Fluency w/ Dr. Durell Cooper

In this Episode Dr. Cooper speaks with Dr. Antonio Cuyler. Dr. Cuyler is the author of Access, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Cultural Organizations: Insights from the Careers of Executive Opera Managers of Color in the U. S. and editor of a forthcoming volume in June of 2022, Arts Management, Cultural Policy, & the African Diaspora. He serves as the Director of the MA Program & Associate Professor of Arts Administrati...

In this episode Dr. Cooper speaks with Shirley C. Taylor. Shirley started her journey as an arts administrator at the New York Foundation for the Arts in 1987 andhas since built a career leading a variety of arts and cultural education programs throughout New York City:Associate Director for Visual Arts Programs at ArtsConnection, Inc.; Director of Arts Programs at UniversitySettlement Society; Deputy Director of Programs, Educatio...

In this episode Dr. Durell Cooper speaks with Dr. Terri N. Watson is an Associate Professor of Educational Leadership at The City College of New York and a member of the Urban Education faculty at The City University of New York’s Graduate Center. Her research examines effective school leadership and is aimed to improve the educational outcomes and life chances of historically excluded and underserved students and families. She emp...

In this episode Dr. Cooper speaks with Vivian Phillips. Vivian  is a communications professional and arts leader.  She is  co-host of the podcast doubleXposure where she and veteran arts  journalist Marcie Sillman use their voice and platform to plumb the  deepest depths and the tiniest cracks of our world to understand how  culture and creativity shape our lives.  Vivian is also the founder and  editor-in-chief of the online magaz...

In this episode Durell speaks with Jacqueline Cofield. Jacqueline is the founder of J Rêve International LLC, a global culture and arts education social enterprise.  Jacqueline curates international experiences for educators, students, and artists, and collaborates with leading arts, cultural and educational institutions to produce meaningful global programming.  An educator, author, documentary filmmaker, and interdisciplinary sch...

In this episode Durell speaks with the "Fresh Professor" James Miles. James has worked as an educator in the New York City public schools for almost 20 years prior to moving to Seattle in 2016. Before joining Mentor Washington as Chief Executive Officer, Miles served as the Executive Director of Seattle based Arts Corps. Originally from Chicago, Miles has worked internationally as an artist and educator, who was inspired to...

In this episode Durell speaks with Niegel Smith. Niegel is a Bessie Award winning theater director and performance artist. He is the Artistic Director of NYC’s Obie Award winning theater, The Flea; board member of A.R.T./New York; and ringleader of Willing Participant (www.willingparticipant.org) an artistic activist organization that whips up urgent poetic responses to crazy shit that happens.

His theater work has been produced at ...

In this episode Durell speaker with Sharnita C. Johnson, a philanthropy leader who drives social change at the intersection of arts, culture, and community development and the Vice President of Strategy, Impact, and Communications at the Victoria Foundation. She most recently served as Arts Program Director with the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, where she led a statewide grantmaking portfolio focused on arts, equity, and creative ...

In this episode Durell speaks with Dr. Steven Thurston Oliver, Associate Professor of Secondary and Higher Education at Salem State University is a Sociologist of Education whose research and expertise is focused on using Contemplative Pedagogy in K-12 teacher preparation and higher education programs as a catalyst for cultivating greater capacity among educators to be introspective and engage across human differences. Steven recei...

In this episode of fluency durell speaks with highly sought after artist and intimacy coordinator Ann C. James.  Ann James has an extensive career in international stage direction and theatre education spanning over three decades.  James recently made her debut as the first Black Intimacy Coordinator of Broadway for Antoinette Nwandu’s Pass Over. James is an expert in the burgeoning industry of intimacy direction and institutional ...

In this episode Durell speaks with Andrea Ambam (she/her/hers). Andrea is a Brooklyn-based artist, actress, and playwright, whose roots sprout from Cameroon. As a politically engaged storyteller who believes in the art’s potential for movement building and transformative justice, Andrea best intersects spaces where community, performance, and truth-telling pulsate. Currently, Andrea is a Brooklyn Arts Exchange (BAX) Artist-In-Resid...

Patricia Robinson is an esteemed media executive, community leader and advocate, public speaker, professional educator, and a passionate mentor. Patricia spends quality time in her career helping others through coaching positive self-empowerment strategies, realizing, developing, and expanding career potential paths, life skills training, and sharing her experiences on how to be effective in leadership management. Patricia has earn...

Jonathan P. Jones, Ph.D. is an advisor, faculty member, and coordinator of doctoral studies at NYU Steinhardt Department of Music and Performing Arts Professions for the Program in Educational Theatre. At NYU, he teaches courses in pedagogy and theatre history; at CUNY, he teaches courses in public speaking and theatre history. Jonathan has presented on theatre education, research, creativity, and pedagogy in the US, UK, China, and...

Juhanna Rogers, PhD. is a motivational speaker, commentator, artist, and education activist currently residing in Central New York.  As a native of Newark, New Jersey, Dr. Rogers has a commitment to social justice, education, and the arts, having grown up in a diverse and resource rich environment.  Dr. Rogers earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Integrative Arts from Penn State University – Altoona. While at Penn State, she wrote, direct...

Courtney J. Boddie, Vice President, Education & School Engagement, oversees all
programs related to school communities including the New Victory school partnership program, teacher professional development training in the performing arts and an innovative approach in the professional development of more than 50 New Victory Teaching Artists. A 2021 Crain's New York 'Notable Black Leader and Executive,' Ms. Boddie has ...

Alison T. McNeil is a catalyst for equity and justice in the performing arts.

For more than 20 years, Alison has created pathways for systemic change in the arts and culture sector. She operates with a collective mindset and a goal to help the historically excluded to thrive.

Alison uplifts leaders and advances operations to foster accessible opportunities in the arts and education. She has served as a thought leader on numerous gran...

Maurine Knighton is the program director for the arts at the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. In that capacity, she is responsible for developing and overseeing grantmaking programs that support artists and organizations in the contemporary dance, theater, jazz, and presenting fields.

Prior to DDCF, Knighton was the senior vice president for grantmaking at the Nathan Cummings Foundation. She also served as senior vice president for...

Eric Gerard Parsons

Eric Gerard Parsons is a poet and writer of fiction.  His poetry has appeared in Shots and Arnazella.   In the mid- 1990s he founded I Am the Darker Brother, a Seattle, Washington-based poetry group.  Collaborating with photographer Anne Keeney, Parsons co-created Black Voices speaking: ~ images and words of the lives of blackpeople.  The exhibit was displayed at Café Septieme, a restaurant/gallery in Seattle, an...

Cassady Dill @cassadydil is a writer, Digital Marketer business owner and emerging TV/Film Producer. She is a theater graduate of Alabama School of Fine Arts, alma mater to actress Laverne Cox and Hunger Games series writer, Suzanne Collins.

While there, she studied theater arts, classical piano and completed her first full feature script - an advancing requirement of the accredited program, in which students dissected Robert Mc...