Photos by Durell Godfrey Photos
Suggested Donation for the Public
$5 payable at the door (Cash only)
(NO RSVP necessary)
with a portion of the proceeds to benefit
Southampton African American Museum and The Church
Overflow Parking will be available from 12 PM - 4 PM
at St. Andrew’s Catholic Church located 122 Division Street
(Parking Lot entrance located on Union St. )
The 4th Annual Celebrating Creatives of Color returns and for the first time will be hosted at The Church. The event will showcase 28 creative artists and authors of color, from Sag Harbor and beyond, and provide an opportunity for artists and authors to display their work and interact with other art enthusiasts and collectors. All artwork and books will be for sale.
This year we are pleased to two special programs as part of the celebration!
1 PM: Sheri Pasquarella, The Church’s’ Executive Director, will be joined by Suzanne Randolph, Fine Art Advisor for a highlights tour of the show.
At 2 PM, there will be a reading by selected authors. Books will be available for purchase and able to be signed throughout the event.
This event provides an opportunity to support the Southampton African American Museum (SAAM) and The Church. Artists and Authors will donate 10% of their total sales to support these two important community organizations. For more information visit CCCSagHarbor.com.
ARTISTS & AUTHORS
Judy Henriques-Adams, Linda Anderson, Sharon Brown Van Liempt, Akili Buchanan, Michael Butler, Jeremy Dennis, Harold Dow, Katherine Drucker, Beverly Granger, Brenda Greene, Noel Hankin, Sonny Hostin, Jennifer Ivey, Rod Ivey, Michael Jelks, Saleem Abdal-Khaaliq, Barry Mason, Paula Nailor, John Pinderhughes, Victoria Pinderhughes, Shawn Rhea, Olney Marie Ryland, Kamoy Smallings, Ernani Silva, Joan Wallace Benjamin, and Darlene Williams
Dr. Linda Anderson
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Dr. Linda Anderson, a long-time resident of Ninevah, is a psychologist in private practice, CUNY professor, consultant to the Dalton School and author. Currently, Drs. Linda Anderson, Sonia Banks and Michele Owens, co-authors of Silent Agreements: How to Free Your Relationships of Unspoken Expectations, support individuals, teams, and organizations to unpack the unspoken silent agreements in the workplace and specialize in addressing communication challenges that impact inclusion, equity and belonging as well .as work life balance, and leadership development. They can be reached at 858-848-7830; -or https://www.facebook.com/SilentAgreementBook/
Joan Wallace-Benjamin
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Joan Wallace-Benjamin, PhD, has enjoyed a thirty-seven-year career as a senior executive, with twenty-seven of them as a CEO in the nonprofit human services sector. With sojourns in state government and executive search, Joan’s varied experiences and perspectives have guided and informed her leadership. She has been recognized as an exceptional leader, speaker, organizational consultant, and executive coach.
Akili Buchanan
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Akili Buchanan is an Emmy award-winning documentary filmmaker, journalist, lecturer, news commentator and educator with over 20 years’ experience in the world of media and telecommunications. He is currently Executive Director of HuemanWorks LLC. Buchanan describes his artwork as “political art” or “Liberation art.”
“I consider myself a “Liberation Artist”. My works are decidedly political in their themes, reflections and commentaries on the burning issues of our time, both here and abroad. I have been an Activist and Advocate for Freedom, Justice, and Participatory Democracy for most of my life. My art is simply a manifestation of that lifelong commitment to social change.”
Michael Butler
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Michael Butler is a self-taught artist. His works are narrative in style, often depicting "imagined realities" of a historical nature. His medium of preference is acrylic on canvas for its ease of use and fast drying time.
Jeremy Dennis & Alumni Artists: Brianna Hernandez, Denise Silva-Dennis
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Ma’s House & BIPOC Art Studio Inc. is led by Indigenous artist Jeremy Dennis. The project began in June 2020 and serves as a communal art space based on the Shinnecock Indian Reservation in Southampton, New York. The family house, built in the 1960s, features a residency program for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), art studio, library, along with hosting an array of art and history-based programs for tribe members and the broader local community.
Katherine Brown Drucker
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Katherine Brown Drucker received a Bachelor of Fine Art Degree from Howard University, majoring in design under the famous watercolorist Lois M Jones and traveled abroad to the Middle East Technical University in Ankora, Turkey studying architecture and education. After graduation, she moved to NYC attending city college and completed a Masters in Early Childhood Education as well as a BAFTA Special Education Degree from College of New Rochelle and became an Elementary School Art Teacher and Phonics specialist. She remained active in the arts, mastering batik painting, writing children's books, drawing and entering numerous art shows in Westchester. Katherine received three awards and honorable mention for various pieces in different mediums including Collage, Watercolor, Printmaking, Etching and Metal work. Presently she’s a retired artist, spending her time in Bronxville and East Hampton as a proud Mother of three and Grandmother of three, with another on the way!
