re:mancipation
Collaborators




- Elizabeth Alexander, President
- Deb Cullen, Program Officer
National Education Association:
- Stephen Chavers, Creative Director
- Harry Lawson, Director, Washington DC Center
MILWAUKEE ARTS COMMUNITY:
- Carl Morency, Co-Chair, African American Network (“AAN”)
- MIchelle Lamarre, Co-Chair, AAN
- Walter Lanier, President & CEO, African American Leadership Alliance Milwaukee (“AALAM”)
- Steven Forbes, COO, AALAM
- Dr. Robert Davis, President & CEO, America’s Black Holocaust Museum (“ABHM”)
- Brad Pruit, Executive Consultant, ABHM
- Chauntel McKenzie, COO, ABHM
- Della Wells, Vice President, Bronzeville Center for The Arts (“BCA”)
- Mutope Johnson, Visual Artist, Lecturer, BCA
- Lashawndra Vernon
- Chair, BCA
- President, Artists Working in Education
- Gennine Edwards, CEO, 3P Consulting
- Kendra Whitlock Ingram, President & CEO, Marcus Performing Arts Center
- Kentara Souffrant, Curator, Milwaukee Art Museum
- David Lee, CEO, Imagine Milwaukee
- Rhoan Garnett, Director of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity & Accessibility, Milwaukee Public Museum
Marka27 + Street Theory (Victor Quinonez), Visual Artist/Muralist
With over 20 years of experience in large scale public art production, artist management, art and design direction, exhibitions and special events, Street Theory uses their expertise to implement and execute Client goals at the highest levels of creative expression and strategic planning in the areas of lifestyle, hospitality, retail, real estate, urban planning and community development.
Lynore Routte’, Reclaimed Materials Artist
From her start, Lynore has been using recycled, reclaimed and repurposed materials. She continues to create with the idea of using, ‘whatcha got, to make whatcha want,’ to paraphrase musician James Brown. This belief in making something new and more beautiful from what is no longer wanted is one of Lynore’s core values, and it drives how she works and how she lives. Lynore Galore has created wearable art for Beyoncé, Missy Elliot, OutKast’s André 3000. Lynore develops pieces with spiritual intent, often producing work after tarot consultations with her clients. Current work includes collaboration with Sanford Biggers on his Moon Medicin and re:mancipation projects.
Wildcat Ebony Brown, Uninhibited Creative
Brooklyn-based emerging artist Wildcat Ebony Brown, began her career as a professional model in her early 20’s. Despite ample success in the beauty and entertainment industry, Ebony has found a new home for her talents, passions, and uninhibited creativity as an artist and clothing designer. Her journey from subject to architect has led to paintings, installations, and a developing clothing line. Grounded in her aptitude for color harmony, her work is vibrant and exhilarating. Her designs focus on a sophisticated, timeless silhouette, as well as, the comfort and confidence experienced by those wearing them. She is a seminal activist in the Wide Awakes voting movement.
Rich Medina is an elite international DJ who, in the thirty years since he spun his first record, has turned his young love for music into a celebrated career as a platinum-selling record producer, recording artist, poet, journalist, and Ivy League lecturer. From the legendary nine-year-run of his Lil’ Ricky’s Rib Shack party at APT in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District, to his globe-spanning, conscious-raising, dance-floor-shaking party Jump-N-Funk, a sonic tribute to Afro Beat and its iconic creator Fela Kuti, Rich stands without peer as a contemporary DJ of diverse range and taste. A sonic storyteller, par excellence. But his art pushes past those boundaries. As a respected spoken word artist, he has performed on stages around the world, and his sonorous voice has been utilized by everyone from EA Sports to Nike. He’s an intellectual and public speaker who has lectured at TEDX Philly, and his alma mater Cornell, amongst others. He is also a producer of note, crafting work with a range of artists, including Jill Scott, J Dilla, and Bobbito Garcia. In short, Rich Medina is the modern-day renaissance man—an artist and visionary who has built a compelling narrative on his own terms. And his journey continues.
Pharaohe Monch is an American rapper from South Jamaica, Queens, New York. He is known for his complex lyrics, intricate delivery, and internal and multisyllabic rhyme schemes. Monch compares writing and recording his lyrics to writing and filming a movie. His recent project is a heavy-rock-band th1rt3en. His vocal delivery is inspired by Jazz music and musicians such as John Coltrane.
