Speaker Bios

Marissa Kennedy is a doctoral candidate in Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she is exploring how community engagement has shaped American regional theater. Her dissertation focuses on the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington, D.C., tracing how initiatives to connect with audiences and local communities have evolved alongside shifting political, economic, and neighborhood landscapes. Rooted in the belief that everything is interconnected, her work combines performance studies, institutional analysis, and insights from Black communal traditions. Marissa is especially interested in how theaters and communities influence each other, and hopes her research can spark new ways of thinking about the role of the arts in building more connected and equitable societies.

Lindsay A. Jenkins is an Aftrocentric dramaturg, educator and producer. She is particularly interested in examining the rituals, traditions and performances that we inherit, and how they influence our contemporary experiences. She has provided dramaturgical services for theatre companies across the country including Arena Stage, August Wilson House and the Geffen Playhouse. Lindsay is also passionate about the development of new work and has had the pleasure of supporting organizations like Cornerstone Theatre Company and the Ojai Playwrights Conference. She is the Founder of Maroon Arts and Culture, an organization that believes in empowerment through performance. Through Maroon, she is developing an original musical called Sandbranch that she hopes will serve as a sustainable model for the development and production of Black theatre in America. She is currently a first year PhD student in the area of Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Farah Lawal Harris is a multidisciplinary storyteller, artistic leader, and culture-shifter whose work centers on authenticity, wellness, and the liberation of underrepresented communities. As the Artistic Director of Young Playwrights' Theater, she shapes bold artistic visions, produces high-quality performances, and builds spaces where underrepresented voices thrive. A fixture in DC’s theatre ecosystem, she has written plays produced by the Kennedy Center’s Theater for Young Audiences and Arena Stage, co-chaired the DC Theatre Summit, and served on Theatre Washington’s Advisory Board and Helen Hayes Award Adjudication Committee. She created the decade-long Silence is Violence performance series at Young Playwrights’ Theater, which blends artistry, activism, and sustainable funding to elevate stories that matter.

Farah moves fluidly between theatre, poetry, and digital media. As a writer and performer, she brings emotional clarity and cultural insight to every project. Across her social media platforms, Farah shares her creativity, wellness journey as a breast cancer survivor, and hip-hop analyses with over 13,000 followers. Whether directing a production, mentoring young creatives, or breaking down hip-hop lyrics, Farah leads with passion and intention. For more information, visit www.farahlawalharris.com.

Josh Wilder is a playwright, actor, and producer from Philadelphia. His work has been developed; commissioned; and produced at various regional theaters and festivals across the country including The Fire This Time Festival, New York Theatre Workshop, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, 2015 O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, Company One, InterAct Theatre Company, and Yale Rep. Past awards include the Holland New Voices Award, The Lorraine Hansberry Award, The Rosa Parks Award, and The ASCAP Cole Porter Prize. Josh is a former Jerome Fellow and the first national recipient of the Jerome Many Voices Fellowship at The Playwrights’ Center. Currently, he’s stationed in Baltimore, MD as Assistant Professor of Theater at Coppin State University. MFA: Yale School of Drama. BFA: Carnegie Mellon. 

Named a 2023 Woman to Watch on Broadway, Marjuan Canady is a Tony®-nominated Broadway producer and a Caribbean-American artist, entrepreneur, educator, literacy advocate, and mom. A DC native, her work spans theatre, film, television, and children’s media, centering stories that celebrate the complexity of the African Diaspora. She is currently a Strokes of Genius Fellow and an Artist Research Scholar at the Folger Shakespeare Library. In Spring 2024, Canady served as a Local Playwright in Residence with the Social Impact Department at The Kennedy Center, where she developed her TYA play, "Imagine". 

Canady is the Founder of her production company Sepia Works and her non-profit, the Canady Foundation for the Arts. She is also the CEO and Author/Playwright of her children's brand, Callaloo Kids. In 2026, she adapted and directed the landmark "The 1619 Project: Born on the Water" from a children's book to the stage. Her original work has been featured on Hoorae Media, Sesame Street, Smithsonian Institution, and at the Lincoln Center. 

Her Broadway Co-Producing credits include Purple Rain, Alicia Keys’ Hell’s Kitchen, The Wiz, and Death of a Salesman, with additional UK credits: Barbie: The Movie Immersive Experience. She currently serves as Associate Professor of Theatre and Film at Montgomery College in the Visual and Performing Arts Department. 

