The Company
Chanon Judson (Co-Artistic Director) has been growing with the acclaimed Urban Bush Women since 2001, as performer and now Co-Artistic Director. She’s a director’s fellow with New Perspective Theatre Women’s Work Lab, Chicago Director’s Lab, and APAP’s Leadership Fellowship Program. Choreographic credits include Times Up! (commissioned by Flea Theatre), The Hang (Taylor Mac, Here Arts), Cannabis: A Viper Vaudeville (Collaborator/Performer - Baba Israel/Grace Galu/ Talvin Wilks), Orlando (Barnard College), Chronicle X (Nia Witherspoon), Prometheus Bound (Tank Theatre), The Invention of Tragedy (Flea Theatre), and“Nurturing the Nurturer, her original performance-ritual/gathering for mothers. Chanon has worked with Mickie Davidson, Talvin Wilks, Kwame Ross, Barak adé Soleil, Sita Frederick, Sandra Burton, and Allyne Gartrell. Performance credits include A 24-Decade History of Popular Music, God’s Trombone (Craig Harris), Cotton Club Parade, Michael Jackson 30th Anniversary Concert, and the Tony award-winning musical Fela!
Chanon is an avid arts educator and has served as faculty with AileyCamp (Site Director), Alvin Ailey Arts in Education, Brooklyn Academy of Music, and Earl Mosley’s Institute of the Arts. Chanon is the founder of Cumbe Center for Diasporic Arts’ Dance Drum and Imagination Camp for Children and co-founder of Family Arts (FAM). Alongside her husband, they offer spaces for families to learn, explore, and create. Chanon is a newly appointed Visiting Associate Professor at the University at Buffalo where she is investigating jazz embodiment, education, and organizing aesthetics as well as leading a charge to redesign the jazz curriculum to better reflect the rich contributions of the African Diaspora.
Mame Diarra Speis (Co-Artistic Director) is a mother and movement improviser intrigued with play, risk, rigor, and experimentation. She is currently a performer and the Co-Artistic Director of the critically acclaimed Urban Bush Women. Speis has had the pleasure of working with Gesel Mason, The Dance Exchange, jumatatu poe, Deborah Hay (as part of “Some Sweet Day” curated by Ralph Lemon at The Museum of Modern Art), Baba Israel, Marjani Forte-Saunders, and Liz Lerman. She recently performed as a guest artist with MBDance in the Motherboard Suite with artist Saul Williams, under the direction of Bill T. Jones. Speis was the recipient of the Alvin Ailey New Directions Choreography Lab and was awarded a Bessie for Outstanding Performer in 2017. Her work has been featured at The Kennedy Center, Long Island University, The Joyce SoHo, Hollins University, Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, Danspace Project, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Dixon Place, BRIC, Dance Place, and The Kelly Strayhorn Theater. Speis has developed a movement and teaching practice that explores pelvic mobility as the root of powerful locomotion and as a point of connection to the stories, experiences and lineages that reside in each of us. She has been a guest artist and teacher throughout the United States, South America, Senegal, and Europe. Speis has also taught at Princeton University as a Lecturer in Dance. She has been fortunate to continue building a strong relationship with her alma mater, Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), in various capacities and was the commencement speaker for the VCUarts graduating class of 2020-2021. Her recent projects include Walking with Trane co-choreographed with Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, and her collaboration with Chanon Judson-Johnson on Hair and Other Stories and Haint Blu.
Jawole Willa Jo Zollar (Founder) After earning her B.A. in dance from the University of Missouri at Kansas City, Zollar received her M.F.A. in dance from Florida State University. In 1984 Zollar founded Urban Bush Women (UBW) as a performance ensemble dedicated to exploring the use of cultural expression as a catalyst for social change. Zollar developed a unique approach to enable artists to strengthen effective involvement in cultural organizing and civic engagement, which evolved into UBW’s acclaimed Summer Leadership Institute. She serves as director of the Institute, founding artistic director, and visioning partner of UBW, and currently holds the position of the Nancy Smith Fichter Professor of Dance and Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor at Florida State University.