Keyon Harrold is an American jazz trumpeter, vocalist, songwriter, and producer. Keyon was born and raised in Ferguson, Missouri. One of 16 children in a family of musicians. His grandfather was a former police officer who founded The Memorial Lancers Drum and Bugle Corps. Harrold graduated from the School of Jazz at The New School, New York City. He has performed with Snoop Dogg, Jay Z, Beyonce, Rihanna, Eminem, Maxwell, Robert Glasper & Gregory Porter.
Nuri Hazzard is an Actor, Most recently featured in this year’s Super Bowl LVI ads (2022), he has appeared in TV series such as Wu-Tang: An American Saga and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Nuri will serve as a co-host for the National Education Association’s Conference on Racial and Social Justice, serving as a field correspondent, extracting the narratives from participating artists
Chris Walker Prof Dance Department & Director, Division of the Arts
Dr. Walker is a multi-hyphenate contemporary dance and performance artist. Rooted in “Resistance Aesthetics,” Walker’s work draw upon the danced rituals, mas traditions, and embodied performance history of the African diaspora. The founding artistic director of OMAI/First Wave, Walker developed the First Wave Process. His research intersects dance choreography for the concert stage with collaborations with visual and performance artists for museum, alternate spaces, professional theatre, and video/film.
Yorel Lashley
Yorel Lashley serves as the Director of Arts at PLACE. Dr. Lashley is an educator, percussionist, songwriter, and educational psychologist. In 2001, he founded Drum Power, which has used the process of learning West African Traditional, Afro-Brazilian, and Afro-Cuban percussion to help more than 3,800 young people develop and practice social-emotional skills. In addition to Drum Power, Dr. Lashley also created the Relationships First professional development for building and maintaining healthy classroom culture and fully-integrated social-emotional learning. Dr. Lashley previously performed professionally in New York City for 12 years. www.drumpower.com
Kacie Lucchini Butcher is a public historian dedicated to building empathy, helping communities write their history, and to advancing social justice and social equity. She has worked in museums and for community organizations, helping communities reclaim their narratives through collaborative public history projects. She has experience engaging marginalized communities through historical partnerships, creating and sustaining community-centered archives, and producing historical research that foregrounds social justice. Kacie is the Director of The Public History Project and teaches History 401 at UWM. Thirteen (13) of Kacie’s students have actively contributed responses to the Emancipation Group.
Faisal Abdu’Allah, Associate Dean for the Arts in the School of Education
Dr. Abdu’Allah, an internationally acclaimed artist and professor with the School of Education’s Art Department, is the Chazen Family Distinguished Chair in Art and the associate dean of the arts in the School of Education. DARK MATTER, opening Sept. 17, 2022, explores cultural representation and the systems of power that structure our experiences of the world. The exhibition includes a selection of Abdu’Allah’s most celebrated series, as well as a reconstruction of his work, “Garden of Eden” (2003), an architectural installation the artist created in collaboration with renowned architect Sir David Adjaye. Exploring issues of privilege, exclusion, and the voyeuristic gaze, this interactive piece separates visitors based on genetic traits — in this case, eye color — in order to undermine our perceptions of difference and alienation. With “Garden of Eden,” Abdu’Allah points to the privileges conferred to certain people based on the nuances of their genetic matter. DARK MATTER will also feature a counter-monument by Abdu’Allah, which he first conceived of several years ago in response to debates about the role of monuments and their removal from public view. His solution was to commission artists of color to create new monuments that represent their own aesthetics, histories, and experiences.
Dr. Baron Kelly is a four-time Fulbright Scholar and has traveled extensively as a Cultural Specialist for the United States Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairsteaching and lecturing on the theatre in Russia, Scandinavia, Africa, Europe, London, and Asia. Teaching acting has led him to teaching and lecturing residencies in more than a dozen countries on five continents and in twenty American states, including London’s Central School of Speech and Drama, Moscow Art Theatre, Beijing Central Academy of Drama, National Theatre School of Finland, and National Theatre of Ghana. In August 2020, he joined the Theatre and Drama Department at University of Wisconsin-Madison. Between 2014 and 2020, Dr. Kelly was a member of the faculty of the University of Louisville, where he was Head of MFA Acting, and Director of Graduate Studies at the University of Louisville.
Dr. Lennon Rodgers, UWM Makerspace
Dr. Rodgers is a mechanical engineer with a passion for engineering design and hands-on teaching. He has experience designing and building complex systems ranging from spacecraft to electric vehicles. He has built a miniature docking port that is on the International Space Station and has led a student team that built electric motorcycles for the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy and Pikes Peak International Hill Climb – the oldest motorcycle races in the world. In addition to his academic work, he was a mechanical engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory where he worked on the Keck (10-meter) and TMT (30-meter) telescopes on Mauna Kea in Hawaii.
