Dion Graham (as Muhammad Ali)
As an actor, Dion Graham has performed
on Broadway, Off Broadway, internationally, in films and in several
hit television series. He has appeared in a wide variety of classical
and contemporary roles, and he has originated roles in numerous
world premieres of works by major playwrights. These include Tennessee
Williams' Not About Nightingales (London's Royal National Theatre & Broadway),
Kenneth Lonergan's Lobby Hero (Lucille Lortel Award Nominee), and
many others. In film and television, he has performed featured,
recurring, and guest leads in Malcolm X, Thirteen Conversations
About One Thing, NYPD Blue, Hack, New York News, Hoop Life, the
various Law & Order programs, HBO’s The Wire, and more.
As a voice-over artist, Graham has voiced an array of projects
for film and television. A highly regarded narrator, he is the
series narrator of A&E’s The First 48 and Biography. He has
also been the series narrator for Police Force and Art of the Heist.
His documentary narrations include Liberia: A Fragile Peace, Reconstruction:
The Second Civil War, Culture Shock and Sacrifice and Glory: The
Jubilee Singers.
Willis Patterson (as Malcolm X)
Dr. Willis
Patterson, emeritus professor of voice at the University of Michigan
School of Music, has had an extensive career as a singer of jazz,
opera, oratorio, and solo recitalist of art songs in German, French,
Italian, Russian and English. He has also taught voice performance
at two historically Black colleges and universities – Southern University
in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Virginia State University in Petersburg,
Virginia.
Dr. Patterson was the first African-American professor in the University
of Michigan School of Music, following successful appearances in
Europe as an opera performer and recitalist. His research work has
featured the art song compositions of African-American composers,
and he is regarded as one of the foremost experts of this song repertory
in the world. He has published two anthologies of African-American
art songs and one collection of Negro spirituals. He holds two degrees
in voice performance from the University of Michigan and a doctoral
degree in Higher Education Administration from Wayne State University
in Detroit, Michigan.
Sonia Sanchez (as Rosa Parks)
Born Wilsonia Benita Driver in Birmingham,
Alabama, Sonia Sanchez was a pioneer in developing black studies courses
at what is now San Francisco State University, where she was an instructor
from 1968 to 1969.
Sanchez is the author of more than a dozen books of poetry, including
Shake Loose My Skin: New and Selected Poems (1999); Like the Singing
Coming Off the Drums: Love Poems (1998); Does your house Have Lions?
(1995), which was nominated for both the NAACP Image Award and National
Book Critics Circle Award; Wounded in the House of a Friend (1995);
Under a Soprano Sky (1987); and Homegirls & Handgrenades (1984),
which won an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation.
Her published plays are Black Cats Back and Uneasy Landings (1995),
I'm Black When I'm Singing, I'm Blue When I Ain't (1982), Malcolm Man
Don't Live Here No Mo' (1979), Uh Huh: But How Do It Free Us? (1974),
Dirty Hearts (1973), The Bronx Is Next (1970), and Sister Sonji (1969).
Sanchez's books for children include A Sound Investment and Other Stories
(1979), The Adventures of Fat Head, Small Head, and Square Head (1973),
and It's a New Day: Poems for Young Brothas and Sistuhs (1971). She
has also edited two anthologies: We Be Word Sorcerers: Twenty-five
Stories by Black Americans (1973) and Three Hundred Sixty Degrees of
Blackness Comin’ at You (1971).
Among the many honors she has received are the Community Service Award
from the National Black Caucus of State Legislators, the Lucretia Mott
Award, the Outstanding Arts Award from the Pennsylvania Coalition of
100 Black Women, the Peace and Freedom Award from the Women’s International
League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), the Pennsylvania Governor's Award
for Excellence in the Humanities, a National Endowment for the Arts
Award, and a Pew Fellowship in the Arts.
Bishop Edgar L. Vann II (as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.)
Bishop Edgar
L. Vann, II is an anointed preacher and teacher whose vision for God’s
people enables him to build bridges, reach across denominations, generations,
gender, race, culture and ethnicity, changing lives and building communities.
On December 5, 1976, Bishop Vann was called to pastor Second Ebenezer
Church. During his tenure, the membership of Second Ebenezer has grown
from 66 to more than 5,000 committed believers.
During his years as pastor, Bishop Vann has developed the international
ministry of the church and has traveled the U.S. and abroad, teaching
and preaching to all who desire to know God. A prolific writer, Bishop
Vann has penned numerous published articles on a variety of subjects
and is completing his first book, Why Look Down and Die, When You Can
Look Up and Live. He is a featured columnist on faith and policy for
the Detroit News and was named one of metro Detroit’s most influential
ministers by the Detroit Free Press. Bishop Vann is widely recognized
for his leadership, his anointed ministry and his continued commitment.
Over the years, Bishop Vann has received numerous accolades and awards
for his dedicated service to the church and the community at large,
including the Southern Christian Leadership Conference Pastor of the
Year award in January 2004. He was also recently inducted into the
Board of Preachers at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia.
