For Alexandra Joye Warren, starting her own dance company was not so much an act of entrepreneurship as it was a calling. It just took her some time to listen to it.

Warren was in her senior year, completing a BA degree in Drama with a concentration in Dance/Pre-Medicine from Spelman College, when she first heard that calling. She had begun looking for medical schools and planned to pursue a career in dance science, physical therapy, or even orthopaedic surgery when she realized that wasn’t the path for her:

“It dawned on me — I was not pursuing dance because I was a little bit afraid. Dance is such an uncertain field. But I realized that as much I was interested in science and medicine, that interest was rooted in the desire to be secure. Security is not a bad thing, but it’s not enough. At the end of the day, I’m an artist no matter how risky that can be. So I shifted my search for med schools to MFA programs.”  (more…)

Grace Clark started out on a fairly standard path for an art student. Raised in western Minnesota, the daughter of a photography professor and an elementary school teacher, she attended an arts high school in Minneapolis and went on to get her BFA with an emphasis in photography at Minnesota State University-Moorhead where her father taught.

After that, you might say she went “off the beaten path”: 

“I lived for six months in a teardrop camper that I built, travelling around the country doing artist residencies and working as a pizza vendor at music festivals to support myself. I was taking photographs and making work, but mostly I was trying to find my place in the art world.” (more…)

An Evening with the Creative Class presents
The Resistance Project: Traveling While Black
Wednesday, March 24th, 2021
7-8:30pm EST

with featured guests:
Natacha Nikokeza, Germaul Barnes, and Jurne Smith
Music by Jonboyondabeat!  

Moderated by Duane Cyrus

This provocative installment of An Evening with the Creative Class will feature  a behind the scenes look into The Resistance Project as they engage in  

discussions about the trials and consequences of traveling while black. This  panel of artists, educators, and everyday people will share how their  

experiences, and those of our predecessors, has helped to shape our social  and cultural zeitgeist. The webinar will be via Zoom, and donations are accepted. 

Register Here : https://uncg.zoom.us/j/93721250503 

The Resistance Project highlights women artists, scholars, entrepreneurs, educators, and  activists from the African Diaspora through artwork, community engagement, performance, discussion, and networking

The School of Theatre is tapping into an essential, fast-growing, and fairly new medium to engage and increase audiences for the 2021 spring season of shows.  “Podcast & Crew” made its debut this semester, produced by Chris Forrer  (’22 MFA Directing) who is working as the School’s Marketing Director as part of his graduate assistantship.   (more…)

Seventeen students from the Voice Area competed in the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) Mid-Atlantic Region’s Conference and Student auditions, and ten of those students advanced to the national online screening round.  They will now compete with other talented student singers from the United States and Canada for a chance to perform in NATS National Student Auditions Semi-Final and Final Rounds.

Students began by performing in the North Carolina Chapter Auditions. Seventeen School of Music students entered and all seventeen advanced to the Mid-Atlantic Regionals. Entrants submitted a video of their performances for adjudication by a panel of  judges. Singers from each of the fourteen categories (plus the American Negro Spirituals Categories) advanced to the semifinal round where three singers from each category were selected to compete in the final round. The national semifinal and final rounds will be held July 7-10, 2021, in conjunction with the NATS Summer Workshop.

Founded in 1944, National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) is the largest professional association of teachers of singing in the world with more than 7,000 members in the United States, Canada, and more than thirty-five other countries. Whether working in independent studios, community schools, elementary and secondary schools, or higher education, NATS members represent the diversity of today’s music landscape, teaching in all vocal styles.

Pictured (L–R): Sofia Pandolfo (BM ’24), Bronwyn Weiker (BM ’24), Sophi Caplan (MM ’21), Audra Bowers (BM ’21), Michael Adams (BM ’24), Peyton Wheeler (BM ’23), Eleni Nichols (BM ’24), Maggie Ramirez (MM ’22), Fernando Meza (BM ’24)

Not Pictured: Claire Griffin (BM ’22)

Photo: Brad McMillan