The Inaugural Cohort Of The Field Leadership Fund Hosts MOON SHINE At The National Black Theatre

The inaugural cohort of The Field Leadership Fund announces Moon Shine, a wine reception with pop-up expressions, to be held on Wednesday, April 19, 2017 at the National Black Theatre (NBT) in its current 48th season themed In Pursuit of Black Joy.

Moon Shine will consist of screenings of Eric Lockley's award-winning, short film The Jump, excerpts from B3W Performance Group's Forgiveness and Kyoung's Pacific Beat's Pillowtalk, video presentation of Goussy Celestin's Ayiti Brass, new, work-in-progress by Kendra Ross, teaser of Bring the Beat Back produced by Bryan E. Glover, and Rachel Y. DeGuzman's Disruption to Eruption, a TED-like presentation reflecting her work as a Field Leadership Fund Fellow and beyond.

"The work of the FLF Fellows represents the ways in which arts professionals continue to shine light on the most pressing issues of the times, even in what seems like some of the darkest moments," says Rajeeyah Finnie-Myers, Field Leadership Fund Program Manager.

Moon Shine acknowledges the many challenges that artists and arts managers face operating in a space that in America is under-funded and under-appreciated. "The reality of the Arts in America is in an especially dark space, but the light that shines brightest when it's darkest is the moon," says Eric Lockley.

Field Leadership Fund is a 16-month fellowship that offers real opportunities, remuneration and access to ambitious artists, arts organizations, and arts managers who are leaders in the arts. This inaugural cohort of twelve fellows began with a retreat in December 2015, followed by an 8-week workshop intensive on topics ranging from business systems to community engagement - all grounded in issues of equity and access. In April 2016, the Fellows were paired - one Manager with one Artist/Arts Organization - and their partnerships will culminate with Moon Shine.

"The Field's work on failure and privilege deeply impresses me. They know what's broken for artists and they work tirelessly to make it better. Their latest project, Field Leadership Fund, will be a strong driver of diverse next gen leaders. I can't wait to see what they do," says Edwin Torres, Deputy Commissioner of Cultural Affairs.

Moon Shine will kick-off at 6:30pm with a wine reception and Opening Remarks by Rajeeyah Finnie-Myers, Field Leadership Fund Program Manager, and Jonathan McCrory, Artistic Director of NBT and culminate with a dance party with music from DJ Aya.

"In this current moment, when we are being hit with so many massive shifts and changes that are affecting the protection and sovereignty of our rights as Americans; it is important to generate gatherings like this that celebrate and illuminate the diversity house in the community," says Jonathan McCrory.

Free tickets to Moon Shine are available at www.thefield.org, via email at wilfredo@thefield.org, or by calling (212) 691-6969. Moon Shine is sponsored by Arrowhead Spring Vineyards. For sponsorship inquiries, email Alexis Convento, at alexis@alexisconvento.com.

FIELD LEADERSHIP FUND FELLOWS

Emily Berry (Arts Organization Fellow) is Artistic Director of B3W Performance Group, which has performed in the US, England, Greece, Italy, Thailand, and Mexico. In New York City, B3W has performed at Henry Street Settlement, Dance New Amsterdam, Dixon Place, BAAD!, the 92nd Street Y, The Irondale Center as part of FlicFest, and the Manhattan Movement Arts Center among others. B3W received the Mondo Cane Commission from Dixon Place, premiering Confined in September 2010 with a three-week run. Spin Art, B3W's newest evening length work premiered at the Irondale Center January 30th, 2014 with live music by DBR. Spin Art inside of a cube with flying paint premiered in Queens in November of 2014. Eva Yaa Asantewaa (InfiniteBody) describes Berry's work as "Memorable, intelligent, strong." "Violent but engaging" are the words attached to Berry's work by Clare Croft in the Washington Post. Maura Donohue (Culturebot) writes about Confined as, "Clear expression of idea in movement." Emily has performed with danceTactics Performance Group/Keith Thompson, Boris Willis Moves, Dakshina/Daniel Phoenix Singh & Company, Restless Native Dance/Tamieca McCloud, Lesole's Dance Project, and Ashe Moyubba/Alafia Afro-Cuban Folkloric Dance Ensemble. Emily is a Certified Movement Analyst. She also has a MFA in dance from George Mason University. Her Bachelor of Dance Arts was earned from the University of Michigan along with a Bachelor of General Studies in Women's Studies and Political Science. She is currently an assistant professor of dance at Queensborough Community College. b3w.org Paired with Manager Fellow: Alexis Convento.

