When black women + speak
Grounded in UBW’s Choreographic Center Initiative (CCI) and CCI Producing Program for Women+ of Color (CCI 2.0), When Black Women+ Speak will convene women+ of color leaders from world-class artistic institutions across New York City to explore the core questions of identity and purposes, such as: What do we stand for and who do we stand with? What are we willing to do about that? How do we build community around culture and collective action? Most importantly, how do we honor those who came before us, and use those lessons to create the future we want and deserve?
IN NYC
November 13, 2024
Harlem Stage Gatehouse
Harlem, NY
October 16, 2024
Louis Armstrong House Museum
Queens, NY
July 31, 2024
David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center
New York, NY
May 8, 2024
Fishman Space at
BAM Fisher, Brooklyn, NY
Curated by Lai-Lin Robinson, CCI 2.0 Project Producer.
Produced by Pia Monique Murray, 40th Anniversary Associate Producer/CCI 2.0 Producing Fellow, in collaboration with Jonathan D. Secor, UBW Producer.
WE ARE WILLING TO HAVE UNCOMFORTABLE CONVERSATIONS.
TRUTH-TELLING IS ALWAYS THE INTENTION BEHIND WHAT WE DO.
BLACK FEMME: UNAFRAID TO CENTER OUR STORIES.
Speaking up requires risk.
Speaking out requires risk.
Speaking truth requires risk.
Urban Bush Women
THIS IS RISK
when Black women+ speak CURATOR & PRODUCERS
When Black Women+ Speak Curator and Co-Producer
Lai-Lin is a Producer, Curator, Performance Artist, and Arts Advocate who is passionate about nurturing art that challenges the way we exist. Originally from Washington, DC now living in New York City, Lai-Lin is grounded in her core values of empathy, community and anti-racist practices. For over 10 years she has collaborated with artists and organizations to transform their visions into a dream reality.
LAI-LIN ROBINSON
When Black Women+ Speak Co-Producer, UBW 40th Anniversary Associate Producer
Pia Monique Murray is a choreographer, performer, installation artist, teacher, and creative producer. She has worked with nora chipaumire, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Camille A. Brown, Dianne McIntyre, Chanon Judson, Mame Diarra Speis, Monica L. Williams, and the late Blondell Cummings in various capacities.
PIA MONIQUE MURRAY
UBW Producer; and
Executive Creative Producer, 40th Anniversary
Jonathan has worked in and around the arts for over three decades as a facilitator for creative artists and ideas and is delighted to once again be working with Urban Bush Women, having previously worked as Producing Partner. Jonathan was producer for NYC Free, a four-week festival, curated by Mikki Shepard. Prior to this, Jonathan was Director of Public Programs for the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
Jonathan D. Secor
SPECIAL THANKS
We would like to thank our panelists and the entire community of Black and women+ of color producers who have set the foundation and continue to build and sustain the ecosystem of our industry. We are grateful for the inaugural cohort of CCI 2.0 Fellows: Audrey Elaine Hailes, Pia Monique Murray, Stephanie Rolland, Cheri L. Stokes; Mentors: Lisa Bryd, Sandy Garcia, Laura Greer, Linda Walton; Advisors: Mikki Shepard, Stephanie Hughley, Hanako Yamaguchi, Linda Brumbach; Art-Makers: Maria Bauman, Marguerite Hemmings, Chanon Judson, nia love, Kesha McKey, Mame Diarra Speis; Partners and Guest Speakers.
A special thank you to all of our venue partners: BAM, Lincoln Center, Louis Armstrong House Museum in partnership with Queens College, and Harlem Stage for supporting creatively brilliant Black women and providing space for us to gather, exchange and excel.
Urban Bush Women 40th Anniversary leadership funding provided by
Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Howard Gilman Foundation.
MAJOR FUNDING FOR URBAN BUSH WOMEN IS PROVIDED BY:
past discussions & panelists
November 13, 2024 | 7 PM
Harlem, NY
Producers as part of the Creative Process
featured panelists
Chief Content Communications Officer,
Harlem Stage
Deirdre May has worked in media and entertainment throughout her 25-year career, having managed national campaigns and promotions, multiple advertising agencies; partnered with studios, music industry partners, sports leagues, and major networks, such as NBC and HBO. As a Black American woman, she has had a life-long passion for amplifying the stories and more.
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Deirdre May
Founder/Director,
STooPS Art & Community
Kendra J. Bostock is a professional dancer, choreographer, teaching artist, pilates instructor, and community organizer from Detroit, MI, who now lives in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, NY. Kendra is the Founder/Director of STooPS Art & Community, an organization that uses art as a catalyst for community building by curating art in unconventional spaces such as stoops, sidewalks, parks, and block parties.
Kendra J. Bostock
Founder & CEO,
Betty's Daughter Arts Collaborative
Ebony Noelle Golden is a ceremonialist, culture worker, public scholar, and entrepreneur from Houston, Texas. Wielding womanist and Black feminist practices, Golden’s work invokes messy, magical, and medicinal methods to weave liberated worlds ripe with creativity and thriving. Since 2009, Betty's Daughter Arts Collaborative, her consulting practice, has served more than 100 social justice, education, arts & culture institutions.
Ebony Noelle Golden
Chief Marketing Officer,
Dance Theatre Of Harlem
Fatima Jones is an accomplished cultural strategist and a seasoned marketing, communications, and reputation management leader. Recently appointed Chief Marketing Officer At Dance Theatre Of Harlem, she oversees all facets of integrated marketing and communications, including advertising, social media, press, audience development and design.
