Join Racial Equity in Arts Leadership (REAL), The Curb Center for Art Enterprise and Public Policy, and Metro Arts as we explore the idea of "radical reflection." Panelists Emily Lordi, Eddie S Glaude Jr. and Robyn Henderson-Espinoza will guide us in thinking through the ways in which we can learn from our past, assess our present, and begin again to radically shift our policies, practices, and approaches to the arts and arts organizations toward racial equity and justice.

About our Panelists:

Dr. Emily Lordi is a professor of English at Vanderbilt University, a writer at large for T: The New York Times Style Magazine, and the author of three books: Black Resonance: Black Women Singers and African American Literature (2013), Donny Hathaway Live (2016), and The Meaning of Soul: Black Music and Resilience since the 1960s (2020).

Dr. Eddie S. Glaude Jr. is the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor and chair of the Department of African American Studies at Princeton University. He is the former president of the American Academy of Religion, the largest professional organization of scholars of religion in the world. Glaude is the author of several important books including Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul, which has been described as “one of the most imaginative, daring books of the twenty-first century.” His most recent book, Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own, was released on June 30, 2020. Imani Perry describes the book as “precisely the witness we need for our treacherous times. He is a columnist for Time Magazine and an MSNBC contributor on programs like Morning Joe, and Deadline Whitehouse with Nicolle Wallace. He also regularly appears on Meet the Press on Sundays.

He hails from Moss Point, Mississippi, a small town on the Gulf Coast, and is a graduate of Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia.

Dr. Robyn Henderson-Espinoza, PhD has been described in a myriad of ways: a scholar-activist, scholar-leader, thought-leader, teacher, public theologian, ethicist, poet of moral reason, and word artist. Among these ways of describing Dr. Robyn, they are also a visionary thinker who has spent two decades working in the hybrid space of church, academy, & movements seeking to not only disrupt but dismantle supremacy culture by focusing their PhD studies on new concepts of being & becoming, decolonizing knowledge production, & bridging with radical difference. They enflesh a deep hope of collaborating in these hybrid spaces where their work seeks to contribute to the ongoing work of collective liberation. Activist Theology as a disciplinary off-shoot of liberation theology & Movement idea has been incubating since 2008 with Dr. Robyn and further developed throughout their doctoral program and engagement with Movement leaders. Now, Activist Theology has the chance to emerge as a collaborative project. Dr. Robyn was named 1 of 10 Faith Leaders to watch by the Center for American Progress in 2018. As a scholar-activist, Dr. Robyn is committed to translating theory to action, so that our work in the hybrid spaces reflect the deep spiritual work of transforming self to transforming the world. Dr. Robyn writes & creates both academic & other valuable resources, including digital resources. Dr. Robyn is a non-binary Transqueer Latinx who calls Nashville, TN home.

Dr. Gillian Gualtieri is a postdoctoral scholar at the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy at Vanderbilt University. A sociologist (PhD UC Berkeley), Dr. Gualtieri studies the relationship between art, culture, inequality, and work.

About REAL (Racial Equity in Arts Leadership)

This fall Vanderbilt Curb Center for Art, Enterprise & Public Policy and Nashville Metro Arts re-launched REAL (Racial Equity in Arts Leadership), which is a learning cohort and research partnership. The REAL program is designed to drive racial equity in Nashville’s arts sector. REAL brings together arts administrators, executive leaders of cultural institutions, community-based arts organizations, and individual artists for regular seminars and organizational workshops that provide insight into how institutional practices such as hiring processes and arts programming choices can advance racial equity in our community. REAL participants meet regularly to address challenges they encounter as they work to build more equitable practices in their institutions.We engage with leaders within cultural arts nonprofits who are interested in exploring the role of race and class equity in Nashville’s arts ecosystem. REAL participants have the desire to have difficult but transformative conversations about race and class in our city and in our arts organizations. The goal is to continue to build a collective of peer leaders and influencers within organizations who are actively addressing the inequities of race and class in Nashville.