When Black Women+ Speak
An Urban Bush Women CCI 2.0 landmark conversation series, presented in partnership with Brooklyn Academy of Music
May 8, 2024 | 7:00 PM
BAM Fisher — Fishman Space, Brooklyn, NY
FREE RSVP!
An extension of Urban Bush Women’s Choreographic Center Initiative Producing Program for Women+ of Color (CCI 2.0), When Black Women+ Speak convenes women+ of color leaders from partner organizations to explore the nuances of identity, community, values, support, and success among BIPOC women+ producers.
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.
GUEST PANELISTS
Hover over or click on the panelists’ headshots below to read full bios.
GINA DUNCAN
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.
Prior to Sundance, Duncan joined BAM’s executive team in January 2017 as Associate Vice President, Film—a newly created role overseeing BAM Rose Cinemas and the institution’s repertory film program. Under her leadership, its film program flourished, and a revolutionary approach to repertory programming which centered underrepresented voices in cinema was recognized as a “vital” part of the New York film landscape by The New York Times. In 2019, she was promoted to Vice President, Film and Strategic Programming, adding Humanities and Archives to her portfolio. Duncan also served as interim head of Marketing and Communications during the first six months of the pandemic and led BAM’s curatorial team in transitioning to programs online to reach audiences across the nation.
Prior to BAM, Duncan was a film and community programmer at Jacob Burns Film Center and has produced film, TV, and theater for artists Titus Kaphar, Ja’tovia Gary, and comedian Mike Birbiglia. Gina started her career at NFL Films, where she received a 2004 Sports Emmy Award for her work on HBO’s Inside the NFL. She is a member of the Board of SPACE on Ryder Farm, the Advisory Board of Jacob Burns Film Center’s Creative Culture fellowship, and on the Editorial Advisory Board for SEEN, a film and visual culture journal produced by BlackStar Projects.
GINA DUNCAN
President | BAM
PAT CRUZ
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. Accomplishments include:
- Securing $2 million in endowment funds
- Expanding programs and audiences; and
- Successfully completing a $26 million Campaign for Harlem Stage for the adaptive restoration of the Gatehouse
The highlight of her tenure was securing and renovating a historically landmarked 134-year-old gatehouse building of the Croton Aqueduct System, across the street from the ADH facility. Following a 2-year renovation, The Gatehouse now provides a new state of the arts theatre and offices for Harlem Stage. The project, completed in 2006 has also served as a catalyst for economic and community development for the 4-block area surrounding the Gatehouse. All of the activities cited above were made possible through public and private partnerships and designed to expand services to artists and our communities. The achievement of which she is most proud is the institution's identification and support of the development of new work by artists of color.
Prior to joining ADH, from 1989 to 1998, Ms. Cruz held the position of Deputy Director for Programs for The Studio Museum in Harlem where she directed the planning, implementation and management of all Studio Museum programs. In this position she developed the acclaimed Vital Expressions in American Art series, which presented major artists, scholars and performers for over twelve years. She began her tenure at the Studio Museum in 1982 as Director of Development, supervising all aspects of the organization’s public and private sector fundraising. She also served as Acting Director in 1988 and 1994.
Ms. Cruz has over forty years of experience in arts management. For six years she was a program director for the Chicago Council on Fine Arts, where she designed and directed the Council’s first grants program, which became a model for partnerships of public and private funding. She began her career in arts administration with Chicago’s Urban Gateways, one of the nation’s first and leading arts education agencies. Pat Cruz also enjoyed a simultaneous career as a performing artist in theatre working in both classical and avant gard productions and finally exclusively with her late husband, the artist Emilio Cruz. In 1982 they presented two of his works, Homcostasis: Once More the Scorpion and The Absence Held Fast to its Presence in France and Italy under the auspices of the Festival Mondial Du Theatre.
Currently, Ms. Cruz serves as a member of the Brendan Gill jury of the Municipal Arts Society. She was a member of the Tony Nominating Committee and the Cal Arts Board of Overseers. Cruz also served as a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of the Urban Assembly. She has served on the Board of The Andy Warhol Foundation and is also past president of The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), an organization that supports and nurtures the work of artists and arts organizations throughout the state and ArtTable, a national organization of women in the Arts. In November of 2023 Cruz was awarded the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Medal by the Municipal Arts Society.
PAT CRUZ
Artistic Director and CEO | Harlem Stage
MAURINE KNIGHTON
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. During her tenure, she oversaw many of the foundation’s signature programs, including the Doris Duke Artist Awards alongside a wide array of novel and innovative efforts to make the performing arts more inclusive, innovative and equitable.
