Guest Speakers
Marlon F. Hall is an artist and anthropologist whose work is rooted in social practice and grown from anthropological listening. Marlon integrates community engagement and storytelling as a process for cultivating healing in communities that have experienced political, cultural or systemic trauma. Through socially engaged art-installations, large-scale photography, ethnographic films shaped as visual poems and carefully designed salon dinners, his work focuses on revealing the resilient nature of the human spirit, using memory to inform imagination and helping communities reclaim their identity.
Marc Bamuthi Joseph is a spoken-word poet, dancer, playwright, and actor who frequently directs stand-alone hip-hop theater plays. He is a 2017 TED Global Fellow, an inaugural recipient of the Guggenheim Social Practice initiative, and an honoree of the United States Artists Rockefeller Fellowship. An internationally renowned cultural strategist, Mr. Joseph has lectured in 25 different countries and his TED talk “You Have The Rite” has been viewed more than five million times.
Sri Vamsi Matta, (Vamsi, he/him), is a Bangalore-based theatre actor, writer, and director. His practice is influenced by his Dalit identity, experience, and social location. The histories of his family and community inform the questions, topics, and mediums that Vamsi engages with through his work. His most recent traveling solo show performance, Come Eat With Me – an invitation to folks from all caste, faith, and race locations – has received a tremendous response in the national and regional media across India.