2017
PERFORMERS

LESLIE SALMON JONES

With over 20 years of experience, Leslie Salmon Jones continues to pursue an active interdisciplinary career in health, fitness and dance in Boston and New York City.

A Toronto native, Leslie received her B.A. in Dance and Health Studies at the State University of New York, and her Fitness Instructors Certification at New York University. She was a scholarship recipient at the esteemed Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre in New York City as well as the London Contemporary Dance School. As a professional dancer, Leslie worked with known greats such as Judith Jameson, Bill T. Jones and Wynton Marsalis. She is a certified wellness coach, through the Wellcoaches Corporation.

Leslie has been practicing and teaching yoga since 1991 and is the founder of Afro Flow Yoga which infuses electrifying dance movements of the African Diaspora flowing with a meditative yoga sequence of gentle yet powerful stretches. Deeply connect with the soulful rhythmic drums, energize your chakras, gain strength and flexibility and rejoice in the bliss of feeling renewed, grounded and peaceful! Afro Flow Yoga weekly classes, monthly workshops, retreats and teacher trainings are currently offered in Boston and New York.

ROGER BONAIR-AGARD

Roger Bonair-Agard is author of tarnish & masquerade, (Cypher Books, 2006), GULLY (Cypher Books, 2010), Bury My Clothes (Haymarket Books, 2013), which was long listed for the National Book Award, and Where Brooklyn At?! (Willow Books/Aquarius Press, 2016).

Among the places his poetry and prose have been published are Rattapallax, Louisville University Review, Seneca Review, Union Station Magazine, Harvard Review Online, Gulf Coast, Academy of American Poets – Poem a Day, Drunken Boat, Poetry Magazine Online,Callaloo,Apex Magazine,Crab Orchard Review, Pluck! – Journal of Affrilachian Literature and the anthologies Circe’s Lament: Anthology of Wild Women Poetry, The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop, The Bowling Was Superfine: West Indian Writing and West Indian Cricket, So Much Things to Say: 100 poets from the first 10 years of Calabash Literary Festival, and Cave Canem.

Roger is Writer-in-Residence at Brooklyn’s National Sawdust, co-founder of NYC’s LouderARTS Project, and frontman for the band Miyamoto is Black Enough. Founding member of NYC’s Vision Into Art, and creator and facilitator of The Baldwin Protocols: Reading Series, he is Program Director with Free Write Arts & Literacy at Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center. 

NAILAH RANDALL-BELLINGER

Nailah Randall-Bellinger is a dance educator and scholar. For over 35 years, She has taught modern and contemporary classes throughout the United States at conventions and universities, including, Cal State Northridge, UCLA, and Goddard College in Vermont. She has performed and lectured in Brazil, Ghana, Haiti, The Czech Republic and Senegal. For over 15 years she was an assistant professor of dance at Dean College in Franklin MA, and the Gold’s School in Brockton MA. In 2012 and 2013 she served as artist-in-residence at SUNY Buffalo and Salve University in Rhode Island where she choreographed original works for their dance companies.

As a performer she has worked with film director and poet S. Pearl, and performed as a member of Karen McDonald’s New Age Dance Workshop and Jamie Nichols Fast Feet, Inc. both based in Los Angeles. In 1998 Nailah presented her masterwork, Dancing Beloved, which was part of the Gendered Resistance conference, in Oxford, Ohio, at Miami University, where her 7-member ensemble retold Toni Morrison’s novel through movement. Nailah is also a contributing author to the affiliated book Gendered Resistance, published in 2013. She was also a member of The Skeleton Architecture: The future of our Worlds 2017 project, performed at the Institute of Contemporary Art. Currently, Nailah is the chair of the dance program at THE Cambridge School Of Weston. Through the Harvard Dance Center Nailah teaches ongoing open modern contemporary classes and body conditioning classes throughout the year.

Nailah continues to share her vision and hope for a more equitable world through her company, RootsUprising.  With Company members Kelsey Berry, Jeryl Pilapil Jenny Oliver- Alcide and Toni Singleton, Nailah continues an examination of  the Bodied-Text as a means of epistemology.  RootsUprising is proud to present their newest project, Woman’s Work.

WYOMA

Wyoma is a dance performance artist, a teacher and a holistic coach. Her creative canvas explores the human and divine forces of nature through African, Caribbean and Improvisational dance. Celebrating life through movement, music, and song, Wyoma created the groundbreaking African Healing Dance DVD. Wyoma has conducted workshops through the U.S., Europe and Africa and is a Life Coach, consultant and advisor. She offers African Healing Dance Trainings and is a member of Healthy Tomorrow to help abolish FGM. Wyoma has trained and collaborated with many inspiriting masters—including Katherine Dunham and Baba Olatunji. 

Wyoma’s performances are transformative!