Ty’Ree Hope Davis is a DMV actor and playwright from Baltimore Maryland. After receiving his BFA in Acting at Howard University’s Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts, Ty’Ree worked alongside Young Playwrights Theatre to showcase his one-man play, RIOT: The Beat of Freddie Gray at Everyman Theatre for local high school students. His training also includes intensive study with the Atlantic Acting School and the British American Drama Academy. Ty’Ree could be seen launching into his career as Bilal in the U.S. premier of Red Pitch at Olney Theatre Center and as Scooter in the World Premier of The Sea Beyond The Ocean at The Kennedy Center Theatre for Young Audiences. Ty’Ree is currently developing his before-mentioned one-man play, RIOT at Baltimore Center Stage as one of three playwrights in their LAB410 playwriting residency. Follow along with Ty’Ree’ journey at www.tyreehope.com.

Dr. Adesola Akinleye (pro-nouns she/they): I am an interdisciplinary artist-scholar and choreographer, Associate Professor of Dance at Texas Woman’s University, and Director of the PHD in Dance program at TWU.  Dr Akinleye began their career as a dancer with The Dance Theatre of Harlem Workshop Ensemble (USA). Dr Akinleye has created works ranging from films, installations, and texts to live performances that are often site-specific and involve a cross-section of the community. Their work is characterized by an interest in glimpsing and voicing people’s lived experiences through creative moving portraiture. 

Crystal U. Davis, CLMA is Associate Professor of Dance and Head of Dance Performance and Scholarship at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she teaches anti-racist pedagogy for dance and theater, postmodern technique, somatics, and movement analysis. Her implicit bias research has been published in her book, Dance and Belonging: Implicit Bias and Inclusion in Dance Education (2022). Her internationally performed creative and ethnographic research explores how privilege manifests in the body and spans from East Indian dance to West African dance to her postmodern choreography examining incongruities between what we say, what we believe, and what we do.

Dr. Wanda K. W. Ebright is the dean of the College of the Arts at Columbus State University. She is the author of Dance on the Historically Black College Campus: The Familiar and the Foreign, a 2019 publication. Ebright founded the Midlands/Pee Dee Dance nonprofit and The Wanda Project, a contemporary dance company. She has also served as the artistic co-director of Allegro Dance Theater and Conservatory. Ebright has choreographed and taught master classes across the southeast and is the former president of the South Carolina Dance Association.
 

Ronya-Lee Anderson (MDiv, MFA, PhD) is a Caribbean-American scholar-practitioner whose
research is embedded in Afro-diasporic aesthetics with approaches informed by Black feminist
theoretical frameworks, critical race theory and world-building.
Her research has led to invitations to The Collegium for African Diaspora Dance to present both
embodied and theoretical work (2018, 2024), to BlackLight Summit to deliver the Keynote
Address (2019-2022) and to The International Association of Blacks in Dance Conference to
deliver the 2024 Opening Keynote. She has published articles in the Journal of Dance
Education, Sojourners Magazine, the UCC Journal of Worship, Music and Ministry, and the
textbook, Dance in US Popular Culture.
Awards and commissions include the Pola Nirenska Award for Outstanding Achievement in
Dance (2021), Aunt Karen’s Farm Residency (2021), See Site National Endowment of the Arts
Residency (2023), Kennedy Center REACH Office Hours (2020, 2024), Dance Place Artist
Residency (2022-24), the Dance Chronicle Award (2025), Sine Civic Life Faculty Fellowship
(2025) and the Carla Perlo Fund for Performance (2025-2026).
 

Dr. Khalid Y. Long serves as the Associate Dean of Research and Creative Endeavors, Associate Professor, and Interim Chair of Theatre Arts in the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts at Howard University. Long teaches a range of courses, including theatre history, dramaturgy, global performance, and Black cultural production. His books include Contemporary Black Theatre and Performance: Acts of Rebellion, Activism, and Solidarity (Methuen Drama) and August Wilson in Context (Cambridge University Press). He is co-editor of "A Cultural Experience: The Role of Theatre at Historically Black Colleges and Universities," a special edition of tBTR: The Black Theatre Review and is the co-editor of "100 Years of W. E. B. Du Bois' Principles of a Real Negro Theatre," a special edition of the Journal of American Drama and Theatre (JADT) (Spring 2026). Long is the President of the August Wilson Society and dramaturg for the Baltimore August Wilson Celebration

Sybil R. Williams is a playwright and dramaturge who currently teaches in both the Theatre/Musical Theatre Program and the Critical Race and Gender Studies Collaborative where she serves as Program Director for African American and African Diaspora Studies. Her work has been professionally produced by Chicago’s ETA Creative Arts Theatre; New York’s National Black Theater; Pittsburgh’s Kuntu Theatre and the IN-SERIES in Washington DC.  As a dramaturge, she has worked at the Arkansas Repertory Theatre, The Lark Theatre in New York City, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, The Flea, The Alley, and many others. Williams’ latest work, ETHIOPIA, an adaptation of the 1930s original, was produced by the IN Series last May as part of their season celebrating the role theater and the arts play in the pursuit/service of social justice in America. The work is part of a larger project funded by the American University Anti-Racist Policy Center’s inaugural Jacqueline Cirillo and Richard Meisenberg Grant.

