The event will conclude with an interactive Talk Back on Zoom at 5:30 PM EST, that features some of the celebrated personalities from this evenings concert. Discussion will focus on work as Black creators, Intellectuals, and impacting audiences. Zoom information was emailed directly to you. You can use that link or click the link below and use the password to join.

Making It Black!
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Get to Know the Celebrated Personalities
Wycliffe Gordon

Garth Fagan
In the world of concert dance, Fagan choreographs primarily for Garth Fagan Dance. Mudan 175/39, was named by The New York Times as the third of the top six dance-watching moments of 2009. Fagan has also produced commissions for a number of leading companies, including Footprints Dressed in Red, for the Dance Theatre of Harlem; Scene Seen for the debut of the Jamison Project; Jukebox for Alvin for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater; Never No Lament for the Jose Limon Company; and Ellington Elation, for the New York City Ballet in honor of Duke Ellington’s centenary and New York City Ballet’s 50th anniversary.

Sean McLeod

Karen Brown
Karen Brown spent 22 years as a principal ballerina, featured artist, master teacher and lecturer with the Dance Theatre of Harlem (DTH) under the direction of legendary founder, Arthur Mitchell. . Ms. Brown has been certified as an ABT® Teacher in Pre-Primary through Level 7; in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd years of the Vaganova Syllabus and Reinforced Motor Function for Ballet Application (RMF) founded by Sean McLeod and has recently founded the En Pointe Plus Dance Mastery Institute (EPP), a division of Karenina, Inc. Brown served for six years as Artistic Director of Oakland Ballet Company in California (2000 – 2006). Ms. Brown has received numerous awards, including New York Institute of Dance and Education Harriet Tubman Freedom Award in 2010 and the New York Dance and Performance Award or the “New York Dance and Performance Award or The Bessie; for Sustained Achievement in Performance” as a company member with Paradigm, Dance Legends in Concert . She has been an Executive Director for Garth Fagan Dance in Rochester, New York and a Guest Artistic Director of Ballet Wichita in Wichita, Kansas where she and black choreographer Sean McLeod set a new Nutcracker Ballet on the company. In fall 2020, she was hired as a new Assistant Professor of Ballet at the University of Missouri Kansas City Conservatory.

Nicole Clarke-Springer

Gregory Livingston
SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance and a 4-year classical vocal music education from Fiorello H. LaGuardia H.S. of Music & Art and Performing Arts. Gregory also holds a Shiatsu Practitioner Diploma from the Acupressure Institute in Berkeley, California.
Over three decades, Gregory has performed with world acclaimed dance companies in Asia, Europe and America. Presently, he is a performer with Punchdrunk International in “Sleep No More” Shanghai. Returning full circle to New York City, he was a guest artist with the José Limón Dance Company for two seasons and has danced for Roberto Galvan – Stadttheater Giessen, Joseph Tmim – Tolada in Berlin and City Contemporary Dance Company of Hong Kong.
Gregory is a sought after visiting professor for several international arts universities for dance such as National Taiwan University of Arts (NTUA) in Taipei, Korean National University of Arts in Seoul,Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, teaching BA and MA students.

Thomas Warfield
The son of a minister and a conductor and nephew of internationally renowned singers William Warfield and Leontyne Price, Thomas Warfield began piano lessons at age 4, and at 6 was performing on stage. He began dance training in Rochester, NY with Olive McCue at the Mercury Ballet, studied at the School of American Ballet and the Joffrey Ballet in NYC, and on full scholarship at the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance.
His 14yrs. with the Opera Theatre of Rochester, and performances with the New York City Opera and Metropolitan Opera allowed him to work with directors Franco Zefferelli and Spike Lee, composers John Adams and Marvin Hamlisch, scientist Carl Sagan, singer Placido Domingo, Beverly Sills and others. As a singer his repertoire spans German lieder to gospel.
His numerous acting credits include “The Tinman” in The Wiz and Shakespeare’s Hamlet. As a dancer he’s performed works by Balanchine, Graham, Cunningham, Limon, Paul Taylor, Isadora Duncan, V. Nijinsky, B. Nijinska, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane, Jane Dudley and dozens of others and in companies worldwide. Warfield earned a BFA in Dance from SUNY Purchase, receiving the President’s Award for Excellence and MFA from the University of Utah winning a research fellowship in dance ethnology.
As a professional dancer, singer, pianist, actor, composer, choreographer, music/theatre director, teacher, producer and poet, Mr. Warfield has traveled to over 70 U.S. cities and over 35 foreign cities including: Hong Kong, London, Tokyo, Paris, Taiwan, Bangkok, Seoul, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Rome, Moscow, mainland China and Macau (where he was decorated as an honorary citizen). The New York Times, Hong Kong Standard, London Times, China News and La Monde are among the many newspapers which have written of Mr. Warfield’s exemplary performances. Mr. Warfield has worked as a facilitator/trainer for the National Coalition Building Institute (NCBI) doing workshops for schools and corporations in leadership training, welcoming diversity, prejudice reduction and non-violent conflict resolution. He has presented solo concerts and workshops in schools, hospitals, community centers, theological seminaries, homeless shelters, and correctional facilities; working with urban youth, professional dancers/musicians, the elderly, mentally & physically disabled, drug/alcohol abusers, blind & deaf children, AIDS/cancer patients and many others world-wide. Thomas Warfield has taught extensively in the U.S.A. and abroad on a variety of subjects which include: ballet, modern and African-based dance, choreography, improvisation, piano, voice, drama, poetry, English, African-American studies, art/religion, and classes on inner peace, self-esteem, and workshops on nurturing compassion.

