Initiatives

Dominic Dupont

Community Liaison

Dominic J. Dupont is a Native New Yorker born and raised in the neighborhood of Flatbush, Brooklyn. At the young age of nineteen Dominic was arrested, charged and ultimately convicted of murder. He was subsequently sentenced to a prison term of 25 years to life. In prison Dominic Learned the value of good programming and saw the benefits others were reaping from it. With this understanding and a goal of changing his perception and behavior Dominic immersed himself in a myriad of programs that helped him embrace the values of leadership, mentorship, empathy, compassion, and integrity. During his incarceration Dominic has held the titles of director, coordinator, facilitator, educator, and mentor.

After serving 20 years, 7 months, and 18 days in the New York State Prison system, Dominic was granted an executive clemency in December 2017, by NYS Governor Andrew Cuomo based on Dominic’s leadership and positive impact with the prison system. Dominic was released on January 22, 2018, and immediately began implementing what he had learned during his incarceration to make himself an asset and resource to his community.

Since his release Dominic has shared his story, experiences, and analysis across multiple venues and to a variety of audiences, including Vice and HBO’s documentary titled “Raised in the System”. He continues to live the mantra, “A setback is a setup for a comeback,” and has continued to engage communities across the country to find ways to learn from his story.

In conjunction with his various accomplishments, Dominic also holds an Associates in Psychology from Ashworth College.

All inquiries can be sent to jassendupont@gmail.com

De-Andrea Blaylock-Johnson

LCSW and Sex Therapist, St. Louis, MO

De-Andrea Blaylock-Johnson is licensed in the state of Missouri as a Clinical Social Worker and has worked in the field of mental health since 2004. She is passionate about helping others achieve their goals and live as whole persons.

She is a graduate of both Saint Louis University and Washington University in St. Louis, and endeavors to positively impact all those with whom she interacts. As the owner of Sankofa Sex Therapy, LLC, she helps individuals and those in all types of relationships reach their goals.

She conducts workshops about sexuality and intimacy building and is an Executive Committee Member of the Women of Color Sexual Health Network.

Tamara Tunie

TAMARA TUNIE starred as "Marvelous" in the critically acclaimed Off-Broadway run of Tony nominated playwright Danai Gurira’s Familiar, at Playwrights Horizons.

Broadway credits include: Julius Caesar, Dreamgirls, Oh, Kay!, Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music.

Tamara also starred Off-Broadway in: The Library (Public Theater), Troilus and Cressida (Shakespeare in the Park), Sheba, Loose Knit. . Regional: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Les Liaisons Dangereuse, Tartuffe, Antony and Cleopatra, All's Well That Ends Well. Film: Flight, Snake Eyes, The Devil’s Advocate, Wall Street and Caveman’s Valentine (Independent Spirit Award).

Television: Dr. Melinda Warner on “Law & Order: SVU,” Jessica Griffin on “As the World Turns,” “The Red Road” (opp. Jason Mamoa), “Elementary,” “Billions,” “24,” “Alpha House,” “The Good Wife,” “Sex and the City.”

An accomplished singer, Ms Tunie is a regular headliner in New York City’s cabaret venues .Tamara is also a successful Broadway producer, whose credits include: Spring Awakening (Tony Award), Radio Gold (Tony nom.), and Magic/Bird.

Tate Donovan

Broadway: 'Good People' (MTC), 'Amy's View' (Barrymore) 'Picnic' (Roundabout) Off Broadway: Kenneth Lonergan's 'Medieval Play' (Signature) and 'Lobby Hero' (Playwrights Horizons), 'American Plan' (MTC). Also appeared in productions at the Wiliamstown Theatre Festival, Long Wharf, Mark Taper, and The Geffen.

Tate has appeared in over 40 films, including MANCHESTER BY THE SEA, ARGO (SAG award), ELVIS AND NIXON, GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK, MEMPHIS BELLE, LOVE POTION #9, CLEAN AND SOBER, and the title voice in Disney’s HERCULES.

TV credits include Man in the High Castle, Masters of Sex, 24, Damages, The OC and Friends amongst others. Directing credits include Madam Secretary (CBS), Bloodline (Netflix), Damages (FX), Glee (Fox), Weeds (Showtime) and the ESPN 30 For 30 Documentary Short 'Arthur and Johnnie', for which he won an EMMY.

