| Course | Instructor | Bio |
The Secrets of Successful Grantwriting
Tuesday
7:00 - 9:00 pm | Chris S. O’Sullivan | Dr. O’Sullivan has supported herself and staff on primarily government grants for 15 years, with 20 successful grant applications bringing in over $4 million for her projects and affiliated nonprofit organizations. Her first three or four applications were not funded, but then the hits grew from $40,000 to a million. It is all about the craft: a skillfully written grant can compensate for a multitude of weaknesses. She has learned to identify the essentials by working with new applicants: Keep it simple, keep it real, get the details right and tell a compelling story. |
| Shakespeare Performance Workshop Mondays at 2:00 | Alfred Preisser | Alfred Preisser is an award-winning director, writer, and producer of theatre. He has led over forty professional productions in New York and regionally. From 1999-2007, Mr. Preisser was the founding Artistic Director of the Classical Theatre of Harlem and Director of the Theater Department at the Harlem School for the Arts. He is currently Artistic Director of Bloodstone theatre and developing productions for the Negro Ensemble Company, La Mama Theater, and Melvin Van Peebles. |
| Acting for the Professional Mondays at 4:30pm | Alfred Preisser | See above |
Acting for Anyone Mondays at 7:00pm | Jacqueline Wade | Jacqueline Wade is a graduate of Temple University's Theatre Department and Circle in the Square Two Year Actor's Training Program. She is a member of AEA and SAG. She has performed in plays at various regional theaters throughout the country including Milwaukee Rep, Wilma Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, LaMaMa ETC, Classical Theatre of Harlem and many other theatres. She has also written over 20 plays and performance art pieces which have been produced at and/or toured many theatres, performing arts centers, museums, schools, colleges, and libraries throughout the country. Some of the locations include, New York International Fringe Festival, LaMaMa ETC. , Henry Street Settlement, Through Her Eyes Women of Color Theatre Festival, 50 Queens Libraries, Mary McLeod Bethune Council House Museum, Old South Meeting House Museum, Nuyorican Poets Cafe, New York University, York College Performing Arts Center, Queens Theatre in the Park, Black Spectrum Theatre, Jamaica Arts Center, Sun Dog Productions, Riverbank State Park, Vinnette Carroll Theatre, and many other locations. |
Short Story Tuesdays at 7:00pm | Laura Pegram | The founding editor of KWELI online literary journal teaches two intensive workshops: The Art of the Short Story and The Art of Writing for Children. Laura understands that all writers begin as close readers. As a result, she complements her short story workshops with critical reading assignments of work by Toni Cade Bambara, Edward P. Jones, Sandra Cisneros, Junot Diaz, Louise Erdrich, Sherman Alexie, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and other noted literary giants. Once this basic foundation is set, she gently layers the process for collegial constructive criticism of students’ work. Emerging writers, at all levels, learn to develop and hone their craft, and appreciate the nuanced language of critique during the workshop cycle. |
Mystery and More Mondays at 7:00pm | Grace Edwards | Grace F. Edwards is the author of 5 mysteries, 1 thriller, amd 1 coming-coming-of-age novel set in Harlem where she was born and raised. She has an M.A. from C.U.N.Y. and has reviewed books for The Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post. Ms. Edwards was a Yaddo fellow and is Secretary of the Harlem Writers' Guild. She has taught Fiction at Marymount Manhattan College for the last 8 years. |
| Advanced Screenwriting Mondays at 7:00pm | Michael Holman | An award-winning television and film producer, director and writer, Michael Holman wrote the screenplay to the Miramax bio cult film about Jean-Michel Basquiat titled, “Basquiat,” wrote, produced and directed children’s programming for Nickelodeon, including the Ace Award winning “Blue’s Clues,” produced and directed numerous MTV music videos, and taught graduate level screenwriting and directing at Howard University in Washington, DC. In this advanced screenwriting course, Holman will: challenge students to take their scriptwriting work to the next level; as well as focus on script adaptation from novels and other literature. |
| Directing for the Stage Tuesdays at 7:00pm | Alfred Preisser | Please see "Acting for the Professional" |
Blogging as Journalism Wednesdays at 7:00pm | Stephan Miller | Stephan C. Miller is an editor, reporter, and technology consultant. He was the Assistant to the Technology Editor at The New York Times. While at The Times. he covered technology, and supervised the training of reporters and editors in the uses of technology, Miller started his career in broadcasting, spending 12 years at CBS News. He is on the Board of Directors of Investigative Reporters and Editors and is the past President of the New York Association of Black Journalists. |
