Communities That Care Coalition
Promoting health, well-being, and equity among young people in Franklin County and the North Quabbin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taisha_paggett
Taisha Paggett (known professionally as taisha paggett[1]) is a Los Angeles–based choreographer and artist. paggett is a faculty member at University of California, Riverside in the Department of Dance.[2] She has experience working both onstage and in gallery settings. paggett was included in the 2014 Whitney Biennial and Made in LA, the Hammer Museums biennial in 2018.[3]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shatara_Michelle_Ford
Shatara Michelle Ford is an American director, writer, and producer. Their feature film directorial debut Test Pattern (2019) received critical acclaim.[1]
In 2024, Ford directed, wrote, and produced Dreams in Nightmares following three friends roadtripping across the Midwestern United States in search of their friend who has disappeared off the grid.[5]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wally_Badarou
Waliou Jacques Daniel Isheola “Wally” Badarou (born 22 March 1955) is a French musician. Born in France with ancestry from Benin, West Africa, Badarou is known for his close association with the English group Level 42, and for his prolific work as a session musician with a wide variety of performers from around the world.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Jurden
Jay Jurden is an American comedian, writer, and actor. His work has been recognized by Just for Laughs, Time Out New York, Vulture, and Variety. He was a staff writer for The Problem with Jon Stewart.
d. Sabela grimes, a trans-media storyteller, sonic ARKivist, movement composer. Improvisational systems and collaboration are at the heart of his creative practice, inhaling through socio-historical observation, self-examination and speculative meanderings, exhaling through layers of interconnected sonic, visual and kinesthetic arrangements. Sabela be investing in the poetics of assemblage, the magic of mutability, mastering misuse. Past projects include Philly XP, World War WhatEver, 40 Acres & A Microchip and ELECTROGYNOUS. Sabela’s current collaborative endeavor with Meena Murugesan, Parable of Portals, dreams Butler’s professional and personal writings into live performances, audio-visual installations, site-specific short films, and interactive community activations. Each experience realizes quantum Blackness as a means to play within the nowness of recurring futures.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ndlovu_Youth_Choir
The Ndlovu Youth Choir is a South African musical group founded in 2009.
Their debut studio album Africa (2019) debuted number one in South Africa.
Dolly would have loved it.
R4S: David, what do you know about your family’s heritage?
DR: Well, I am originally from St Louis, Missouri. My mother is from Detroit, Michigan. My maternal grandfather was of Gullah Geechee descent, while my maternal grandmother was black and indigenous, though we don’t know from what tribe. We do have photos of her with her grandfather.
On my father’s side, we know much less. My father grew up in Tennessee where his parents were sharecroppers.
R4S: Have any stories been passed down over the generations?
DR: Yes. My paternal grandfather, Cleve Ragland Sr., died when my father was just 13. They were sharecroppers.
When he died, the white landowners claimed that money was still owed from his tenant farm. Apparently, this was very common, the white landowners claiming that the sharecroppers owed money or hadn’t fulfilled the terms of their agreement.
Now, my grandfather was a very well-respected man; besides sharecropping, he was also a blacksmith. So, we believe those accusations were fabrications. In any case, they decided to leave Tennessee, the place where my grandfather and my aunts and uncles had all labored on the land. So, they came to St. Louis to join other family members.
Another story that comes to mind: I interviewed my grandmother and her sister before they died, when I was a PhD student and I was looking at religious traditions. Have you heard of ‘the moaner’s bench?’ Well, this bench was a part of West African slave traditions, a combination of traditional African spiritual practices and Christianity. The bench has a hallowed place within the church; there are chants and then miracles happen. Even my own baptism had elements of African ceremony. Those traditions are still a part of the church that my parents go to in St Louis.
The Kibilio Community and Farm in Leyden, Mass. is rooted in Black and queer land sovereignty, and the Afro-Indigenous healing sanctuary and farm, SUSU CommUNITY, in Newfame, Vermont draws its inspiration from Black womanism.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Passmore
Ben Passmore (born 1983)[1] is an American comics artist and political cartoonist.
His book Your Black Friend was originally self-published in 2016 and then reissued by Silver Sprocket in 2018. The book is a collection of short vignettes offering the experiences of a black man in a world of white people. Your Black Friend was inspired by Black Skin, White Masks, Frantz Fanon’s 1952 book about the impacts of racism.[5] The book has been compared to the Jimbo comic strip by Gary Panter.[6] Passmore’s book won the 2017 Ignatz Award for Outstanding Comic,[7] received an Eisner Award nomination that year for Best Single-Issue,[8] and was featured on NPR’s list of 100 favorite comics and graphic novels.[9] The work has been adapted into a short animated film.[10]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahya_Abdul-Mateen_II
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (/ˈjɑːjɑː/;[1] born July 15, 1986[2]) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Black Manta in the superhero films Aquaman (2018) and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023), Bobby Seale in the Netflix historical legal drama The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020), and Morpheus / Agent Smith in The Matrix Resurrections (2021). For his portrayal of Cal Abar / Doctor Manhattan in the HBO limited series Watchmen (2019), he won a Primetime Emmy Award. He also starred in episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale (2018) and Black Mirror (2019).
He made his Broadway debut in the Suzan-Lori Parks play Topdog/Underdog for which he received a Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Play nomination. He has played Simon Williams / Wonder Man in media set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, starring in the Disney+ series Wonder Man (2026), for which he was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award.
https://www.marquee.digital/role/dez-bing
Dezi is an actress, writer, voice over artist, and keynote speaker whose recent work includes starring in Shatara Michelle Ford’s sophomore film “Dreams in Nightmares,” Wig Out, written by Academy Award™ Winner for Best Picture: Tarell Alvin McCraney, and working with Jackbox Games to voice ‘the host’ of one of their newest videos games: Roomerang. Dezi was recently published in “The Root Magazine,” a digital news publication with over half a million followers on Instagram. And she also completed a year long playwriting fellowship at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing arts where she wrote and workshopped her first play, “The Peculiar Awakening of Riley Parker.” So honored to have worked on this wonderful project!