Harold Dow
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The Dow Twins’ Legacy: 50 Years of Disco Reflections tells the true story of the legendary Dow Twins, who dominated the world of Black disco and entertainment in New York City and beyond for an unprecedented fifty years.
Attractive, charismatic, and identical, The Dow Twins had a Midas touch when it came to business … and women. Starting their careers at a time when Black nightclubs were nearly invisible in Midtown Manhattan, The Dow Twins broke through this glass ceiling and changed the history of Disco. Dow’s memoir tells the remarkable story of the Twins’ humble beginnings hosting parties for their peers (black college students) to their years as managers and promoters at two of the hottest black nightclubs in New York City– Justine's and Leviticus, owned by the Black entrepreneurial group, The Best of Friends (TBOF).
After thirteen years as discotheque managers and promoters for TBOF (Justine’s and Leviticus lasted nearly a decade longer than Studio 54), The Dow Twins opened their own nightclub / restaurant, Manhattan Proper, which remained in business for 32 years! During these same years, they hosted countless “roving” pop-up parties all over Manhattan from the South Street Seaport to the Copacabana and from the Waldorf Astoria to Riverside Park—all locations rarely before accessible to Black revelers.
Incredibly innovative in their choice of venues, for 25 years The Dow Twins hosted one of the city's most iconic annual galas on the massive U.S.S. Intrepid aircraft carrier docked on the Hudson River, with an annual attendance of over 2,500 guests. The Dow Twins exclusive hand-picked guest list of thousands of upscale Black and Latino partygoers represented an intensely loyal following that remained with them for decades, attending their posh parties, their elite ski trips to resorts from Vail, Colorado to Nagano, Japan, and their vacation excursions from West Palm Beach to Acapulco.
One of the industry's best kept secrets, The Dow Twins provided a literal lifetime of enjoyment for untold numbers of devoted followers. The Dow Twins’ Legacy: 50 Years of Disco Reflections documents The Twins’ unprecedented half century of success in a fickle business where longevity is rarely achieved.
Beverly (Bebe) Granger
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Beverly (Bebe) Granger discovered her passion for working with clay at the Hinckley Pottery Studio in Washington D.C. in the late 1970’s. Over the years, she used her home studio as a retreat from the demands of professional life and child rearing, finding that centering the clay on the wheel made her feel emotionally centered. In recent years, she has renewed her commitment and devoted her energy to further exploring the world of clay. Her focus has been primarily wheel-thrown functional work but has recently ventured into the realm of hand-building. This has resulted in a broader body of work that includes more complex and intricate forms. Her goal is to create pots that are both functionally and esthetically pleasing.
Brenda Greene
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Brenda Greene was born in Brooklyn, NY and now live in Hyattsville, Maryland. I always liked to draw, and attended the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, where I majored in fashion Illustration. I have since raised a family, but have continued to practice my art.
I am a portrait and figure artist; I paint in oils and draw in charcoal. Although I would characterize myself as a self-taught painter, I have been able to study with some of the great contemporary painters such as Robert Liberace at the Art League and Richard Piloco at Chelsea Academy. For inspiration, I look to the 19th and early 20th century artists such as Zorn, Sargent and Sorolla. My work has been exhibited at various venues in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia.
Noel Hankin
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Noel Hankin is a founder of The Best of Friends, Inc. (TBOF), a pioneering business enterprise that promoted discotheques in New York City starting in 1971. He is the author of After Dark: Birth of the Disco Dance Party, that reveals how TBOF identified a social need in New York City in 1971 and ignited the most important social and cultural happening of the 1970s – the disco boom. Three of their clubs, Leviticus, Justine’s, and Bogard’s, were among the first black-owned clubs in midtown Manhattan.
Judith Henriques-Adams
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Judith Henriques-Adams was born in New York City.
Her undergraduate work was done at both Howard University School of Fine Arts in Washington DC, and at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. She received an additional graduate degree from the Bank Street School, Parsons School of Design in New York City and Truro College. Judith moved from New York City to Sag Harbor after spending twenty-six years as an art teacher in both the Netherlands and New Jersey teaching numerous disciplines to different grades while raising her son.
