Living Fully: Standing for Justice ARTISTS

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS

AUTUM ASHANTE'

An eight-year-old powerhouse, spoken word artist Autum
Ashante' gained attention for her controversial poem "White
Nationalism Put U in Bondage," performed last year in
Peekskill, New York. She has become a prolific performer,
culling in a single year appearances at Caroline's on Broadway,
the Apollo, Wordstock, and BET. Ashante' was honored last year
by New York City councilman Charles Barron and has gained the
support of Reverend Al Sharpton.

MARIA BAUMAN

Maria Bauman is pleased to be in her first season with
Blacksmith's Daughter. Prior to joining BSD, Maria danced
with Urban Bush Women, originating several roles and playing
an active part in the company’s Community Engagement projects.
She also works with Adele Myers and Dancers, and is an apprentice
with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. Bauman travels
throughout the United States as a freelance choreographer and
teacher, and has created dances for Spelman College, Virginia
Commonwealth University, and the Governor’s School of the Arts,
among others. Maria's work will next be showcased at the Bronx
Academy of Arts and Dance. www.mbdance.org

AISSATOU BEY-GRECIA

Aissatou Bey-Grecia is associate director of Network Strategic
Planning and Public Affairs at Generations+/Northern Manhattan
Health Network. As former director of the Harlem Hospital’s Injury
Prevention Program, Aissatou supervised the renovation of 35
playgrounds nationally, 21 of them in Harlem. She has also organized
a variety of community based and municipal partnerships in her role
with the Injury Prevention Program, which resulted in a substantial
decline in the number of injuries sustained by children in Harlem.
Aissatou has raised and educated three children and two grandchildren
in the Harlem community, where she continues to live, to work, and
to advocate.

BLACKSMITH'S DAUGHTER

Blacksmith's Daughter was founded by Nia Love in 1999 after the
passing of her father, renowned visual artist Ed Love, who believed
in and created work by welding physical and spiritual pathways within
his sculptural art. Using his tradition as a starting point, the
company has, since its inception, performed dance-, music-, and
art-based stories about diversity, life and death, and the power of
communication through contemporary dance. Diversity is central to the
work; the appreciation of cultural and personal differences lies at the
company's heart, bringing about, through creative experimentation, a
quality of humanity made possible by a group of individuals coming
together with a common idea in mind. The company has been commissioned
to present and perform works at City Center (APAP), Florida State
University, Long Island University, and Brooklyn's Thelma Hill Performing
Arts Center. Between 2003 and 2006, BSD performed shared evenings with
other established New York choreographers at Aaron Davis Hall, Thelma
Hill Performing Arts Center's Thirtieth Anniversary, 651 Arts's Black
Dance: Tradition and Transformation, and the International Association
of Blacks in Dance at Symphony Space. BSD was most recently invited to
perform in Senegal, West Africa for the Kaay Feec Festival.

ZANE BOOKER

Dancer and choregrapher Zane Booker has been a member of the White Oak
Dance Project, Ballets de Monte Carlo, Netherlands Dance Theatre and the
Philadelphia Dance Company (PHILADANCO). He has choreographed for Kathy
Sledge, Opera Des Monte Carlo, PHILADANCO, University of the Arts and
Shut Up and Dance; he and co-creator Jean Emile have found international
and local acclaim for Hitting The Fan, a two-man Phladelphia Fringe
Festival production which was originally commissioned by The Red Pear
Theater in Antibes, France. In 2006 Mr. Booker started his production
company, The Smoke, Lilies and Jade Arts Initiative, a socially conscious
dance/theater production company dedicated to raising awareness about
HIV/AIDS. Booker is a 2006 panel member for the Philadelphia Cultural Fund
and a 2004 PCA Fellowship recipient.

MAURICE CHESTNUT

Tap ingénue Maurice Chestnut infuses his classical rhythm
tap training with hip-hop, funk and soul, developing a performance
style that features tap as a musical instrument. A professional dancer
since the age of 9, he is currently principal dancer and
choreographer with the New Jersey Tap Ensemble. Chestnut was in the
national touring cast of the Tony Award-winning Bring in da Noise,
Bring in da Funk with Savion Glover, and continued to work with
Savion while touring with his Improvography tour. Off-Broadway
credits include Shades of Harlem and The Wiz. As a solo
artist, Maurice is now working to further develop his signature style of
“playing tap” as a live instrument. In addition to performing with his
own band, he often tours as a guest with various jazz musicians. He has
performed at Carnegie Hall's annual Jazz Festival and was crowned “Top Dog
performer” at the Apollo Theater.