Ronya-Lee Anderson (MDiv, MFA, PhD) is a Caribbean-American scholar-practitioner whose research is embedded in Afro-diasporic aesthetics with approaches informed by Black feminist theoretical frameworks, critical race theory and world-building. Her research has led to invitations to The Collegium for African Diaspora Dance to present both embodied and theoretical work (2018, 2024), to BlackLight Summit to deliver the Keynote Address (2019-2022) and to The International Association of Blacks in Dance Conference to deliver the 2024 Opening Keynote. She has published articles in the Journal of Dance Education, Sojourners Magazine, the UCC Journal of Worship, Music and Ministry, and the textbook, Dance in US Popular Culture. Awards and commissions include the Pola Nirenska Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance (2021), Aunt Karen’s Farm Residency (2021), See Site National Endowment of the Arts Residency (2023), Kennedy Center REACH Office Hours (2020, 2024), Dance Place Artist Residency (2022-24), the Dance Chronicle Award (2025), Sine Civic Life Faculty Fellowship (2025) and the Carla Perlo Fund for Performance (2025-2026).
 

Diedre Nyota Dawkins is a dancer, educator, and community leader whose work bridges professional performance, higher education, and youth mentorship. She is a recipient of the 2003 New York Dance and Performance Bessie Award for Outstanding Performance and the 2016 President Barack Obama Lifetime Achievement Award for National and Community Service. 

Dawkins earned her BFA in Dance from New York University TISCH School of the Arts and her MFA in Choreography and Performance from the University of Maryland, College Park. She has earned recognition for her longstanding commitment to arts education and community engagement and is the founder of Dance is Healing, a mentorship initiative that uses movement and cultural practices to support the personal and artistic development of young people. 

With an extensive career as both performer and educator, Dawkins has performed, taught, and conducted workshops nationally and internationally, sharing her expertise in dance of the African diaspora and contemporary dance practices. 

She currently serves as Dance Director at ConneXions: A Community Based Arts School in Baltimore, where she teaches West African and Modern dance to middle and high school students, and as Associate Professor of Dance in the BFA program at the Johns Hopkins University Peabody Institute. 

Dawkins also serves as Director of AileyCamp Baltimore, where she leads a transformative summer program that combines dance training, personal development, and mentorship for young people. 
Her work centers on using dance as a catalyst for cultural connection, leadership development, and community transformation.

Educator. Hip hop lover. DMV representative. Ama Law is a West-African dancer at heart who explores movement intersectionality. Underneath the pedagogical passion, Ama is a lifelong learner. This MFA graduate is continuously teaching and learning through organizations and institutions like Bates Dance Festival; Dance Place; and UMD-College Park, where Ama is currently Artist-in-Residence in dance. 
Mother. Dreamer. Achiever. Ama enjoys spending time with family and making art projects with Nyla and Nia. Ama often teaches and collaborates with life-partner Chris Law as Project ChArma, a project-based dance theater company dedicated to using art as activism.
 

Damon Donelson (Community Advocate and Vice Chair) is a community leader, author, poet, and creative writing instructor committed to racial equity, restorative justice, and advocacy for incarcerated individuals and returning citizens. As a Color Me Community Facilitator with Life Pieces To Masterpieces, he helps apprentices discover and activate their innate creative abilities through art and dialogue. A graduate of Georgetown University’s Pivot Program, Damon also serves as a Poet Ambassador and Changemaker with Free Minds Book Club & Writing Workshop and co-founded Healing Underrepresented Men Of Color (HURMOC). He is the author of 9465 Days, The Fool’s Guide to Doing Time, and The 5 Dimensions of You.

