M. Nourbese Philip, keynote speaker, is a poet, novelist, essayist and playwright who lives in the City of Toronto. She practised law in the City of Toronto for seven years. Among her best known published works are She Tries Her Tongue; Her Silence Softly Breaks, Looking for Livingstone: An Odyssey of Silence, and Harriet’s Daughter. Her many awards include the Pushcart Prize (USA), the Casa de las Americas Prize (Cuba) for poetry, and a Guggenheim Fellowship (USA). In 2005 M. Nourbese Philip was awarded a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio residency. M. Nourbese Philip's short stories, essays, reviews and articles have appeared in magazines and journals in Canada, the U.K. and the U.S.A., and her poetry and prose have been extensively anthologised. Her plays have been produced in London and Toronto.

Omanii Abdullah is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of African American Studies. His poetry has been described as "Life Experience Poetry". His books include: I Wanna be the Kinda Father My Mother Was, Nobody Eats Fried Chicken Like Black Folks Do, This is Gonna Hurt me a Whole Lot More'n Hurts You. He conducts poetry workshops where he teaches the participants how to put their emotions and feelings on paper. He has done extensive work as a volunteer in correctional facilities throughout NYS.

Cecil Abrahams is a Visiting University Professor at Syracuse University. A native of South Africa, he obtained his early schooling and undergraduate education there. As an active opponent of the apartheid regime, he was forced to go into exile in Canada where he obtained his doctorate in English Romantic Literature. Abrahams taught at several Canadian universities and later became a Dean of Faculty and Vice President, Academic and Provost. With the release of Nelson Mandela and the establishment of a non-racial democracy, Abrahams returned to South Africa as President of the University of the Western Cape. As an academic, Abrahams has pioneered African and Commonwealth Literatures throughout the world. He is the author and editor of over 10 books and he has published more than 150 articles, chapters and reviews in international journals. Abrahams' public lectures and creative writings have been heard on all the continents. As a University Professor, Abrahams lectures in the English, Cultural Foundations, African American Studies and International Relations departments. In closing, Cecil Abrahams has a Doctor of Humane Letters from the State University of New York System, Albany, and a Doctor Honoris Causa from the Universite de la Reunion, Reunion, France.

Joshua Atkinson (Ph.D., University of Missouri-Columbia) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies at Syracuse University, where he studies the role of alternative media texts in community building and organizing processes of social justice movements. His research has led him to examine major "confrontations" in the globalization debate such as the FTAA protests in Miami and the Zapatista conflicts in Chiapas, Mexico. Through his research he seeks to give voice to marginalized groups who attempt to bring to light problems and dangers associated with corporate globalization.

Carol Babiracki is an Associate Professor of Music, History and Culture in the Fine Arts Department of Syracuse University. Before joining Syracuse, she taught on the faculties of Brown and Harvard Universities, and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She has spent many years in India doing field research, with a focus on village expressive culture in the state of Jharkhand over a twenty-five year period. Her publications have appeared in the journal Asian Music and in the books Women's Voices Across Musical Worlds, Shadows in the Field: New Perspectives on Field Research in Ethnomusicology, Comparative Musicology and the Anthropology of Music, Ethnomusicology and Modern Music History, and The Western Impact on World Music. She is currently completing a monograph about the role of Mundari music history and performance in the autonomy movement that resulted in Jharkhand statehood in 2000.

Patricia Burak has been a member of the Syracuse University community for 29 years. She is responsible for administration of the Slutzker Center for International Services, serving both students and the scholars who come from abroad and overseeing all immigration advising. Under her direction, the Slutzker Center is responsible for all non-immigrant faculty and researchers at SU as well. She became the director of the Slutzker Center in 1989. An ardent Ukrainian American, Dr. Burak has always been a member of the Ukrainian community in Central New York and very active in the cultural life of Syracuse. Dr. Burak has always found a way to mix service to students and scholars with her personal and professional interests. Pursuing a doctor of arts degree at Syracuse University for many years, she translated a Russian novel into English for her dissertation (Doctor of Arts 1996). Since the work that Dr. Burak does in international education also involves the translation of one culture to another, she found that her professional skills helped her in the literary translation process. In her work as an international student adviser she must decide which strategies are effective for bringing life in the United States, especially academic life, across to students from other cultures. An academic as well as an administrator, Dr. Burak teaches two courses of Russian literature in the College of Arts and Sciences each semester, LIT 226, "Tolstoy and Dostoevsky," and LIT 227, "Pasternak and Solzhenitsyn." In this role, Dr. Burak also endeavors to bring her cross cultural and transnational perspectives to the students in her classroom.

