ALEXA BIRDSONG

The illustrious Alexa began her career as production assistant for George Wein’s Festival Productions. As associate producer with Festival, she oversaw the Newport Jazz and Folk Festivals; Mellon Jazz Festivals in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia; the Benson & Hedges Blues Festivals in multiple major markets; and Jazz at Lincoln Center’s inaugural seasons. She was also executive producer with Central SummerStage and director of arts programming with the CityParks Foundation.

Herb is a journalist, activist, and professor, who has authored or edited twenty-three books, including his most recent one, Black Detroit: A People's History of Self Determination. He is also the author of Civil Rights: Yesterday and Today. His book, Baldwin's Harlem: A Biography of James Baldwin, was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award. He, along with Robert Allen, received an American Book Award for Brotherman—The Odyssey of Black Men in America, An Anthology. We Shall Overcome, a media-fusion book with narration by the late Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, is used in classrooms all over the world, as is his Autobiography of a Peopleand The Harlem Reader.His articles can be found in such publications as the Black Scholar, the Final Call, the Amsterdam News, Cineaste, Downbeat, and the Network Journal, among others.

Mr. Boyd has scripted several documentaries, including several with Keith Beauchamp, on cold cases of martyrs from the Civil Rights era that were shown on the Biography Channel and TV One. With filmmaker Eddie Harris, he was the writer on three documentaries—“Trek to the Holy Land,” “Cri de Coeur (Cry from the Heart)”, and “Slap the Donkey” that tracks the Reverend Al Sharpton's presidential bid in 2004. The latter film was shown at the Montreal Film Festival.

For more than forty years, he has taught at institutions of higher learning. Currently, he teaches at the City College New York (CCNY). He serves on the board of trustees at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit, Michigan.

Marie is president of Marie Brown Associates, a literary services agency. She is one of a small group of African American literary agents and publishing consultants. A veteran of the book business for five decades, Marie has worked as an editorial assistant and book editor, bookseller and bookstore manager, editor-in-chief of a magazine, book-marketing strategist, and literary agent. She has worked with clients like Susan Taylor, Faith Ringgold, Tom Feelings, and Carl Weber.

Carmen is the director of the Silent Procession for Puerto Rico. She is also a curator and interior designer, who was born in Juana Diaz, Puerto Rico and raised in the Bronx from the age of five. She was a member of the curatorial team for the "Harrises of Harlem Show: Eight Generations," a WWSH photo exhibition. Art and anything that entailed creativity was evident at an early age. From the moment she held a pencil, she was always drawing. However, coming from a very political family (her father was mayor of Juana Diaz) Carmen decided to focus less on art and more on political activism by joining Mayor John Lindsay’s campaign. That led to her involvement in the war against poverty and community involvement throughout New York City, always with the intention of ensuring that Puerto Ricans receive all rights as US citizens, as well as the right to preserve their culture and heritage.

Carmen majored in social services at the Columbia School of Social Work, but realized that her heart was in the creative field. After earning a BFA degree, she curated numerous Latin artists’ exhibits in colleges, alternative spaces, and created exhibit spaces, e.g., the School of Labor Relations at Cornell University in New York City, Sawdon and Bess Advertising Agency, Wendy’s, and the Museum of Caribbean and Hispanic Art (MOCHA) in SoHo. Carmen made history by curating the first exhibit of Latin artists in the show, “Affinity: Seven Latin Artists at the Wooster Gallery, a commercial SoHo gallery. She earned as MFA from the School of Visual Arts.

For many years Carmen worked in advertising as an art buyer and senior account executive. She later opened her own business, On The Money Interior Design, which included general contracting and residential/commercial design. Today the company operates on a consultant basis.

Despite all of the twists and turns of her journey through life, one thing has remained the same, and that is preserving the Puerto Rican culture and heritage, and offering her support for other communities to do the same for their culture and heritage.

A highly experienced arts administration professional, Marline currently serves as the director of learning and engagement with the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. She has also served as executive director with CREATE Council on the Arts, the LeRoy Neiman Arts Center/Arts Horizons, and the Children’s Art Carnival. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the City College of New York. 