Derek Johnson, Engineering Diversity Affairs at UW Madison
Interested in involving engineering students in Art & Culture & Activism, Dr. Johnson is responsible for developing and implementing a broad outreach strategy that will include leveraging college resources such as MakerSpace, DAO, and departmental outreach efforts, specifically targeting low-income students and students of color. He also collaborates with Admissions, Financial Aid and other campus partners to support student recruitment to the College of Engineering.
Dr. Christian A. Castro, Associate Dean for Inclusion, Equity, and Diversity in Engineering
Dr. Christian Castro is the Inaugural Associate Dean for Inclusion, Equity, and Diversity at the UW-Madison College of Engineering. Chris joined Madison Teaching and Learning Excellence in the fall of 2015; he assumed the role of program director in January 2019. In his time with MTLE, Chris worked as a core facilitator and mentor for fourteen cohorts, including over 150 faculty fellows. Chris is a recognized national thought leader, scholar, and facilitator in equity, diversity, and inclusion in teaching.
Milwaukee Students
- Jordan Morency
- Kayla Morency
- Krishna Mitchell
- Katie (Kathleen) Murphy
- Samantha Hertel
- Elizabeth Rochon
- John Walker
- Shannon Rajchel
- Jack Powless
- Olivia Shoemaker
- Robert Hall
- Sydney Tang
- Nolan Bedwell
- Lihao Yuan
- Tessa Peterka
- Rae Kalscheuer
- Indigenous Students + Ho-Chunk Nation rep (Bobbi Skenandore)
- Chazen Museum Student Staff
- Undergraduate Research Scholars (URS) is a high-impact practice (HIP) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The program facilitates learning both the skills of your field and acquiring an interdisciplinary perspective on research, and creative practices. URS is also for those that are interested in developing critical thinking skills, communication skills, and growing as an informed well-rounded scholar. URS is dedicated to enhancing the academic experience of UW-Madison students by providing first- and second-year undergraduates, and transfer students in their first year at UW with opportunities to earn credit for participating in research and creative practice with UW-Madison faculty and staff. URS was created with the Wisconsin Idea and the university’s mission – to create, integrate, transfer, and apply knowledge – in mind.
- FirstWave is a full-tuition, four-year scholarship program for students that are seniors in high school or freshmen in college that are applying to the University of Wisconsin-Madison
- The Studio is a creative arts community composed of over 60 students who live and learn together in a learning community. Residents are highly active on campus and come from a variety of majors and backgrounds.
- The Odyssey Project takes a whole family approach to breaking the cycle of generational poverty through access to education, giving adult and youth learners a voice, and increasing confidence through reading, writing, and speaking. Now in its 19th year, this inspirational project has empowered more than 500 low-income adults to find their voices and get a jump start at earning college degrees they never thought possible. Some graduates of the program have journeyed from homelessness to UW-Madison degrees, or from incarceration to meaningful work in the community.
- The Divine 9 | BGLOs
- Ukachi Arinzeh
- Moses Mitchell
- Jabril Mitchell
- Aaron Granat
- UW-Madison Communications
- Noa Faith Hines
- Jordan Hope Hines
- Syris Winge Barnes
- Arjuna Routte-Prieur
- Derek T. Gajadar
Sanford Biggers, first received critical attention when his collaborative work with David Ellis, Mandala of the B-Bodhisattva II, was included in the exhibition Freestyle, curated by Thelma Golden at the Studio Museum of Harlem in 2001. Since then, his works have been presented internationally including at the Tate Modern in London, the RenaissanceSociety in Chicago, Prospect 1 in New Orleans and the Whitney Biennial, The Kitchen, and Performa 07 (curated by Roselee Goldberg) in New York. Mr. Biggers is affiliate faculty member at Virginia Commonwealth University’s department of Sculpture + Extended Media and was a visiting scholar at Harvard University’s VES Department in 2009. He was previously an assistant professor at Columbia University’s Visual Arts program.