Awards: 2008 United States Artists Wynn fellowship, 2009 fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial, 2013 Arthur L. Johnson Memorial award by Sphinx Organization, 2013 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, 2014 Meadows Prize from Southern Methodist University, 2015 Dance Magazine Award, 2016 Dance/USA Honor Award, 2016 Black Theater Alliance Award, 2017 Bessie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Dance, 2018 American Conference on Diversity Performing Arts Humanitarian Award, 2021 fellowship from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, 2021 Dance Teacher Award of Distinction, and the 2021 Martha Hill Dance Fund Lifetime Achievement Award, 2022 Dorothy and Lilian Gish Prize, and the 2024 Samuel H. Scripps/American Dance Theater Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Courtney J. Cook (Associate Artistic Director) is a Virginia native now residing in Brooklyn, NY. She is a graduate of the Virginia Governor’s School of the Arts and holds a B.F.A in Dance and Choreography from Virginia Commonwealth University. She is now Associate Artistic Director, BOLD facilitator, and performing company member with Urban Bush Women, was a company member with MBDance (Maria Bauman), and a featured artist with Marguerite Hemmings (we free). She is honored to be a recipient of the 2018 “Bessie” Award for Outstanding Performance for her work with all three of these organizations. As a creator, she has had the privilege of performing her solo work, “PoolPITT”, as a featured artist in ModArts Dance Collective’s Collective Thread ‘17, the Estrogenious Festival ‘17, curated by Maura Donohue, and BDAC’s Creative Emancipation Collaboration, curated by Ebony Noelle Golden. She also has been able to create in collaboration with interdisciplinary artists Tendayi Kuumba and Greg Purnell (FLUXX), presented by BRICLab and Harlem Stage (2019). In 2022, Cook was involved as performer/choreographic collaborator and vocalist in Cannabis! A Viper Vaudeville, created by Baba Israel and Grace Galu Kalambay (Soul Inscribed).
Kentoria Earle (Company Member, Performer) was raised in Winter Haven, Florida and is the proud daughter of Kent Earle and Victoria Wilson. She recently graduated from The Florida State University where she obtained her Master of Arts in Dance and Studio Related Studies. Since graduating she has had the opportunity to work with choreographers/ artists such as Renegade Performance Group, Abigail Levine, and Urban Bush Women as an apprentice. Kentoria has spent her first few years post-grad entering the field as a Brooklyn-based performing artist and collaborator. She is working to build an artistic process that looks at solo and improvisational practices as a way to tap into ancestry and lineage-based movement exploration. Kentoria believes these practices support and open up spaces where artists can be fully present for what often results in holistic and sustainable approaches to our healing, individually and collectively.
Roobi Gaskins (Company Member, Performer) is a New York City-based artist, who specializes in dance, choreography, and garment construction. Although she has always had a passion for dance, she owes her movement genesis and training to 14 years of competitive figure skating, where she competed internationally as a member of the Puerto Rican national team. She began her formal dance training at Bard College where she received a BA in Dance. She was an apprentice with Urban Bush Women in their 2019-2020 season, and has also performed works with various artists including Abby Z and the New Utility, Brownbody, 7NMS, and Trisha Brown.
Symara Sarai (Company Member, Performer) a Portland, Oregon native currently residing in Brooklyn, has immersed herself in interdisciplinary and choreographic studies globally. Her work varies due to the different influences she has embraced throughout her life. A 2023 Bessie Winner for Breakout Choreographer, Symara is also a recipient of the Dai Ailian Foundation Scholarship based in Trinidad and Tobago. The scholarship led her to Beijing, China where she spent two years gaining an associate degree in modern choreography at the renowned Beijing Dance Academy. Symara is a graduate of SUNY Purchase’s Conservatory of Dance Program. She was a resident artist for Bearnstow, Gibney 6.2 Work Up, Gallim’s 2022 Moving Artist’s Residency, BAX’s Fall 2022 Space Grant Program, and Center for Performance Research’s 2022 AIR Program. She is a 2023 Women in Motion Commissioned Artist. Their work as a performer and maker has been reviewed and featured in the NY Times, Dance Enthusiast, Fjord, as well as promoted through Forbes. She has had multiple film works commissioned by Berlin-based choreographer Christoph Winkler.
Keola Jones (Company Member, Performer) born in Glen Allen, VA, land of the Powhatan people, is a 2022 graduate of the Dance & Choreography BFA program at Virginia Commonwealth University. Keola is a movement artist, performer, researcher, filmmaker, choreographer and educator. Keola’s movement practice is deeply influenced by research of how Black bodies hold and release emotions and trauma. She was recently an Inaugural Fellow with Johnnie Cruise Mercer’s company TheRedprojectNYC in 2022 and now works for the company. She also works as an adjunct professor of dance at The College of William & Mary and is a company member of the Leah Glenn Dance Theatre.
