MANSA RA is an internationally renowned writer whose work explores how everyday people respond when history demands something of them.

His New York debut, Too Heavy for Your Pocket, follows a college student deciding whether to join the Freedom Rides of 1961. Over the past decade, the play been produced in theaters, colleges, and classrooms alike. Too Heavy for Your Pocket is a contemporary masterpiece that has sparked conversations about civic participation, activism, sacrifice, and social responsibility across the country.

His most recent Off-Broadway production, …what the end will be, was a New York Times Critics’ Pick with The Wall Street Journal calling the play "an undeniable pleasure." His work has received honors including the Laurents/Hatcher Foundation Award and the Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Competition.

Known for transforming historical events into intimate human stories, Mansa's plays ask audiences not simply to observe history, but to imagine themselves inside  of it. 

​Most days you can find him walking beside the Mississippi River in Tennessee or writing near James and Ethel Park in South Africa.