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Fatima Jones
October 16, 2024
Louis Armstrong House Museum
Queens, NY
Building A Net That Works: Producing your own legacy
featured panelists
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE LOUIS ARMSTRONG HOUSE MUSEUM
Regina Bain is an artist and educator serving as the Executive Director of the Louis Armstrong House Museum. In the midst of the reverberations of slavery, Jim Crow laws and the great migration, Armstrong became America’s first Black popular music icon. The Museum preserves his home and archives and develops programs grounded in the values of artistic excellence, education and community. Ms. Bain recently opened the new Armstrong Center housing a multimedia exhibit curated by Jason Moran.
Regina Bain
CO-FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF ANGELA’S PULSE
Paloma McGregor is a Caribbean-born, New York-based choreographer and arts leader. As co-founder and Executive Artistic Director of Angela’s Pulse, McGregor has spent more than a decade centering Black voices through collaborative performance projects that she has dubbed “community-specific” -- centering communities of color and non-traditional performance spaces as underpinnings of her work. A former newspaper editor, McGregor brings a choreographer’s craft, a journalist’s urgency, and more.
Paloma McGregor
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF BAX/BROOKLYN ARTS EXCHANGE
Marlène Ramírez-Cancio is a Puerto Rican cultural producer, artist, and educator based in Brooklyn, New York. As Artistic Director of BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange, a multigenerational arts organization nurturing creative expression and artistic process, she creates spaces of inquiry and praxis for artist-led initiatives. Since 2008, she has directed EmergeNYC, an incubator and affinity network for socially engaged artists to develop their creative voice, explore the intersections of art and activism, and more.
Marlène Ramírez-Cancio
July 31, 2024
David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
New York, NY
Producers as Presenters: Building Audience Vs. Building Community
featured panelists
Ehrenkranz Chief Artistic Officer,
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
Shanta Thake is the Ehrenkranz Chief Artistic Officer at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, where she spearheads all artistic programming activities. Since her start in the fall of 2021, Shanta has been key to Lincoln Center's ongoing efforts to ensure the arts are central to the civic life of the city—welcoming new and returning audiences, championing genres historically underrepresented on campus, and ushering in accessible ticket models to help break down cost barriers.
Shanta Thake
Vice President of Learning & Engagement,
Weeksville Heritage Center
Erica Harper is currently the Vice President of Learning and Engagement at Weeksville Heritage Center in Brooklyn, NY. In her role, she is responsible for the vision, strategy, and implementation of both the education and programming departments. Previously Erica served as Head of PK12 Initiatives at The Phillips Collection, a museum of modern and contemporary art in Washington, DC where she provided vision and strategy for the museum’s school partnerships.
Erica Harper
President and Executive Director,
Baryshnikov Arts
Sonja Kostich brings with her both the knowledge and experience of having been a professional dancer for over two decades as well as significant business acumen derived from her business education and time working at Goldman Sachs. Through a unique and successful professional trajectory, she now merges her artistic and business experience as an arts leader.
Sonja Kostich
Chief Executive Officer,
National Black Theatre (NBT)
Harlem native Sade Lythcott is the Chief Executive Officer of the historic National Black Theatre (NBT), the nation’s first revenue-generating Black Arts complex and one of the longest-run theaters by a woman of color. She is the daughter of the late Dr. Barbara Ann Teer, founder of NBT and legendary champion of African-American arts and culture. As a leader and staunch advocate for women and people of color in the cultural sector, Sade currently serves as the chair of the Coalition of Theaters of Color, is on the board of directors of Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), and more.
Sade Lythcott
May 8, 2024
BAM Fishman Space
Brooklyn, NY
The Producing Eras: An exploration of Producing Then vs. Now. Paying homage to our Trail Blazers and their journey as Women+ of Color Producers over the years.
featured panelists
President
BAM
Gina Duncan returns to BAM from the Sundance Institute, where she served as its Producing Director since September 2020. During her tenure, she was responsible for producing the Sundance Film Festival online and in person, as well as managing the Institute’s year-round operations. As Producing Director, she was an integral part of fiscal and artistic planning and oversight for the Institute.
GINA DUNCAN
Artistic Director and CEO
Harlem Stage/Aaron Davis Hall, Inc
Patricia Cruz began her term as Executive Director of Harlem Stage/Aaron Davis Hall, Inc. in 1998. Ms. Cruz is responsible for overseeing programming and administrative management as well as long range planning, fundraising, fiscal management and program development in accordance with the mission of the institution. She directs a staff of 18 and is the chief liaison to the Board of Directors.
PAT CRUZ
Chief Program Officer
Doris Duke Foundation
Maurine Knighton is the chief program officer at the Doris Duke Foundation. In this role, she oversees the foundation’s five national grantmaking programs: Arts, Environment, Medical Research, Child Well-Being and Building Bridges. Knighton joined the foundation in 2016 and served as program director for the arts, leading the development and oversight of grantmaking programs to support artists and organizations in the contemporary dance, theater, jazz and presenting fields.
MAURINE KNIGHTON
Executive Director,
651 ARTS
Toya Lillard is a theater artist, director, arts educator, and facilitator. Toya currently serves as Executive Director of 651 ARTS, a nationally renowned arts presenting organization. Before joining 651 ARTS, Toya was Executive Director of viBe Theater Experience, an arts education organization and theater company in Brooklyn, New York. Prior to her role at viBe, Toya was Director of School Programs for The New York Philharmonic’s Education Department, where she helped develop its nationally recognized School Partnership Program.
TOYA A. LILLARD