presenters/performers

André Blake is a New York film and television veteran with over fifty film and television credits to his name. He has worked with Academy Award winners, Denzel Washington and Julia Roberts to name a few. Most recently, André played Dr. Claude Baptiste on the NBC hit show New Amsterdam. He is also a prominent figure in the voice-over world. He has been the voice of the BET Network, Church’s Chicken, Subway, Amtrak, AT&T, Ford, and many others. Born in Port Of Spain, Trinidad, and raised in Hempstead, Long Island, and Harlem, New York, this veteran is poised to make even more noise in the coming years. Keep your ears and eyes open, as you will see and hear more of Mr. Blake in the future.

Marcelle Davies-Lashley is a singer/songwriter Brooklyn native of West African descent. She has toured five of seven continents opening hearts with her electrifying stage presence and huge voice. Some of her most recent projects include being the featured singer in Carrie Mae Weems’s opening of The Shape of Things and Carl Hancock-Rux’s I Dream A Dream That Dreams Back At Me for the Juneteenth performances at Lincoln Center in 2021. She was the singer/arranger for the Billie Holiday Theater’s A Walk Into Slavery, directed by Dr. Indira Etwaro. Davies-Lashley is the creator of her one-woman show, Liberian Girl in Brooklyn, which premiered at Mabou Mines’s Suite Space 2019 series. She is also a percussionist and has sung background for Macy Gray, Bono, Angelique Kidjo, BeBe Winans, Lizz Wright and others. Her first EP is titled Easy to Love. She has new music on the horizon.

Sheila Evans is an independently contracted licensed New York City tourist guide. Evans founded Sheila’s Tours, an established local and international tour consultancy. She has led tours in twenty-two cities on five continents. Evans is the author of Cathedral Parkway Towers at Harlem’s Gate and several audiobooks. A lifetime member of the Actors Studio, Evans worked on stage, film, and television, including recording children’s books for Troll Books. Evans is a member of the Screen Actors Guild and Actors Equity. Sheila’s stage and union name is spelled SHELA Evans. She holds a master of science in education with honors from CCNY. She has taught Acting for Animators for fourteen years at the School of Visual Arts. She is on the board of directors of the CCNY Black Alumni Group and the chairperson of the United Tenants Association of Cathedral Parkway Towers Inc. 

Melanie Edwards, granddaughter of J. Rosamond Johnson, worked for forty years at The Modern School, which was founded by her mother, Mildred Johnson, where she served in many roles. Following the closing of The Modern School, she has worked at Fordham University, the Schomburg, and the East Harlem Council for Community Improvement. Throughout her career in education, she has maintained an interest in photography and local New York history. She holds a bachelor of science in mass communications from Emerson College. She is currently seeking a publisher for her grandfather’s unpublished autobiography. 

Josh Henderson is a cross-genre violinist, violist, and composer. As a classical soloist, he has performed with companies worldwide. Josh has carved a reputation in jazz, rock, hip-hop, and country-fiddle for his dynamic performances. He has served as music director for the Emmy award-winning Damien Escobar (of Nuttin’ But Stringz), where he performed at several events across the globe, including a performance at the 2013 Hip-Hop Inaugural Ball hosted by Russell Simmons and honoring Barack Obama. He also served as music director to pop singer, Zahra Universe, on her South Korean tour, and to the spoken word artist LikWUid Stylez. Josh has also performed, recorded, and collaborated with artists such as Chris Brown, Michael Bublé, Bilal, Solange, the Sugar Hill Gang, and Paul McCartney—to name a few. As a founding member of the ensemble, Warp Trio, he has led the group on hundreds of concerts and University residencies. He is currently on the artist faculty at NYU and the Longy School of Music in Cambridge.

Damien Sneed is a pianist, vocalist, organist, composer, conductor, arranger, producer, and arts educator whose work spans multiple genres. He has worked with jazz, classical, pop, and R&B legends, including the late Aretha Franklin and Jessye Norman, Wynton Marsalis, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, J’Nai Bridges, Lawrence Brownlee, the Clark Sisters, and many others. Sneed is a 2014 Sphinx Medal of Excellence recipient. Some of the faculties he has served on include the Juilliard School of Music, Manhattan School of Music, Berklee College of Music, and NYU. In 2020, Alvin Ailey Dance Theater commissioned Sneed to create an original score for Testament. The Opera Theatre of Saint Louis commissioned him to compose The Tongue & Lash, an opera imagining a post-debate conversation between James Baldwin, which premiered in May 2021, and a reimagined adaptation of Scott Joplin’s opera, Treemonisha, which premiered on May 20, 2023.