The Frye Art Museum and the Northwest African American Museum (NAAM) have partnered to develop a series of four lectures on the visual culture of the African continent and its diaspora. This series will explore the history and practice of artists of African descent, drawing connections between the African continent and its diaspora as the locus of Africanity. This is the third lecture of the series.

An intimate conversation between former Dance Theatre of Harlem company members Kabby Mitchell and Judy Tyrus in celebration of the multi-media exhibition Dance Theatre of Harlem: 40 Years of Firsts, which will be presented at NAAM September 27, 2016–March 29, 2017. They will reflect on their time with the company and their careers in the world of dance. This conversation will be moderated by Seattle Theatre Group Director of Marketing and Communications, Vivian Phillips.

Kabby Mitchell, III is a choreographer, educator, and performer whose signature choreography has been seen in the Seattle-based production Black Nativity since 2000. He has danced with Dance Theatre of Harlem, Nederlands Dans Theater, Civic Light Opera, Oakland Ballet, and Pacific Northwest Ballet. Mitchell has been a dance instructor for more than thirty-five years, having taught ballet, modern, jazz, and Afro-Haitian dance at schools and dance academies in Seattle, Iowa, and Mexico.

Judy Tyrus is the Exhibition Curator and Archivist at Dance Theatre of Harlem, and Adjunct Professor of Dance at Marymount Manhattan College, NYC. Originally from Oakland, California, Tyrus joined the Dance Theatre of Harlem in 1977 where she performed as a principal dancer until 1999. In celebration of Dance Theatre of Harlem’s fortieth anniversary in 2009, Tyrus co-curated Dance Theatre of Harlem: 40 Years of Firsts with Barbara Cohen-Stratyner at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

Vivian Phillips is Director of Marketing and Communications for Seattle Theatre Group and chair of the Seattle Arts Commission. Much of her professional career has focused on nurturing a community of support for performing arts from the African Diaspora, including Dance Theatre of Harlem among a multitude of local, national and international companies and artists.