Oriaku Njoku (she/they), is a first-generation, Black, Igbo, Nigerian-American, queer, fat, Southern femme, healing centered coach living and loving in Atlanta, Georgia. As a Co-Founder and Executive Director of Access Reproductive Care - Southeast, she works at the intersection of abortion access and reproductive justice. She and her team at ARC-Southeast supports Southerners in navigating pathways to accessing safe, affordable, and compassionate abortion care through funding, logistics, and advocacy. Oriaku is deeply committed to finding joy and pleasure in everything she does and believes radical love is a core value that can be embodied and operationalized in movement spaces. She truly believes that we can and will create a cultural shift around how we address abortion in the South and invites you to join her in making reproductive justice a reality.
Read moreRenee Bracey Sherman →
Renee Bracey Sherman is a reproductive justice activist, abortion storyteller, and writer. She is the founder and executive director of We Testify, an organization dedicated to the leadership and representation of people who have abortions and share their stories at the intersection of race, class, and gender identity. She is also an executive producer of Ours to Tell, an award-winning documentary elevating the voices of people who’ve had abortions, and the co-author of the forthcoming book COUNTERING ABORTIONSPLAINING from Amistad/Harper Collins.
Read moreJasmine Burnett →
Jasmine Burnett is a reproductive justice activist, business owner, trainer with the Rockwood Leadership Institute, and a writer. She is the principal and founder of Blkfeminst Advisors LLC, a training, coaching, and peacemaking practice, working with individuals and organizations to support criminalized issues, people, and communities. Her most recent publications are in two anthologies, The Echoing Ida Collection and Sweeter Voices Still: An LGBTQ Anthology From Middle America. She is also the lead writer for the new Rockwood curriculum, and participant guide called The HeART of Black Leadership, which was successfully piloted last year.
Read moreMaya Carter
Maya is an interdisciplinary performer, teaching artist, and theater-maker based out of Brooklyn NY. As an artist educator, Maya seeks to dismantle oppressive power structures + amplify the voices of marginalized communities by decolonizing access to artistic practice. They also facilitate the development of new contemporary plays and ensemble-devised work in various capacities, including: Direction, Dramaturgy, Movement Direction/Choreography, Script Consultation/Editing, Deviser/Writer. Pre-Quarantine projects include: The Gap by Makaela Shealy, and Stumpwater with Sacred Circle Theater. Currently, Maya is cultivating ease + softness; while assisting the Revolution in the ways that they can.
Natalie Djondo →
Natalie Djondo (Zee) is a Virginia born actress happy to support reproductive health in partnership with Elevate Theatre Co. and ARC-Southeast! Nat initially worked with playwright ChelseaDee on her play Sheela and the Amazons with New Victory Theater Labworks last fall. Since then, she's performed with River's Edge Theatre Co. ( Silent Sky at Hudson River Museum) and performed various new plays with MFA Columbia University directors and playwrights (Sex Work, Pink: A Radio Play, Happy Birthday to Me and Horror Play). Natalie is a graduate of the 2-Year Professional Conservatory at the Stella Adler Studio and now based in New York City!
www.nataliedjondo.com
@natalie.djondo
Read moreLinda Kuriloff →
Linda is an actor turned creator, Career Coach, and Assistant Director at a Senior Center. After work, she writes, performs, and produces to express her creativity. She is currently producing interview shows, “Shift Happens” with Geoffrey Owens as host on IGTV and “Shift Happens OVERTIME” on Youtube. In November, she’ll release her book, “Rethink and Grow Fans: Go From Yearning to Earning as a 24-Hour Actor” on Amazon. Follow @Lindakuriloff on Instagram to see what she’s up to next! Her solo show, Linda Means to Wait, is also available on Amazon.
Read moreAlverneq Lindsay
Alverneq Rene Lindsay is a Brooklyn native and graduate of Atlantic Theater Company’s Acting Conservatory. She is overjoyed to be working with Elevate Theatre Company and ChelseaDee. As a performer, writer, and arts administrator, she is interested in exploring how audiences relate to the moral complexity of the anti-hero. As an arts advocate, she believes artists have the ability to generate empathy plus joy and hopes to help increase arts access through her administrative work. She is grateful to her friends and family for their love and support.
Read moreChelseaDee →
Playwright / Co-director
ChelseaDee is a multi-hyphenate, interdisciplinary creator and arts educator. Specializing in theater-making, she also performs, teaches, curates, facilitates, develops curriculum, directs, and produces arts events. Her focus is creating new works of theater that highlight history and challenge dominant narratives. She has written, performed, and produced her own work such as her new solo show, The Guide to Getting What’s Yours. She is also a teaching artist who has facilitated workshops with the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the New York City Department of Correction, and the New Victory Theater.
Read moreChristina D. Eskridge
MPH (She/Her)
Christina is the Founder and Executive Director of Elevate Theatre Company LLC. She is a performing artist, teaching artist, director, playwright and public health professional, holding a Master’s Degree in Public Health from UC Berkeley. For the past decade, Christina has worked to fuse her two passions of health and theater through performance, her teaching artistry, and her extensive work in health care at Kaiser Permanente. Christina is also on the Board of Directors for the National Organization for Arts in Health (NOAH). From performances specifically for children with autism, to facilitating workshops using drama-based techniques in the corporate environment, Christina believes live theater is a healing tool, ripe with opportunity. This belief drove her to establish Elevate in 2020, during the historic COVID-19 pandemic, producing live, virtual theater about important health issues, for audiences across the country.
Read moreAlberto Denis
(BA in Theater/Dance, Rhode Island College, summa cum laude)
Stage Manager
A company member of Third Rail Projects since 2011, Mr. Denis has been an original collaborating cast member in several of the company’s preeminent works including their Bessie’s Awards winning “Then She Fell”. Most recently he completed a 37 sold out run of “Confection” commissioned by the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC in 2019. Throughout this time he has also supported his burgeoning career as international male burlesque sensation GoGo Gadget, with featured performances at almost 7 years of the New York Boylesk Festivals, featured in the 2012, 2013 & 2016 London Burlesque Festivals, performances in Boston, New York City, Denver, Toronto, Paris, Stockholm and Vienna. Mr. Denis is a hyphenate and has served as Technical Director, Stage Manager, Producer, Sound Engineer, Theater Electrician, and Guest Professor within the Dance and Theater sectors for the past 20 years.
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