Keynote Speaker Bio

Marc Bamuthi Joseph Marc Bamuthi Joseph is a TED Global Fellow; Emerson Collective Dial Fellow; inaugural recipient of the Guggenheim Social Practice initiative; honoree of the United States Artists Rockefeller Fellowship; winner of the 2011 Herb Alpert Award in Theatre; and inaugural recipient of the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award. In 2022, he was elected into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. An internationally renowned cultural strategist, Bamuthi is the co-creator of the paradigm-shifting allyship training HEALING FORWARD™. He has lectured in 25 different countries and his TED talk “You Have The Rite” has more than five million views. 

Bamuthi recently completed commissions for Yale University, the Albany Symphony Orchestra, The Minnesota Orchestra, The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, and the Washington National Opera. His new opera "Watch Night" with music by Tamar-kali and direction by Bill T. Jones premiered at PAC NYC in 2023, and his collaboration with NYC Ballet Associate Artistic Director Wendy Whelan "Carnival of the Animals" premiered at Meany Center, Seattle in 2024. His recent orchestral work “Good News Mass” with music by Carlos Simon premiered with the LA Philharmonic in April 2025. His latest collaboration with composer Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR), Forgiveness, had an album release in 2025 with Albany Symphony. Select works by Bamuthi are available for purchase and rental on SozoMart.com. 

An emergent on screen talent, he is among the featured performers in HBO’s screen adaptation of “Between the World and Me” by Ta-Nehesi Coates. He is currently the Chief of Impact at SOZO. A proud alumnus of Morehouse College, Bamuthi received an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the California College of Arts in 2022 and was the recipient of a second Honorary Doctorate from Middlebury College in 2023. Bamuthi is represented by SOZO. www.bamuthi.com