Bill Cole of New Rochelle, N.Y., in 2005 joined the faculty of Syracuse University's College of Arts and Sciences as a Professor in the Department of African American Studies. Cole, an ethnomusicologist, composer and performer, is co-founder and artistic director of Shadrack, Inc., an organization that presents works by artists of color. He is also founder of the improvisational group, Untempered Ensemble. Cole's musical interests include double reed instruments from around the world: the Chinese sona, the Korean hojok, the Indian nagaswarm and others. He has made numerous musical recordings and is the author of many articles and several books, including biographies on Miles Davis and John Coltrane. Cole is currently working on a textbook about the history of the oral tradition in jazz. He received bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Pittsburgh and holds an honorary master's degree from Dartmouth College. Cole also holds a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from Wesleyan University.

Elisa Macedo Dekaney is an Assistant Professor of Music Education in the Setnor School of Music at Syracuse University where she teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in the areas of choral music, research in music, world music, and co-directs the SU Brazilian Music Ensemble. In the fall of 2001 Elisa Dekaney was appointed the music director of the Syracuse University Oratorio Society, a choir that performs regularly with the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra. Born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Elisa Dekaney earned a bachelor’s degree in piano performance at the Seminário Teológico Batista do Sul do Brasil and a bachelor’s degree in communication from Universidade Federal Fluminense. She continued her studies in the United States, earning a master’s degree in choral conducting from the University of Missouri-Kansas City and a Ph.D. in choral music education from the Florida State University. She has been an active researcher, clinician, and choral conductor in the United States, Greece, Spain, and Brazil. Elisa Dekaney is currently the Repertoire and Standards Chair for Ethnic and Multicultural Music for the New York State American Choral Directors Association and a member of honorary music society Pi Kappa Lambda.

Richard Dubin is a professor of practice in television, radio and film at Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. He has written, produced or directed prime-time programs for ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX and UPN. His studio affiliations include Disney, Warner Bros., Viacom, TriStar, HBO Productions, Fox TV, MGM, United Artists and Columbia Pictures.

For his work on the landmark CBS program "Frank's Place,", Dubin received an Emmy nomination and both The Humanitas and Mentor Awards. He has also been honored with a Bínai Brith Humanitarian Award. Dubin is an elected member of The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

His career began in music. He is a protege of Clark Terry and has played trumpet with Ray Charles, Otis Redding and Dizzy Gillespie.

Dubin's extensive involvement in theatre as actor, writer and director is highlighted by his founding and artistic direction of The JazzTheatre Workhop Company at the Harlem YMCA in New York City. The off-Broadway production of "Bebop:The Hip Musical," which he created with the JTWC, was internationally acclaimed.

Arthur Flowers, Professor of English at Syracuse University, is an author, a Vietnam veteran, a blues singer, co-founder of the New Renaissance Writer’s Guild, and a Memphis native. Mr. Flowers considers himself a contemporary griot, referring to the storytellers of ancient African societies who passed on the history of their people through the oral tradition. Using spellbinding “performance poetry,” he accompanies his presentations with African instruments. He has authored many books, including Mojo Rising: Confessions of a 21st Century; Conjureman; Another Good Loving Blues; and De Mojo Blu

Jackie Grace, is an Assistant Principal at Hughes Magnet Elementary School in Syracuse City School District. She has been committed to "the babies" and their education for the past twenty-five (25) years: Co-owning the first African American preschool in the city, and teaching the Jamesville-DeWitt Central Schools. Jackie's love of storytelling was cultivated when she was a little girl growing up in a small, close-knit, segregated community called Pike Road, Alabama. The people in her community, especially her grandparents were always telling stories--to share history, impart values, and simply to entertain. In addition to being a professional storyteller, Jackie is an aspiring author of children's books.

