Donald King is a seasoned producer, cultural practitioner and community engagement specialist who is skilled in connecting people, places and perspectives. He develops successful cultural organizations, venues, and events nationally and internationally. He has twenty years of notable accomplishments and extensive expertise in the arts, arts education and literacy. King was the founder and Artistic Director of Providence Black Repertory Company where he produced thirteen seasons of award-winning theatre, education and public programs including Providence Sound Session, a genre-defying, multi-stage music festival and parade that hailed national and international audiences. He has served as a visiting professor at his alma mater, Brown University, where he concentrated in Africana, Modern Culture Media and Theatre. King’s facilitation skills, creativity, leadership abilities, and engagement practices are sharpened through his work with The ArtsLiteracy Project at Brown University, The Habla Teacher Institute and his current work with The Learning Alliance (Moonshot Academy) in Vero Beach Florida, along with his ongoing role as an active alum of Leadership Rhode Island and previous LRI Program Co-Chair, wherein he received the “2018 Leader As Host” award for his work with The Providence Cultural Equity Initiative (PCEI) and Providence Sound Session. King divides his time between Austin, Texas, Portland, Oregon and Providence, RI, where he advises as a creative consultant for PCEI and Eco Arts, where he helps to facilitate local, regional, national and international cultural exchange and tourism initiatives. He continues to produce, present and advise on large scale, multi-stage festivals and place-making events and institutes.

Kurt Wootton is a co-founder and director of Habla: The Center for Language and Culture and is one of the founding directors of the ArtsLiteracy Project in the Education Department at BrownUniversity. He has piloted several lab schools in the United States, Brazil, and Mexico and has worked with Boston, Hartford, St. Paul, Providence, and Central Falls on multi-year, district-wide initiatives. He is the coauthor of A Reason to Read: Linking Literacy and the Arts published by Harvard Education Press. The New York Times writes, “Mr. Wootton remains every bit as convinced of education’s power to transform lives. He has changed his tool of choice, however, from a mirror in which students see only reflections of themselves to a window that opens onto the rest of the world.”