Racism in the Arts

Joining the co-hosts for the eleventh episode of THE Conversation are guest panelists Morgan James Peters and Robin Joyce Miller. Vasco Pires and Zyg Peters also appear on the program. The discussion in this edition of THE Conversation focuses on the questions: “Where do we find racism in the arts?” and “How can we address racism through art?”

Morgan James Peters, also known as Mwalim, is a multi-award-winning interdisciplinary artist whose works span the mediums of music, theater, literature, and film. Playing Carnegie Hall as a violist before turning 14, he became one of the youngest session players in EMI Records history at age 16. A graduate of Music and Art High School in New York, he earned his BA in Music and MS in Film from Boston University and his MFA in writing from Goddard College. His plays and performance pieces have been presented throughout the USA, Canada, the UK, and the Caribbean. In 1994, he co-founded Oversoul Theatre Collective, Cape Cod's first professional Black and Native Arts organization. His first novel,
Land of the Black Squirrels, was published in 2020. He is a founding member and keyboardist for the multi-Grammy-nominated soul-funk ensemble, The GroovaLottos, and a multi-award-winning solo recording artist of soul, jazz, and dance music. He is the owner of Polyphonic Studios, a recording studio in Bourne, and a tenured English and Black Studies professor at UMass Dartmouth.

Robin Joyce Miller is a retired educator, artist, poet, and public speaker, who taught for 30 years in the
New York City school system. She spent the first half of her career teaching learning-disabled students and the next half as an art teacher. Miller was also a Blueprint for the Arts Facilitator, leading workshops at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney Museum. After retirement, she and her husband have maintained two residences in New York and Cape Cod. Robin co-authored The Faithful Journey – From Slavery to Presidency with her husband, James W. Miller.
She also wrote and illustrated Who Do You Say That I Am – A Man Called Jesus with paintings inspired by Ethiopian Christian art. Miller specializes in African American Heritage art and poetry. Paintings from her book, A Humble Village, have been exhibited in the Brooklyn Children’s Museum and the African American Museum of Hempstead, NY. After George Floyd’s murder, Robin and her husband began presenting a Black Lives Matter series with the Cotuit Center for the Arts. These programs are available to the public on YouTube.