Vanessa Johnson is a seasoned storyteller, oral historian, writer, actress and fiber artist. She uses her talent for telling stories to keep the voices and stories of the past alive in the memory of the present. Her repertoire includes oral histories from the African-American communities of Syracuse's past, traditional tales from Africa and the African Diaspora, the compelling voices of women suffragettes, oral histories of the Civil Rights Movement and the loud whispers from the Underground Railroad. Ms. Johnson's goal is to use storytelling and oratory as a tool to share historic documents and research in a form that can impact on the lives of everyday people.

Kenneth R. Meyer, guitarist, is the national first-prize winner at the Music Teacher’s National Association Collegiate Artist Competition, has given recitals in Europe, South America and throughout North America. His performances have been recognized for their, “High level of musicianship,” while his playing has been described as, “…Very sincere and elegant with sensitive phrasing and a singing tone.”  The Buffalo News has called him, “Impeccably articulate with superb technique.” Mr. Meyer’s diversity as a musician has led to performances with the Syracuse Opera, the Broadway touring production of the Who’s rock opera, “Tommy” and most recently, a fundraising performance for Syracuse University attended by former President Bill Clinton. Mr. Meyer holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Eastman School of Music and has served on the faculties of East Carolina University, SUNY at Fredonia and the Eastman School of Music. Dr. Meyer currently directs a thriving guitar studies program at Syracuse University’s Setnor School of Music.

Mĩcere Gĩthae Mũgo, Meredith Professor for Teaching Excellence and Chair of the Department of African American Studies at SU, is a poet, playwright and literary critic who has published 6 books, 8 co-edited supplementary school readers, 3 monographs and edited the journal, Third World in Perspective. Other titles include: Daughter of My People, Sing!; My Mother’s Poem and Other Songs; The Long Illness of Ex-Chief Kiti; Visions of Africa and The Trial of Dedan Kimathi (co-authored with Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o ). In November 2002, The East African Standard Century listed Mĩcere among “The Top 100: They Influenced Kenya Most During the 20th Century.” A committed community activist, Mĩcere is a passionate advocate for human rights especially as they have historically been denied to Blacks, women, children, the masses and other marginalized groups.

David Etse Brown Nyadezor Drummer and director of the African Dance Company.

Vincent O. Odamtten holds a doctorate from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. His award-winning dissertation on the work of Ama Ata Aidoo has been published as an acclaimed book The Art of Ama Ata Aidoo (1994). He won the 1976 Valco Fund Literary Award for Poetry after receiving his B.A. in Ghana. In addition to writing and reading his poetry in Ghana, England and the United States, Odamtten is interested in, and has published on issues of gender, race and class as they are expressed in the imaginative works of peoples of African decent. He has contributed articles to The Encyclopedia of African Literature (2003) as well as a number of critical anthologies, including FonTomFrom – Contemporary Ghanaian Literature, Film and Culture (2000), Of Dreams Deferred, Dead Or Alive: African Perspectives on African-American Writers (1996), and Language in Exile: Jamaican texts of the 18th & 19th Century (1990). He has taught at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana, as well as S.U.N.Y. at Stony Brook and Old Westbury. He joined the faculty at Hamilton College, New York in 1985 where he was the director of the Africana Studies Program in the 1990s. Currently, Odamtten is editing a collection of essays on the Ghanaian writer Amma Darko that is to be published in the fall of 2006.

Kendall R. Phillips (Ph.D., Pennsylvania State University) is Associate Professor of Communication and Rhetorical Studies at Syracuse University. His research is mainly focused on questions of rhetoric, politics and popular culture. He is author of the books Projected Fears: Horror Films and American Culture and Testing Controversy: A Rhetoric of Educational Reform and Culture and editor of the book Framing Public Memory. He teaches courses on public advocacy, popular culture, and public memory. His essays have appeared in such academic journals as Communication Monographs, Philosophy and Rhetoric, and Literature/Film Quarterly.