FOX FORCE FIVE

Fox Force Five is an all-female crew based out of New York City, featuring
1Luv, Bounce, Eri, Paulito, SeoulsoNYk and Suprema. The group won the
We B*Girlz Battle at Lincoln Center in August 2006 and most recently
worked with acclaimed Philadelphia-based choreographer Rennie Harris on his
new evening-length work, Heaven. Individually, FF5 members have worked
with LL Cool J, Jennifer Lopez, The Roots, Snoop Dogg, and Erykah Badu, and
have appeared on Late Night with Conan O’Brien and countless New York
City clubs, including Limelight, Sound Factory, Culture Club, Canal Room,
Joe’s Pub, Tunnel, Float, China Club, the Cutting Room, Caroline’s Comedy
Club, Speed, and SOBs. Fox Force Five reps hard to promote New York’s
hip-hop and underground dance culture accurately and positively
through battling, performance and teaching.

KIM GRAHAM

A storyteller, actress, poet, and motivational speaker, Kim Graham,
also known as METAPHOR, has been mystifying and delighting audiences
of all ages for over 20 years. In May 2002, Kim Graham released her
first spoken word CD, Transformation, on the Praise Factory
Record Label. Graham is a 2006 Delaware Division of the Arts Emerging
Artist Fellow and currently serves as a program manger with Christina
Cultural Arts Center in Wilmington, Delaware.

KATITI KING

Currently on the faculties of both Dance New Amsterdam and Barnard
College/Columbia University in New York City, Katiti King has taught
throughout Europe, South America, Canada and Japan, as well as at
major dance festivals in the U.S., such as Harvard Summer Dance and
Bates Dance Festival. In 1991, King founded the New York Summer Dance
Intensive with Charles Wright that they co-directed through 1996. She
has performed with The Uncompany (Lynn Simonson), Impulse (Adrienne
Hawkins), Danny Sloane Dance (Danny Sloane), Movin' Spirits (Marlies
Yearby) and Tyndale (Sarah Pogostin). Collaborative works include
choreography with Michael Foley, and with vocalist/musician Philip
Hamilton.

TRACIE MORRIS

Tracie Morris is a writer, educator and performer. She has toured
extensively, both nationally and internationally, and her work has
been included in dozens of recording and literary anthologies. Tracie
holds an MFA in Poetry from Hunter College and a Ph.D. in Performance
Studies from New York University.

RENNIE HARRIS PUREMOVEMENT

Founded in 1992 by North Philadelphia native Rennie Harris, Rennie
Harris Puremovement (RHPM) was conceived with the vision for sharing
an appreciation for diversity and is dedicated to preserving and
disseminating hip-hop culture through workshops, classes, lecture-
demonstrations, dance residencies, mentoring programs and public
performances. RHPM's work encompasses rich and diverse African-
American traditions of the past while simultaneously presenting the
voice of a new generation and has continued to increase audience
numbers each year by 35%, encourage young dancers, and share their
enthusiasm for hip-hop dance theatre.

ANTOINE RONEY

One of the most unique musicians of his generation, saxophone player Antoine
Roney strives in his music to break grounds and challenge musical issues. His
playing is beautifully abstract without foregoing tradition.

WALLACE RONEY

Renowned trumpet player Wallace Roney first came to prominence as a
member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers in the early 1980s. Later in
that decade and in the early 1990s, Roney was an integral part of Tony
Williams's quintet. In 1991, Roney played with Miles Davis at the
Montreux Jazz Festival. After Davis's passing that year, Roney toured
in memoriam with Davis alumni Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter,
and Williams and recorded an album, A Tribute to Miles, for which
they won a Grammy.

JENNIFER SYDOR

Jennifer Sydor graduated from Butler University with a BFA in Dance
Performance. She has danced with Dayton Ballet, Ballet Internationale,
the Indianapolis Opera, Dance Kaleidescope, Kim Robards Dance and as
a featured guest performer with the Georgian National Ballet in Tblisi,
Republic of Georgia. In New York City she has worked with Christine
Suarez, Dixon Mena, Sunwha Chung, and Jill Sigman. She currently works
with Stefanie Nelson and is a member of Blacksmith Daughter.

