Peggy's Creative Arts Space: Recent Episodes
Peggy Neely-Harris
Peggy's Create Arts Space is a virtual community for people that love the creative arts. Whether you're someone that enjoys the arts or someone looking to make a living doing what you love, there is something here for you.
Peggy Neely Harris is an award-winning creative artist with decades of experience in theater, television, movies, and music. This virtual community, with the podcast as a foundational component, is her way of giving back to the industry that has given so much to her.
The Art of Support: Dedicated Father, Reginald Slaughter’s outreach work with thousands of fathers in search of support is more than a job…it’s a gift, and a commitment to elevating other men (some mothers) to become productive citizens in society. Reginald Slaughter is the Community Coordinator at Fathers and Families Support Center of St. Louis (Metro area & East St. Louis, IL) and a 22-year graduate of the very same program he now markets. With a grateful heart, his mission is to keep wayward parents from falling prey to society’s ills. It is also his mission to help ex-felons and those on hard times see the light of day and regain safe entry back into society and in the lives of their children by encouraging enrollment in FFSC!
The Center’s core Family Formation Program is a six-week, full-day, full-immersion transformational program. Participants—20% are mothers—are taught a variety of parenting and life skills that result in better opportunities for themselves, and brighter futures for their children. The Family Formation program focuses heavily on co-parenting.
The program curriculum also touches upon personal development, child abuse, and neglect prevention, financial literacy, family bonding experiences, and more. Many program facilitators were once program participants themselves…including Mr. Slaughter. Eighty percent of FFSC graduates report that learning positive parenting skills increased interaction with their children.
Floyd Boykin Jr. is the founder and creator of the 5x award-winning publication SpokenVizions Magazine, SpokenVizions.com, and SpokenVizions Entertainment Group, LLC. SpokenVizions Magazine is a publication geared towards the lifestyles and accomplishments of poets, spoken word artists, and indie artists in the United States and Canada. The magazine became the recipient of 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2016 National Poetry Awards Poetry Magazine of the Year and Mr. Boykin also received the 2010 lifetime achievement award from
another organization for his services and commitment to the poetry community.
In 2004, Boykin received The Keith Rodgers Foundation Award in Tallahassee, Florida. SpokenVizions Magazine has been serving the arts community since 2002 and consistently participates with Lupus Awareness, Domestic Violence Issues, and Breast Cancer organizations. Floyd
has been performing poetry professionally since July 1997.
He is a slam champion and winner of numerous poetry competitions. He has shared the stage or opened up for the legendary Last Poets,
Jessica Care Moore, Ursula Rucker, Malik Yusef, Dahveed Nelson, and the late Gil Scott-Heron, to name a few. Floyd also released five music projects and is an author of six poetry books and three motivational books.
He has toured Canada and was a part of a 15-city spoken word poetry tour in the United States. He is currently working on future music videos,
a short film, and a host of other positive ventures.
Andrew Gibson has been an artist, educator, and organizer since he was a teenager. As the Executive Director and co-founder of Freedom Arts, Andrew directs all fundraising and marketing campaigns participates in all programs, supports staff in day-to-day operational and programmatic tasks, facilitates workshops and classes, and mentors the youth.
He works as the Director of Partnerships with Faith For Justice through which he co-organizes national conferences and campaigns and co-leads ongoing anti-racism, de-escalation, and direct-action training from a faith perspective. Andrew also currently serves as the Music
Coordinator at St. John’s Church - The Beloved Community in North St. Louis. He has taught music at multiple area high schools, art centers, and youth organizations and keeps a steady schedule as a performing and recording musician working with dozens of regional and national artists.
Andrew holds a Bachelor’s degree in Music with a double minor in Philosophy and Audio Production from Webster University.
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Micah Liesenfeld/BA Fine Arts from Lindenwood, University in St. Charles, MO is a Handmade Bookmaker and master of so many wonderful artistic crafts, pocket-size comic strip writer, designer, and wholistic artist whose stories and drawings appeal to the Human Spirit. He is an author of several published books and one in particular, is the Zebra and The Black Pony!