Mikaila Ware (Company Member, Performer) (B.F.A. Florida State University) began her dance training at Fort Stewart, Georgia at the age of five. Now a New York-based movement artist, Ware has worked in the mediums of dance and film with choreographers such as Davalois Fearon, Kayla Farrish, André Zachery, and Johnnie Cruise Mercer. Ware’s performances have been featured in articles such as The New York Times, Dance Magazine, and Dance Enthusiast. Additionally, Ware completed the Accessibility Partnerships and Programs Fellowship at The Lincoln Center and is an alumna of the Diversity in Arts Leadership program with the Arts and Business Council of New York.
Hao Bai (Lighting Designer/Supervisor) is a multidisciplinary designer in lighting, sound, video projection, and world-building (environment) for live and virtual performances. Recent: Virtual: Final Boarding Call (Ma-Yi Theater+WP Theater); Nocturne in 1200s (Ping Chong). Lighting: Waterboy and the Mighty World (Bushwick Starr & The Public Theatre); Lazarus (Ping Chong); Projection: Electronic City (NYIT Awards). Sound: Walden (TheatreWorks–CT Critics Circle Award), True West (People’s Light). Lighting & Sound: 7Mins (HERE). Lighting/Sound/Projection: Arden (The Flea). Production Design: and the grass grows (Harvard University); Where We Belong (National Tours: The Public, Goodman Theatre, OSF etc.).
https://www.haobaidesign.com/
Louise Brownsberger (Production Manager)
Manchildblack (Guest Artist)
Michelle Coe (Associate Producer) has worked in the worlds of performing arts and independent film for more than two decades. Prior to joining UBW in 2017, she was Director of Booking at MAPP International Productions for 6+ years, overseeing booking and touring of all of MAPP’s multi-disciplinary projects. Artists included: Nora Chipaumire; Marc Bamuthi Joseph; Okwui Okpokwasili; Ralph Lemon; Samita Sinha; Dan Hurlin; Lars Jan; Gregory Maqoma/Vuyani Dance Theater; Emio Greco & Pieter C. Scholten (ICK Amsterdam); Faustin Linyekula; David Zambrano; and others. Prior to working with MAPP International, she was an Artist Representative at Pentacle, and held a variety of positions in the dance and theater world with artists such as Noche Flamenca, Susan Marshall & Company, and many more. Michelle spent the earlier part of her career working on various film and television projects, and holding leadership roles in film organizations (Women Make Movies, Icarus Films, and Independent Filmmaker Project/Minnesota). She has served on numerous screening committees and evaluation juries, including Theater Communications Group/Global Connections, P.O.V./American Documentary, Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s National Black Programming Consortium, and New York State Council on the Arts.
Grace Galu Kalambay (Guest Artist) is a vocalist, actor, guitarist, and composer. She combines the sounds of her Irish and Congolese heritage with her LES upbringing in a soulful and gritty twist. Kalambay was recently featured in Buskerball 2022, and recorded Firelight with Fearless Music. Her composition, “Ordinary Sentiment” was featured in the Ed Burns film, Purple Violets’ which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. Grace devised The Mendelssohn Electric with Trusty Sidekick, and was cast as the lead in their production, The Gospel Electric, commissioned by the Park Avenue Armory. She is a core member of the band Soul Inscribed, and has for the third time been selected as a cultural ambassador for the American Music Abroad program. Kalambay is also a recipient of the NEFA NTP grant. Soul Inscribed has recently been signed to the music label, Tokyo Dawn and just released their EP, Tune UP. Kalambay is an artist in residence at HERE Arts Center and the composer for Cannabis! A Viper Vaudeville. Kalambay voiced Wisdom in Nia Witherspoon’s production, The Dark Girl Chronicles (2021 at The Shed). She is currently touring Haint Blu with Urban Bush Women.
