The Executive Committee (we call it “ExComm”) is your body of elected representatives. The ExComm meets by video call monthly throughout the year to address organizational needs, offer member feedback, and provide governance and strategic direction.
Both the calls and meetings are open to members, and we welcome your participation. The ExComm holds a monthly Zoom meeting and we will be determining the schedule for the coming year in October 2022. the . Quarterly Face-to-Face meetings are held throughout the region during our annual term (and are currently on hold during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic).
Another way for ROOTS members to participate in these meetings is to contact an ExComm member directly (contact info below) to discuss areas you would like represented in the meetings, and we can support you or your ideas being heard.
All Face-to-Face and video conference meetings are listed on the ROOTS Calendar and in the Member News. For security purposes, Zoom info is NOT listed on the calendar but is listed in the Member News. You can contact Sacil Armstrong, Board Secretary at bebrave@sacilarmstrong.com to request it.
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2022-23 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Officers
Chairperson – Stephen Clapp (he/him) | Washington D.C. | stephen@danceboxtheater.org
Stephen Clapp (he/him) is a Filipino-born cultural strategist, equity facilitator, change agent, performing artist and choreographer who maintains a professional creative practice as Co-Artistic Director for Dance Box Theater with his creative and life partner Laura Schandelmeier. Stephen is a co-owner of DC Vegan, the national capital region’s premier plant-based delicatessen specializing in cruelty-free and sustainable practices. His creative work aims to build social capital among communities with engagement through choreographic inquiry, devised theater performance, anti-oppression curriculum development and training, anti-racism facilitation, equity-based strategic planning, organizational development and cultural equity consulting. Stephen’s approach to community engagement and organizing employs movement-based arts-integration strategies that foster self-determination, innovative thinking, open dialogue, collective decision making, power analyses, resource development and creative problem solving. With over 25 years of professional experience using the arts as a tool for grassroots community development and creative changemaking, Stephen understands that the transformative evolution of individuals, communities, organizations and their systems is essential, valuable and timely. As a cultural worker, his creative practices are rooted in moving away from racist, neo-colonial and otherwise oppressive and problematic tendencies; towards a vision of equity, diversity and justice, where culturally marginalized voices are centered, honored, activated and celebrated. Stephen was a 2021 fellow with the Intercultural Leadership Institute, he is a member of the Pola Nirenska Award Committee, serves as a Creative Producer with Dance Exchange, and serves on the Executive Committee of Alternate ROOTS.
President – April Turner (she/her) | Charlotte, NC
April C. Turner is a professional writer/producer and content creator specializing in creating cultural arts experiences designed to invite honest conversations about difficult social issues. Her work also uses performing and literary art forms to document historical events, as well as share cultural traditions. An accomplished actress, writer, dancer, and theatre producer, Ms. Turner has had principal roles in more than 20 movies and television shows, as well as dozens of commercials and corporate videos. Among her favorite credits are roles in made for television movies such as Eyeborgs (SyFy Channel) and the independent film adaption of Truman Capote’s Other Voices, Other Rooms. Other favorites include roles in productions such as Good Behavior (TNT), Unanswered Prayers (Lifetime), Trinity Goodheart (gmc TV), Army Wives (Lifetime), Ditch Digger’s Daughters (Family Channel), and Discarded Things (EarthMother Entertainment). Turner also plays Constance Watson in an episode of the critically acclaimed Showtime series, The Good Lord Bird.
Among her produced writing credits are the stage plays, C.O.T.O.: CHOCOLATE ON THE OUTSIDE, RESERVATIONS, STARLIGHT AND MOONSHINE TIMES, PICKLE & LIL’JUNIOR, NIKKY’S GONE and ONE DROP OF MY BLOOD. She has successfully presented stage productions from New Jersey to Florida to Oklahoma. C.O.T.O.: Chocolate on the Outside was a featured production in the 1998 Piccolo Spoleto Theatre Series and was a favorite at universities and arts institutions in the ten years following. This contemporary drama with comedy toured nationally, making a positive impact in communities throughout the United States. Turner’s residencies, workshops and theatrical innovations have made her a favorite among arts presenters, universities and cultural organizations. In addition to being a prolific playwright and performer, Ms. Turner is a passionate dancer. For more than two decades, her African dance performances and workshops have enlightened, entertained, and promoted cultural awareness. Ms. Turner is currently a guest artist at North Carolina A&T State University’s theatre department, teaching playwriting.