Antoine Coleman (Community Advocate, Board Member) was born in Washington DC. He was sentenced to LiFE at the age of 21. After being incarcerated nearly 22 years, D.C. passed the Second Look Act a.k.a, the IRAA Bill, and his release was granted. Less than a week home, he was hired at the Honfleur Gallery as their resident artist for poetry. He was also a Poet ambassador and the John Lewis Fellow with Free Minds Book Club. He was also selected for fellowship with BreakFree Education. He has contributed poetry for an audiobook design to heal and empathize with our community. He has recited poetry and advocated for Social Justice issues at several schools and colleges in and around D.C. Antoine is also a Core Member with the Second Chance Hiring Alliance. From hosting and participating in local poetry shows, to performing in plays with Voices Unbarred, speaking with youth and others in her community, he has been entrenched in the Arts and Justice System related advocacy. He has been recently honored to join the Ally Theatre Company/Voices Unbarred as a Board member. He is very excited and optimistic regarding ATVU’s vision and potential to bring necessary attention to both the Arts and the justice impacted advocacy.
 

Regina Coates (Community Advocate) is a Free Minds Poet Ambassador, Community Mediation DC Ambassador, Voices Unbarred Community Advocate, Unlock the Box DC Coalition Member, and a trained Restorative Justice Facilitator. She currently works as the Member Experience Coordinator for Free Minds Book Club & Writing Workshop. She has also worked for AmeriCorps as a mentor in the DC Public School System, a case manager for the Prince George’s County Energy Department, and as a Data Analyst for various companies. Regina has earned her associate degree in business technology, her bachelor’s degree in computer information systems, and her master’s degree in business administration. Regina is an avid reader who loves spending time with her children, writing poetry, and building awareness through community outreach.

Sisi Reid (Facilitator - she/fae/they) is an internationally touring multidisciplinary theater maker, dancer, and director from Norfolk, Virginia and Wheaton, Maryland who practices theater as tools for collective liberation, healing, and youth empowerment. Sisi’s art is grounded in the values of justice, community building, and education instilled by her family and upbringing. As a creative visionary, Sisi is an actor, writer, playwright, dancer, director, spoken word poet, Emcee, facilitator, teaching artist, educator (including English language arts) and an applied theater practitioner.

Sisi is a graduate of University of Maryland and The Theater Lab’s Life Story Institute. She has taught and performed in Washington D.C., Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey, Michigan, Colombia, London, and Brazil. As an applied theater practitioner, she has facilitated theatre workshops in prisons with University of Michigan’s Prison Creative Arts Project, Voices Unbarred, and University of Rio's Theater in Prison program. Sisi was a Producing Playwright of The Welders 3.0 (2019 - 2023) and a board member of the Pride Youth Theatre Alliance (2018 - 202). She is a Maryland States Arts Council (MSAC) Independent Artist Awardee, Teaching Artist on the MSAC Roster, and an ArtEquity BIPOC Leadership Circle Alumni. Sisi continually curates and facilitates joyFULL spaces that are queer, Black and abundant. She is the founder of Black Joy Creatives DC and Soul Shine Theater Garden, a performing arts community that gathers, produces dance-theater plays, and teaches performing arts centered in embodied practices of joy, play, travel, healing arts, and liberation.  As a playwright, her plays have been performed with The Welder 3.0, Imagination Stage’s Pegasus Ensemble, University of Maryland’s Second Season and Next Now Festival; Young Playwright’s Theatre’s Silence is Violence: LGBTQ + You and Silence is Violence: Who Earth Is This DC?, and  Previous DC director credits: Macbeth (The Theater Lab), The Rainbow Fish (Anacostia Playhouse),  Indefinition and Respirations (FRESSH Inc.’s Next To Kin Festival), Assistant Director: Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi’s KLYTMNESTRA: An Epic Slam Poem (Theater Alliance),  and Keith Hamilton Cobb’s American Moore (Anacostia Playhouse). IG: @soulshinetheatergarden

Documenting The Ballroom Scene In The DMV Area. Consistently Providing A Safe Space, Free From Discrimination/Violence. Follow them on IG https://www.instagram.com/dmvkikinights
 

VJtheDJ, born VeJai Alston, is a Philadelphia-bred, DMV-based DJ, producer, and cultural architect who has shaped the sound of ballroom for over three decades. As the founder of PUMPDABEAT, the longest-running ballroom music collective in history, and a member of the House of Prodigy in the mainstream ballroom scene, he has been the heartbeat behind nightlife, Pride events, and hundreds of balls across Philadelphia, New York, Pittsburgh, Washington DC, and beyond since 1995.

A credited songwriter on Beyoncé's Renaissance ("PURE/HONEY," 2022) and the DJ for the first ball ever held in Times Square (OTA Ball, August 2021), VJtheDJ operates at the intersection of underground culture and mainstream recognition without ever leaving the room where the culture lives. His work has been honored at the Kennedy Center, Hirshhorn Museum, Princeton University, Performance Space New York, and Google Arts & Culture. He holds Icon status in the Kiki scene and was granted Legendary status in the mainstream ballroom scene in July 2025.