Lucianna Padmore (Guest Artist) A Bronx native, New York-based drummer Lucianna Padmore has been praised by Modern Drummer magazine for “Deep grooves and serious fusion chops.” Lucianna’s versatile drumming is featured with artists in the Jazz, Hip-Hop, Funk, Rock, Pop, and Fusion genres. An alumnus of LaGuardia High School for Music and the Performing Arts and the New School University, she has received awards from Jazz at Lincoln Center and BMI for her jazz improvisation. Lucianna’s live and studio projects include residencies in and around the Tri-state area with the John Smith Trio, a member of HotJazz Jumpers, drummer for Singer-Songwriter Alyson Murray, Bertha Hope’s Nu Trio, and Quintet The Fiery String Sista. She also leads her own Quartet and releases music as an independent artist, with the current release of the single, Life Long Love Affair featuring Saxophonist Gerald Albright. As an educator, she is active in drum instruction and jazz outreach in N.Y. Tri-state area. Lucianna is featured in the book Sticks and Skins, Endorses Soul Tone cymbals, and plays Scorpion signature 3a Drum sticks.
Nicholas Hussong (Projections Designer/Coordinator) is a creator of video, projections and film for live (and now digital) performance and events. Creative Producer at Dwight Street Book Club. Broadway: Skeleton Crew. Other regional credits include Until the Flood (13 regional and international locations); Haint Blu, Hair & Other Stories (Urban Bush Women); These Paper Bullets, Drama Desk Nomination (Yale Rep, Atlantic Theater Company, Geffen Playhouse); Woman’s Party (Clubbed Thumb); Grounded (Alley); Arden Theater, Playmakers Rep, Berkshires Theatre Group, Marc Jacobs, Nashville Symphony, Hartford Symphony, Tony Awards (CBS). He also designed in England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, China, Canada, and Vienna. Co-Creator of FEAST, an immersive dining experience with Listen&Breathe (Nantucket, Ireland, and please, hopefully, someday, the United States). Adjunct Lecturer New School of Drama and USC. Yale MFA. UAW and USA829 www.nickhussong.com
Jerome Jennings (Guest Artist) is a drummer, activist, bandleader, sideman, and Emmy Award-winning composer. His debut recording ‘The Beast’ is a reflection of the everyday joys and traumas of black life in the U.S. It was named one of the top three Jazz releases by NPR, received a four-star rating in Downbeat Magazine, and was nominated for the prestigious French ‘Grand Prix du Disque’ award for Album of the Year in 2016. Jerome’s sophomore recording, ‘Solidarity’, released November 2019, was recognized by NPR as best music that spoke truth to power of 2019. To date, Jerome has performed, toured, and recorded with legendary musicians like Sonny Rollins, Hank Jones, Gerald Wilson, Christian McBride, Ron Carter, George Cables, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Wynton Marsalis (J@LC), The Count Basie Orchestra, Philip Bailey, Henry Butler, and countless others. He has also made recordings and shared the stage with contemporary musicians Sean Jones, Camille Thurman, Jazzmeia Horn, Tadataka Unno, Christian Sands, Charenee Wade, and Bokani Dyer, to name a few. He has composed music for and is the musical director for Maurice Chestnut’s dance production Beat’s Rhymes and Tap Shoes. www.jeromejennings.com
Ausar Johnson (Animation) is a 3D animation, rigging, texturing, and modeling artist based in Brooklyn, New York. Ausar is currently a senior at the School of Visual Arts and is pursuing a degree in 3D Animation and Visual Effects.
“I like building worlds around the characters I create and bringing them to life, and aspire to continue doing this throughout my career. I’m really interested in character animation and action-packed animated scenes. I love stylized 3D work and like trying to find new ways to integrate new styles into my work.
“I like to play soccer, skate, and draw in my free time and I love finding new experiences with friends!”
Nina Angela Mercer (Writer, Haint Blu) is an interdisciplinary artist and cultural worker. Her plays include Gutta Beautiful; ITAGUA MEJI: A ROAD AND A PRAYER; Gypsy & The Bully Door; and A Compulsion for Breathing. Her writing is published in Black Renaissance Noire; Continuum: The Journal of African Diaspora Drama, Theatre and Performance; BreakBeat Poets Vol 2: Black Girl Magic (Haymarket Press); Are You Entertained? Black Popular Culture in the 21st Century (Duke University Press); Performance Research Journal; Represent! New Plays for Multicultural Young People (Bloomsbury Press); and A Gathering of the Tribes Online Magazine. Find more at www.ninaangelamercer.com.