Goussy Célestin (Artist Fellow) Deemed a "Renaissance Woman", in the New York Times, Brooklyn born Haitian-American artist Goussy Célestin interchanges the roles of pianist, composer, vocalist, dancer, and arranger with ease. Goussy has performed for the last two decades for audiences locally, nationally and overseas in Cuba, England, Haiti, Wales, British Virgin Islands, and Japan. Goussy's current mission integrates all of her disciplines in her current project, Goussy Celestin's Ayiti Brass, incorporating elements of traditional Haitian folklore and Jazz. Currently, Goussy is a faculty member for the Middle School Jazz Academy and WeBop programs at Jazz at Lincoln Center. She is also mother to two young boys, ages 3.5yrs and 7yrs - what she calls her "greatest creative compositions". She is also Paired with Manager Fellow: Bryan Glover.

Alexis Convento (Manager Fellow) is a New York City-based, Filipino-American producer, administrator and manager working within dance, performance, and art. She is founder and producing director of the CURRENT SESSIONS, an organization that develops and presents the work of emerging contemporary dance artists. Production management and coordination include Frieze New York, The Armory Show, and World Maker Faire; she has produced events at all scales at Gowanus Art + Production and currently at Imprint Projects. Alexis' work seeks to activate new conversations between genres which strengthen the relationship between art production and community, doing so through her own practice as well as her commercial efforts. She welcomes inquiries from individuals and organizations whose work also seeks to connect art, culture and the public. alexisconvento.com Paired with Arts Organization Fellow: B3W Emily Berry.

Rachel Y. DeGuzman (Manager Fellow) is president & CEO of 21st Century Arts. She is founder/executive producer of Diversity in the Arts: and Entrepreneurship in the Arts: A Call to Action symposiums; the Beyond Diversity to Equity in the Arts conversations, 2015 A Street Light Festival and a founding member of the ROC Douglass Consortium, which presented the 199th celebration of Frederick Douglass's birth. She received Geva Theatre Center's 2016 Essie Calhoun Diversity in the Arts Award. DeGuzman is a board member of the Women's Council. She is the founder, producer and host of a weekly radio show, Up Close and Cultural. Past positions include director of advancement/external relations at Rochester City Ballet, marketing/publicity manager of Nazareth College Arts Center and director of development at Garth Fagan Dance. 21stcenturyarts.net Paired with Arts Organization Fellow: Kyoung's Pacific Beat.

Bryan E. Glover (Manager Fellow) is an award-winning arts producer, filmmaker, writer and professional coach. As an arts producer, he is particularly focused on showcasing alternative, contemporary voices. He is a co-founder of Harlem9, producers of the Obie award winning "48Hours in...Harlem," the highly anticipated annual showcase featuring emerging and established Black theater artists in New York City. Bryan has supported the arts and emerging artists for over 25 years, having worked with musicians, choreographers, performance artists, and playwrights in a variety of contexts and cities. He has also worked for over two decades in the social service sector in a variety of capacities and professional environments both in private and non-profit organizations. He is committed to using his skills to enhance and promote the careers of artists, and lending his prior management experience to strengthening arts organizations. He is especially interested in enhancing and promoting the voices of LGBT artists of color, having served as a founding board member of Freedom TRain Productions, the groundbreaking Black LGBT theater company based in Brooklyn, NY from 2006 - 2011. He has also served on the board and executive committees of several community based organizations over the years, supporting a variety of social justice and organizing efforts. Bryan also runs practice as a certified professional leadership and life coach, supporting people in adopting a leadership stance in their life, and manifesting their vision. bryaneglover.com Paired with Artist Fellow: Goussy Célestin.

