“Meeting the Moment with Michael Mwenso” and guest Samantha Speis

Episode four of Meeting the Moment with Michael Mwenso features Samantha Speis, co-artistic director of the dance-theatre company Urban Bush Women. She will explore the company’s work and organizational legacy, and how it amplifies under-heard voices and catalyzes for social change.

Mwenso, a Harlem-based cross-genre artist and leader of jazz-funk band The Shakes, is partnering with the Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State to provide opportunities for faculty, staff, students, and community members to engage in thought-provoking conversations that speak to the topics of equity, diversity, and inclusion.

Speis, who joined Urban Bush Women in 2008, has had her work featured at the Kennedy Center, Long Island University, Joyce SoHo, Hollins University, Danspace Project, Dixon Place, Dance Place, and The Kelly Strayhorn Theater. Recent projects include Walking with ’Trane, co-choreographed with Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, and Hair & Other Stories, a collaboration with Chanon Judson-Johnson and Raelle Myrick-Hodges.

The free live series will be broadcast via the Zoom video app, and questions will be taken in real time from audience members through the chat function.