Jonathan D. Secor (Producer) has worked in and around the arts for over three decades as a facilitator for creative artists and ideas. He is delighted to once again be working with Urban Bush Women. As a creative producer, Jonathan has been part of projects large and small, including as producer for the recent New York CityFree Festival on Little Island, as Artistic Director for the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, Director of Performing Arts at MASS MoCA, Director of Programming at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and the Founder and Director of the Berkshire Cultural Resource Center in North Adams, MA. Jonathan was instrumental in the creation of the arts management major at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA), and has taught at SUNY Purchase, Yale School of Drama, and MCLA. Jonathan was General Manager for 651, and started his career as a production manager and stage manager, working throughout the United States and Europe. Jonathan splits his time between Florida Mountain, MA and Harlem, NYC and is the proud father of Alegra Dora and Christina Gabriela.
Talvin Wilks (Guest Artist/Recorded Video Collaborator) is a playwright, director and dramaturg based in Minneapolis and New York City. Dramaturgy Credits: for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enough (2022 Broadway Revival), Dreaming Zenzile (New York Theatre Workshop/NBT), Between the World and Me (The Apollo), Scat!, Haint Blu, Walkin’ with ‘Trane, Hep Hep Sweet Sweet (Urban Bush Women), ink, Black Girl: Linguistic Play, Mr. TOL E. RanCE (Camille A. Brown and Dancers), In a Rhythm, A History, Necessary Beauty, Landing-Place, Verge (Bebe Miller Company). He is an Associate Professor in the Theatre Arts and Dance Department, University of Minnesota/Twin Cities, a 2020 McKnight Theater Artist Fellow and a 2022 McKnight Presidential Fellow.
Nia Witherspoon (Guest Artist) is a Black Queer theatre maker, vocalist and composer, and cultural worker investigating the metaphysics of Black liberation, desire, and diaspora. Described as “especially fascinating” by Backstage Magazine, and featured by NPR for her curation of lackARTSMatter, Witherspoon is the Multimedia Writer-in-Residence at Fordham University, a Creative Capital Awardee, a Jerome New Artist Fellow, an artist in residence at HERE Arts Centera and BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange, and was a 2017-18 2050 Playwriting/Directing Fellow at New York Theatre Workshop. Her works, MESSIAH, YOU MINE, THE DARK GIRL CHRONICLES, and PRIESTESS OF TWERK have been or will be featured by The Shed, JACK, La Mama ETC, Playwright’s Realm, BRIC, HERE, National Black Theatre, BAAD, Movement Research, BAX, Dixon Place, Painted Bride, 651 Arts, and elsewhere. She holds a BA from Smith College and a PhD from Stanford University in Theatre and Performance Studies, and her writing is published in the Journal of Popular Culture; Imagined Theatres; Women, Collective Creation, and Devised Performance; and IMANIMAN: Poets Writing in the Anzaldúan Borderlands. Witherspoon has held tenure-track professorships at Florida State University and Arizona State University, and is currently working on a manuscript tentatively titled NATION IN THE DARK: A Black femme spell for justice.
Thank you to 92NY for supporting this program!
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
Lesley Hunter, Director of Operations
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
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
Pinar Goodstone, BOLD Coordinator
Jaimé Yawa Dzandu, BOLD Artistic Coordinator
Dani Criss, BOLD Facilitator
Advance NYC, Development Consultants
Paloma McGregor, SLI Associate Director
Lai-Lin Robinson, CCI 2.0 & “When Black Women Speak” Producer
Bennalldra Williams, Movement Coach
Urban Bush Women Company Apprentices are supported by
The New York Community Trust Van Lier Fellowships:
Kashia Kancey, J’nae Simmons, Synead Cidney Nichols, Mikayla Young, and Mawu Ama Ma’at G. Oyesii
For booking: Michelle Coe, Director of Production, Booking & Touring: mcoe@urbanbushwomen.org
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:
Anonymous; Acton Family Giving; Bloomberg Philanthropies; David Rockefeller Fund; Doris
Duke Foundation; Ford Foundation; Howard Gilman Foundation; The Institute of Museum and Library Services; International Association of Blacks in Dance; Lily Auchincloss Foundation, Mellon Foundation; National Endowment for the Arts (NEA); National Performance Network (NPN) Creation & Development Fund; New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project; The New York Community Trust Van Lier Fellowship Program; New York State Council on the Arts; New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; The Shubert Foundation; Solidaire Black Liberation Pooled Fund; William Talbott Hillman Foundation; Barnard College Center for Research on Women, Barnard College Office of Community Engagement & Inclusion; The O’Donnell-Green Music and Dance Foundation; The Harkness Foundation for Dance
Connect with UBW:
www.urbanbushwomen.org
Facebook: @urbanbushwomen | Twitter: @ubwdance | Instagram: @ubwdance