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Indira Etwaroo
[edit]Dr. Indira Etwaroo garners various titles such as producer, educator, artist, and scholar. By January 26, 2015, she was appointed as Executive Director of The Center for Arts and Culture at Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation. She has been described as “a seeker of meaning, of relevance, of values; and a meaning-maker; searching for relationships, striving towards depths of understanding and seeking transformation.”[1] Dr. Etwaroo has a passion in making a change in communication and the arts thus making it a profession of hers. Her ideology in her endeavors consists of bringing "all of these already successful arts-related endeavors under one umbrella," and to "re-imagine them from a multi-disciplinary point of view.”[2] Dr. Etwaroo oversees and directs the Billy Holiday Theater, Youth Arts Academy, Skylight Gallery, and Restoration Plaza’s Presenting Program in her position in CAC (The Center for Arts and Culture). The mission of CAC is "to present, promote, and preserve the artistic legacy of the African Diaspora and further the artistic development of the community."[2] In 2009, Dr. Indira Etwaroo was listed in the Forty Under 40 Dynamic Achievers Award.[1]
Early Life and Education
[edit]Dr. Indira Etwaroo grew up in Newport News, Virginia. Later she attended Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia, where she received her Bachelors' Degree in Music Education in 1994. In 1999, Dr. Etwaroo attended Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to receive her Masters in Dance Education.[1] In 2004, she received her PhD in Cultural Studies also from Temple University with a concentration in Dance, and a Graduate Certificate in Women's Studies, Anthropology, and African American Studies.[2]
After receiving degrees in cultural studies, music and dance education, Etwaroo performed at the National Black Theatre Festival.[3] In 2003, Dr. Etwaroo worked for a year in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia as a Fulbright Scholar where she collaborated with a group of refugee Somali women and children "to explore the performance aesthetics that surround the controversial practice of female genital cutting."[1] For her endeavors, Dr. Etwaroo received the Emerging Doctoral Scholar Award and the Graduate Research Award from the National Congress on Research in Dance.[1] Within the same year, she has also served as Adjunct Professor teaching Dance, Movement and Pluralism, and Research Methods at Temple University.[1] Before joining the New York Public Radio (NYPR) in 2006, she offered her services at BAM (The Brooklyn Academy of Music) where she cultivated some of the most notable education and humanities programming in the music, dance, drama and visual arts field.[4]
Work
[edit]Dr. Indira Etwaroo joined the New York Public Radio (NYPR) in September 2006, and worked there until May 2013. During this time, she founded the Jerome L. Greene Performance Space in 2009, taking on the role as Executive Producer.[5] The Jerome L. Greene Performance Space's mission statement is to "galvanize conversations around the life, arts and politics of our city and our world."[6] The Greene Space is situated on the ground floor of the NYPR's headquarters, inviting New Yorkers to become a part of live broadcasts and taping of WNYC's signature programs. Following her time at NYPR, Dr. Etwaroo joined NPR (National Public Radio) as Executive Producer and Director of a project called NPR Presents, a program creating a "live storytelling experience" by "bringing together national and local news coverage, music, poetry and visual projections on a selected topic. NYPR programs start out as live events, and are then available for download on the NYPR website."[2] Ruby Dee, one of many guests on NYPR, is recalled by Dr. Etwaroo, acting as producer of the public radio celebration of Their Eyes Were Watching God at the time, for “[h]er voice was distinctly hers: velvety smooth, like an expensive cognac, and deeply round, with a whimsy that was often framed by a throaty, hearty laugh. This voice bellowed out of and belied her petite frame, somehow shaping spaces and times beyond the moment to tell the story.”[7]
In January 2015, Dr. Etwaroo was appointed as the Executive Director for the Center for Arts and Culture at Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration, but continues to contribute to NYPR. Prior to her work at CAC, Dr. Etwaroo is noted for teaching music and dance in Tegucigalpa, Honduras and Richmond, Virginia. She acted as an adjunct professor, lecturer and scholar/artist-in-residence at colleges and universities across the country and globe.[8] She has also worked at the Brooklyn Academy of Music where she worked on education and humanities programming in music, dance, drama and visual arts fields. Since 2015, Dr. Etwaroo directs the iconic Billy Holiday Theater, Youth Arts Academy, Skylight Gallery, and Restoration Plaza's Presenting Program for the Center for Arts and Culture at Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation.[2]
Exhibitions
[edit]In early 2016, Dr. Etwaroo collaborated with African Diaspora artist Hollis King selecting King as curator for the Skylight Gallery, an exhibition space widely noted for its long and rich tradition of celebrating artists of the African Diaspora. Her reason for selecting King to partake in this exhibition is because he is an "artistic risk-taker," and is "passionate about disrupting trends in contemporary thought that serve to marginalize people according to gender and race."[9] Otto Neals has also been amongst many other artists selected by Dr. Etwaroo to exhibit his work at the Skylight Gallery. “Otto Neals exemplifies,” says Etwaroo, “what it means to be an artist who has literally and artistically sculpted a people so we may recognize our own infinite beauty and power.”[10]
Awards
[edit]In 2003, Dr. Etwaroo received the Emerging Doctoral Scholar Award along with the Graduate Research Award from the National Congress on Research in Dance for her work in Ethiopia.[1] For her work at BAM, Dr. Etwaroo received BAM's Dance Africa Award for Outstanding Service and for her work at Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation received the Education and Community Heritage Award among various other grants and awards. In 2009, Dr. Etwaroo was among many other recipients for the Forty Under 40 Dynamic Achievers Award.[1]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f g h "People - Indira Etwaroo - The Greene Space". www.thegreenespace.org. Retrieved 2016-03-30.
- ^ a b c d e "The Arts, Reimagined". Longwood Magazine. Retrieved 2016-03-30.
- ^ "New Bed-Stuy Culture Exec Highlights Brooklyn's African Diaspora Experience". DNAinfo New York. Retrieved 2016-04-20.
- ^ "People - Indira Etwaroo". www.wnyc.org. Retrieved 2016-04-20.
- ^ "Indira Etwaroo, Ph.D." www.tnj.com.
{{cite web}}: Text "The Network Journal" ignored (help) - ^ "About The Greene Space". greenespace. Retrieved 2016-03-30.
- ^ Rux, Carl Hancock. "In Memoriam: Ruby Dee (1922–2014)". AMERICAN THEATRE. Retrieved 2016-04-20.
- ^ "Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation Creates New Leadership Role and Appoints Dr. Indira Etwaroo Executive Director of Center for Arts and Culture | Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration". www.restorationplaza.org. Retrieved 2016-04-06.
- ^ "'The Art of Her Story' exhibition opens in Brooklyn". am New York. Retrieved 2016-04-06.
- ^ "Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation presents Otto Neals sculpture retrospective | Brooklyn Daily Eagle". www.brooklyneagle.com. Retrieved 2016-04-20.