Queen Kandi Cole (Playwright, Celebrating Community Voices) is a Los Angeles–bred international recording artist. Her career got its start among the greats at Project Blowed, where she learned to write verses, understand cadence, and sharpen her delivery. After years of honing her craft, she emerged as a hip-hop artist who spoke first-rate lyrics that often revolved around themes of respect and empowerment. As she began to shake up the city with commanding performances, it came as she carried herself as such and built a reputation that solidified her as a force to be reckoned with. Consistency and hard work have put Queen Kandi Cole on stages across the U.S., India, France, Amsterdam, and Spain, to name a few. With a storied career, she is committed now more than ever to move the culture forward and be the voice for the unheard.

Jonathan Hammond (Playwright, Celebrating Community Voices) is a director, editor, and writer of a dozen films, accruing a Pacific Southwest Emmy Award nomination; San Diego Film Award for Best Writer and nominations for Best Director and Picture; two consecutive San Diego Film Con Challenge wins for Best Film; four San Diego 48 Hour Film Project Audience Awards; Four Points Film Project Award for Best Ensemble Acting; San Diego CityBeat “Best Of” selection; three Indie Short Fest Awards including Best Screenplay; two KPBS Explorer designations; Women Making a Scene International Film Project winner for Best Screenplay; and grants from National Endowment for the Arts and Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice. He is also the winner of Outstanding Writing for 2016 San Diego International Fringe Festival. He is a teaching artist and producer with So Say We All. He attended University of Illinois and New York University Tisch School of the Arts before moving to San Diego.

Freedome Bradley-Ballentine (Co-Director, Celebrating Community Voices), The Old Globe’s Associate Artistic Director and its first Director of Arts Engagement, has been in San Diego for five years, but his impact on the community has been unforgettable. His work forges social connections with economically, geographically, and culturally diverse communities throughout the county, making the Globe truly accessible for all and facilitating the Globe’s commitment of making theatre matter to more people. Since joining the Globe, he has implemented dozens of new in-person and online programs, from Reflecting Shakespeare for people experiencing incarceration, to free Community Voices playwriting workshops, and art collaborations with artists and community called coLAB. Other innovative programs include Word Up!, Bard Basics, Behind the Curtain, Breaking Bread, and the Shakespeare in Prisons Conference 2018. He leads the free Globe for All Tour, which brings professional Shakespeare to underserved and diverse multigenerational audiences in neighborhoods throughout the region. It is now a national model for accessible theatre. On campus, he developed AXIS plaza programs, Pam Farr Summer Shakespeare Studio for teens, and Globe Learning professional development opportunities; he transformed Behind-the-Scenes Tours, Free Student and Senior Matinees, Sensory-Friendly Initiatives, and School in the Park; and he helped start the Technical Center internships and professional development programs. Prior to his arrival in San Diego, Bradley-Ballentine led the theatrical program for SummerStage and the Swedish Cottage Marionette Theater in Central Park, both part of CityParks Foundation. He was also Creative Director of Creative Stages Entertainment, developing and producing Off Broadway theatre. He holds an M.F.A. in Theatre from Sarah Lawrence College and a B.A. in Education from New York University, and he served in the United States Peace Corps in Ethiopia.

Lamar Perry (he/him/his) (Co-Director, Celebrating Community Voices; Co-Director, An Evening with the San Diego Black Artists Collective) is a Queer Black director, producer, and writer originally from Windsor, Connecticut. In addition to working as a freelance director and educator, he currently serves as the Globe’s Artistic Associate, having formerly served as Producing Associate at Classical Theatre of Harlem. His recent projects include the podcast Gather Round! (The Old Globe) and audio plays Punchbowl Spaces and The Family Sound (Blindspot Collective/La Jolla Playhouse). Recently he taught, directed, and conducted a semester-long devised-theatre project at UC San Diego in their graduate acting program with their second-year M.F.A. acting candidates. He is a 2020–2021 Roundabout Theatre Company Directors Group member and a 2020 National Alliance for Musical Theatre Observer. Perry was recently featured in American Theatre magazine’s “Roll Call: People to Watch” and is an alum of Schusterman Family Foundation’s REALITY Storytellers program (2019). He holds a bachelor of science from St. John’s University and is an alum of The American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

Tanika Baptiste (Playwright and Co-Director, An Evening with the San Diego Black Artists Collective), recently named the BroadwayWorld San Francisco 2019 Person to Watch (Female), is an award-winning actor/singer originally from San Diego and is based in both San Diego and the San Francisco Bay Area. Her most recent directorial credits include The Review, or How to Eat Your Opposition and At the Wake of a Dead Drag Queen (Theatre Rhinoceros), Rachel (South Bay Musical Theatre), Black Flag (Common Ground Theatre/Poway Unified School District), The desTROYers (as assistant director, co-adaptor, and costume designer; Southwestern College), and Fires in the Mirror (Trinity Theatre Company). Baptiste served as Artistic Director for the inaugural Artists 4 Black Lives Festival at Balboa Park in San Diego this past Juneteenth. She is slated to direct Program B of the Plays by Young Writers Festival in February. She is a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association.

Delicia Turner Sonnenberg (Co-Director, An Evening with the San Diego Black Artists Collective) is a founder and the former Artistic Director of MOXIE Theatre, which she helmed for 12 acclaimed seasons, receiving the Des McAnuff New Visions Award for risk-taking leadership and body of work and the 2015 Director of the Year Award from the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle. She has also directed plays for The Old Globe, Actors Theatre of Louisville’s Humana Festival, San Diego Repertory Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Cygnet Theatre Company, New Village Arts, Diversionary Theatre, and Mo`olelo Performing Arts Company. Some of her honors include Theatre Communications Group’s New Generations Program grant, San Diego Theatre Critics Circle Awards, Women’s International Center Living Legacy Award, Van Lier Fund fellowship (Second Stage Theatre), and New York Drama League’s Directors Project.

José Cruz González (Playwright, Under a Baseball Sky) has previously written the plays American Mariachi (The Old Globe, Denver Center for the Performing Arts Theatre Company), Sunsets & Margaritas (Denver Center), September Shoes (Geva Theatre Center), Curious (Teatro del Pueblo), The San Patricios (Pacific Conservatory Theatre), Among the Darkest Shadows (Wharton Center for Performing Arts), The Highest Heaven (Childsplay), The Long Road Today (South Coast Repertory), and The Astronaut Farmworker (La Jolla Playhouse; 2016 PEN Center USA Literary Award Finalist). Mr. González also wrote for “Paz,” the Emmy Award-nominated television series produced by Discovery Kids for The Learning Channel. He is a member of the College of Fellows of the American Theatre at The Kennedy Center. A collection of his plays, Nine Plays by José Cruz González: Magical Realism and Mature Themes in Theatre for Young Audiences,was published by University of Texas Press in 2009. He is a professor at California State University, Los Angeles and a member of the Dramatists Guild and TYA/USA. He is a Playwright-in-Residence at Childsplay in Tempe, Arizona.