As Resident DJ of DMV Kiki Nights, the ballroom night series founded by Legendary Tony Supreme, VJtheDJ has been a foundational force in building the DMV ballroom community. Together the two co-created Skate Or Vogue during the pandemic, helping anchor ballroom in the region and keep the culture thriving when the world went silent.

Beyond the booth, VJtheDJ is a published author of three books under his PUMPDABOOK imprint, including Welcome to the Ballroom: A Newcomer's Complete Guide, the definitive ground level introduction to ball culture, and Attack of the HA (2026), a supernatural horror novel set in Philadelphia ballroom. He is a credited film actor (IMDb), an educator, and a mentor who has shaped the careers of Kevin JZ Prodigy, DJ Delish, and Capital K'aos, whose ballroom inspired score for CATS: The Jellicle Ball made history on Broadway in 2026. PUMPDABEAT's reach spans 50 countries and 50 cities, with over 504 million streams across platforms, built not with a label deal, but with necessity, craft, and an absolute refusal to wait for permission.

Tonight, VJtheDJ brings that full legacy to the University of Maryland's Black Theatre and Dance Symposium 2026: Mock Ball: Strut. For many in this room, it will be their first ball. For the culture, it is one more chapter in a story that has never stopped being written.

Now.... PUMPDABEAT!

Chanellica Hails From Montgomery County, MD. She has been in ballroom since she was 15 years old and has been dominating her category Femqueen Performance ever since. Since her deeming in February, Chanellica has been focusing on trying to better her craft while also finding new ways to enhance and better the experience of our future ballroom girls. With multiple Wins, multiple “Of The Year” Wins and nominations, Chanel is planning to utilize ballroom in reality to MAFA {Make America Fab Again}.

International Legend Eyen West, DMV Overseer, is a name that carries both weight and intention in the ballroom scene. With 16 years of dedication to the culture, Eyen has grown into a visionary presence; balancing leadership, artistry, and authenticity.

Deemed Legendary in 2021 and honored with multiple state and country OTY, Eyen’s journey reflects not only excellence, but consistency and purpose. While having multiple categories under his belt such  Vogue Fem, Hand Performance, and All American. He is best known for the category BQ Old Way. Stepping out on the floor with clarity, control, and a deep respect for the craft.

Known for a presence that is both fierce and playful, Eyen doesn’t just perform! He connects, inspires, and sets a tone that lingers long after the category is closed. As a leader and creative force, Eyen West continues to help shape the culture while reminding everyone that legacy is built, not rushed.

Legendary Dakota Champion is a foundational figure in the DMV ballroom scene, celebrated as a dynamic host and MC who has thrown unforgettable community events for years. As a Community Engagement Specialist for the Pride Center of Maryland, Dakota creates safe, vibrant spaces for youth and young adults to express themselves through art, performance, and authentic self-expression. With charisma, leadership, and deep community roots, Dakota continues to uplift and empower the next generation in the DMV.
 

Icon Kane Mattel started in ballroom in 2006 in Norfolk, Va. Been in ballroom till current.

Mainstream Houses:
House of Revlon
House of Steahque
House of Monolo Blahnik

Kiki Houses:
House of Nigga
House of Gaga
House of So Shady
House of Zodiac
Current and final House Of Mattel.

I'm an Icon in the Kiki Scene. Known for my dramatic vogue performance with my daredevil mix with break Dancing style of vogue.
I've thrown a number of Kiki Balls and held tons of open practices. I joined the kiki scene cause it was fun, which is how i took it. I always strive to teach the new generation the ins and outs of ballroom and vogue. I'm a humble person but stay true to my values and ethics. I also do behind the scenes work for the LGBT Community.

Vogue is Art
Vogue is Passion
Vogue is Apart Of Life
#AlivingbreathingICON

I Hate Writing About Myself… 

BUT since you all insist, I am the LEGENDARY Tallboys European Runway Extraordinaire “Eddie” Revlon, I joined Ballroom in 2005, my First Category was “Beginners Vogue” once I realized I had to do Floor Performance, I got my little Beginners OTY & quickly switched my Category lol. 

I then “Pivoted” into RUNWAY, an I felt like the Category was calling my Name!! I was already well known for Dancing and Walking in Local Fashion, Hair & Talent shows with (Epitome Models inc.) around Baltimore, I have been apart of several Organizations but most Importantly, I’ve had the Privilege, Pleasure & Honor of walk from State to State not only representing the Iconic International Unforgettable House of REVLON but also Rep’n Baltimore!!