At South Dallas’ long-shuttered Forest Theater, horns blare and metal clanks as drills and saws whir. The rhythms echo through a space that has hosted acts like Tina Turner, B.B. King and Prince, and served as a hub of the Black community in South Dallas.
Before long, today’s noise will fade. Crews will exit and curtains will rise to usher in a new era for the historic theater.
Nijeul X watches construction workers stack blocks, a framework for a new multiuse studio at the theater. As the theater’s new executive and artistic director, he’s been taking in the weight of reimagining a previously neglected space.
“The pressure is on,” he said, adding that it was “in the very best way.”
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Forest Forward, a nonprofit leading the renovations and dedicated to area revitalization, brought on the new director over the summer, hoping to position the theater as a national destination that serves as a hub for performances, innovation and community.
In an interview with The Dallas Morning News, X shared his ideas for the creative space slated to open next year, where he hopes to build an “artistic home” for local talent.
“We get to cultivate them right here in Dallas,” he said. “Dare I say, our next Beyoncé is somewhere in South Dallas just waiting to be cultivated.”
X, a Houston native who spent more than 15 years in Los Angeles, is returning to Texas with hopes of creating a transformative space. Most recently, he served as a director at WACO Theater Center alongside Tina Knowles, a founder and the mother of music phenom Beyoncé.
He said Forest Forward’s mission to move the needle on life expectancy drew him to the project. ZIP code 75215, where the theater is located, has the county’s lowest life expectancy estimate at 68, according to 2019 data from UT Southwestern Medical Center and UT Health.
Neighborhood revitalization, anchored by the theater, could impact quality of life. Forest Forward partners with Dallas ISD. It also has plans for mixed-income housing, walkable space and workforce development in the area.
Those looking to improve health conditions in southern Dallas have said a complex web of factors is tied to the issue.
Elizabeth Wattley, president and CEO of Forest Forward, and Nijeul X, executive and artistic director of the Forest Theater, talk while they tour the theater’s construction site on Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025, in South Dallas.
Angela Piazza / Staff Photographer
Elizabeth Wattley, Forest Forward’s president and CEO, said by linking aspects like housing and education to the revitalization, along with programming, she expects health outcomes to improve.
X wants the theater to be a place where guests return and initiate conversations about their lives. He wants to blend community-driven efforts to improve life with fun, joyful and thought-provoking programming.
The new Forest Theater
Inside the theater, rooms were full of metal frames for walls as the clanking of the construction site droned. An additional 35,000 square feet are being added.
The studio space the director watched being built will include 200 retractable seats. The theater will include a 1,000-seat concert hall, an immersive art studio, visual art studio, a media lab, podcast studio and a cafe.
“There’s public space to sit and meet and have coffee with someone,” X said. “There is a rooftop bar.” Now, he’s deciding what to do with it all.
Vicki Meek, an arts and culture commissioner for the city who led the South Dallas Cultural Center for about 20 years, said she was part of the selection committee.
She remembered working with X years ago in a fellowship program and was impressed with his focus and clarity around his work. When his name came up for the job, she saw how he would be a good fit.
“He really stood out because of, not just his commitment to the work, but the fact that he has such a very clear idea of how one engages community,” Meek said.
Director hears from community
At a community meeting in August, X fielded questions about how he would build community and engage with neighbors who see the revitalization happening and may not feel welcome to enjoy new areas like the theater.
It’s clear the change coming to the neighborhood is inevitable, X said, but there’s a way to ensure history remains and neighbors are included.
Rosalind Baylor Cosey speaks with Nijeul X, executive and artistic director of the Forest Theater, at a community meeting for the Forest Theater on Aug. 21, in Dallas.
Angela Piazza / Staff Photographer
Wattley, the Forest Forward CEO, said the conversation around revitalization has been ongoing from the start.
“I will never forget people thinking this was going to be too nice, or too fancy or wasn’t built for them,” Wattley said. “Since then, we’ve always hoped that is not the case. We want people to feel welcomed and we want that nostalgia.”
Wattley said recent focus on the neighborhood and awareness around gentrification means the area has a shot at bringing healthy development without displacement. She noted policies like the South Dallas Fair Park area plan and new area investment.
A “community organizer at heart,” X said he’s been looking to identify community issues, hear strategies, desires and opportunities for collaboration.
Artists have told him they have a limited amount of spaces to present work. Some people haven’t ever been inside, X said, but they want to see the theater’s tower lit again.
“It’s clear that the physical space speaks to people,” X said.
Director’s experience shapes outlook
X sees similarities between South Dallas and where he grew up, along with neighborhoods nationwide.
While he was born in Houston, X said he grew up in Port Arthur, where railroad tracks divided the city between the east and west. Black residents lived to the west, he said.“That division, very much like here in South Dallas, has shaped how I see the world and it keeps me grounded,” X said.
To get to his new role, his own career was cultivated. In high school, X’s theater teacher introduced him to the arts and he went across the state for poetry interpretation competitions.
Nijeul X, executive and artistic director of the Forest Theater, looks out the window of the Forest Forward building at the theater, still under constructions across the street, on Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025, in South Dallas.
Angela Piazza / Staff Photographer
“I’m going to mostly white schools reading Langston Hughes … and Nikki Giovanni, talking about ‘the Black man cannot be destroyed,’” X said. “It’s wild to think about, but that was my entry.”
That gave him confidence in pursuing art. He went to Howard University, learning about combining business and theater. He also holds a master of fine arts in management from the California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles.
During a fellowship at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, X said he learned how the organization made space for young people. More recently, at the WACO Theater Center in Los Angeles, X led the company’s initiative to secure a partnership with the city to operate a 750-seat concert hall dedicated to stories of the African diaspora.
Those experiences have led X to construct a space where attendees build their voices and portfolios, learning from “best-in-class” artists who visit. Students at the nearby Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Arts Academy are expected to use the theater.
Nijeul X, executive and artistic director of the Forest Theater, looks over a fence at the construction site on Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025, in South Dallas.
Angela Piazza / Staff Photographer
X imagines the kids walking the few short blocks to the site.
Music will fill the air, replacing the drilling and hammering of today. Artists will gather for coffee, to rehearse or birth ideas.
He envisions guests called into the theater for a show, then stumbling out and heading to the rooftop bar. There, they’ll take in the sunset.
They’ll be different than when they arrived, the director said.
“You should enter one way, leave another way. And if you are not transformed, what are we doing?” X said. “When I think about this space, really any artistic, any space I’m holding, the goal is transformation.”
This reporting is part of the Future of North Texas, a community-funded journalism initiative supported by the Commit Partnership, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, the Dallas Mavericks, the Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Lisa and Charles Siegel, the McCune-Losinger Family Fund, The Meadows Foundation, the Perot Foundation, the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas and the University of Texas at Dallas. The News retains full editorial control of this coverage.