Prior to her work at the Doris Duke Foundation, Knighton was the senior vice president for grantmaking at the Nathan Cummings Foundation. She also served as senior vice president for program and nonprofit investment at the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone. In the field of arts and culture, she was executive producer and president of 651 ARTS; program manager at the Nonprofit Finance Fund; and managing director of Penumbra Theatre Company.
She is a former board member of the Association of Performing Arts Professionals and of Grantmakers in the Arts (GIA), where she chaired GIA’s Racial Equity Committee. Knighton has also served as panelist and advisor to the National Endowment for the Arts, New England Foundation for the Arts, Arts Presenters Ensemble Theater Program, South Carolina Arts Commission and many others. She currently serves on the boards of Firelight Media and the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corporation, chairing its Cultural Investment Fund Committee.
MAURINE KNIGHTON
Chief Program Officer | Doris Duke Foundation
TOYA A. LILLARD
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 is part-time faculty at The New School, where she teaches Collaborative Theatre Practice. Toya serves on the Board of the New York City Arts in Education Roundtable, and co-chairs the TaskForce on Equity and Inclusion, and serves on the Board of viBe Theater Experience. Toya holds a B.A. from Vassar College, and an M.A. from New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study. She currently resides in Brooklyn, NY.
TOYA A. LILLARD
Executive Director | 651 ARTS
when Black women+ speak CURATOR & PRODUCERS
Hover over or click on the curator & producers’ headshots below to read full bios.
LAI-LIN ROBINSON
When Black Women+ Speak Curator and Co-Producer
Lai-Lin is a producer, curator, dancer, and arts advocate who is passionate about nurturing art that challenges the way we exist. Her work is grounded in empathy, community and anti-racist practices.
A few of her credits include work with Pyeng Threadgill, Paloma McGregor, Shayla-Vie Jenkins, Grace Galu Kalambay, Jennifer Newman, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Misty Copeland, Ali Stroker, Robert Garland, Omari Wiles, Blood Orange (Dev Hynes), and organizations such as Angela’s Pulse, Urban Bush Women, American Modern Opera Company, Little Island NYC FREE Festival, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Mixteca Organization, and Théâtre XIV.
As a performer, Lai-Lin understands the needs and values of an artist on both a personal and professional level and as a producer she supports and protects those needs.
LAI-LIN ROBINSON
When Black Women+ Speak Curator and Co-Producer
PIA MONIQUE MURRAY
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. She performs contemporary dance with RAKIA! and leads Pia Monique Murray Dance Collective (PMMDC). Pia was a 2023 ICAC Artist-in-Residence with BRIC and University Settlement and an Urban Bush Women CCI 2.0 Producing Fellow/Associate Producer of Haint Blu by Chanon Judson and Mame Diarra Speis.
As Bailey’s Cafe’s Producing Artistic Director she produces and curates As Quiet as It’s Kept, a multidisciplinary ethnography project about longtime residents in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. She is the Associate Producer of Urban Bush Women’s 40th Anniversary season, and co-creator of their Women Black Women+ Speak conversation series. Additionally Pia is Creative Producer of Kendra J. Bostock’s KJB Works company, and STooPS Annual Bed-Stuy Summer Festival.
PMMDC produces movement-based multidisciplinary performance works that include community engagement and audience interaction as an artistic practice, such as BLACK DAISIES, an interdisciplinary project that centers joy as political activism.
PIA MONIQUE MURRAY
When Black Women+ Speak Co-Producer, UBW 40th Anniversary Associate Producer
JONATHAN D. SECOR
UBW Producer & Creative Executive 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 was founder/director of the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts Berkshire Cultural Resource Center, where he has facilitated the creation of multiple programs and was instrumental in the creation of an Arts Management major.
Jonathan served as Artistic Director for the re-opening of the Historic Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center. From its opening until 2005, Jonathan served as the Director of Performing Arts at MASS MoCA , where he was responsible for the oversight of budget, staffing, and programming.
Jonathan’s company, Secor Productions, has produced concerts, dance, theater, large-scale site-specific performances, industrials, events and happenings. Secor Productions served as the consulting firm for the design, construction, and outfitting of the performing art spaces at the MASS MoCA.
Jonathan was General Manager for 651 ARTS in Brooklyn, NY. Jonathan worked as a production manager throughout the United States and Europe and started his career as a stage manager, stage-managing hundreds of productions for Broadway, regional theater, opera, dance, film and television.
Jonathan has taught undergraduate/graduate courses in management at the Yale School of Drama SUNY Purchase, and the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.
