The Black Genius Foundation Announces New Brain Trust

The Black Genius Foundation (TBGF) - the organization which celebrates and invests in the intellectual and creative genius of Black artists, arts professionals, and arts organizations - today announces its new Black Genius Brain Trust. The Trust is a vibrant community of artists, choreographers, curators, directors, industry executives, journalists, musicians, and scholars who believe in the mission, vision, and work of The Black Genius Foundation.

A cross-section of the inaugural Black Genius Brain Trust members include Emmy-nominated Choreographers, Dancers and Producers Chloé and Maud Arnold, 2x Edison Award winning and five-time Grammy nominated Multi-instrumentalist and Composer Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, renowned Journalist, Scholar and Chair of NYU's Clive Davis Institute for Recorded Music Jason King, Grammy-nominated Vocalist and Co-Founder of Rainbow Blonde Records José James, Award-winning Director & Producer and Executive Producer at the Apollo Theater Kamilah Forbes, NAACP Image Award-winning directing duo Coodie & Chike, Award-winning Writer-Director and Producer Kiel Adrian Scott, 2013 MacArthur Fellow and 2016 Doris Duke Award-winning Choreographer & Artistic Director of A.I.M, Kyle Abraham, Award-winning Artist, Cultural Strategist & Vice President and Artistic Director of Social Impact at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Marc Bamuthi Joseph, National Black Theatre CEO Sade Lythcott and Curator, Choreographer and Director of Culture and Art at the Open Society Foundations Rashida Bumbray.

Members of the Black Genius Brain Trust are committed to ensuring that the intellectual and creative genius of Black artists, arts professionals and arts organizations is celebrated, amplified, and sustained.

"We are honored to welcome these exemplary visionaries, creators, and cultural torchbearers - who are reflective of genius in their own right - to The Black Genius Foundation family. Their commitment to pushing their crafts and fields forward is a deep source of inspiration and exactly what we need to realize our vision of transforming the conversation around genius by placing Black artists and the Black Creative Ecosystem at the center," says Simone Eccleston, The Black Genius Foundation Founder and Chief Genius Officer. "We look forward to partnering with them to build on the legacy of those who have come before us and to support our trailblazers, extraordinary peers, and future generations."

The Black Genius Foundation Brain Trust includes:

• Kyle Abraham, Choreographer & Artistic Director of A.I.M
• Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, Sonic architect, Multi-instrumentalist, and Composer
• Chloé and Maud Arnold, Choreographers, Tap dancers, Producers, and Founders of Chloe & Maud Productions
• Rashida Bumbray, Choreographer, Curator and Director of Culture and Art, Open Society Foundations
• Coodie & Chike, Directors, Documentary Filmmakers & Founders of Creative Control
• Kamilah Forbes, Director & Producer and Executive Producer, Apollo Theater
• Fredara Hadley, Ethnomusicologist and Professor
• José James, Vocalist & Co-Founder of Rainbow Blonde Records
• Jeriel Johnson, Musician & Senior Director, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging, Universal Music Group
• Kaisha Johnson, Founding Director, Women of Color in the Arts
• Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Artist, Cultural Strategist & Vice President and Artistic Director of Social Impact, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
• Jason King, Musician, Journalist, Scholar and Chair of NYU's Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music
• Sade Lythcott, CEO, National Black Theatre
• Jonathan McCrory, Executive Artistic Director, National Black Theatre
• Stephanie McKee-Anderson, Artist, Organizer, Cultural Strategist and Executive Artistic Director, Junebug Productions Inc
• Akisa Omulepu, Documentarian, Director and Producer
• Andre Perry, Writer & Director of Arts, Engagement, and Inclusion at the University of Iowa
• Omari Rush, Executive Director, Culture Source
• Kiel Adrian Scott, Writer-Director and Producer

Starting this winter, members of the Brain Trust will serve as advisors and ambassadors and contribute to key programmatic initiatives. These include The Black Genius Prize, an award that honors and invests in artistic excellence and achievement in the arts, Strokes of Genius, a funding program designed to support the development of creative projects by Black artists, curators, scholars and journalists, and Future Genius, a mentorship and professional development program.

"Black Genius is the soul of this country. It has shaped culture and our understanding of the world around us," says Sade Lythcott, CEO of the National Black Theatre. "The Black Genius Foundation in its focused dedication to the recognition and cultivation of Black ingenuity is the aggregate of our ancestors' wildest dreams and the Afro future yet to come. I could not be more excited to be a part of the Black Genius Brain Trust."

Members of the Brain Trust will bring greater awareness and visibility to The Black Genius Foundation and the Black Creative Ecosystem.

"Black Genius, its innovation and imagination, is foundational to our society and the world in which we live. Being a part of the Black Genius Brain Trust, which endeavors to hold Black Genius on high and see it for what it is, fills me with purpose, gratitude and pride. Its work is vital and necessary," says Kiel Adrian Scott, Writer-Director & Producer.

"I am thrilled to be a part of the Black Genius Brain Trust. The Black Genius Foundation is a visionary initiative and the national mobilization around our culture needed to propel us into the 21st century," says Kamilah Forbes, Director & Producer and Executive Producer, Apollo Theater.

To learn more about The Black Genius Brain Trust, visit https://www.theblackgeniusfoundation.org/black-genius-brain-trust

To find out more about The Black Genius Foundation, please visit https://www.theblackgeniusfoundation.org/