Ayanna Lane (Manager Fellow), who goes by her given name, Aya, is a creator hailing from Atlanta, GA. As a queer woman of color from the South, her story is a unique one. A dancer, DJ, arts administrator and manager with the distinct ability to connect communities she believes in the power of the people. That belief is central to all that she does. From her dancing to her administrative work, she can find someone with whom to imagine, build and / or create together. Aya obtained her BA in International Trade & Marketing from The Fashion Institute of Technology. She worked as a blog writer for FIT, as well as several other blogs during college. It was here she learned how to share information in an captivating way and create an authentic and interesting social media presence. While in college, she also worked at the Laundromat Project (LP), where she discovered her passion for building opportunities and art projects that reflect, engage and are accessible to communities that have limited access to the arts sector of New York City. At the LP she supported solo artists and their projects by documenting, archiving and creating online content. Since beginning the Field Leadership Fund fellowship just months ago Aya has already assisted her FLF partner, Eric Lockley's short film, The Jump, into several nationally acclaimed film festivals, and co-produced an extremely successful screening raising money for the travel expenses. thebadblack.com Paired with Artist Fellow: Eric Lockley.

Eric Lockley (Artist Fellow) Eric Lockley is a Harlem-based actor, writer, filmmaker, public speaker and producer. A graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts Eric's acting work has placed him on both stage and screen. He's been featured in plays by Tarrell Alvin McCraney, Marcus Gardley and Idris Goodwin, and in film and TV featured on HBO, BET and MTV. His plays, Blacken the Bubble, an affirmative action comedy, and Without Trace, a sci-fi thriller, have been read and presented in NYC, DC and Chicago. Lockley also writes and performs solo work. Most notable are Asking For More, a high-energy comedy encouraging young people to practice healthy nutrition and fitness habits, and Last Laugh, a dark comedy about "performing blackness" based on experiences of Sammy Davis Jr. & Stepin Fetchit. As a founder of two theater companies, The Movement Theatre Company and the OBIE award-winning Harlem9, Lockley has created artistic opportunities and communities for a number of artists in NYC and beyond. His award-winning film, The Jump, about a young black boy's mercurial relationship with the water, recently screened at the Hollywood Black Film Fest and has already won accolades at festivals including Philly Blackstar Film Fest and Urbanworld. Eric is excited to take the film to schools and engage in anti-bullying and self-empowerment workshops with students. Stay connected and learn more: iamericlockley.com Paired with Manager Fellow: Aya Lane.

Sydnie L. Mosley (Artist Fellow) is an artist-activist and educator who produces experiential dance works with her all-women company SLMDances. Her evening length dances The Window Sex Project and BodyBusiness address sexual harassment in public spaces and the economics of NYC dance, respectively. In February 2017, Sydnie was recognized by NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio and First Lady Chirlane McCray for using her talents in dance to fuel social change. Other recognitions include: CUNY Dance Initiative (AIR 2016-2017), Dancing While Black Artist Fellowship (2015-2016), and The Performance Project @ University Settlement (AIR 2015-2016), Create Change Fellowship with The Laundromat Project (2013), the Gibney Dance Institute for Community Action Training (2013), and the inaugural Barnard Center for Research on Women Alumnae Fellow (2011). She earned her MFA in Dance Choreography from the University of Iowa, and earned her BA in Dance and Africana Studies from Barnard College at Columbia University. She is an Adjunct Lecturer with the Barnard College Dance Department, and in 2012 designed the College's Dance in the City Pre-College Program which she continues to teach. An advocate for the field, Sydnie sits on the Advisory Committee to Dance/NYC. sydnielmosley.com Paired with Artist Manager Fellow: Azure D. Osborne-Lee

