Here for the Girls is thrilled to present Omiyemi (Artisia) Green as our keynote speaker for Celebrate Diversity Month! Omiyemi will speak on Embracing Diversity, Seeing the World through the Lens of Love on Tuesday, April 20th at 6:00 pm EST.
Above all else, Omiyemi (Artisia) Green is a spirit having a human experience, but she plays many roles; creator, mother, wife, professor, and priest are but a few. Omiyemi is an Ifa Oriṣa priest of Ìṣẹ̀ṣẹ̀ L’agba, a traditional West African cultural and spiritual practice commonly referred to as Ifa in the Diaspora. Currently, she is an associate professor of Theatre and Africana Studies, the Director of the Program in Africana Studies, and a W. Taylor Reveley, III Interdisciplinary Faculty Fellow at William & Mary.
Omiyẹmi believes in serving the organizations who raised her up in her profession. From 2007 to 2014, she was an executive board member of the Black Theatre Network, also serving as president from 2010 to 2012. She was a member of the executive board of the August Wilson Societyfrom 2016-2018 and currently serves as a consultant to the board. She is a member-at-large of the Black Theatre Association Executive Board (ATHE), an associate editor of Continuum: The Journal of African Diaspora Drama, Theatre and Performanceand the August Wilson Journal, and a resident dramaturg with Cadence Theatre Companyin Richmond, VA where she also directs the Sitelines BLMinitiative.
Omiyemi is an award-winning educator. The William & Mary Chapter of the NAACP awarded her a 2020 and 2013 William & Mary Image Award in recognition of her valuable contributions to the William & Mary community. In 2015, the Nu Chi Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. recognized her for her contributions in Theatre. In 2016 she earned an Arts & Sciences Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence and from 2016 – 2020 she held a term professorship as the Sharpe Associate Professor for Civic Renewal and Entrepreneurship. Omiyemi’s most recent honor was earning a 2019 Plumeri Award for Faculty Excellence.
Omiyẹmi is published in FIRE!!! The Multimedia Journal of Black Studies, Continuum, the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society Journal Peer Review Section, the August Wilson Journal, August Wilson’s Pittsburgh Cycle: Critical Perspectives on the Plays(McFarland), and African American Culture: An Encyclopedia of People, Traditions, and Customs(Greenwood). Her direction of “Hoodoo Love” and her sound design for “The Man Who Saved New Orleans” for ETA Creative Arts Foundation, earned her nominations from the Black Theatre Alliance Awards in 2013 and 2011.Omiyẹmi is a native of Michigan but claims Virginia as home. She is a product of Hampton Public Schools, earned her B.A. in Psychology from William & Mary in 2000, and her M.F.A. in Theatre Education (Directing) from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2003. Before returning to William & Mary, she was an associate professor of Communications, Media Arts, and Theatre at Chicago State University and an Artist in Residence with the Black Cultural Center at Purdue University.
After her talk, there will be a roundtable discussion. We are very excited for what promises to be an uplifting and celebratory event! And we can’t wait to see you there too! Click HERE to RSVP for this event. For all event inquiries, please email karen.wilson@hereforthegirls.org.