He owns hundreds of original drawings; a husband and father of two (who often work with Micah in his home-based studio) and is the inspiration to much of his work. He also plays the guitar, occasionally!
Micah and his wife Aicha can be found on Etsy for their Handmade Books and other wonderful products under the name Micahnova
Micah and Aicha's Shop of Handmade Books https://www.etsy.com/shop/micahnova
Micaela Griffin, originally from Swansea, Illinois, graduated with honors with a B.S. in Media and Entertainment and a Pre-Law minor from
Middle Tennessee State University, is one of the world’s top colleges for entertainment studies. Her love for arts and entertainment stems from a life lived in the midst of it and an interest in art in every form.
Her honors thesis titled We Love To See It explores this interest as it chronicles the lack of diversity in romantic comedy films and charts its steady increase. Now working in the theater industry as the current Marketing and Administrative Fellow for The St. Louis Black Repertory Company, she spends her time doing graphic design, social media marketing, event planning, promotion, box office management, and audience development for St. Louis the premiere African-American performing arts organization.
Janelle Velten: A longtime advocate of the Arts, is the Arts Integration Specialist at COCA (Center of Creative Arts). She currently combines her experience as an artist, teaching artist, classroom teacher, and arts administrator to collaboratively create arts-integrated programming with classroom teachers and teaching artists in the bi-state area. She believes learning in and through the arts is one of the great joys of life.
On this episode of Peggy’s Creative Arts Space Podcast! Adjunct Theatre Professor Phil Gill of Lindenwood University shares why artists travel the roads they do when going from a ton of semester courses to seasoned careers. A sustainable career in the arts can be tough for anyone with a passion for it.
But once a person understands the rigors of mastering creative subjects, techniques training, grueling rehearsals, months of tours, auditions, and submissions; All along while appreciating and helping oneself and others thrive, identify, and sustain life through works of art you
just can’t help but advocate for the craft! Phil believes that the Arts were perhaps one of the most consequential motivators/sanity keepers during covid onslaught.
Listen to Phil’s inspiration, philosophy, tips, and suggestions on how he believes it is possible for artists to make their chosen career work for them in St. Louis and other places. A well-traveled artist locally and abroad, Phil Gill is a theatre director at Lindenwood University and works as a director, actor, and intimacy director around the St. Louis area. He holds a BFA in Musical Theatre from Drake University and an MFA in Directing from Lindenwood.
He has worked for many companies around STL and St. Charles communities: Alton Little Theatre, First Run, St. Louis Shakespeare, and Alpha Players Theatres. He just finished directing “Rent” at Lindenwood.
Toni Simmons Henson, (Toni X) is a spoken word poet, best-selling author, public speaker, and serial entrepreneur. She has over 30 years of expertise in business development, entertainment production, and marketing. Henson has launched and operated three franchises and four businesses in her career, most notably, Micah 6-8 Media, LLC which produces the Atlanta Black Theatre Festival, Black Family Table Talk Podcast/Blog, Black Theatre TV, and ABTF Travels specializing in arts and cultural experiences.
She is a graduate of New York University (MPA) and Howard University (BBA) and earned Executive Certificates in Non-profit Management and Women in Leadership.
Accomplishments
In 2007, Henson moved to Atlanta and started Micah 6-8 Media, LLC. She began producing plays written by African-American women. In 2012, she and her sister, Wanda Simmons, co-founded the Atlanta Black Theatre Festival (ABTF). This annual event attracts thousands of theatre lovers from around the corner to around the globe.
The ABTF has provided a platform for over 125 self-producing African-American playwrights and over 3,000 artists. Also in 2020, she expanded the ABTF brand to include an arts and cultural travel company. This company will lead its first delegation of 36 artists and art
enthusiasts to Ghana at the invitation of the National Theatre in December 2021.
Awards and Recognitions
Henson was honored by the National Council of Negro Women Greater Atlanta Section to recognize her contributions to the theatre community. She is the recipient of the 2019 " Jewel of the Mountain Award for Arts and Letters" from Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated, SM-LAC.
She has also received numerous awards for distinguished achievements in business, including feature stories in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC), Entrepreneur Magazine, a cover story in the Princeton Packet Weekend Magazine, and Ghana's popular CMonline.com.