Fumilayo (Fumi) Showers is from Sierra Leone, West Africa, but a true global citizen and Pan Africanist. After living in various places, she moved to Atlanta Georgia, where she completed her undergraduate work in International Relations at Agnes Scott College. Her personal experiences have influenced her research interests in immigration and immigrant communities. Her research interests include the study of history and politics of the African Diaspora. Immigration, and migrations from the continent of Africa to new places and spaces globally, specifically France and the United States. With the recent unrest and uprisings in Paris and its environs, Fumi believes that the study of these immigrant communities and French citizens of north African descent has become increasingly important. Her future research aims at looking at societal relations in France, specifically French policies towards African immigrants and citizens of African descent. In studying the relations between France and these immigrant groups an amplification of Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth (1965) becomes necessary in seeing the French official policy as an extension of colonial policy now carried out in the center (Paris) as opposed to the metropole (former colonies). Fumi hopes to complete a PHD in History or African Diaspora Studies.

Warren Smith's reputation as a dynamic leader of a vibrant and creative ensemble often overshadows his abilities as a composer, arranger and percussionist. His exemplary technical skills, whether behind a battery of drums or the vibes, complement a marvelous intuition for rhythm and harmony. A consummate musician, Smith knows when and how to put the heat to a rhythm section, and where to be an unobtrusive and delicate accompanist. Born in Chicago, Illinois, Warren I. Smith, Jr. (W.I.S. to the people close to him) entered the professional music world at the early age of fourteen, working in various family bands in the late 1940's and later in the mid-50's with Captain Waiter H. Dyett's concert and marching bands. Warren Smith has firm roots grounded in the Chicago south side music scene. Along with other emissaries & visionaries such as Johnny Griffin, the Association for the Advancement of Creative Music (AACM)- including Lester Bowie, Don Moye Amina Myers, Joseph Jarman, et al., and a host of other jazz and blues players from the era, Warren is a part of an essential element in the development and definition of Afro-American music.

Peyi Soyinka-Airewele is the International Director of the Alliance for Community Transformation (ACT Africa) and faculty member in the Politics Department at Ithaca College, New York, where she teaches and writes extensively on the politics of memory and representation and on socio-political transitions in African countries. A fellow of the Global Security and Cooperation program of the Social Science Research Council and of the Oxford Round Table UK, Dr. Soyinka-Airewele has integrated the work of the scholar-practitioner in her scholarship and engagement in discourses and struggles in the African continent. Her work on the politics of African cinema recently culminated in the organization of the ICASA 2005 Film Festival, an International AIDS Film Festival held in Abuja, Nigeria, in support of the 14th International Conference on AIDS in Africa. Dr Soyinka-Airewele is the recipient of the 2004 President’s Award for distinguished Service of the Association of Third World Studies (ATWS). Her writings have been published in several journals (African and Asian Studies Issue, Journal of Third World Studies, etc.) and books, and, she has just concluded her book, Invoking the Past, Conjuring the Nation, an interrogation of memory, communal citizenship and cathartic violence in Africa. Dr Soyinka-Airewele’s forthcoming book Reframing Contemporary Africa,, provocatively explores and reframes the discourse on African politics, histories and contemporary issues and will be published by CQ Press.

Eileen L. Strempel, Vocalist and winner of numerous competitions: first prize of the Loren Zachary Competition, both Sullivan Awards, the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation, the Liederkranz and Enrico Caruso Vocal Competitions, Strempel debuted recently with the New York Philharmonic on their Chamber Music Series, with the Bolshoi Opera as Violetta in La Traviata, as well as in Avery Fisher Hall as the soprano soloist in the Bach B minor Mass. The young singer/scholar Strempel holds the Doctorate of Music from Indiana University, and a Bachelor of Music from The Eastman School of Music. She is currently Assistant Professor/Assistant to the Dean at Syracuse University. Specially interested in the songs of woman composers, Strempel's recordings include a disc of songs by Pauline Viardot Garcia, Lili Boulanger and Marie de Grandval on With All My Soul, and a newly released disc of songs by Libby Larsen prepared with the composer. This compact disc with Centaur Records, love lies bleeding, includes Larsen's Cowboy Songs, The Sonnets from the Portuguese, and the world premiere recording of her newest song cycle, Try Me Good King: The Lives of the Wives of Henry VIII. She is also featured on the recently released companion compact discs to the Historical Anthology of Music by Women (Indiana University Press) as well as on Voices of Innocence (Centaur), March, 2005. Strempel is also a noted scholar of song literature, and her articles and reviews can regularly be found in The Classical Singer, The Journal of Singing and in the American Music Teacher.