Zach Grenier

Selected credits: Broadway: 33 Variations, A Man For All Seasons; Off-Broadway: A Question of Mercy, The Fiery Furnace, and, at the Public Theatre, Stuff Happens, Woyzeck, Talk Radio. Regional: the title roles in Uncle Vanya and Tartuffe at Yale Repertory, the latter also at Princeton’s McCarter Theatre, and Yvan in Art in Chicago. Films include Tommy Boy, Twister, Ride With The Devil, Fight Club and Zodiac. On television, series regular on C16:FBI and Touching Evil; featured on Deadwood, 24, and The Good Wife.

Samira Wiley

SAMIRA WILEY is best known for her SAG Award winning performance as inmate Poussey Washington on “Orange is the New Black.” She most recently starred in the Off Broadway play Daphne’s Dive, directed by Thomas Kail (Hamilton). Wiley’s current projects include roles in Hulu’s original drama series “The Handmaid’s Tale”, FX show “You’re the Worst” and independent feature 37.

Her past film projects include Nerve, Rob The Mob, Being Flynn and The Sitter. Television appearances include “The Catch”, “Law and Order: SVU”, “Person of Interest” and a recurring role on “Unforgettable.”

Wiley is a graduate of The Julliard School.

Reynaldo Piniella

Reynaldo Piniella was previously seen in Terminus (NYTW Next Door), Venus, The Death of the Last Black Man...(Signature Theatre Company), The Skin Of Our Teeth (Theatre For A New Audience), Romeo & Juliet (Actors Theatre of Louisville, Shakespeare Festival St. Louis), The Tempest, The Three Musketeers (Classical Theatre of Harlem), and Honky (Urban Stages).

TV credits include "Sneaky Pete", "Louie", "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart", "Law & Order: SVU", "NYC 22", "The Carrie Diaries" and "Flesh & Bone". Film credits include "Madeline's Madeline", "Broken City", "One Percent More Humid" and "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close". He will next be seen in the McCarter Theatre Center production of "A Christmas Carol."

Obi Abili

Obi Abili was recently seen in a recurring role on the third season of the Showtime Series Billions and will soon be in the upcoming film Faraway Eyes. He recently finished starring in the Irish Rep’s production of The Emperor Jones and just had a lead role in the new Sky comedy miniseries Delicious with Dawn French, which premiered on New Years’ Day overseas.

He just starred opposite Juliette Binoche in Ivo van Hove’s production of Antigone at BAM. He also has a major supporting role in the upcoming feature London Fields opposite Amber Heard, Billy Bob Thornton and Theo James, which just premiered at Toronto. He had a leading role in the feature Tula: The Revolt opposite Danny Glover and was also seen opposite Colin Firth and Cameron Diaz in Gambit. He was a regular on the UK minis The Take with Tom Hardy, Injustice with James Purefoy, Moses Jones with Eamonn Walker and The Nativity with Tatiana Maslany.

He has guest starred on the Cinemax series Strike Back and BBC’s Foyle’s War. Screen International named him a “Star of Tomorrow” in 2010 and IndieWire called him “an actor to watch."

Nilaja Sun

Nilaja Sun is an actor, playwright and teaching artist. She recently performed an extended run of a critically acclaimed solo piece Pike St. that was commissioned and produced by Epic Theatre Ensemble and performed at the Abrons Arts Center. This year, a tour of the show started at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in D.C., and has continued to theaters in Minneapolis; Edinburgh, Scotland and Melbourne, Australia.

Nilaja’s Obie award winning solo piece "No Child…", was directed by Hal Brooks and commissioned and produced by Epic Theatre Ensemble. For her creation and performance of "No Child..." and its subsequent national tour, Nilaja garnered 21 awards including: an Obie Award, a Lucille Lortel Award, two Outer Critics Circle Awards including the John Gassner Playwriting Award for Outstanding New American Play, a Theatre World Award, the Helen Hayes Award, two NAACP Theatre Awards, and was awarded the soloNOVA Award for Artist of the Year by terraNOVA Collective. For “Pike St.”, Nilaja was recently awarded the Edinbugh Award and Ivey Award.

TV/FILM: Madam Secretary, The Good Wife, BrainDead, 30 Rock, Law & Order: SVU, Unforgettable, Louie, The International, and Rubicon.

A native of the Lower East Side, she is a Princess Grace Award recipient, and has worked proudly as a teaching artist in New York City for more than 15 years.

