Meet the Black Arts District Team
Lady Brion
Executive Director
Lady Brion is an international spoken word artist, poetry coach, activist, organizer, educator and the executive director of the Pennsylvania Avenue Black Arts and Entertainment District. She received her B.A. in Applied Communication from Howard University and her MFA in Creative Writing & Publishing Design from the University of Baltimore. During her slam career she has won the 2016 National Poetry Slam, the 2017/2019 Southern Fried Regional Slam, and the 2019 Rustbelt Regional Slam. She was most recently ranked 3rd in the Women of the World Poetry Slam in March 2020. In 2018, she published a book and accompanying album called With My Head Unbowed. Lady Brion also serves on the board for DewMore Baltimore and as the Cultural Curator for a grassroots political think-tank called Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle in Baltimore.
Ayo Figueroa
Operations Director
Ayo Figueroa (she/her) is a creative project manager with 10+ years of experience curating and producing arts and entertainment programs in Baltimore, D.C., Atlanta, and Austin, TX. As a Baltimore native, Ayo has been a champion of the arts through her work advocating for artists and developing community engagement programming in the non-profit and arts & culture sectors. Some of Ayo’s most notable events she has managed and produced include: The National Cherry Blossom Festival, Artscape, Baltimore Book Festival, Light City, Brilliant Baltimore, CLLCTIVGIVE, Maryland Fleet Week & Flyover Festival, and Preakness Live!.
Ayo comes to the Black Arts District after working with other notable arts institutions in Baltimore including The Maryland Institute College of Art and the Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts. While her main focuses in her work have been curation, creative strategy, inclusive programming, and thoughtful marketing, Ayo is also excited to bring her operational and project management expertise to the Black Arts District.
Meagan “Ducky Dynamo” Buster
Administrative Assistant
Meagan Buster, creatively known as Ducky Dynamo, is a DJ, producer, and Baltimore Club Music Culture advocate born and raised in Baltimore, MD. Over the past decade, she has worked closely with grassroots community efforts, the Baltimore City Green Party and a plethora of local artists to help preserve and cultivate the rich talent Baltimore has to offer. Dedicated to her city's sound, she continues to push for lasting recognition of the local Baltimore music scene through efforts such as supporting the creation of Baltimore Club Music Day. She holds a degree in Geography and Environmental Planning and Meteorology from Towson University and over a decade of administrative management experience, sourced from working with entities within the local education system, the Maryland St. Arts Council, and the federal government to the Black Arts District team.
Sola Ekunseitan
Marketing and Communications Manager
From the Twin Cities to the Charm City, Sola combines her Midwestern values and new found East Coast flare to empower all who encounter her light! She is passionate about elevating the experience and wellness of BLK folks and brands, globally.
Prioritizing, creating and sustaining flourishing spaces for BLK folk is Sola’s purpose. At Hope College, Sola created her interdisciplinary degree, “Black Women’s Communication Studies", which focused on the exploration of interpersonal relationships between Black Women and their intimate, social + professional circles. Her studies laid a solid foundation for her holistic marketing consultation services for BLK business owners in Baltimore area and beyond!
Coined as “A Positive Motivating Force”, Sola lives and loves in her calling as Vibe Stylist, Co-Owner of BLK ASS FLEA MKT and newly appointed Marketing & Communications Manager at Black Arts District. Collectively providing direct operational support, content creation, brand marketing and consulting for 200+ BLK brands. All within the scope of amplifying BLK JOY with strategy, authenticity and ease.
Kenneth
Director of Programs
Kenneth is an artist, organizer and educator from Baltimore, Maryland. For over a decade, Kenneth has worked to create art and institutions that connect and transform people. Most recently, his work centers around marginalized people gaining access to their intellectual, emotional, spiritual and creative traditions. Kenneth has many accomplishments including but not limited to: having his art on display at Baltimore Museum of Art, publishing two collections of poetry, confounding DewMore Baltimore and Baltimore Youth Initiative High School, becoming a national poetry slam champion and being a professor at MICA. Kenneth has had the opportunity to teach, work and live many places around the country but Baltimore is his favorite place to create and build.
Chelsea Sherman
Events Manager
Chelsea Monae is a multidisciplinary creative entrepreneur from Baltimore. She is known as a collaborative music creator and performer, an arts administrator, and a braider. Monae can be described as a genuine, shamelessly pro-Black, Baltimore-born artist who triumphs through adversity and affirms her worth through creativity.
Monae brings a decade of creative and administrative experience to creative venues & community organizations in Baltimore. She currently works as a Program Coordinator with the Pennsylvania Avenue Black Arts & Entertainment District, and is a resident artist at Blakwater House.
Olu Woods
Program Coordinator
Village builder, Olu Butterfly Woods is a social entrepreneur, applied afrofuturist and distinctive artist who has founded several long running, impactful Baltimore initiatives: The Garden Art Party, Afrikan Youth Alchemy, Free Up Village CSE, Baltimore Citywide Youth Poetry Team, Organic Soul Tuesdays and Poetry for the People Baltimore. She has recently led DewMore Baltimore, earned a Bunting Neighborhood Leadership Fellowship, a Weaver Award, a Rubys Artist Project Grant, and a Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award on her journey from being trained as a mechanical engineer working at NASA to realizing how practical art is at contributing to community solutions. Born in Nigeria, raised in St. Croix, V.I. and Maryland, she is author of an acclaimed collection of poetry, The Revenge of Dandelions, featured in a Netflix special: Dark City Beneath the Beat, curated a major afrofuture Artscape anchor project, was cast in the record-breaking world premier musical Marley at Center Stage and has toured internationally as a principal dancer with Sankofa Dance Theater, with the band Fertile Ground and independently.