About

Cynthia C Harris
Visionary and Founding Playwright

Ms. Harris has been committed to the advancement of women through art, education, research, activism, and outreach over the last 10 years. As a senior project coordinator at Emory University, she supervised the recruitment of over 800 women of color into a multi-site research intervention designed to provide sexual health education.

Since 2002, Ms. Harris has created and performed works that capture the experiences of women of color. “Phrases of Womanhood”, a text and movement performance was created for the women of the dance company The Village Drum and Dance Ensemble which was funded by the Metro Nashville Arts Commission and the Tennessee Art Commission. The performance explores issues of gender, identity, body image, personhood, spirituality, community and African heritage.

After writing “Why Won’t She Leave?”  and developing it into a domestic violence educational tool,  14 different community members and artists have been trained to present the work for national audiences. An estimated 500-600 viewers of the performance through large & small community sponsored gatherings, national conferences, and arts festivals. Collaborators and sponsors have included the Village Cultural Arts Center, The Black Church and Domestic Violence Institute, Beautician’s Local #3, the National Black Arts Festival, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  Ms. Harris has also created workshops and presentations for Planned Parenthood of Middle Tennessee’s PG-13 Players, Vanderbilt University, and the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office.

Contact Cynthia C. Harris

Dia S. Hodnett, MPH
Lead Consultant on Special Projects

Dia S. Hodnett, MPH, is a delighted steward of social transformation and an awesome action figure. Dia specializes in politics of intimacy, culture and collective consciousness; working professionally in intimate partner violence and intimate lived experiences of social violence, sexual health/expression and reproductive justice, HIV/AIDS, gender studies, self-care and re-evaluation, and our intersecting movements for human dignity.

Hodnett’s extensive formal education includes a BA in English (French minor) from Vanderbilt University and a Master of Public Health, with a Behavioral Science and Health Education concentration, from Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health.  She holds long-standing institutional relationships with Healing Waters Productions (Nashville, TN), The Black Church and Domestic Violence Institute (Atlanta, GA), and Hampshire College’s Civil Liberties and Public Policy Program (Amherst, MA); where she is the Lead Consultant on Special Projects, the Public Health Specialist, and member of the New Leadership Networking Initiative, respectively.

For nearly ten years, Dia has built an impressive, multidisciplinary, cross-cultural client list; delivering keynote addresses and public engagement, technical assistance consultation, training, critical analysis on emerging issues, strategic planning, bridge building and organizing.  Her contemplative approach to experiential education, spiritual discernment and vocational development creates a truly awesome dynamic of present-time participatory activism; honoring all lived experiences and multiple intelligences, past, present, and future.

Committed to liberation and self-determination for all, Dia facilitates the recovery and support of flexible human intelligence through listening, affirming, learning, and sharing with intentional compassion, Big Medicine, and crazy faith.

Contact Dia S. Hodnett, MPH