Rollin' Down the River...as teens in St. Louis City/County ROLL on the paint on almost everything insight to help make St. Louis ARTISTICALLY beautiful, through St. Louis Art Works organization! Step inside this jewel of a place with Executive Director Ms. Jacqueline K. Dace to be swept away in awe from the gifted works of young minds in this creative teen program! Our final salute to Women's History Month's guest has been on quite an impressive roll herself directing and managing museums, films, civil rights projects, and music activities...not to mention her Emmy for the documentary "Mandela" Prepared to Die." Impressive and helpful soul indeed! Read Ms. Dace's detailed Bio on Tuesday on the next Peggy's Creative Arts Space Podcast @ 10:00 AM!
Jacqueline K. Dace is the Executive Director with St. Louis Artworks, in St. Louis, MO. She previously served as deputy director of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center; director of internal affairs and interim executive director at the National Blues Museum; project manager for the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum in Jackson; collections manager at the DuSable Museum of African American History in Chicago;
curator of African American history at the Missouri Historical Society and adjunct professor of Afro-African American Studies at Washington University in St. Louis
Dace is a recipient of the Hollywood Black Film Festival and Kansas City Film Festival Awards, as well as the National Arts Strategies Fellowship. She participated in the inaugural Public History Institute, developed by the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture, held at Yale University. Dace has served as a practitioner with W.
K. Kellogg Foundation’s Racial Equity program and graduated from the Jackson Division of the FBI Citizens Academy. Dace was selected to participate in the first American Express Women in Music Leadership Academy, 2018, held in New York City, and is the recipient of the 2019 Ohio Valley Regional Emmy for the documentary. “Mandela: Prepared to Die”.
Dace also served on the local arrangements committee for the 2017 Annual Meeting of the American Alliance of Museums and is a current board member for the Association of African American Museums.
It’s pretty much safe to say that we all know someone who has been affected by the ugliness of Cancer. Regardless of diagnosis/prognosis for self, family, or friends, it doesn’t just stop there…it affects everyone in the family, especially caregivers! Karen Tripp: MS LMFT has used her creative skills to help with the journey of many people going through the process of cancer care with artistry!
Her “warm-hearted” Cancer Companions Biblical/cancer education/support group program uses plenty of Arts from various mediums to touch lives in ways you wouldn’t expect! Pull up a seat on the next Peggy’s Creative Arts Space Podcast and be moved by Karen’s calling with the cancer books she has written; online videos/films; exercise tips; Annual 30-Days of Prayer with celebrities suffering just like you and me; and plenty of singers, actors, producers and just about everything from the kitchen sink to bring CRAZY PEACE in some way or another!
Author and counselor, Karen Tripp MS LMFT, is the Executive Director of Cancer Companions. Other roles have included author of Christian books including God is Bigger Than Your Cancer, daughter of a colon cancer survivor, and licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. Her father was a 23 year colon cancer survivor and her step-mother died of breast cancer. Karen believes in praying boldly, laughing loudly and facing each learning curve one baby step at a time.
In addition, Karen is blessed with an adorable husband, Kelly, and a dynamic son, Garrett, a precious daughter-in-law, Cecilia, and a vivacious daughter, Heidi. Skylar, her granddaughter, is joy beyond compare. Karen enjoys leading Bible studies, playing in creeks, and making sugar cookies with kids of all ages.
To contact Karen, email her at karen@cancer-companions.org or call 314-814-0044.
WITHOUT A SONG! Indeed life would be tough void of rhythms, rhymes, and cultural times of worldwide musical styles! Whether secular or sacred, the sheer artistry of good music keeps us moving and can satisfy the soul in many ways. Join me and my guest with 30 yrs in the industry...
Mrs. Sparkl West- Pruitt/President of Business Development at Infinity West, Inc. on the next Peggy's Creative Arts Space
Podcast! We'll have a fun chat about her role as manager to professional & celebrity musicians such as After 7; Midnight Star; Chante Moore and others.
Not to mention her exciting initiatives and leadership to support & sustain more creative arts in schools. Mrs. Pruitt's eyes do sparkle & as she passionately speaks about children and education, and we wish her well in her candidacy for the Hazelwood School
Board! Next Tuesday.
