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.
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.
Kenneth Something
Director of Programs
Kenneth is an artist, organizer and educator from Baltimore, Maryland. For two decades, 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. Some of Kenneth’s most notable accomplishments include being a father, a national poetry slam champion, the founder of DewMore Baltimore, former executive director of Pride Center of Maryland, professor at MICA, co-chair for Baltimore Blaq Pride, program director of Black Arts District and founder and director of Charm City Slam.
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.