Calvin Alexander Ramsey is an Atlanta-based playwright, author, photographer and folk art painter. He grew up in Baltimore, Maryland and Roxboro, North Carolina. He is a former Advisory Board Member of the Robert Woodruff Library Special Collections at Emory University in Atlanta as well as a recipient of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Drum Major for Justice Award. His plays have been performed in New York City; Washington, D.C.; Atlanta; San Francisco; Valdez, Alaska; Omaha, Nebraska; Baltimore; and Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Works include the musical Bricktop, the play The Green Book, and the children’s book Ruth and The Green Book.
Anthony Smith Jr. received a B.A. in Fine Arts from Amherst College and an M.F.A. in Painting from the University of Michigan. Smith also studied wood-block printmaking in Kyoto, Japan at Kyoto Seika University in 2001. He has recently showed in the “Tribute to Michelangelo” show at CrisolArts Gallery in Barcelona, Spain. Notable exhibitions include work in the 2014 “Artist Chain Reaction Competition” at the Andrew Freedman Home in the Bronx, the 2013 Fuse Arts Infrastructure Cigar Factory and Schoen’s Building shows in Allentown PA, and the 2010 “Sailing the Barbarous Coast” show (which traveled to the New Art Center in Newton, MA, University Galleries, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA and the Walker Point Art Center, Milwaukee, WI). Also notable was the 2008 “Runaway” show at the University of Texas Pan-American Gallery in McAllen TX for which he received a Puffin Foundation grant. He has been reviewed in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, The Detroit Free Press, The Ann Arbor News and the Artist’s Magazine.
Anthony has taught at such institutions as the University of Michigan, Parsons, Princeton and Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore, Maryland. Smith served as an artist –in-residence at the National Academy of Design from 2006 to 2008. Most recently he has taught at Lehigh University and as a visiting artist at Muhlenberg College. He lives In the Bronx and
Allentown with a studio at the Banana Factory Art Center in Bethlehem, PA.
Deirdre Van Walters (she/her/they) is a local teaching artist with Touchstone Theatre’s Young Playwrights Lab, principal board member, poet, playwright and performing artist with Basement Poetry (a non-profit devised theatre group based in Bethlehem, PA that is committed to serving the community through raw art) and Health Enrollment Coordinator at Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center located in Allentown, PA. Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center creates a vibrant LGBTQ+ community in the Lehigh Valley through arts, health, youth, training, and Pride programs. In her current role at the Bradbury-Sullivan Center, she focuses on expanding and building community relations and advocates for fair access to health benefits within the LGBTQ+ community and abroad.
Michael Freeman is a local abstract artist here in Easton, PA. He has a vision impairment, is legally blind and partially color blind. He does his artwork to help others who have any type of disability, to advocate for those who have any type of disability, and raise mental health awareness in our community. Those who are also legally blind and have a vision impairment can experience my artwork as well.
Camille Armstrong, a.k.a. CAMILLE WHO, a NYC implant since 2004, entrepreneur, graduate of the ‘FAME’ School of the Arts, former 10-year cast member in the international show STOMP, multi-performing artist for over 40 years, teaching artist for almost 30 years, still makes her way around the Lehigh Valley as a Choreographer, Director, Drama and Dance Instructor at Pennsylvania Youth Theatre, Composer, Playwright, and Director with Touchstone Theatre, Front Woman and Composer for various bands including her own Reggae & Soul band
SOULRAGGA, and Rhythm Educator in the local elementary schools. She is honored to be a crucial part of this very relevant conversation for the Lehigh Valley and for the youth of color looking for a reflection of themselves in the Arts industry.
ENID M. & MICHAEL J. SEIDEN '63 '64