LAMAR TALBERT

A native of Texas, Lamar Talbert has been performing professionally
for fifteen years and teaching fitness for more than eight. He pursued
his dance training at the North Central School of Ballet, the Fort Worth-
Dallas Ballet, Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing Arts,
the Ailey School, Sarah Lawrence College, and the Purchase Conservatory for
Dance. He holds a BA from Sarah Lawrence College and is finishing a Masters
of Science in Movement Science. Talbert has worked with many notable artists
throughout the USA and abroad in London, France, and Spain, and he has
danced for the Fort Worth Dallas Ballet, North Central Civic Ballet, in
Dallas, and Ballet Contemperano de Burgos, in Spain. His choreographed
work has been presented at the Bates Dance Festival and the Bessie
Schoenberg Theater, at Sarah Lawrence College. Talbert is an active
member of the International Association of Dance Medicine and Science
and the American College of Sports Medicine.

VINCENT E. THOMAS

Dancer, choreographer, and teacher Vincent E. Thomas has danced with
Dance Repertory Theatre (FSU), Randy James Dance Works (NY/NJ), Liz Lerman
Dance Exchange (MD), is a guest performer with EDGEWORKS Dance Theater (DC)
and an adjunct artist for Liz Lerman Dance Exchange. Vincent’s choreography
has been presented at national and international venues, including Jack
Guidone Theatre at Joy of Motion (DC), Lisner Auditorium (DC), National
Museum of Women in the Arts (DC), Towson University (MD), Artscape (MD),
Wilkes University (PA), Takoma Theatre (DC), Gordon Center (MD), Theatre
Project (MD), the Baltimore Museum of Art (MD), Center for the Arts at
George Mason University (VA), the Urban Bush Women Summer Institutes,
the 2005 International Association of Blacks in Dance Conference (CA),
Barcelona and Madrid, Spain, and the 2006 Edinburgh Fringe Festival,
Scotland. He presented his solo “Prelude/Frustration in a Martini” at
the 2003 Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission Arts
and Cultural Heritage Division Twentieth Annual Choreographers’ Showcase,
a gala concert of dances selected for their choreographic excellence by
a panel of nationally recognized adjudicators, at the Clarice Smith
Performing Arts Center (MD). In June 2005, he premiered “Primavera
Portena” in collaboration with the Ahn Trio for the 2005 Bands of America
Summer Symposium. Vincent is a recipient of a 2005 Maryland State Arts
Council Individual Artist Award in Choreography, 2005 City Arts &
Humanities Individual Artist Grant, 2004 Maryland State Arts Council
Individual Artist Award in Solo Dance Performance, and a 2004 Henry C.
Welcome Fellowship. Thomas is presently a faculty member for the Urban
Bush Women Summer Institutes (NY) and a professor at Towson University (MD).

MARLIES YEARBY

An internationally renowned choreographer/director, Marlies Yearby's
approach to theater is both organic and emotionally guided. She is the
recipient of a 1996 Tony Award Nomination for her choreography of RENT
and a 1997 Drama League Award for its Los Angeles production. Ms. Yearby
was nominated for a 2002 Helen Hayes award for her choreography in Oedipus
Plays at the Washington Shakespeare Theatre. Her signature work of
choreographing musicians as a character in theater was acclaimed in poet
laureate Rita Dove’s Darker Face of The Earth at the Guthrie Theater
in Minnesota. Ms Yearby has been awarded for creative excellence with the
National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, a New York Foundation for the
Arts Fellowship, a Van Lier fellowship, and a 651 Arts's Tradition and
Transformation Award, funded in part by the Doris Duke Foundation.
She is on the advisory board of the New York Foundation for the Arts and
is a member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers.
(Woom'ən)n, her company’s newest multimedia theater production, has
engaged women nationally in its development, discovery, and celebration
of the authentic self. She is currently developing a new work on the
impact of American media on identity, entitled The Beautiful.
Ms. Yearby continues to seek creative partnerships globally building
a diverse perspective on the human condition.