MAY 2021 BLACK-JEWISH DIALOGUE
Marilyn Kallet recently served two terms as Knoxville Poet Laureate, 2018-2020. She has published 18 books, including How Our Bodies Learned, The Love That Moves Me and Packing Light: New and Selected Poems, Black Widow Press. She translated Paul Eluard’s Last Love Poems and Benjamin Péret’s The Big Game.
Dr. Kallet is Professor Emerita at the University of Tennessee and is a member of the TN G100 Women Leaders. From 2009-2020, she mentored poetry groups for the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, in Auvillar, France. Her poetry has appeared recently in Plume and American Diversity Report.
Maria James-Thiaw is a poet, performer and an educator from Central PA. She has written three poetry collections and her poetry has been published by Cutthroat Journal of the Arts, Love Your Rebellion and other journals. Her choreopoem, Reclaiming My Time: An American Griot Project debuted in Summerdale, PA in 2018 to 6 sold out audiences. She won the Art of Protest Poetry Prize from Penn State for works from that production. In 2020 she created a Zoom version entitled RMT 2.0. This performance poet attended Marilyn Kallet’s workshops in France in 2011 and 2015. Maria is a graduate of Goddard College’s MFA in Creative Writing Program and she is the Program Coordinator of Creative Writing for CASA, Capital Area School for the Arts in Harrisburg, PA.
Dialogue Partners:
American Diversity Report, Chattanooga News Chronicle, Mizpah Congregation, Jewish Federation of Greater Chattanooga, C.U.R.B. – Citizens Uprooting Racism in Bermuda.
See October 2020 Black-Jewish Dialogue
Dr. Tana M Session is an organizational development strategist, international speaker, and media contributor. Dr. Session changes lives at work through transformative Inclusion, Diversity & Multigenerational workforce strategies . She is the CEO and Founder of From Foster Care to Fabulous Foundation.
Christopher. Lafayette is an Emergent Technologist in medtech, virtual and augmented reality, artificial intelligence, climate and applied sciences. He is a Silicon Valley national and international speaker, Thought Leader and Culture & Inclusion Advocate. He is the Founder of Black Technology Mentorship Program (BTMP)
In 2018, former engineer Toni Crowe started successfully pursuing her dream of becoming a full-time author. After growing up in Chicago’s projects, Toni Crowe graduated from the University of Illinois with an Engineering Degree. She obtained her Master’s in Management, became a Professional Engineer, Certified Professional Manager, and a corporate Vice-President. She evolved into an entrepreneur and CEO of Just One with the goal of stopping “just one” person from making her mistakes.
Chattanooga Council Against Hate
Robyn LeBron is a member and contributor to 
Jim Woods is President of Woods Kovalova Group, a Diversity and Leadership Management consulting firm located in Denver. We believe that tackling big thorny challenges requires big unconventional ideas. We provide boundary-pushing proposals for changing the way organizations work and leaders lead.