Azure D. Osborne-Lee (Manager Fellow) is a theatre maker and arts administrator from South of the Mason-Dixon Line. Azure currently serves as Grants Administrator for International Trans Fund, which is housed at Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice. In the recent past, Azure has also worked for Brooklyn Arts Council, Cherry Lane Theatre, The Billie Holiday Theatre, and The Foundry Theatre in a variety of capacities. Azure is a Lambda Literary Fellow in Playwriting (2015 & 2016) as well as an alumnus of both Rising Circle Theater Collective's INKtank (2014) and EMERGENYC, the Hemispheric New York Emerging Performers Program (2014). Azure has held playwriting residences with Brooklyn Community Pride Center (2015), New Shoes Theatre (2011), and Freedom TRain Productions (2010), and he was recently awarded the 2015 Mario Fratti-FrEd Newman Political Play Award for his first full-length play, "Mirrors." On May 12th, Azure's full-length play "Crooked Parts" will be presented at Cherry Lane Theatre as part of the Downtown Urban Arts Festival. Keep up with Azure at azureosbornelee.com. Paired with Artist Fellow: Sydnie L. Mosley

Kyoung H. Park (Arts Organization Fellow) was born in Santiago, Chile and is the first Korean playwright from Latin America to be produced and published in the United States. He is author of Sex and Hunger, disOriented, Walkabout Yeolha, Tala, Pillowtalk and many short plays including Mina, which is published in Seven Contemporary Plays from the Korean Diaspora in the Americas by Duke University Press. For over a decade, Kyoung has worked internationally in Brazil, Chile, England, India, and South Korea in search of contemporary theatrical models that integrate his passion for peace studies and playwriting. Kyoung writes and directs his own work as Artistic Director of Kyoung's Pacific Beat, a peacemaking theater company. Kyoung is currently an Artist-in-Residence at the Baryshnikov Arts Center and LaGuardia Performing Arts College and is a proud member of the Ma-Yi Theater Writer's Lab and Soho Theatre's Writer's Hub (London). Kyoung is recipient of an Edward Albee Playwriting Fellowship, Theater of the Oppressed International Exchange Fellowship (Rio de Janeiro), Target Margin Theater's Institute for Collaborative Theater-Making fellowship, Creative Mellon Fellowship at the University of Washington, grants from the Arvon Foundation (London), Foundation for Contemporary Arts EmergenCy Grant, GK Foundation (Seoul), and was named a 2010 UNESCO-Aschberg Laureate (Paris). Kyoung received his BFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU, MA in Peace and Global Governance from Kyung Hee University, and MFA in Playwriting from Columbia University, where he was a Dean's Fellow. He lives in Brooklyn with his husband, Daniel Lim, and continues his self-education in Buddhism, following his refuge vows with His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India. kyoungspacificbeat.org Paired with Manager Fellow: Rachel DeGuzman.

Kendra Ross (Arts Organization Fellow) is a proud Detroit native working as a dancer, teaching artist, choreographer, arts administrator and community organizer in her current home, Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. As a dancer in New York City, Kendra has worked with Urban Bush Women, Andrea E. Woods/ Souloworks, Vissi Dance Theater, Monstah Black, MBDance, Moving Spirits Dance Company and Oyu Oro. In 2013 she also danced in a European tour with DJ Kid Koala in Vinyl Vaudville 2.0. Kendra is currently a company member of Ase Dance Theater Collective. Kendra's choreographic work has been presented at the Detroit Performing Arts High School, Joffrey Summer Intensive, Halftime Performances at Florida A&M University, the off Broadway show 7 Sins, and Museu de Arte in Salvador, Brazil. Her community work began as a member of Urban Bush Women's B.O.L.D Network co-teaching dance workshops and co-facilitating community engagement workshops. Along with sharing her art world-wide, Kendra serves as the Founder and Director of STooPS, an outdoors-based community building event that uses art as a catalyst to strengthen ties between different entities in Bed-Stuy. Additionally, Kendra currently serves as the Director of Programs and Administration at Cumbé: Center for African and Diaspora Dance. Cumbé, located in the heart of Brooklyn, is dedicated to being a home for the exploration, celebration and study of the dance and music of Africa and the African Diaspora in the Americas and the Caribbean through classes and cultural events. cumbedance.com Paired with Manager Fellow: Jehan Young.