With time and space Henriques-Adams can now explore numerous different influences in her own paintings. Her work draws from her experience in teaching calligraphy, a love for the written word, and her interests in shape and graphic design. “My ideas almost always happen in twilight when I’m sleeping. It may be a certain design or shape – but then it has to resonate.” She also adheres to one of her teaching principles, namely perspective. “I need to put some distance between myself and my work, to turn away and then go back and look. I used to lug canvases around the house but now I can just take a picture on my phone and look at it at different times.”
Modernism is at the core of Henriques-Adams’ artistic sensibility, exemplified by the works of artists such as Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso. The boldly dissected the surfaces of their paintings into symbolic geometries, slicing and dicing human figures and landscapes alike. Henriques-Adams approaches her canvases with the practiced eye and the delicate touch of a gazelle. Her affection for pain creates a density or texture that evokes the feel of flesh intertwined with a geometry reminiscent of buildings and landscapes.
Sunny Hostin
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Sunny Hostin is a three-time Emmy Award-winning legal journalist, New York Times bestselling author, and co-host of The View. In May 2021, Hostin released her debut novel, "Summer on the Bluffs" (William Morrow), which skyrocketed to #11 on The New York Times Bestseller List, the first book in her "Summer" trilogy. In the fall of 2020, Hostin released her memoir, “I Am These Truths: A Memoir of Identity, Justice, and Living Between Worlds,” with HarperOne. Hostin has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes Woman, Essence, Newsweek, The New York Post, Latina, and Ebony. A sought-after public speaker, she has delivered a TEDxTalk called “A Possibility Model” and spoken at and moderated panels for the U.C. Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, Corporate Counsel Women of Color, and the National Bar Association, and served as a witness at the Federal Judiciary’s Congressional Hearing for the Public’s Right of Access to the Courts. Hostin lives with her husband and two children in New York.
Jennifer Ivey
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Jennifer Ivey was born in Brooklyn and raised in Hollis, Queens. Graduated from Pratt Institute majoring in painting and art education. Studied with colorist abstract painter William T Williams, Rudolf Baranik and May Stevens. Attended the New School and studied with Anthony Toney. NYC Board of Education art teacher and literacy coach. UFT Teacher Center consultant and Fordham University adjunct professor.vMember of the Long Island Black Artist Association and Weusi. Exhibited in individual and group shows and galleries, nationally and internationally. Married for 44 years to artist Rod Ivey. Royal and Sterling are their sons.
Artist Statement: “I often work from old black and white photographs. I am intrigued by the composition of posing figures and their facial expressions in photos. My work is on large canvas and cardboard, using, acrylic and collage mixed - mediums. My husband and I sometimes share our creativity by working on the same painting together. We have had several husband and wife art shows.”
Rod Ivey
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Rod Ivey, born in Harlem,1950 and raised in the Bronx, has lived in New York City all his life. While a toddler, his father Dwellie was his early artistic influence and studied oil painting at the Art Students League. Rod started using watercolor while at Howard University with Lois Mailou Jones as his professor and oils at the City College of New York under Charles Alston while attaining a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in 1975
In the 70s, while working as a display person for Macy's and graphic artist for IBM, he created Gateway Designs, which produced and distributed his greeting cards, and was featured in Black Enterprise Magazine. While a resident artist for the off-off Broadway theater companies of Rosetta LeNoire's Amas; Vy Higginsen's Reach Productions; the Frank Silvera Writers' Workshop; Vivian Robinson's AUDELCO; and as assistant publisher of Black Mask Magazine, he also developed
posters, graphic identity and logo designs for theater showcases before their Broadway debuts. These showcases included "It's So Nice to be Civilized," "Inacent Black" and "Mama, I Want To Sing"In 1980, he married visual artist Jennifer Ivey. Today, they exhibit together and as members of the Long Island Black Artists and the Weusi Artists Collective. They have two sons and currently reside in Hollis, Queens. 'I prefer working from photos with quick drying acrylics to create large canvas collages."
Michael Jelks
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Michael is a native New Yorker. His early influences into art came from his introduction to museums, galleries, a love of music, and civil rights. The influences in his art can be attributed to his current and past experiences throughout life. His current works are dominated by bright colors and expressive faces. He also tends to draw on his extensive travels around the world and different artists he met while living in Brazil.
Saleem Abdal-Khaaliq
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Saleem Abdal-Khaaliq is a long-time educator and comes to Sag Harbor via New York City by way of Massachusetts. A creative writer and poet; author of Mind Sand and is currently working on a new book. His work has appeared in Obsidian, River Crossings: Voices of the Diaspora. and he has read at Cornelia Street Café, X Gallery, Harlem Book Fair, and other venues.