| Romance Novel Tuesdays at 7:00pm | Nathasha Brooks-Harris | The author of the Romance Thriller Panache and has been Contributing Editor and Columnist for TODAY'S BLACK WOMEN and BLACK MEN Magazine. She was also the Editor for FLY Magazine and served that same capacity for BLACK CONFESSIONS and BLACK ROMANCE Magazines. She is also Associate Editor of True Confessions Magazine and winner of the EMMA Award for Best New Author in 2002 |
Screenwriting Wednesday at 7:00pm | Alan Zatkow | Mr. Alan H. Zatkow attended the Dramatic Writing Department at Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, and in addition to performing improvisational comedy, has built a steady reputation as a professional script doctor and screenwriting instructor for the last fifteen years. Mr. Zatkow has been affiliated with Frederick Douglass Creative Arts Center since 2003. |
Writing for Comics Wednesdays at 7:00pm | Alex Simmons | .As a writer of comics and graphic novels, Simmons has created and written a critically acclaimed adventure series, BLACKJACK, about an African-American soldier of fortune in the 1930s. He received a 2010 Glyph Awards Best Writer nomination for his, The Cartoon Life of Chuck Clayton (Archie Comics). Simmons has written several other mini series for Archie Comics, as well as co-created an African-American hero for DC Comics in their Batman books, and penned several tales of Scooby Doo. Simmons also created 12 interactive mysteries for the Tiger Toys electronic game WHO DONE IT (which received three educational awards). Simmons is also the founder and co producer of the annual KIDS’ COMIC CON (an age appropriate comic book convention for children and families), as well as the curator of the COLOR OF COMICS art exhibition (containing images from artists around the globe representing the portrayal of people of color in comics). |
| Science Fiction Writing Wednesdays at 7:00pm | Michel Marriott | Long-time technology reporter Michel Marriot is the author if the science fiction thriller The Skull Cage Key, set in mid 21st Century Harlem. Books as diverse as Nueromancer, The Possibility of an Island, and Children of Men will be covered in this workshop. Marriot is penning his second novel. |
Advanced Playwriting
Tuesdays at 7:00pm | Leslie Lee | An Obie and Drama Desk Award winning playwright, television writer and author of stories for both children and adults. Leslie also teaches playwriting at New York University and The New School University. |
| Soap Opera Writing Wednesdays at 7:00pm | Sojourna Collier | An Emmy nominated scriptwriter who has written for the award winning daytime dramas One Life to Live and All My Children. She has pinned the screenplay “Get the Show On the Road” an adaptation of a romance novel, commissioned by Johwarah Films Production. In addition, she has served on the Development Associate for Al Roker Production – creating new TV shows and documentaries. She collaborated with the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office to produce the documentary “Charge It to the Game: The Effects of Gun Violence in Brooklyn.” Sojourna also teaches at School Of Visual Arts. |
| Film Fusion: Screenwriting Thursday at 7:00pm | Alan Zatkow | Please see "Beginning Screenwriting." |
| Non-Fiction and Memoir Writing Thursdays at 7:00pm | Michel Marriott | A staff writer at the New York Times and has been twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. He is a frequent contributor to the annual Men's Issue of Essence magazine, and has written for Esquire, Vibe, and African Voices. He received an M.A. in journalism from the prestigious Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. |
| Writing Magic Realism Thursdays at 7:00pm | Sheree Renée Thomas | The winner of the World Fantasy Award and the Gold Pen Award, and editor of the anthology Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in numerous literary publications, and her work as a journalist and book critic has appeared in diverse national publications including the Washington Post Book World and Black Issues Book Review. Her book Dark Matter: Reading The Bones was published in January 2004. |
| Television Writing: Basic Techniques Fridays at 7:00pm | Alan Zatkow | Please see "Beginning Screenwriting." |
| Beginning Playwriting Fridays at 7:00pm | Sophia Romma | Holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. She is the winner of the Grand Prix Garnet Bracelet for best screenplay for her film, Poor Liza. Her play, Coyote, Take Me There! and nine short stories have just been published in a book entitled Blue Devils. Most recently, her musical Defenses of Prague, co-directed by Leslie Lee, was produced at La MaMa in the winter of 2004. |
| Writing for The Documentary Saturdays at 2:00pm | Phil Bertelsen | Award-winning Phil Bertelsen works in both fiction and non-fiction, He produced and directed Beyond The Steps about Alvin Ailey American Dance and produced the Peabody Award winning Chisholm '72. Both aired nationally on PBS along with Outside Looking In, documentary examining transracial adoption in America. His narrative feature debut, Rock the Paint, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival where it received a Creative Promise Award. |