Monica lives her life with Purpose and Passion, and is a bridge between the powerful African American consumer demographic and corporate America. For more than three decades, her vigorous outreach to Fortune 500 companies and others seeking sponsorship/branding opportunities to leverage Black buying power, has resulted in many millions of dollars. Monica is a veteran funding professional, and, because of her winning personality, she has established numerous one-on-one relationships with key decision makers in major multinationals.

Her outstanding talent is evidenced by the individuals and organizations that have benefitted from the fact that her professional raison d’etre is to alter the landscape to ensure that the buying power of African Americans is fully acknowledged by all members of the corporate community. These members include media outlets, marketers, and major companies across the nation that benefit from the African American consumer base. Her life’s work as a fund-raiser for various African American companies and initiatives is central to who she is.

Currently, her focus is on continuing to strengthen the sponsorship-attaining capacity of organizations in African American communities. Monica’s past and current successes to fortify the bonds between high-profile organizations of color and their partners in the top echelons of American business, include:

• National Urban League (Marc Morial);
• Rainbow PUSH (Jesse Jackson);
• National Action Network (Reverend Al Sharpton); and
• National Minority Supplier Development Council (Dr. Harriet Michel).

At present, she oversees prospecting and growing new partnerships for the National Urban League’s large annual conference.

Additionally, Monica has established herself as a Special Event Planner, par excellence, and is an indispensable resource for conceptualizing and managing all logistical aspects of conferences, award dinners, concerts, golf outings, and art auctions. She has an exemplary history of attaining high-level national speakers and entertainers that include Presidents Bush and Clinton, Senator Barack Obama, Gladys Knight, and Brian McKnight.

She has consulted with the Police Athletic League, the New York/New Jersey Minority Purchasing Council (NYNJMPC), and the Tribal Arts Gallery. Monica served as a member of the Board of Directors for the Police Athletic League (PAL), and as secretary for the NYNJMPC. She has also volunteered as an English/Writing tutor for New York City public school’s after-school programs.

She attended Brooklyn College as a dual major in Creative Writing for Television/ Radio, and English.

Jamal has written and directed for Black Starz, HBO, Fox TV, New Line Cinema, Warner Bros., and A&E. His produced screenplays include Ali: An American Hero (Fox), New York Undercover (Fox), Knights of the South Bronx (A&E), and The Many Trials of Tammy B. (Nickelodeon). He wrote and directed Drive By: A Love Story, Da Zone, and the docudrama Hughes Dreams Harlem for  Starz. He produced the film Chapter & Verse starring New Heritage Theatre Group’s Artist-in-Residence Daniel Beaty. Jamal is currently co-executive producing and writing a dramatic musical for BET; and adapting his memoir, Panther Baby (Algonquin Books), into a feature screenplay, which he will direct.

He is Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia University School of the Arts in the Film Department; and former chair of Columbia University’s Graduate Film Division. He serves as the artistic director of the New Heritage Theatre Group in Harlem and executive director of New Heritage Films, a not-for-profit organization that provides training and opportunities for minority filmmakers. Joseph is a three-time winner of the National Black Programming Consortium’s Prize Pieces Award, a two-time winner of the Black Filmmaker Hall of Fame Award, a winner of the International Film and Video Association Award, and a recipient of the New York Fine Arts Fellowship.

Rosemari is professor emeritus (City College of New York/Center for Worker Education.) She has been recognized as an “Outstanding Professor of the Year” and has been honored for her community involvement on numerous occasions. She was the recipient of the prestigious Claudia Jones Fellow in the African New World Studies Program at Florida International University (Miami), where she taught Critical Race Theory Analysis.

Rosemari is the author of Activism and Disciplinary Suspensions/Expulsions at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs): A Phenomenological Study in the Black Student Sit-in Movement, 1966-1962 Fidel and Malcolm X-Memories of A Meeting-Black Classic Press; and Lift These Shadows From our Eyes. In addition, her works have appeared in numerous publications such as: Black Women In the Diaspora, Vol. I-II; Black Studies Journal, Black Film Review, Confirmations, An Anthology of African American Women Writers, The Black Scholar, Catalyst, Journal of Social Work, and others.