JONATHAN D. SECOR
UBW Creative Executive Producer
ABOUT URBAN BUSH WOMEN
URBAN BUSH WOMEN (UBW) is a groundbreaking Black women-led theatrical dance company and social activism ensemble founded in 1984 by visionary choreographer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar. Through its mission of engaging with artists, activists, audiences, and communities through performances, artist development, education, and community engagement, the award-winning nonprofit has performed throughout the United States, as well as Asia, Australia, Canada, Germany, South America, Europe and Senegal (in collaboration with Germaine Acogny and her all-male Compagnie JANT-BI). UBW has been an engine and amplifier for the stories of Black Women+ for forty years. UBW affects the overall ecology of the arts by promoting artistic legacies; projecting the voices of the under-heard and people of color; bringing attention to and addressing issues of equity in the dance field and throughout the United States; and by providing platforms and serving as a conduit for experimental art makers. Signature programs run by UBW include the Summer Leadership Institute (SLI), BOLD (Builders, Organizers & Leaders through Dance) and the Choreographic Center Initiative (CCI) and the CCI Producing Program (CCI 2.0). Now directed by artistic leaders Chanon Judson and Mame Diarra Speis, UBW combines radical performance, deep engagement, and ancestral knowledge from the African diaspora into a force that is urgent, forward-looking, and essential. www.urbanbushwomen.org
ABOUT BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF MUSIC (BAM)
A world-class home for adventurous artists, audiences, and ideas, BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) is North America’s oldest performing arts center, showcasing the work of merging artists and modern icons. It is led by President, Gina Duncan.
For more than 160 years, BAM has been a thriving, urban multi-arts complex renowned for presenting an unparalleled roster of visionary and cutting-edge dance, theater, music, opera, visual arts, literature, and film engagements. Attracting more than 750,000 people annually to its home in Brooklyn, BAM provides a welcoming cultural stage and meeting place for global and local communities of all backgrounds. BAM’s distinctive multi-theater campus is alive year-round with inspired new engagements and signature programs alike including the renowned Next Wave (one of the world’s most influential festivals of contemporary performing arts, founded in 1983), the iconic DanceAfrica, an acclaimed repertory film program, and literary, archival, educational and humanities programs. For more information visit BAM.org
SPECIAL THANKS TO
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 STAFF
Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Founder
Chanon Judson & Mame Diarra Speis, Co-Artistic Directors/BOLD Directors
Tahnia Belle, Acting Executive Director
Jonathan D. Secor, Producer & Creative Executive Producer, 40th Anniversary
Michelle Coe, Director of Production, Booking & Touring
Cheri Stokes, Associate Producer of Special Projects
Pia Monique Murray, Associate Producer, 40th Anniversary
Makeda Smith, Marketing Manager
Angelina Lopez, Marketing Assistant
Tracy Cochran, Human Resources
Ameeya Singh, Operations Assistant
Brooke Rucker, Development Associate
Veronica Jiao, Founder's Assistant
Elsie Neilson, Executive Assistant to the Co-Artistic Directors
Zoe Walders, Executive Assistant to the Acting Executive Director
Henry Liles, Finance Manager
Camille Lawrence, Archivist
Whitney Christopher, Archives Assistant
Tegan Ritz McDuffie, Production Manager
Evan Spigelman, Lighting Supervisor
Pinar Goodstone, BOLD Coordinator
Jaimé Yawa Dzandu, BOLD Artistic Coordinator
Dani Criss, BOLD Facilitator
Advance NYC, Development Consultants
Lai-Lin Robinson, CCI Producing Program & "When Black Women Speak" Producer
Jolie Saltiel, Tour & Company Manager
Shaena Smith, NYC Production Assistant
Bennalldra Williams, Movement Coach
BAM STAFF
Gina Duncan, Executive Director
Amy Cassello, Interim Artistic Director
Chandler Smith, Associate Producer
Laura Williams, Production Manager
UPCOMING WHEN BLACK WOMEN+ SPEAK DATES
Jul 31, 2024 | 7 PM — Lincoln Center - David Rubenstein Atrium, New York, New York — Learn More
Oct 16, 2024 | 6 PM — Louis Armstrong House Museum, Queen, NY
Nov 13, 2024 | 7 PM — Harlem Stage Gatehouse, Harlem, NY
Urban Bush Women 40th Anniversary leadership funding provided by Bloomberg Philanthropies.
Additional funding is provided by the Howard Gilman Foundation.
MAJOR FUNDING FOR URBAN BUSH WOMEN IS PROVIDED BY:
