Respectability Politics:
The Price of Black Success
When: January 26, 2023 7:00PM – 8:30PM
Where: Zucot Gallery, 100 Centennial Olympic Pk Drive SW., Atlanta, GA 30313
GPS Address: 330 Chapel Street, Atlanta, GA 30313
There is free parking in the garage and on the street (Centennial Olympic Park Dr. NW & Chapel St.)
True Colors presents True Talks, formerly known as Community Conversations, a revamped forum for deep conversations around topics that matter to our community. Presented in partnership with Zucot Gallery, this conversation will focus on the role that respectability politics plays in the perception of “progress” in Atlanta’s Black community, and the risks to personal well-being for those who attempt to “play the game.”
This special event will feature one-of-a-kind performances, including a sneak peek preview by the cast of True Colors’ 2023 world premiere of Good Bad People!
Complimentary wine provided by Ansley Wine Merchants.
Our Panelists:
True Talks: Respectability Politics
Maranie Brown
Vice President, Data Platform & Solutions, BlackRock
Maranie Brown, Vice President, is a member of the Program Management organization for Data Platforms & Solutions, leading the ESG (Environmental, Societal, and Governance) data program. The team also develops and operates the platforms that produce, distribute, and govern enterprise data and analytics for BlackRock and its Aladdin clients. Maranie has been recognized as a “Rising Star” for outstanding contributions to the digital community, one of the Marietta Daily Journal / Cobb Life Magazine’s “Top 20 Under 40”, a Woman to Watch in STEAM by Women in Technology, one of the University of Georgia Alumni Association’s “40 Under 40,” and one of the Atlanta Business Chronicle’s “40 Under 40.” She also serves on various nonprofit boards, including Kenny Leon’s True Colors Theatre Company, the Association of Junior Leagues International Women of Color Affinity Group, Cobb Collaborative, the Girl Scouts of Greater Atlanta’s Junior Board, the United Way of Greater Atlanta’s Cobb County Advisory Board, and the Technology Association of Georgia’s Product Management Society Board. A graduate of the University of Georgia, Maranie serves as President of the UGA Young Alumni Leadership Council, leading all efforts to strengthen engagement with young alumni and current students, and President of Outstanding Atlanta, the City’s premier honor for community involvement. She is also a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Rho Zeta Omega Chapter, where she serves as Leadership Development Chairman. Recognized as a thought leader in her industry, Maranie also serves on the Coles College of Business Department of Information Systems and Security Advisory Board at Kennesaw State University. She is a graduate of Leadership Buckhead, the Atlanta Women’s Foundation’s Inspire Atlanta Program, the YWCA of Greater Atlanta’s Georgia Women’s Policy Institute, the Atlanta Regional Commission’s Regional Leadership Institute, Leadership America, LEAD Atlanta Class of 2020, and a member of the LEAD Atlanta Alumni Association, where she serves as Co-Chair of the LEAD Atlanta Class of 2023. A native of Atlanta, Georgia, Maranie completed her undergraduate studies and is completing her graduate studies at The University of Georgia.
Maranie Brown (Moderator)
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True Talks: Respectability Politics
Ibi Owolabi
Director of “Good Bad People”
Ibi Owolabi is the current Drama League Stage Directing Fellow, with a residency at Manhattan Theatre Club that led to her recent Broadway debut on Cost of Living. Her work has been seen at 7 Stages, Kenny Leon’s True Colors Theatre, Alliance Theatre, Theatre Emory, The Weird Sisters Theatre Project, and the DC Black Theatre Festival. Ibi is a graduate of Georgia Southern University, the Actors Express directing internship, and the Kenny Leon fellowship. Ibi directed several Zoom productions, including Well-Intentioned White People, Good Bad People, White-Ish, Stew, and Faith. Ibi’s recent in person productions include a socially distanced You on the Moors Now at USC, The Bluest Eye at Synchronicity Theatre, and Intimate Apparel at Actor’s Express. She is also a producer for Weird SIster’s Theatre Project, a mixed media production company by women, for everyone.
