12 years on active duty. An Operation Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom veteran seeking healing and comfort from post-traumatic stress, his poetry and photography became his creative outlets. Omar has always believed that events in his life have been compelling. He is now learning to work through his trauma creatively, and talk about those things and heal through his art, storytelling, and advocacy.
A Brooklyn College graduate with a bachelor’s degree in Art, Omar has written and performed with Poetic Theater Productions since 2019. Omar has also read his poetry at the Geraldine Dodge Poetry Festival, the New York City Poetry Festival, at the New-York Historical Society, and a collaboration with Exit12 Dance Company for a performance on the flight deck of the Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum.
Omar was interviewed and photographed for a street fashion editorial for “Cool America Magazine” in Summer 2019. Omar’s photography has been featured in various group exhibitions at the legendary Salmagundi Club in New York, and he was offered the opportunity to curate a show of veteran artists from across the nation, representing all branches of the military. “From There to Here: Military Veterans’ Experiences” opened in Manhattan in February 2020, and has melded Columbus’ passion for art with his continued passion for helping fellow veterans. @omarcphotography
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With Poetic Theater Productions:
Project Mentor for Untold Stories: You Ask, I Tell
Poet in Journey Onward: Military Veterans’ Experiences
Panelist for Veterans’ Night at NYTW’s On Sugarland presented by PTP & NYTW
Playwright in Veteran Voices Playwriting Presentation June 2021 presented by PTP & NYTW
Co-Host of Veteran Voices The Interview Sessions Interviewing Stacey Bell, Drew Pham, Tara Krause, Miguel A. Faña, Karen Alvarado and John Meyer, Maria Salazar, Mary Jo McConnell, and Donna Zephrine
Playwright of Soju featured in Veteran Voices: Rites of Passage in Poetic License: Ritual
Curator and Workshop Facilitator in Veteran Voices: Conscious Community As Ritual
Curator and Workshop Facilitator in Veteran Voices: Transformation
Additional Curation and Organizational Support in Veteran Voices: Reckoning
Featured performer in Together in Resilience: A Celebration presented with Judson Arts Wednesdays
Writer and Presenter in Veteran Voices 2019 in Poetic License 2019: Resilience
Featured artist in Veteran Voices 2020 in Poetic License 2020: Renewal