UNFINISHED BUSINESS
MORE ABOUT THE SCHOLAR & ARTISTS
Stephanie Clintonia Boddie, PhD, MSW
Stephanie Clintonia Boddie’s personal narrative began in Baltimore, Maryland with Sunday dinners with extended family and shared stories. While a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania, she began tracing her genealogy and was not surprised to learn that her grandparents were a part of the silent revolution – the Great Migration – that brought them and thousands of African Americans from the South to the North. Despite their journey, Stephanie’s family rarely talked about race, discrimination, or the Civil Rights Movement. Growing up, her father’s collection of Ebony, Jet and newspapers were one of the sources for understanding Black life and culture. The church she attended in Baltimore also provided a rich cultural context through Spirituals and other Black sacred music.
Boddie joined Baylor University’s faculty in 2017 as assistant professor of Church and Community Ministries with affiliations at the Diana R. Garland School of Social Work, the George W. Truett Theological Seminary and the School of Education. She has affiliations with Baylor’s Institute for the Study of Religion, the Texas Hunger Initiative, and the Public Deliberative Initiative. She is also a Fox Leadership International Alumni Research and Service Fellow (FLIARS) and a Program for Research on Religion & Urban Civil Society Senior Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania as well as a Faculty Associate at the Washington University’s Center for Social Development. She is also a steering committee member of the Transatlantic Roundtable on Religion and Race.
Previously, Boddie served as senior consultant for the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary’s Metro-Urban Institute and taught in the seminary’s Doctorate of Ministry Urban Change program. She held research appointments at Carnegie Mellon University and University of Pittsburgh. She also served as a senior researcher at the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion and Public Life, lead consultant for the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Faith & Family Portfolio and on the faculty of Washington University in St. Louis.
Boddie’s research explores 20th and 21st century black community and faith-based organizations, African American urban life, religion, social policy, and entrepreneurship.
She is co-director of the research, teaching and public history project, The Ward: Race and Class in Du Bois’ Seventh Ward.
During her time as the 2015-2016 CAUSE Post-doctoral Fellow at Carnegie Mellon University, she launched her research project, Unfinished Business. Boddie, a scholar, storyteller, social worker, and classically-trained soprano, blends traditional research and oral histories with film, music, and conversation to create this project. Boddie has presented this work in a variety of venues including the Transatlantic Roundtable on Race and Religion in Trinidad and Tobago, the Oral History Association Conference in Montreal, and the Missouri History Museum. This work has positioned her to receive the Advancing the Black Arts in Pittsburgh grant, an artist-in-residency at the Kelly-Strayhorn Theater, and Baylor University’s Oral History Fellowship to develop a new musical documentary and related scholarship, Unfinished Business: Pittsburgh’s Great Migration and the Movements of Black Lives.
In addition to numerous journal articles and reports, Boddie has co-authored five books. She has also co-produced four short films. Her work has appeared in Time, Jet, and Ebony online magazines.
She has traveled to present her research throughout the US as well as Canada, China, the United Kingdom, Kenya, Republic of South Africa, and Trinidad and Tobago.
Emmai Alaquiva
Emmai Alaquiva, an Emmy Award-winning film director, composer and mentor is known for his impact across mixed-media art platforms. Once homeless and one who occupied the unforgiving streets of Pittsburgh Pa., Alaquiva shifted the trajectory of his life's path to become one of the most distinct trailblazers in the arena of creative arts. Multi-award decorated, Alaquiva is the CEO of Ya Momz House, Inc, co-founder of Hip-Hop On L.O.C.K. and curator of OpticVoices. Alaquiva hold’s a 2017 Emmy nomination his international directorial debut of the film “Ghetto Steps” and was selected by the City of Pittsburgh to spearhead the Amazon Pitch Video for their second Headquarters. Moreover, Alaquiva is a national BMe Community Leader recognized by President Barack Obama, Pittsburgh Business Times, “Top CEO of the Year” and most recently was appointed by Governor Tom Wolf to serve on the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts for the state of Pennsylvania.
Dean Radcliffe-Lynes
Dean Radcliffe-Lynes is an Emmy Award winning television producer of television specials and documentaries for national distribution. She also has produced event videos, training videos, promotional videos and videos that tell the compelling stories of grass roots and non-profit organizations for more than thirty years.
Dean ‘s mission is to educate, enlighten, encourage and empower, giving voice to the voiceless and a forum for the unheard. Many of the stories told are intended to move people to action. Clients include the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Outreach Extensions, Alignment Strategies, Creative Geniuses, the Mayo Clinic, the Howard University Cancer Center and the Baltimore City Public School's Board of Education.
She is a Fellow in the inaugural class of the Johns Hopkins/MICA Saul Zaentz Innovation Fund "Bold Voices" program and is currently in production of her first independent full-length documentary about 4 women who were formerly incarcerated tentatively titled "It's Not Who I Am.” She also teaches filmmaking workshops to 15-21 year old youth for the Baltimore Youth Film Arts program.
She is a graduate of the Yale University School of Drama and resides in Baltimore, MD.
Esther Heideman
“Angelic” is the word most often used to describe the silvery, pure, sweet tone of Esther Heideman’s voice. A winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and the Lucia Albanese Competition, Esther Heideman continues to impress audiences around the world with her dynamic stage presence. Ms. Heideman has even been described as having Stradivarius vocal cords.
Esther took her first voice lesson when she was 18 and already attending college. Her passion for performing emerged quickly, and she has dedicated her life to it ever since. In 2001, she made her Metropolitan Opera debut singing Pamina in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. That performance was immediately followed by her debut with the New York Philharmonic, and her European debut with the Prague Radio Symphony.
Ms. Heideman's career began with the Minnesota Orchestra, where she sang in more than 20 concerts. She moved to NYC and the very next day received word she was scheduled to make her Carnegie Hall debut, singing Handel’s Messiah. Since this time, she has performed with major orchestras throughout world, such as the Baltimore Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Philadelphia Pops, Daejeon Philharmonic Orchestra, Beijing New Music Ensemble, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Aspen Music Festival, Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Jacksonville Symphony, National Philharmonic, Buffalo Philharmonic, Milwaukee Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Boston Baroque, Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra, Orquestra Simfònica del Gran Teatre del Liceu, the U.S. Naval Academy, and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra.
In addition to performing the staples of traditional concert repertoire, such as Beethoven’s Symphony # 9, Mahler’s Symphony #4, Mozart's C minor Mass, Handel's Messiah and Orff's Carmina Burana, Esther Heideman has featured prominently in the premieres of some of today's most respected contemporary composers. These have included the role of Jenny Lind in Libby Larsen’s opera Barnum’s Bird, Sister Angelica in The Three Hermits by Stephen Paulus, Madame V in Casanova by Daniel Schnyder, The Revelation of St. John by Daniel Schnyder, and Deus Passus by Wolfgang Rihm. Ms. Heideman also performs regularly with the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, and has sung works by Szymanowski, Schoenberg, Essa-Pekka Salonen, Perrera, Druckman, Ravel, Delage, and Albert, to name a few.