A longtime human rights advocate, facilitator, and trainer in the areas of media analysis, conflict resolution, and youth empowerment, Rosemari is a recognized activist whose work involves years of solidarity with Cuba, where she has lived and worked. In 2011, she was awarded the Friendship Medal by the Council of State of the Republic of Cuba. 

Rosemari resides in Brooklyn, New York and is married to mathematician and author, S.E. Anderson (Black Holocaust For Beginners).

Mark is a professor of history at Fordham University in New York. He was a former political activist who was a member of CORE and SDS in the 1960s. He is a graduate of Columbia University and holds a Ph. D. in American History. His publications include White Boy: A Memoir and Communists in Harlem During the Depression.

Stephen is a physician and community advocate, with extensive experience in academic medicine and public health. His clinical career has spanned nearly four decades. It includes positions in the City University of New York (CUNY) Medical School as executive assistant to the dean, Dr. George I. Lythcott, and interim director of the CUNY Physician Assistant Program at Harlem Hospital Center. He has served as resident advisor, HIV/AIDS, in the United Republic of Tanzania with the Mailman School of Public Health of Columbia University, where he supported Columbia's President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) initiative to support the development of Tanzania’s national HIV/AIDS infrastructure. He has led a number of health projects in West Africa and served on the medical advisory committee for the group, Operation CrossRoads Africa, founded by the late Reverend James H. Robinson, pastor of the Church of the Master, and a former resident of 409 Edgecombe Ave.

Stephen received his medical degree from the School of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle,Washington and an MPH with a concentration in international health from the School of Hygiene and Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland. He completed his internship and residency at Columbia University-Harlem Hospital Center in the Department of Medicine, under the direction of Dr. Gerald E. Thomson.

His long-standing commitment to the Harlem community’s development has been demonstrated by his membership in the Health Action Resource Center (HARC), his service on the board of directors of the Religious Committee on the New York City Health Crisis, as vice-chair of the Health Committee of Manhattan, Community Board Nine, and as chair of the Community Advisory Board of the Columbia/Harlem Hospital Prevention Research Center.

As a resident of 409 Edgecombe Avenue since 1980, he worked with the Tenants' Association to organize and prevent the building, then in New York City's Tenant-Interim-Lease (TIL) Program, from being sold to real estate developers. Stephen was president of the 409 Tenants’ Association when it purchased this landmark building from the city in 1995 to become a tenant-owned Housing-Development Fund Companies (HDFC) Cooperative.

Cheryl is a veteran, international health practitioner, who began practicing medicine in1983, just two years after the first cases of HIV/AIDS defined a pandemic whose impact is greater than smallpox. Her varied interests led her to work in clinical-HIV trials in Roosevelt Island, New York; practice with homeless, shelter residents in Harlem; examine post-disaster, reproductive impacts on women residing near Three Mile Island; and help residents post-disaster recovery in St. Croix. She recognized early on the critical role of integrated systems of health, education, labor, and security in determining health futures. These experiences fueled her passion for public service.  In 1993 Dr. Scott joined the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and was assigned to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

While at CDC, she continued an international career that led her to work in Cote d’Ivoire, India, Kenya, Jamaica, Tanzania, Lesotho, Ecuador, and Haiti. While in Tanzania, she established and led a $34 million CDC HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment program that laid a cornerstone for Tanzania’s rapid scale-up of national services. Under her leadership, Tanzania initiated the first-ever, no-cost, national, antiretroviral treatment program, and provided antiretroviral therapy and monitoring to more than 10,000 Tanzanians by 2005. Cheryl has received numerous awards including international recognition for her work in Tanzania.

Since retiring from the U.S. Public Health Service in 2010, Cheryl has worked with low-income communities in South-Central Los Angeles and California’s Central Valley to increase access to the unprecedented opportunity of the Affordable Healthcare Act. She has also provided primary-care services to veterans at several Veterans Administration community-based outpatient clinics.

She received her bachelor of arts degree in biology from the University of California at Santa Cruz, her medical degree from Boston University School of Medicine, and her masters in public health from the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health.