Ebony Noelle Golden, MFA, MA Creative Director  Cultural Worker. Change-Maker. “Thank you for the space to be creative…” -collaborator Hailing from Houston, TX, Ebony Noelle Golden is a cultural worker, artist, Cave Canem Fellow, and creative director of Betty’s Daughter Arts Collaborative. She earned degrees from New York University (M.A.-Performance Studies), American University (M.F.A.-Poetry), and Texas A & M University (B.A.-English/Poetry). A 2009 Pushcart Poetry Prize nominee, Ebony has taught, published and performed widely. Her work has been supported by New York University, SpiritHouse, Alternate Roots, We Shall Overcome Fund, Fund for Southern Communities, Soul Mountain Poetry Center, Fortified by faith and community, Ebony left Houston to undertake collegiate studies at Texas A & M University-College Station, as a scholarship recipient and Undergraduate Research Fellow in English Literature and Creative Writing. As an undergrad, Ebony established herself as a performer, poet, and choreographer. She served as a choreographer for the Young Performers Program at the Ensemble Theater in Houston, Upon graduating, Ebony left Texas to pursue an M.F.A. in poetry at American University in Washington, DC. as a graduate student, Ebony performed in Eve Ensler's Vagina Monologues, directed Ntozake Shane's For Colored Girls, co-founded MoonSong Women's Performance Ensemble, and served as a teaching artist throughout Maryland, DC and Virginia. Her graduate thess, "jigaboo princess", has been publishd, in part, over the past five years. After her tenure in DC, Ebony transitioned to Durham, NC where she taught 4th, 6th, ABS, English, African American Literature, and Creative Writing. She taught at North Carolina Central University, Louisburg College, Vance Granville Community College, and Warren County Men's Medium Security Prison. Ebony is a recent graduate of NYU's Performance Studies program and now serves as the creative director of Betty's Daughter, providing the guidance and leadership for our progressive and substantive collaborations around the country. Ebony's projects have been supported by a host of individuals and organizations. Please request a CV/artist resume for further credentials for more information. Marjuan Canady- Community Arts Collaborator
Biography Marjuan Canady is an international actress, scholar, community organizer, teaching artist, cultural worker and producer. A native Washingtonian with Trinidadian and African-American roots, she is a graduate of The Duke Ellington School of the Arts (Musical Theater, 2008) and Fordham University (B.A. Honors, African/African-American Studies/Theater Performance). She has also studied theater at The Moscow Art Theater School, The Negro Ensemble Company and with Augusto Boal and Anna Deavre Smith. She is currently a member of The Movement Theater Company. As a 2007 Matteo Ricci Fellow and Schomburg Fellow, she wrote her thesis on black women in theater, Defying the Lies and Defining their Black Bodies: Re-discovering Black Feminist Theater. Some of her recent credits include: For Colored Girls…, Antigone in Space, Zemira (independent film) and Slipknot (sitcom). In the May of 2010 she will travel to Nice, France to attend the Cannes Film Festival with Creative Minds. She is currently pursuing her Masters in Art and Public Policy at New York University under the direction of Randy Martin where she focuses on African Diaspora female performance in creating feminist expressive identities through resistance performance. For more information visit her at www.marjuancanady.weebly.com
Marjuan's Cultural Arts Direct Action Statement... I believe that Cultural Arts Direct Action has the power and ability to transform individuals and communities. Art has the power to invoke memory, anger, love, passion, and frustration and communicate across societal boundaries that can prohibit people from sharing in dialogue. It is imperative to hear those stories that have and continued to be silenced. By creating safe spaces for these stories, it allows for sharing, listening and public action. There is no other way for art to be but in action, for creating art is a response to society and your given perspectives. By empowering and sharing African Diaspora women’s stories we are unleashing pain, joy, anger, doubt and celebration. Once we have the art, we have to act upon it. Sydette Harry- Curriculum Collaborator
Biography Sydette Harry is a writer, singer, blogger, problem, NYC-born by way of the Guyana. Writing as Blackamazon she has started boycotts, wished some @$) would but she is most proud of making her fellow beautiful beautiful girls of every color feel not alone and thankful they have done the same for her by SPEAKing! She continues to blog at Having Read The Fine Print ( http://guyaneseterror. Sydette's Cultural Arts Direct Action Statement... Cultural Arts Direct Action is as much process as the goal. Art is not just ornamental, it is an epic undertaking that begins with an idea, a feeling, a desire. It can express that impulse, but in action it grows the impulse be it love, joy, freedom, pain, and in growing that impulse that feeling provides a safe place to express it. The greatest thing an artist can do is make it safe for others to share that journey and inspire them to take it on their own. |