Marjolaine Goldsmith

Credits Include

Compromise

Afterwords

Henry IV

Kathryn Erbe

Kathryn Erbe is best known for playing Detective Alexandra Eames in “Law & Order: Criminal Intent.” Erbe’s television credits include playing the infamous death row inmate Shirley Bellinger on the acclaimed HBO series “Oz.” She also appeared on NBC’s “Homicide: Life on the Street,” the miniseries “George Wallace,” Showtime’s original production of “Naked City: Justice with a Bullet,” NBC’s “Another World” and the television movie “Breathing Lessons.”

Erbe also gained notice in the 1999 box office hit “Stir of Echoes” opposite Kevin Bacon and “Dream with the Fishes” with David Arquette. Her additional film credits include “Entropy,” “Kiss of Death,” “D2: The Mighty Ducks,” “Rich in Love”, “What About Bob?”, and “Speaking of Sex” with Lara Flynn Boyle and Bill Murray. Before appearing in feature films, Erbe began her career on the stage.

She is a member of the Steppenwolf Theater Company and has starred in many of their productions, including Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire” as Stella, “Curse of the Starving Class” and “My Thing of Love.” She earned a Tony® Award nomination in 1991 for her portrayal of Mary in “Speed of Darkness.” Erbe is also an active member of the Atlantic Theatre Company.

Frankie Faison

Frankie Faison has been an actor of stage, screen, and television for over 40years. Film credits include: Coming To America, Do The Right Thing, White Chicks, Down To Earth, Thomas Crown Affair. Television credits include: The Wire, Banshee, Luke Cage, The Good Wife, Law and Order. Stage credits include: Fences, King Lear, Death of a Salesman, Macbeth, Two Trains Running.

He has also appeared in many commercials and music videos and his voice has been featured in many voiceovers and books on tape. He has had a wonderful career with work he always looks forward to sharing with a willing audience. He is thrilled to be doing this reading. A special thanks to his loving partner Samantha.

Eisa Davis

Eisa Davis is an award-winning performer, composer, and writer. Notable live performances include Kings (Drama League nomination), Julius Caesar (Shakespeare in the Park), Grace Notes by Carrie Mae Weems, Preludes, The Call, Luck of the Irish, Angela’s Mixtape, Passing Strange, and June and Jean in Concert by Adrienne Kennedy.

On television, Eisa has played recurring roles on Succession, The Looming Tower, Rise, House of Cards, Blindspot, The Wire, Hart of Dixie, and Smash. Her work as a writer includes seasons 1 and 2 of the Netflix series She’s Gotta Have It, Cirque du Soleil’s Crystal, and the plays Angela’s Mixtape, The History of Light, Ramp, Warriors Don’t Cry, Hip Hop Anansi, and Mushroom.

She is currently developing the music theatre works Flowers Are Sleeping and Devil In A Blue Dress. Her albums of original music are Something Else and Tinctures, selections from which she performs at venues throughout New York and the US. Fellowships and residencies at New Dramatists and Cave Canem have fueled her generative work.

Her awards include an Obie for Sustained Excellence in Performance, a Helen Merrill, and the Herb Alpert Award in Theatre. She was a Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Drama for her play Bulrusher.

David Patrick Kelly

David Patrick Kelly has an expansive body of work that includes iconic roles in Water Hill cult-classic The Warriors and the David Lynch series “Twin Peaks”, which was recently rebooted on Showtime.

Highlights of Kelly’s feature career which spans over 3 decades include: O.G. (opposite Jeffrey Wright, TriBeCa Film Festival Premiere), Spike Lee’s film Chi-Raq, opposite Samuel L. Jackson and Jennifer Hudson; John Wick; Flags of Our Fathers; Café Society; Malcolm X; Justice; In Too Deep; Last Man Standing; The Crow; Commando. On television, DP appeared in roles on “Succession,” “Feed the Beast,” “The Blacklist,” “Blue Bloods,” “Bored to Death,” “Gossip Girl,” “Law & Order: SVU,” “Louie,” “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” “Third Watch”.

A veteran of the stage, DP most recently starred Off-Broadway in Lear deBessonet’s Miss You Like Hell at The Public Theater. On Broadway, DP was last seen co-starring with Keira Knightley in Therese Raquin for the Roundabout Theater Company. His other Broadway credits include in Once (originated Off-Broadway), Festen, Uncle Vanya, Twelfth Night, The Government Inspector, The Suicide, Knockout, Working and the original company of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Off-Broadway credits includes Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ newest play Everybody at Signature Theater; When I Come to Die (Duke Theater), The Glorious Ones(Lincoln Center Theater), Ghosts (Classic Stage Company), Kit Marlowe (Public Theater) and many more.