Sparkl A. West
Sr. Partner & President of Business Development
404-510-9378
ATLANTA * ST. LOUIS * LAS VEGAS
www.infinitywestinc.com
First Lady of Production! Tuesday, 3-15-2022 @ 10:00 AM, on Peggy's Creative Arts Space Podcast!
BLACK PROMOTERS COLLECTIVE
Promoter Rep./Tour Manager - The Night Tour
www.blackpromoterscollective.com
I Can Read and I Can Write! Parents, you will explode with joy and pride when your child comes home and shares this wonderful news with you…just enroll in Ruby Jackson’s FREE after-school workshop/Success, It’s Mine!
We all know that the onslaught of COVID re-wrote history as we knew it for adults and children alike all over the world in the last two years. And most adults are equipped to deal with the changes, so why not provide Success, It’s Mine as armor for your struggling child to fight back with if they are falling short in class?!
You can not afford to miss this arts educator on the next Peggy’s Creative Arts Space Podcast; Tuesday, March 8th at 10:00 AM! Join the roll-call!
Ruby Jackson has been actively working with children for more than 40 years. Her personal achievements include a BA in vocal music; MA in Esthetic Education/w The Arts; MA in Computer Science for educators; MA in Counseling, and ED.S in Educational Administration. The 2011 recipient of Sam’s/Walmart Teacher of the Year; Apple for the Teach Award from Iota Phi Lambda Sorority, Inc. 2017 Alpha Zeta Chapter; and Who’s Who, 2021.
Ruby is also the Director and Founder and Author of the book (2021)Success, It’s Mine: ReadWriteLearn for Success: a free non-profit service for underprovided students in STL and surrounding areas…for students struggling in basic areas, especially since COVID; based on data from MAP scores.
The service is free and students from grades K-8 are given help and support in their English Language Arts studies. Mrs. Jackson
is an active member of her church where she directs and sings on the praise team/choir. She directs and produces the Christmas and Resurrection events and serves in the children's church.
She is a wife, mother, grandmother and has been a foster parent for more than 20 years. The family resides in St. Charles and is active
in the community.
Glynis Mary McManamon, RGS (member of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd, a Catholic sisterhood) established Good Shepherd Arts Center (GSAC) in 2015 as a studio/gallery for her own work and a place of peace, healing and beauty in Ferguson, MO, one
year after the tragic shooting of Michael Brown, Jr. Within months she received requests from schools and young professional artists to exhibit there.
As more persons came forward to support and develop the space, she formed a board and established the location as a 501c3. GSAC operated as a live gallery space and arts activities resource until the pandemic lockdown of March 2020, then evolved into an online arts resource.
With the lessening of restrictions, GSAC has resumed leading arts activities at the Ferguson Farmers’ Market and has manages an exhibit space at St. Peters United Church of Christ’s Community Resource Center in Ferguson.
A working artist, Glynis Mary’s primary expression is in Byzantine iconography. In addition to studying art at Bellarmine University, she holds an MBA from Xavier University and a certificate in Chemical Dependency Counseling from Spalding University. Glynis Mary has participated in group and solo exhibits in Louisville, Kentucky; Springfield and Chicago, Illinois; and Ferguson, MO.
Gregory S. Carr is an instructor in Communication Studies at Harris-Stowe State University. Gregory is an accomplished director, playwright, actor, and published writer. His award-winning plays Johnnie Taylor Is Gone and A Colored Funeral was produced at the historic Karamu House in Cleveland and at the Cleveland Playhouse.
His play Tinderbox was featured at the East St. Louis Centennial Commission commemorating the devastating East St. Louis Massacre of 1917. His most recent play, Live from Ferguson! dramatizes the events leading up to the shooting of Michael Brown and the Ferguson Protests. Gregory’s essays and plays have appeared in several publications such as Sacred Conflicts: Plays from the Religious Arts Festival, Theatre Symposium, The Routledge Companion to African Theatre, and Cosmic Underground: A Grimoire of Black Speculative Discontent.