Don Lemon
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Don Lemon is the host of The Don Lemon Show, streaming live daily on YouTube and everywhere podcasts are available. With three decades of award-winning journalism and storytelling behind him, Lemon has taken his signature style and outspoken truth-telling to a new platform, welcoming a variety of guests and newsmakers to his show, with topics spanning everything from social issues and race to pop culture and current events. His shows also often feature his personal take on the stories and topics that are shaping lives and conversations.
Lemon has spent his entire career as a journalist and is the former anchor of the long-running CNN primetime program, Don Lemon Tonight as well as CNN This Morning. He has won a variety of distinguished awards for his work which has spanned nearly three decades, including an Edward R. Murrow award, multiple Emmys and a Peabody award, among others. In addition to CNN, Lemon has served as an anchor and correspondent at the NBC and MSNBC television networks, as well as at local stations in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and St. Louis.
Lemon has covered countless global breaking news stories from the anchor desk, as well as on location, including the war in Ukraine (for which he received a Peabody award in 2022), the death of Osama Bin Laden, the inaugurations of the 44th and 45th Presidents of the United States, the school shootings in Uvalde, Texas and Newtown, Connecticut, and the deaths of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Freddie Gray, George Floyd and Tyre Nichols. He joined CNN as a correspondent in 2006.
Lemon has been honored with countless awards not only for his journalism, but also for the impact his work and influence have made on society. He was voted one of the 150 most influential African Americans by Ebony magazine in 2009. In 2014, The Advocate included him as one of the publication's 50 Most Influential LGBTQ People in Media. In December 2016, Lemon was honored with a Native Son Award, named after James Baldwin, recognizing and to “encourage the increased visibility and impact of black gay men in society.” In 2017, Out named him to its Power 50 list of the Most Influential LGBTQ People in the USA. And in June 2019, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in Greenwich Village, New York, Queerty named him one of the Pride 50 "trailblazing individuals who actively ensure society remains moving towards equality, acceptance and dignity for all queer people.”
Lemon is also a best-selling author. In 2011, he broke barriers by revealing that he was gay in his auto-biographical book Transparent. A decade later, in 2021, his book This is the Fire: What I Say to My Friends About Racism, debuted at number one on the New York Times bestseller list. It was inspired by what he saw, learned and felt about the murder of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer.
Lemon graduated from Brooklyn College with a BA in broadcast journalism. He lives in New York City with his husband and their three dogs.
Barry Mason
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Barry Mason – 30 plus years as a professional artist – Fine Artist Painter, Photographer, and Educator. Actively exhibiting throughout NY and beyond. Creating highly charged unique Lyrical Abstract Shaped Paintings is my primary focus.
Paula James Nailor
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Paula James Nailor is a Mixed media Artist and Jewelry Designer who specializes in custom jewelry. Each piece is unique and hand-crafted from sustainable precious and semi-precious metals and gemstones. Her work has been shown in art galleries, private shows and PaulaJamesNY.com.
John Pinderhughes
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John Pinderhughes is a self-taught photographer with a career of 50+ years in Commercial and Fine Arts Photography. He has photographed a Who’s Who roster of clients. His work is in the photography collections at MoMa, Detroit Institute of Arts, and Ringling Museum to name a few. Pinderhughes is a member of the Kamoinge Workshop. For the last 15 years he has concentrated on his personal artwork.
Victoria Pinderhughes
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Victoria Pinderhughes is owner/designer of Jewelz By Victoria, which creates one-of-a-kind hand-crafted jewelry that is wearable art. Each piece of jewelry is organically made with metals, beads, or polymer clay, and hand-crafted findings.
Paula Rainer
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Dr. Paula Rainer is a Licensed Professional Counselor in the State of Virginia, California and Georgia and a Licensed Mental Health Counselor in Florida. Dr. Rainer is in a private practice where she serves couples, individuals, families, and teenagers.
She recently published Keep it Moving: Meditations on Overcoming Obstacles and Living Your Best Life!
The objective of the book is for you to visualize your purpose, live a life of executed dreams, and keep moving to overcome obstacles. It was developed to free your mind and open yourself up to new possibilities. Walk through life mindful of valid frameworks that develop your purpose and soul. Positive energy, faith, balance, and peace represent your destined pathways. So, seek positive narratives and keep it moving. Dr. Rainer’s book is available in hardcover, soft cover, digital, and audio formats.
