McCormack Theater, Providence, RI

Sara Elise is an entrepreneur and wellness advocate residing in Brooklyn, NY. As a transplant to one of New York City’s major food deserts, Sara was inspired to help transform her community’s relationship to affordable, locally sourced foods.

While working in Private Wealth Management after business school, Sara started to explore food as a tool for self-care and healing. Through this exploration, Sara began hosting “Seasonal Tasting Events,” an invitation for community members to experience an authentically rustic, slow, and organic relationship to the crops harvested for the empowerment and reclamation of self, and community. Continuing with the mission of using all natural, organic, locally sourced, and seasonal ingredients- Sara would grow to found Bed Stuy Kitchen in 2012- reborn as Harvest & Revel in 2016.

With her background in both financial services and personal nutrition & wellness, Sara and her team at Harvest & Revel are helping their clients, and community, elevate to their fullest selves- one nutritious meal, and conversation, at a time.

McCormack Theater, Providence, RI

Sussy Santana is a poet, performer, and cultural organizer born in the Dominican Republic. Her work explores the bi-cultural and bilingual experience through text and performance. Santana is the author of several poetry collections, and her poems have been featured in various anthologies and magazines. Santana is a 2015 MacColl Johnson Fellowship recipient, the first Latina writer to win the distinction. In February, 2020 she was selected by The City of Providence and the Department of Arts, Culture & Tourism as one of five artists to participate in the Creative Community Health Worker Fellowship, a new pilot training in Artist Facilitation and Community Health Work. www.sussysantana.com

McCormack Theater, Providence, RI

Valerie Tutson is a multiple award-winning storyteller who has been performing in schools, churches, libraries, festivals and conferences since 1991. She draws her stories from around the world with an emphasis on African traditions. Her repertoire includes stories and songs she learned in her travels to South Africa, her experiences in West Africa and stories from African American history. She is a graduate of Brown University where she earned a Masters degree in theater arts and a BA in her self-designed major of Storytelling as a Communications Art.