Add Title
Future Sponsor
Future Sponsor
southwest mississippi multiplex
For Early Innovative Intervention Studies
pizzazz dance clinics
By invitation only. Contact us for more information.
Dance with Daria
February 6, 2021
Daria Fisher is a 20-year-old African American dancer. She was born and raised in Jackson Mississippi. Daria started training very late into her career. She graduated from Mississippi School of the Arts in 2019. She currently attends Cornish College of the Arts to receive her Bachelor’s in fine Arts Performance/ Choreography. Daria’s life motto is: "Find what you love and the money will follow."
Dance with Brandyn
February 20, 2021
Brandyn D. Smith is a teacher, writer, director, and choreographer from Wills Point, TX. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre and Dance from Henderson State University and a Master of Fine Arts in Directing from the University of Arkansas- Fayetteville. He is currently the director of Theatre at The Colony and serves as one of the theatre teachers at The Colony High School. He is also the Director of Fine Arts of OneVision Ministries where he also choreographs for Ministry in Motion and writes and directs gospel plays for Dramatic Revelations. His specialty of dance ranges from classical ballet to liturgical dance to Afro-Cuban. He is excited to introduce theatre and dance in his workshops with PIZZAZZ.
Dance with Devonna
February 27, 2021
Devonna Curtis is a 20-year-old dancer from Jackson, Mississippi. She graduated from Mississippi School of the Arts in 2018. Devonna has attended several dance intensives such as The Alvin Ailey School, The International Ballet Competition, and The Joffrey Ballet School in New York. She is now pursuing her Bachelor of Fine Arts at the State University of New York.
artist-in-residence
Meet Mutiyat Ade-Salu, Our Summer 2020 Artist-In-Residence
Bio
Mutiyat Ade-Salu is an actress, vocalist, playwright, producer and educator. She holds a Master's Degree in Theatre Arts from the University of Louisville and a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor in Music and African-American Theatre. She is a recipient of the Distinguished Performance by an Actress Award from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (Region IV), a Talent Division Winner and 2nd runner up for the 2018 national title of Miss Black America Coed, and was the 2018 Playwright-in-Residence at Fehinty African Theatre Ensemble. Mutiyat published her previous play Sunny Came Home on Amazon Kindle and recently founded The WAY Studio, based on her acting innovation The WAY Method. Learn more about her work at www.meetmutiyat.com.
Memoirs of A Conflicted American, A One-Woman Show
In the styles of both choreopoem and verbatim theatre, Memoirs of A Conflicted American is a series of monologues based on the playwright’s personal observations and collected news stories regarding multiple cases of White police brutality against Black Americans in the 2010s. With 10 monologues interspersed with familiar and adapted anthems, Memoirs captures the pain and confusion of a variety of characters ranging from an optimistic 4-year old girl to a raging 48-year old man to a skeptical 88-year old woman. Traveling on a risky journey, this short play imagines the theme of “family vs. self” on personal, racial, and national levels.
Click the following link to download a comprehensive study guide for this show:
*This project was made possible by a grant from the Mississippi Humanities Council, through support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities or the Mississippi Humanities Council.
Up close with Mutiyat!
Mutiyat Ade-Salu, creator of "Memoirs..." discusses identity, police brutality, social justice, and more in this exclusive interview with SMMEIIS' EAD, Clinnesha Sibley.
community
A place with resources is a place for growth.
Professional Development
Stay tuned.
Building and strengthening the skills of our community is a pressing priority. We offer training in the areas of artistic practice, racial equity, justice and human rights, innovative entrepreneurship, technology-based learning, and organization-building or "writing the vision".
Community Connections
August-December 2020: Health Equity with Dr. Darrin Jackson
Our community conversations are designed to inform and raise awareness about vital community issues. We present to you a two-part series on health equity: "Surviving Coronavirus While Black" and "Vaccine Reluctance in the Black Community". View Part 1 here.
For additional information, visit:
CDC: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/health-equity/race-ethnicity.html
Grace Health Clinic: http://www.thegracehealthclinic.com/
The Creative Camp
Coming Up: June 2022
Young visionaries who participate in our summer program grasp concepts in STEAM, idea/gift development, creative/critical thinking, innovative leadership, and social entrepreneurship by way of creative play, team-building, and project-based learning.
Sankofa Dialogues
Through interviews/conversations/panel discussions, our elders share their experiences about growing up in the south and how past race relations have shaped our present socio-political/educational views. Dialogues are recorded and made available to the public via podcast.
- meet the executive-artistic director
Clinnesha Dillon Sibley, a native of McComb, Mississippi, is a published author, community leader, and educator. She promotes creative-mindedness—believing that visual, performing, and literary arts can change the way we think about some of life’s most important questions.
A writer of plays, poetry, essays, and prose/fiction, Clinnesha has received numerous awards including the Holland New Voices Award, the Arkansas Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship, and the Mississippi Theatre Association Adult Playwriting Award. Her writing has also appeared in national literary journals, anthologies, and various publications and anthologies. She is also on the Mississippi Humanities Council Speaker's Bureau.
Clinnesha received her B.A. at Tougaloo College in Jackson, Mississippi, where she was a 2003 initiate into the Gamma Psi Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., and was the 2005-2006 Miss Tougaloo College. She received her M.F.A. (Master of Fine Arts Degree) from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. As both a student and an Assistant Professor at the U of A, Clinnesha was a diversity champion and a key woman educator in the arts. She proudly served the College of Charleston in South Carolina as an Assistant Professor of Playwriting where her mission was to empower students to cultivate their unique voice and write fearlessly, without limits. After teaching at the college/university level for seven years, she moved into secondary residential education. She has taught at The Historic Piney Woods School and is currently the Literary Arts Instructor at Mississippi School of the Arts.
Clinnesha was selected as one of twenty-four "change-makers" across the United States for the 2017-2018 National Arts Strategies Creative Communities Fellow Program. This program was her springboard into the non-profit sector and social entrepreneurship. A 2019 recipient of a “Rise Grant” from Women on the Rise Network and a 2020 recipient of the Arts Institute of Mississippi (AIM) Award, Clinnesha is a literary artist who believes .in order to reach total fulfillment, one must "replace [their] pursuit of success with the pursuit of contribution".
She is married to her high school sweetheart, Keith Sibley, and they have three children: Kaylee, Karlee, and Keith Jr.