Silvio Torres-Saillant, Associate Professor of English and Director of the Latino-Latin American Studies Program at Syracuse University, holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from New York University. His research and publication interests include Caribbean literature and culture, Latino literature and culture, ethnic American literatures, and diasporic identities. His publications include An Intellectual History of the Caribbean (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), The Challenges of Public Higher Education in the Hispanic Caribbean (Markus Wiener, 2004 [co-edited]), Desde la Orilla: hacia una nacionalidad sin desalojos (Editora Manati & Ediciones Libreria La Trinitaria, 2004 [co-edited]), Caribbean Poetics (Cambridge University Press, 1997), The Dominican Americans (Greenwood Press, 1998 [co-authored]), El retorno de las yolas (Manati & La Trinitaria, 1999), and Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage, Vol. 4 (Arte Publico Press, 2002 [co-edited]). A Senior Editor for the 4-volume The Encyclopedia of Latinos and Latinas in the United States (Oxford University Press, 2005), and Associate Editor of Latino Studies (a new scholarly journal published by Palgrave), Torres-Saillant is the 2005-2006 Wilbur Marvin Visiting Scholar in the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University, where he also holds an appointment as Visiting Associate Professor in the Romance Languages and Literatures Department.

Jackie Warren-Moore is a Poet, Mother, Wife, Playwright, ten year former newspaper Columnist for The Syracuse Post Standard, Theatrical Director and Community Activist. She makes her home in Syracuse, New York. She conducts readings and workshops in prisons throughout the State of New York. She is a writer-in-residence with the Syracuse School District. She works with at-risk students in The Center For Community Alternatives After School Program. Ms. Moore works with The Paul Robeson Performing Arts Company. She has participated in all areas of theater. Four of her plays have been produced. Ms. Moore is a Teaching Assistant in Black Theater in The African American Studies Dept. at Syracuse University . Ms. Moore has one chapbook of her poetry that was published in 1977. She has a second chapbook of 12 signature poems published by Pudding House Press in 2005. Her work has been widely anthologized in both national and international anthologies. She has read her work in numerous colleges and universities. She was honored as an Unsung Heroine by The National Organization of Women for Feminist Writing. She has been widely honored for her service to her community through her writing. Her writing has been set to music and dance by the New York City dance company Camara Dance and met with rave reviews. She received The Cassandra Jones –Ingram Distinguished Service Award from Camp 415, The Central New York Association of Minority Police for her writing and community service.

Publications:

• International Anthology, SISTERFIRE: BLACK WOMANIST FICTION & POETRY, published in 1994.
• National Anthology, WRITING OUR WAY OUT OF THE DARK: AN ANTHOLOGY BY CHILD ABUSE SURVIVORS, published in 1995.
• International anthology, SPIRIT & FLAME: AN ANTHOLOGY OF CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN AMERICAN POETRY, published in 1997.
• National anthology PASSIONATE LIVES, published in 1998.
• International anthology, AGE AIN’T NOTHING BUT A NUMBER: BLACK WOMEN EXPLORE MID-LIFE, published in 2003.
• JACKIE WARREN-MOORE’S GREATEST HITS, Published in 2005.

Contact Info: 336 Valley Drive,
Syracuse, N.Y. 13207.
(315) 422-9108
E-mail: LUVMOORE@AOL.com

Kheli R. Willetts - Assistant Professor, African American Art History and Film, in the Department of African American Studies, Syracuse University and Academic Director of the Community Folk Art Center which is a community service based unit of the African American Studies Department. Prior to joining the faculty at Syracuse University in 2002, Dr. Willetts worked with a number of arts organizations including the Studio Museum of Harlem, the Wadsworth Athenaeum, the Connecticut Historical Society and the Connecticut Commission on the Arts. As Academic Director of the Community Folk Art Center, Professor Willetts is responsible for developing diverse and dynamic programming including exhibitions, a film series including an annual film festival, guest lecturers and artist workshops. At Syracuse, she teaches survey courses in the areas of African American art history and film. Artistically, Dr. Willetts is currently completing a new body of mixed media work. She holds an A.A.S in Studio Arts from F.I.T a B.F.A in Studio Arts, M.A. in Museum Studies and Ph.D. in Art Education from Syracuse University.