about

Brian Jones (Board President) is a founding board member, teaching artist, and performer with Voices of a People’s History of the United States. Brian is the inaugural Director of the Center for Educators and Schools at The New York Public Library, where he works on dynamic ways to bring the library’s rich collections into classrooms. He taught elementary grades in New York City’s public schools for nine years before pursuing a doctorate in Urban Education at the City University of New York. He has served as Associate Director of Education for the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, where he was also a scholar-in-residence. Brian has lent his voice to several audiobooks, including Howard Zinn’s one-man play, Marx in Soho. He writes about Black education history and politics, most recently in a contribution to Black Lives Matter At School: An Uprising for Educational Justice (Haymarket Books, 2020) and his debut book, The Tuskegee Student Uprising: A History (NYU Press, 2022).

Anthony Arnove (Board Secretary-Treasurer) is the editor of several books, including Voices of a People’s History of the United States, which he co-edited with Howard Zinn, and Voices of a People’s History of the United States in the 21st Century, which he co-edited with Haley Pessin. He also wrote the introduction for the new 35th anniversary edition of Zinn’s classic book A People’s History of the United States. Arnove cofounded the nonprofit education and arts organization Voices of a People’s History of the United States; co-wrote, co-directed, and co-produced the documentary The People Speak; and has directed stage and television versions of The People Speak in Dublin with Stephen Rea, in London with Colin Firth, and across the United States with various arts groups, including Lincoln Center, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and the Sundance Film Festival. He also produced the Academy Award–nominated documentary Dirty Wars.

Matthew Covey is the Executive Director of Tamizdat and Founding Partner of CoveyLaw. Covey has devoted his professional career to helping artists build bridges between international communities: as a member of the critically acclaimed U.S./Slovak indie-rock band Skulpey, as Knitting Factory Records’ Amsterdam booking agent, and as the manager of Grammy Award-winning band The Klezmatics. In 1998 he co-founded Tamizdat, a non-profit that promotes international cultural exchange. As U.S. visa policy became an increasing impediment to international culture in the U.S., Covey launched Tamizdat’s affiliated law firm CoveyLaw in 2015, and is the U.S.’s leading authority and advocate for arts immigration. Covey holds a B.A. in Literature and Music from Oberlin College, an M.A. in Post-Colonial Theory from UCD Ireland, a J.D. from NY Law School, and is admitted to the New York Bar.

David Johnson is the founder of Act 4 Entertainment, a film entertainment and new media content company. David has executive produced The People Speak, Angels in Exile, and Company Town and produced The Man Nobody Knew: In Search of My Father, CIA Spymaster William Colby. He produced the stage musical American Psycho in London and on Broadway and American Son on Broadway. Act 4 is in development on approximately twenty feature film, television, or new media projects, including Canary, a documentary about climate scientist Lonnie Thompson. Previously, David was senior executive vice president of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc. and a partner of the law firm White & Case. David is a Life Trustee and former Chair of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles and a board member and former Chair of Public Counsel Law Center, the nation’s largest public interest pro bono law firm. David also serves on the boards of California Institute of the Arts, Demos, the Smithsonian National Board, Voices of a People’s History of the United States, and the Yale School of Drama. He is a graduate of Yale College and Harvard Law School.

Jordana Leigh is the Vice President of Artistic Programming at Lincoln Center. In her twelve years with the organization as a creator and visionary, she has curated and produced over a thousand performances with artists from over 100 nations, developed eleven series, and commissioned nearly 50 artists. In her role as Director of the David Rubenstein Atrium, she redesigned the core weekly presenting series to reflect the diversity of New York City. Highlights include: a partnership with VICE Media; the performance series ¡VAYA! 63; the high school poetry slam competition Poet‐Linc; and Restart Stages, the 2020 initiative across ten outdoor stages and rehearsal spaces at Lincoln Center. Before joining Lincoln Center Ms. Leigh was a consultant for artists and festivals in the U.S., Europe, and Africa. Ms. Leigh has served as a jury selection member for music showcases including WOMEX (2020), Show Me (2019), Atlantic Music Expo (2018), as well as a panelist for several foundations and governmental grants. Ms. Leigh received her BA from the New School for Social Research and her MFA from Brooklyn College.

Martha Redbone is a Native and African American vocalist/songwriter/composer/educator. She is known for her musical gumbo of folk, blues and gospel from her childhood in Harlan County, Kentucky infused with the eclectic grit of pre-gentrified Brooklyn. Inheriting the powerful vocal range of her gospel-singing African American father and the resilient spirit of her mother’s Cherokee/Choctaw culture, Redbone broadens the boundaries of American Roots music. With songs and storytelling that share her life experience as an Afro-Indigenous woman and mother navigating in the new millennium, Redbone gives voice to issues of social justice, bridging traditions, connecting cultures, and celebrating the human spirit. Martha is a 2020 Drama Desk Award Recipient for Outstanding Composer in a Play for For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf at the Public Theater. Other works include Bone Hill: The Concert, “The Talking Circles” at the New York Theater Workshop, and “Black Mountain Women,” currently in development at The Public Theater in NYC, about the ongoing environmental destruction of her ancestral homeland in Appalachia told through the lives of four generations of women in her family. She is based in Brooklyn, NY.

John Berger (1926-2017)

Julian Bond (1940-2015)

Dennis Brutus (1924-2009)

Lucille Clifton (1936-2010)

Mike Davis (1946-2022)

Jesse Eisenberg

Eve Ensler

Martín Espada

Colin Firth

Eduardo Galeano (1940-2016)

Livia Giuggioli

Paul Haggis

Q’orianka Kilcher

Lisa Yun Lee

Rubén Martinez

Peter Nabokov

Arundhati Roy

Mark Ruffalo

Najla Said

David Savran

John Sayles

Wallace Shawn

Lili Taylor

Marisa Tomei

Kerry Washington