Jehan O. Young (Manager Fellow) A classically-trained actor, occasional dancer and emerging arts manager, Jehan O. Young currently serves as a company member and corps coordinator for Kotchegna Dance Company, a West African Dance Company specializing in the dance and drum traditions of the Ivory Coast. Recent producing credits include "Kekene 2015," Kotchegna's flagship event, an annual dance celebration comprising a full weekend of community workshops and presentations culminating in "Kekene IX: Le Chasseur" at the Ailey Citigroup Theater. She also had the privilege of associate producing Kotchegna's dance-drama "Felani" at 92nd Street Y. As a fellow with the Field Leadership Fund, Jehan is presently paired with Cumbe Center for African and Diaspora Dance. She is excited to be spending her fellowship year assisting Cumbe in developing their Outside Engagement program which aims to broaden their audience by dispatching Cumbe's well-vetted roster of Master Artists to any and all communities without regard to color, class, age or other divisive constructs. Through their work together, Jehan hopes to explore and hone Cumbe's capacity to further their mission of transmitting the performance traditions of the African Diaspora to contemporary generations that will help facilitate and ensure an enduring legacy whose influence and importance will be acknowledged through the continued practice of and exposure to the vitality of these cultural traditions. So far, Jehan has learned that copies don't print themselves, it takes more than a wish to send an email and people may often require a set time and date if they are being requested to assemble for any given reason. Sometimes, however, miracles remain mercifully possible and that makes her endlessly grateful. Paired with Arts Organization Fellow: Kendra Ross / Cumbé Dance Center.

National Black Theatre (NBT), founded by visionary Dr. Barbara Ann Teer in 1968, is a nationally recognized cultural and educational institution. Dr. Teer pioneered "the healing art of black theatre as an instrument for wholeness in urban communities where entrepreneurial artists of African descent live and work." In 1983, Dr. Teer expanded the vision of NBT by purchasing a 64,000-square-foot building on 125th Street and Fifth Avenue (renamed "National Black Theatre Way" by local law in 1994). This was the first revenue-generating Black arts complex in the country, an innovative arrangement through which for-profit businesses who shared NBT's spiritual and aesthetic values rented retail space to subsidize the arts. Out of her vision, NBT houses the largest collection of Nigerian new sacred art in the Western hemisphere and is considered the authentic representation of a model whose time has come. NBT is partially supported by grants from the City Council of New York, City of New York Department of Cultural Affairs, Ford Foundation, The Andrew Mellon Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts and private donations. nationalblacktheatre.org

The Field, founded by artists for artists in 1986, is committed to empowering artists and cultural workers of all identities to achieve their visions. We provide strategic services to thousands of performing and media artists and companies in New York City and beyond. We foster creative exploration, steward innovative management strategies, and are delighted to help artists reach their fullest potential. Freedom of expression and the rights of all peoples will be honored and respected via our programs, services, staffing and policies. thefield.org

Field Leadership Fund is generously supported by lead funding from The Scherman Foundation's Katharine S. and Axel G. Rosin Fund. Additional support is provided by American Express, The Coach Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts and The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Field Leadership Fud is also made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. thefield.org/content/field-leadership-fund