Vatic Kuumba on Clubhouse

Bio

I am a creator. I was created by two veterans of a Jim Crow Florida. My mother was educated by all black institutions. Then became the only Black teacher in an all white rural school during integration.
I grew up inside of a redline box. When I go back there, I see the signs commemorating the historic blackness of the neighborhood. I wrote my first rap and dreamed my first dreams in this context. Therefore my satire is rooted in the rhythms of cicadas and crickets.

I moved from that place in 2012. The last hour of 2013 my oldest daughter was born in the state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (the name of the state has been changed by referendum in 2020) . That same year I competed on my first poetry team in Oakland, California. In 2014 I was arrested during a protest on i95. I was working at the YMCA as Director of a 21st Century School in Providence. I almost lost my job.
In 2016 I started working at AS220 youth. That same year Invisible Upsouth premiered at Wilbury Theatre. That was the first play I had done any writing on. I also co-starred.
In 2017 I completed a live arts residency at AS220 , culminating with A Furtive Movement. Currently I am developing a cycle of plays with partners such as Rites & Reason Theatre at Brown University and Trinity Repertory Company.

In 2019 I started a collaboration with film director, Julia Lui that resulted in the first scene of A Furtive Movement being adapted into a short film. Driving While Black Magic has been shown at several film festivals and will be available for streaming in 2021.
In 2020 , the community has been pushing the government to address all the harms of inequity. I have been working with Shey Rivera Rios to create a transmedia experience that seeks to reimagine the future of public safety in Providence. Moral Documents is an art project that seeks to support community demands for government to allocate resources in a way that is aligned with our morals. Moral Docs will be launched in the spring of 2021.

Key Skills include: Arts Facilitation, Artistic Production Management, Anti-Racist Facilitator/Instructor, Systemic Injustice Analysis, Critical Race Theory, Community Engagement, Artistic Practice, Participatory Action Research, Theater Direction, Writing/Editing.