The mediations in this book include philosophy, wellness, and spirituality narratives. Use this book to walk in your truth and fulfill the instructions of your soul. The reflections are in chapters like the chapters of our life. Prepare to keep it moving towards healing, resilience, and executed goals. Visualize regained hope, accomplishment, and motivation to live your life as you know it should be.
Shawn Rhea
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Shawn Rhea is a Harlem-based, self-taught visual artist and writer. Her work has been included in Art Student League of New York exhibits (2022 & 2023); the MoCADA Museum's "M'Dear: the Black Maternal" exhibit (2023), Kota Alliance's "Celebration of Light" exhibit (2023/24) and the spring 2024 issue of Killens Review of Arts & Letters. Her original figurative work "A Prayer for Auntie," which captures a moment of connection and bonding between Black men, was selected for silent auction by the Whitney E. Houston Legacy Foundation in support of its 2023 fundraising event.
Shawn is a member of Obsidian Collective, a Black women writers and artists group supported through a 2023/24 Metropolitan Museum of Art fellowship to produce a thematic anthology of original writing and visual art using the museum's collection and library as departure points.
“My practice explores the complexities of human connection through the lens of ritual, legacy, culture, environment and existence. I am particularly interested in capturing the ways Black women employ corporal, metaphysical and divine powers and practices to counter intersectional oppression, and in how Black womanhood is portrayed, dissected, analyzed and mythologized in a digital age. I work primarily in soft pastels, acrylics, mixed media and digital collage, employing vivid colors to symbolize the complexity and fullness of life. I am influenced and inspired by the color play and physicality of the AfriCobra and '70s Psychedelic Art movements and Faith Ringgold's storytelling.”
Olney Marie Ryland
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I am Olney Marie Ryland, an artist with a profound connection to woodwork, inherited from my father and cultivated over a thirty-five-year journey. As a wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, my artistry is imbued with memories of familial love and the legacy of craftsmanship.
My artistic path began in childhood, surrounded by the sights and sounds of my father's workshop. It was there that I absorbed the intricacies of carpentry, a knowledge that lay dormant until I found solace in crafting dollhouses after his passing. These creations, born from his teachings, evolved into my signature "Urbane Façade collections," inspired by the urban landscape of Brooklyn, New York City, and the Bronx.
The vision for my brownstones and townhouses springs from the view outside my mother's nursing home window on South Oxford Street in Brooklyn, encapsulating the essence of urban architecture. Beyond brownstones, my passion extends to recreating historic buildings in Queens, the Bronx, and South Carolina, with a particular focus on preserving the legacy of Weeksville, a post-Civil War community built by Enslaved African Americans.
My involvement in the Addisleigh Park Civic Organization and the Greater Allen Cathedral Mass Choir reflects my commitment to community, fostering creativity and empowerment among those around me. Exhibitions at Colors in Black, JCAL, LeSpace Gallery, The African American Museum in Hempstead and the permanent installation at Weeksville serve as platforms to share my work, each piece a reflection of gratitude for the enduring legacy passed down by my father—a legacy that continues to evolve and inspire.
Ermani Silva
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Ermani Silva exhibited at the Parrish last summer. Silva’s distinctive style reflects his Brazilian cultural influence. His creations are an amalgam of dance, rhythm, music, and color, which reflects his rich mystical heritage and history. Silva has always worked with various mediums, creating new textural forms and compositions. By infusing collages, acrylics, oil, and organic elements, he brings a new dimension through multimedia.
Kamoy Smalling
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Kamoy Smalling is a self-taught artist who creates figurative and still-life pieces that explore the complexity of the human condition by unmasking the psychological terrain. A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Business School, Kamoy began her career as a financier and often uses avatars and dark humor as a way to examine concepts of race, femininity, otherness, and the construction and deconstruction of “success” in corporate settings. Based in Brooklyn, NY, Born 1988.
Sharon van Liempt
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Sharon van Liempt is a multimedia artist. Attended school of fine arts at Howard University. Recent shows, 2018, at Havens in Sag Harbor, 2019, at the private residence of Charles and Karen Phillips. Most recent shows: Hamptons Fine Art Fair (July 2022); Hamptons Iconic: Art in Herrick Park (August 2022); Miami Art Basel 2022.
Darlene Williams
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Darlene Williams is an international best selling author, adjunct lecturer, personal and professional development coach, Harvard certified rhetorician, and the founder of The Higher Level Method and The Black Authors Festival @Sag Harbor.