Disciplining tips in your chosen discipline are what you will take away from our next guest and HBCU Communications Studies Instructor Gregory S. Carr from Harris Stowe State University! Given Gregory's seventeen-plus years of instruction, directing, playwrighting, publishing, and acting at the University qualify him for a much greater title as Professor Carr in the not-so-distant future! Greg's love and affection for teaching Black Theatre are real, and one can't help but become absorbed in his creative mindset...you get goosebumps!
Gregory Carr and others in the field of Communications, particularly Speech and Theatre will confirm that investing in higher education requires much focus, dedication to studies, and learning how to discipline oneself for greater career outcomes. But if you are true to your calling these requirements will become second nature to your passion for performing arts, says Greg. Learn these qualities and much more on the next Peggy's Creative Arts Space Podcast.
You won't want to miss this valuable knowledge from Gregory S. Carr, performing artist extraordinaire and Faculty Advisor on our next Podcast; Tuesday, February 28, 2022, @10:00 AM on your favorite podcast channels or watch it on Peggy Neely-Harris FB Page to join in on the entire experience of Peggy's Creative Arts Space!
Sparks of Influence...where it all began! It's Peggy's Creative Arts Space next Podcast! Who influenced your career path? A creative conversation where we recognize those people in our lives who have helped to lay foundations for us. Those who were the wind beneath our wings! Those who have shaped us to become who we are today!
Darlene Emison spent her lifetime as a classroom educator, nurturing and fostering dreams & hope in many students, especially for Peggy. It gave her the feeling of boundless creativity to stretch and explore through the arts! All children, teens, and even adults appreciate loving guidance and support from others because it gives them a sense of purpose. Guidance helps to instill a sense of direction with so many choices that lay ahead in one's future.
Dive into this positive conversation with Peggy as she shares how her high school Drama teacher's (Darlene Emison) "no frills" manner of teaching lit her creative fuses and has influenced her to become an actress, singer and teaching artist. That confidence and grit from her still makes a creative difference in Peggy's life to this day!
The FIRST ever Peggy’s Creative Arts Space Podcast continues! Kicking off week two of motivating and encouraging performing artists is the incomparable, Artistic Director of the Cincinnati Men’s Chorus/Steve Milloy!
As more artists struggle to find a path for developing and marketing their talents we look to career veterans for answers. This highly sought
after Conductor/Arranger shares his trials and triumphs to help guide you.
Developing and promoting your talent all alone can be a tough job! Discover, and/or Engage in creative conversations each week with trailblazing Performing, and Teaching Artist Peggy Neely Harris and her showstopping guests (This week: Erica Rogers/Marketing and Outreach Manager@ Fox Performing Arts Charitable Foundation) with resources for the whole family! Don’t miss ideas that could generate a market for your gifts, qualities, and creative skills…just 30 minutes a week!
About Erica Rogers
Erica Rogers is the Marketing and Outreach Manager for the Fox Performing Arts Charitable Foundation. She began her work with the Foundation nine years ago as a Program Assistant helping with the coordination of its programs and Stage Managing the St. Louis Teen Talent Competition. She has 13 years of Stage Management and non-profit administration experience working with organizations such as St. Louis Fringe Festival and New Jewish Theatre.
Marketing and Outreach Manager
Fox Performing Arts Charitable Foundation
https://foxpacf.org
A platform where people with a passion for performance of any kind, can gather and feel comfortable about sharing their gifts to bless another! Among many things, it is a teaching place. It is a clearinghouse of artistic gifts, qualities, and talents! A place to enhance and broaden “imagination” for all things positive; for all ages! This space connects!
It is a place where no artistic recipe is the same, where no comparison of gifts takes place…but rather a gathering of gifts to uplift, inform, and encourage those who may need to hear about of another’s triumphs, struggles, ideas, or helpful suggestions.
Who knows? Coming into this space could make all the difference in the world in helping someone become a much more productive citizen in life than before? Peggy’s Creative Art Space aims to be a “felt” experience!
Art transcends boundaries! Art heals…no matter of race, color, or creed! Art is in every walk of life when we are still and notice it, or peel back layers of detail of activities from day to day. It is a felt experience! The Arts “lives” in this space!