Ibi Owolabi
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True Talks: Respectability Politics
Karen Comer Lowe
Arts Advisor, Curator, Educator
For more than 20 years, Karen Comer Lowe has worked in curatorial and education positions at museums, galleries and arts institutions. She has held positions at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, the Tubman Museum and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
As an art advisor, Lowe has worked with corporations, private schools, universities and private clients in the Southeast. In spring 2022, Lowe curated This Is America | The Unsettling Contradictions in American Identity, the first solo exhibition of works by Genevieve Gaignard in Atlanta at the Atlanta Contemporary. In addition, Lowe has lectured on art throughout the region and worked with notable artists including Hank Willis Thomas, Carrie Mae Weems, Radcliffe Bailey and Elizabeth Catlett on past projects. Her work has been featured in Artsy, Culture Type, Sugarcane Magazine, and was named “Best Curator” by Creative Loafing in the 2017 “Best of Atlanta” issue.
Earlier this year, Lowe was invited to co-curate Silver Linings: Celebrating the Spelman Art Collection, an exhibition of work from the permanent collection that is currently on view through June 30. She was recently appointed as Curator in Residence at the Spelman College Museum. The Curator-in-Residence position is a new role that bridges the museum program with the AUC Art History and Curatorial Studies Collective, with support from the Walton Family Foundation. During her tenure, Lowe will organize exhibitions and engage students about curatorial practice.
Karen Comer Lowe
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True Talks: Respectability Politics
Dr. Maurice Hobson
Associate Professor of Africana Studies and Historian at Georgia State University
Dr. Maurice Hobson is an Associate Professor of Africana Studies and Historian at Georgia State University. He earned the Ph.D. degree in History, focusing in African American History and 20th Century U.S. History from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research interests are grounded in the fields of African American history, 20th Century U.S. history, comparative labor, African American studies, oral history and ethnography, urban and rural history, political economy, and popular cultural studies. He is the author of award-winning book titled The Legend of the Black Mecca: Politics and Class in the Making of Modern Atlanta and the lead historian for With Faith in God and Heart and Mind: A History of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, both with the University of North Carolina Press as well as a corpus of peer-reviewed journal articles.
Dr. Hobson engages the social sciences and has created a new paradigm called the Black New South that explores the experiences of black folk in the American South, with national and international implications, since WWII. For this, he has served as an expert witness in court cases and as a voice of insight for public historical markers, monuments and museum exhibitions.
Most recently, he served as the chief-historian for the award-winning iHeartRadio podcast titled “Fight Night and the Million Dollar Heist,” a true-crime podcast series detailing the infamous armed robbery after Muhammad Ali’s historic 1970 comeback fight. In popular media, Dr. Hobson was consulted for the Netflix documentary “The Art of Organized Noize,” which featured the Atlanta production team that changed the sound of Hip-Hop with their work with OutKast and Goodie Mob. Also, he was the chief historian for the documentary “Maynard,” which detailed the life and times of the honorable Maynard Holbrook Jackson Jr., Atlanta’s first black mayor. He was also the consulting historian for “Hip Hop Evolution: Atlanta,” a docuseries tracing Hip-Hop’s dynamic evolution from its beginning through the 1990s.
Dr. Maurice Hobson
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True Talks: Respectability Politics
Bem Joiner
Co-Founder, Atlanta Influences Everything
Instagram: https://instagram.com/bemjoiner/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bemjoiner
Bem Joiner believes in Atlanta. Born and raised in the city, he has a pure passion for its people and its progress. He majorly contributes to what makes culture in Atlanta, cool and captivating. As a culture curator and co-founder of the civic-minded creative consultancy/brand, Atlanta Influences Everything, Bem has managed and consulted a variety of lifestyle brands and designed meaningful programs for clients like Sprite, Mississippi Dept. of Education, truth.com, Jack Daniels, Nissan, the National Black Arts Festival and countless others. He has also booked “early-adopter” shows for Drake, Kendrick Lamar and the Goodie Mob reunion. Bem is also one of the founders of CreativeCall.org which is a community service effort/collaboration between Atlanta and Stockholm creatives and was previously the Community Engagement Coordinator for the Center for Civic Innovation in South Downtown Atlanta. Bem has most recently joined the leadership team at 8 Strains, a cannabis & meta start-up in San Francisco as the Culture & Community lead. He is also currently sitting on the boards of four non-profits, The Grove Park Foundation, The Harvard Diversity Project, The Wren’s Nest and the Atlanta Film Society.
Bem Joiner
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