Our February Guests
February 6 & 20, 2022
Our History, Heritage, Pride & Legacy...
Unapologetically Black 265!
2022 Edition (Parts 1 & 2)
Kimberly Allen, Ph.D.
CEO
904WARD
Dr. Kimberly Allen is a Jacksonville native along with her husband and three children. She attended Sallye B. Mathis Elementary, James Weldon Johnson College Preparatory Middle and Stanton College Preparatory School where she graduated with an International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma. She attended Florida State University and earned her undergraduate and graduate degrees: two bachelor’s degrees in Psychology and Family and Child Sciences; a master’s degree in Family and Child Sciences; and a Ph.D. in Human Sciences—Family Relations, which she started at the University of Georgia. During that time, she was the professor of several courses focused on stress and resilience, families in crisis, adolescent and human development and assisted with many other courses. Dr. Allen also worked at the University of Georgia’s Center for Family Research where she examined the relationship patterns of rural, African American men.
Hope McMath
Founder
Yellow House Art Gallery
Hope McMath is a cultural leader, educator, artist, curator, and activist whose knowledge of, and passion for, the arts is matched by a strong commitment to social justice and effecting positive change in organizations and communities. She is dedicated to connecting the arts to education, accessibility, the environment, wellness, and inclusion and diversity.
She is founder of Yellow House, an organization with a mission to connect art and community to build understanding, inspire empathy, and spark civic engagement. In addition, she also curates exhibitions at the Holocaust Memorial Gallery at Jewish Family & Community Services and cultural spaces throughout Florida. She is a lead facilitator with Mayo Clinic Humanities in Medicine Program. Hope has also served as an adjunct Professor at UNF, teaching Museum Studies and Art History.
Erin Kendrick
International Artist and Arts Educator
Jacksonville, FL
Erin Kendrick is an international artist and arts educator from Jacksonville, Florida. Her color-rich, works of art and transformative installations examine contemporary spectatorship and the power of language as it relates to the lived experiences of black women and girls. She has exhibited work in museums, galleries, and alternative spaces throughout the United States and abroad and maintains a studio at CoRK Arts District. Erin earned an MFA from Georgia State University and a BFA from Florida State University. She is currently the Director of Education and Lead Visual Art Instructor at Jacksonville Arts & Music School. She was the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville’s 2019 Art Educator of the Year and in 2018, she was voted Best Visual Artist, Best Art Exhibition, and Best Arts Educator in the Folio Weekly. She has won several grants including the Jackie Cornelius Art Residency Grant, the Lift Every Student Artist-In-Residence Grant, and the Community First Foundation Art Ventures Individual Artist Grant. Her current initiative, “Artists Types”, helps practicing artists with career advancement by providing workshops, mini-courses, and templates for CV writing, artist statements, proposals, and more. In 2021, her first-authored chapter was published by Liverpool University Press in the book, With Fists Raised: Radical Art, Contemporary Activism, and the Iconoclasm of the Black Arts Movement.
Adonnica L. Toler
Museum Administrator
Ritz Theatre and LaVilla Museum
Adonnica is the Museum Administrator at the Ritz Theatre and Museum, a restored historic movie theater in the LaVilla neighborhood in Jacksonville, FL. Revived in 1999, the theatre and museum mission is to preserve and celebrate the rich African American culture and history in Jacksonville. Adonnica has curated over 60 national and local history exhibits in the Ritz Museum gallery, of which two received the Jacksonville Historic Preservation Award. Her work has also received international recognition with an art exhibit on display at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum in Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality, South Africa. She is a noted tour guide, historian and has a B. A. Degree from Florida State University.