Chris Noth

Theatre Credits: Broadway: That Championship Season Gore Vidal’s The Best Man (Theatre World Award). Off Broadway/regional: Faustus (Classic Stage Company) Farragut North(Atlantic Theatre); What Didn’t Happen (Playwright’s Horizons); Arms and the Man (Roundabout Theatre); American Buffalo (Berkshire Theatre Festival). TV: Manhunt: Unabomber(Netflix/Discovery), The Good Wife (Golden Globe nom.), Law and Order, Sex and the City (Golden Globe nom.), Gone. Film: Lovelace, Elsa & Fred, Sex and the City 1 & 2 and Mr. 3000, White Girls and Chronically Metropolitan.

Chris Myers

Selected Theater: Henry IV Parts 1 & 2 (Shakespeare Center of LA -- with Tom Hanks), Julius Caesar (The Public/Shakespeare in the Park), The Winter's Tale (The Public), An Octoroon (Soho Rep; Obie Award for Acting), Whorl Inside A Loop (Second Stage Theater), On The Grounds of Belonging (The Public), Little Children Dream of God (Roundabout Underground), War (Lincoln Center/LCT3), Brownsville Song (Lincoln Center/LCT3), Fences (McCarter/Long Wharf; Dir: - Phylica Rashad), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Shakespeare Theater DC). TV: "Sneaky Pete" (Amazon), "She's Gotta Have It" (Netflix - Dir: Spike Lee), "The Break with Michelle Wolf" (Netflix), "The Good Fight" (CBS), "The Breaks" (VH1) and upcoming "The Resident" (Fox). Chris has also written and produced two short films, "Post-Emma" and "The Interruption" along with a half hour comedy about gentrification called "GUAP."

Chinaza Uche

Chinaza Uche just closed "Sugar In Our Wounds" at Manhattan Theatre Club and appeared last season in the critically acclaimed "Sojourners/Her Portmanteau" at New York Theatre Workshop, a NYT Critics Pick. He has also performed in productions with Playwright’s Realm, Transport Group, La Mama, The National Black Theater and regionally at Seattle Rep and Everyman Theatre in Baltimore. He has also appeared on television in “Golden Boy” (CBS), “Deception” (NBC), and “Blue Bloods” (CBS), and in the films "Mother of George" (Sundance), Terry Richardson’s "Last Hours" (Cannes), and "Shookum Hills," and stars in the feature film "Nigerian Prince" which premiered this year at the Tribeca Film Festival and will be in theatres this Fall.

Chinasa Ogbuagu

New York: Nothing But the Truth (Lincoln Center); The Overwhelming (Roundabout Theater); A Family Of Perhaps Three (Target Margin); 365/365 (The Public); Talking To Terrorists (Impact Theater Festival); The Deepest Play Ever (NY Fringe). Regional: Ruined (OSF); The Seven (La Jolla Playhouse); Breath, Boom (Huntington Theatre); Venus (Olney Theater); The Story (ACTCo); Film/TV: Petunia; Nurse Jackie; Fringe; Law & Order; Law & Order:SVU; BFA Boston University.

Ato Blankson Wood

At the New York Shakespeare Festival, Ato has starred in Twelfth Night, As You Like It & The Total Bent (Drama League, Lucille Lortel nominations). Other stage credits include Hair (Broadway and West End), the Foundry Theater’s production of O. Earth, Iphigenia in Aulis at ‪Classic Stage Company and Lysistrata Jones off and on Broadway. Film/TV: Spike Lee’s Black Klansman, The Kindergarten Teacher opposite Maggie Gyllenhaal, Detroit, It’s Kind of a Funny Story, "The Marvelous Mrs Maisel" (Amazon) "She's Gotta Have It" (Netflix) and “The Good Fight” (CBS) He is a 2017 recipient of the Leonore Annenberg Fellowship, a member of The Actors Center and holds a B.F.A. from NYU & M.F.A. from The Yale School of Drama.

Adepero Oduye

Broadway: The Trip To Bountiful. Off-Broadway: Her Portmanteau (NYTW). Regional: Eclipsed (Yale Rep), The Bluest Eye (Hartford Stage). Film & TV: The Dinner, The Big Short, My Name Is David, 12 Years a Slave, Pariah, Steel Magnolias, "Law & Order," "Louie," "The Unusuals."