Mark Hines is the founder and creator of the live streaming platform, Virtual Live Experiences (VLE). He has also served as Vice President of Creative Technology at Russell Simmons’ 360HipHop.com where he was instrumental in the conceptualization and development of the new media platform. Upon BET.com’s acquisition of the startup, Hines was appointed Vice President of Strategy where he was directly responsible for initiating a diverse range of innovative projects including the conception and implementation of music strategies, interactive programming and creative technology. From 1994 to 1999, Hines worked at JP Morgan where he specialized in the development of unique technology applications that provided the bank with its competitive edge. While at JP Morgan, Hines maintained a music production company, Poisoned Ivy Entertainment, which did work for several major labels including Warner Brothers, MCA, Columbia and Def Jam, for which he received a gold record for the Belly soundtrack. Hines’ formal discipline is computer science which he studied with a concentration in music at Princeton University where he received his BA.
Edward Gajadar, Cultural Museum of African Art, Foundational Member, was born in New York City. He grew up in Hell’s Kitchen, Chelsea, The Lower East Side and The South Bronx. As a first-year undergraduate student, he attended Lehman College (CUNY), then transferred to St. John’s University, where he completed his Bachelor of Arts degree in government and politics. Upon graduation, Eddie took an administrative position with St. John’s University, where he worked in the Office of Student Advising, Development and Retention. Eddie received his Juris Doctor degree from the St. John’s University School of Law, graduating in June of 2002. Eddie’s professional career has included working for the NYC Dept. of Education as a teacher (4th grade), the NYC Police Dept. as a police officer, Chief of Staff for a U.S. Congressional candidate and Strategic Project Manager for the Cultural Museum of African Art.
Guy Routte
At the start of 2020, Routte rebirthed Schematics Industries, a multimedia operation with one simple goal: He wants “to build and create the blueprint for the type of content and media I want to see in the world.” On its plate are narrative films, documentaries and series, both web and TV, some that he’ll be writing and directing, including a docuseries about touring artists, that, in the time of coronavirus, has become even more relevant. Expect his signature on fine art projects, along with nontraditional record releases that incorporate striking visual content and presentations. Routte has shrewdly helped craft deals and shape careers of artists like rhyme whiz Pharoahe Monch, hometown protégé rapper/actor Shyheim, funk outfit The Family Stand, Living Colour frontman Corey Glover, R&B group Goodfellas and songbird Sara Devine, who he got signed to Columbia Records, where he served as senior A&R consultant. There, projects by Raphael Saadiq and Consequence fell under his watchful eye.
Alicia Hines, Grants & Development
Carrie-Ann Jean, Senior Executive Administrator
Patrick Parker, Web Development
Arjuna Routte-Prieur, Design
Eri King, Studio Manager
Colleen Tuite, Production Manager
Dr. Amy Gilman joined the Chazen in September, 2017. As director of the Chazen, Dr. Gilman oversees all administrative, financial, and curatorial duties for the museum, and has spent her first few years focusing on capacity-building and access. Since Dr. Gilman’s arrival at the Chazen, the staff has grown by 30 percent, unpaid internships have been replaced with paid positions for students, and the museum has revamped its visitor services model and lobby space to be more welcoming to visitors. Dr. Gilman is a progressive leader in the field, and an advocate for the role of the university art museum on campus and in the community.
Lindsay Grinstead, Chief of Staff
Katherine Alcauskas Chief Curator
Janine Yorimoto Boldt – Associate Curator of American at Chazen Museum of Art
Boldt received masters and doctoral degrees in American Studies from William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. She has curated exhibitions at the American Philosophical Society and the Michigan Woman’s Historical Center and Hall of Fame, and secured fellowships with the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, the Virginia Historical Society and the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. She is currently authoring a book based on her dissertation titled The Politics of Portraiture in Colonial Virginia, and is also developing an interactive database based on her research.
Candie Waterloo, Head of Museum Education
Candie personally showed Mark Hines & Sanford Biggers the Thomas Ball Sculpture. Candie brought the sculpture up during dinner as related to Sanford’s work and Chimera Counter-Monuments, thus, serving as the impetus of the re:mancipation project (November 2019).
Kristine Zickuhr, Assistant Director for Administration
Karl Scholtz , Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs
Mr. Scholz, the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, is the deputy to the chancellor in the overall academic leadership and administrative management of the university. Primary responsibilities of the position include oversight of all academic program and budget planning involving 13 schools and colleges; faculty and staff development, and personnel matters; as well as, oversight of the following areas: enrollment management, including undergraduate recruitment and admissions, student financial aid, and registrar; teaching and learning; diversity and inclusion; outreach, extension and public media; information technology (in collaboration with the vice chancellor for finance and administration); libraries; and international affairs.