Nena Gilreath
Nena Gilreath is the Cofounding Director of Ballethnic Dance Company, a 31-year Dance organization headquartered in East Point. She also serves as a guest Ballet Professor at the University of Georgia Dance Department. Her work at the East Athens Educational Dance Center and the collaborative work with many other dance organizations has enabled her to create an Athens to Atlanta Artistic Pipeline which continues to serve the mission of Ballethnic Dance of creating access and opportunity for those who are often overlooked. This partnership has enabled dance Majors and Minors to perform and intern with Ballethnic Dance Company and affording Fulton County artists additional opportunities.
Mrs. Gilreath is a graduate of the North Carolina School of the Arts where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance. She began her career by joining the Ruth Mitchell Dance Theatre. She later joined the Dance Theatre of Harlem, touring nationally and internationally. Ms. Gilreath was a member of the Atlanta Ballet in 1988-89, after that season she joined the National tour of Heartstrings, a musical that raised money for Aids research. On January 15, 1990, along with husband and choreographer Waverly T. Lucas, II they created Ballethnic Dance Company.
Her vision of creating access in dance has produced Alumni that have matriculated are currently working in the Dance field as well as in the fields of medicine, law and education.
Some of her Career highlights include: Performing in the 1996 Cultural Olympiad, NYC Lincoln Center out of Doors Performances, National Black Arts Festivals, teaching performing and lecturing in Senegal West Africa, selected as Creative Loafing’s Best of Atlanta Critics Pick-Best Dancer; Atlanta Business League’s Success against the Odds Award, Global Diversity Business Exchange Atlanta Entrepreneur Award, and Pinnacle Leadership Award, The McPheeter’s Medallion Award for Community Leadership, Lexus Leaders of the Arts, Charles Loridans Award, The Atlanta NAACP President’s Award, Atlanta Magazine’s list of “Top Twenty Women in Business “and one of the Atlanta Tribunes Power couples and selected as The School of American Ballet National Visiting Fellows. She has been featured in media coverage such as Dance Teacher Now, Essence Magazine, Rolling Out Magazine’s Top 25 of Atlanta and on CNN.com, and featured as part of the MODA Art Exhibit Love Nests exhibition.
She has enhanced her artistic business acumen as a participant of the Kennedy Center Capacity Building Program. Ms. Gilreath is a recipient of the East Point/College Park Alumnae Delta Sigma Theta Kuumba award for artistic excellence. Through her leadership Ballethnic was inducted into the Atlanta Business League Hall of Fame. She is a member of the Atlanta Business League and the International Association of Blacks in Dance.

Robert Moses

Waverly T Lucas

Cedric Bolton
Multidisciplinary artist, Cedric T. Bolton, is an educator, spoken word poet, entrepreneur, and music producer. He has performed in cities like Bellingham, Washington; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Toronto, Canada; Chicago, IL, and currently living in Syracuse, NY. Cedric received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Western Washington University and Master’s Degree in Cultural Foundations at Syracuse University. He is the architect of Poetic Black Fusion, a poetry organization that provides access and opportunities to poets of African Ancestry living in Minneapolis, Minnesota; co-founder of Voices Merging, a student run spoken word poetry organization at the University of Minnesota that provides a social outlet for undergraduate writers—to develop, network and express themselves on stage; and co-developer of Verbal Blend, a multi-ethnic spoken word poetry program for student writers at Syracuse University. Cedric has shared the stage with the likes of The Last Poets, Jessica Care Moore, Slick Rick, Tara Betts, Willie Perdomo, Dr. Gloria L. Velasquez, Saul Williams, Dr. Crystal Leigh Endsley, Shihan Van Clief, Bao Phi, Isangmahal Arts Kollective, Nikki Giovanni, Talaam Acey, Toni Blackman, Rudy Francisco, Dr. DaMaris B. Hill, Kelly Tsai, and others.
Cedric is an adjunct instructor with Renée Crown University Honors Program and the College of Arts and Sciences at Syracuse University. He is a published poet and his poetry can be found in Stone Canoe, Minnesota Spokesman Recorder, Minnesota Saint Cloud Times, and the Post Standard. He has recorded two spoken-word poetry CDs, and published a chap book entitled The State of the Ghetto Address. He has mentored students, staff, faculty and community writers to be confident in their voice and writing for twenty years. His writer’s workshops are the embodiment of community, family, and the continuing presence of “One Mic, One Voice.”
He was born in Pascagoula, Mississippi, and was raised in Paterson, New Jersey. Cedric values and understands the importance of active community involvement and participate on few committees in the greater-Syracuse community.

Garth Fagan Continued