Treasurer – *Priscilla Smith (she/her) | Atlanta, GA | priscillagaysmith@gmail.com
Priscilla Smith is the self-proclaimed Impresaria of No Tomorrow Underground, a venue and creative forum for artists and their audiences in Underground Atlanta, founded in 2021. She has presented performance art works solo and in collaboration in the streets and galleries of Atlanta since 1978. She served as executive director of Eyedrum Art and Music Gallery from 2008-2016, was a founding company member of ACME Theater that, from 1980 to 1990, presented original performance works ranging from improvisational contemporary opera to full-length original dramas. She created a closing performance event for the centennial symposium in observance of the 1906 Atlanta Race Massacre, has collaborated with Beacon Dance and John Q and directed and produced over 35 evenings of student-created dramatic works at Horizons School and The Atlanta School in 21 years as an educator. She served on the founding committee and was performance coordinator for Art on the Atlanta BeltLine and was co-producer and co-founder of the 2010 Living Walls Conference. She served several terms on the Alternate ROOTS executive committee, including time as treasurer. In 2019-2021 she ran to represent Georgia State House District 34 in the general election and in a special called election. She holds a B.A. in speech and drama from Trinity University.
Secretary – *Sacil Armstrong (she/her) | Roanoke, VA | bebrave@sacilarmstrong.com
For more than 25 years, Sacil (suh-SEEL) Armstrong has connected people and opened minds, getting folks from very different backgrounds to come together for common causes. As a self-care and social justice facilitator, her motto is no blame, no shame, no guilt because blaming and shaming get in the way of learning and being. She uses evidence-based self-care techniques that not only make us feel good, but also increase our mental and emotional capacity to handle difficult conversations about topics like racism and oppression. She uses facts to bind the past to the present and helps clients brainstorm for practical and effective ways to create change.
Sacil has been a marketing director for a regional science museum, served as the adult programming and PR specialist for a library system, and successfully led a grant-funded grassroots movement to reduce violent crime in a high-crime low-income “neighborhood” of 30,000 people. She is also a Certified Zentangle Teacher, using abstract art as a form of meditation.
At Large Members Members
Stephanie McKee Anderson (she/her) | Picayune, MS | smckee@junebugproductions.o
Stephanie V. McKee- Anderson is an artist, organizer, and cultural strategist born in Picayune MS, and raised in New Orleans. She is the Executive Artistic Director of Junebug Productions, Inc. an organization birthed out of the Free Southern Theater (FST), which was formed in 1963 as one of many cultural arms of the Civil Rights Movement. FST would eventually be a tremendous influence on the BlackArts Movement. Mckee has a long history of creating powerful performances that she strategically leverages for social change. McKee is a 2018 Urban Bush Women Choreographic Fellowship recipient and under McKee’s leadership, Junebug Productions was a recipient of a Surdna Foundation’s Artist engaged in social change award for Homecoming Project, and the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA) Theater Project grant for Gomela to Return/Movement of Our Mother Tongue which was her directorial debut. McKee serves on the board and executive committee of National Performance Network, is a member of Alternate ROOTS, a 2007 New Voices emerging Leader alumnus, a 2015 Association of Performing Arts Professionals (APAP) Leadership Fellow, and a Group Leader for the 2017 APAP Leadership Fellow Cohort.
Michael Murray (he/him) | Columbia, SC | ink4848@gmail.com
Michael A. Murray is a literary and visual artist out of Columbia, SC who has always allowed his love for art and community to steer his sense of purpose in the right direction. During his tenure as mentor and Director of Poetry at the Rebuilding Individual Character Habits (R.I.C.H.) program, Michael has attained tremendous insight into the often misunderstood, but always inventive minds of the black artistic southern youth. That insight carried over into his foundation of the NU GRWTH Artist Collective, the co-founding of The Prologue Writing Group, and continued collaborative efforts with other activists and organizations to create programming centered around the development, support, and sustainability of local artists. As a photographer and poet, Michael has had several works featured in Tapp’s Art Center, The State Newspaper, Access Magazine, The Carolina Panorama, and more. As a community organizer and Founder/Manager of Playlixt LLC, he has curated over four years of innovative events showcasing the many faces, voices, and styles of performance art, including Blue Note Poetry, Laughs; Lyrics, Our Words—Our Way!, and Afrobeats; Poetry to name a few.
*Ace McColl (she/her) | Atlanta, GA | acemccoll@gmail.com
Ace McColl is an Atlanta based filmmaker and editor. Her work leans into the experimental, telling intimate stories around femininity and gender conceptions through visceral means. Often auto-biographical, her filmmaking toes the line between performance and video art through her incorporation of multimedia elements. Her sharply edited experimental short Soma/tics was featured in several gallery exhibitions across the Southeast before premiering at the WonderRoot Independent Film Series where it took home the Wonder Film Award. It went on to screen nationally at festivals including Cucalorus Film Festival and Indie Grits. Her latest film Be Kind, Please premiered at the 2020 Atlanta Film Festival. Deeply rooted in the growth of the Atlanta film community, she has served as a member of the film committee at Eyedrum and as a film coordinator for LadyFest Atlanta. As a film & TV editor she hones her craft across genres. She has worked with Netflix, Vice Media, Discovery Channel, and Tyler Perry Studios among many others. She holds a B.F.A. in Film & TV Production from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and is a member of the IATSE Local 700 Editors Guild.
*Victoria Meek (she/her) | Dallas, TX | msart55@icloud.com
Vicki Meek has over 40 years of arts administrative experience and board development skills which includes community arts development expertise. She is a nationally recognized artist who has exhibited widely and had a career as an arts administrator, working in both state and local arts agencies as a Senior administrator. She also served as Executive Director of a nonprofit visual arts institution. Meek served on the Board of National Performance Network and was Chair for two years. Currently, Meek is a full time artist who is Chief Operating Officer and Board Member of USEKRA: Center for Creative Investigation, a non-profit retreat for creatives founded by internationally acclaimed performance artist Elia Arce. Vicki Meek is Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson’s at-large appointee to the Dallas Arts and Culture Commission and the Public Art Committee.
*Ashley Walden Davis (she/her) | Atlanta, GA
Ashley Walden Davis is the Founder and Executive Director of Unlock Creative LLC. Ashley is a proven leader, change agent, and visionary. Ashley has 15+ years of experience as Creative Producer working in nonprofit management and community-based arts business administration. She is driven by authenticity and a love of people.
Unlock Creative is a social enterprise whose mission is to nurture, grow, and sustain Black creative leadership. We work strategically to design systems and structures where Black people and people of color thrive personally and professionally, both within organizations and independently. We center joy, love, racial, and cultural equity in all our programs and services.
Ashley is also the Founder and President of the National Black Women’s Creative Cooperative – a worker-owned limited liability cooperative and mutual aid network of Black women creatives. Our mission is to liberate Black Women from oppressive and toxic work environments, generate wealth owned and stewarded by and for us toward a goal of political and financial freedom.
*Charmille Walters (she/her) Hollywood, FL
Charmille Walters’s mission is to advance the healing powers of dance, music, and other rhythm integrated art forms. The founder of Rhythmic Rapture, an organization focusing on the healing arts, spiritual practices, and Multiple Intelligence Theory using cross-curriculum integration with the arts. Charm is committed to passing 25+ years of performing arts experience onto the next generation of creative thinkers and movers. Her production staff credits include local crew for celebrity music concerts, Broadway musicals, and live televised shows. Prior to Rhythmic Rapture, she produced educational and spiritual events with renowned local, national, and international artists and scholars as a Program Coordinator at FIU.