Rodney Evans (director of Vision Portraits) is an award-winning fiction and documentary film writer, director and producer. His debut fiction feature Brother To Brother won the Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Prize in Drama. The film garnered four Independent Spirit Award nominations including Best First Film, Best First Screenplay, Best Debut Performance for Anthony Mackie and Best Supporting Actor for Roger Robinson. His latest feature documentary, Vision Portraits, celebrated its World Premiere at the 2019 SXSW Film Festival, won the Award for Best Documentary at Frameline-The San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival, aired nationally on America ReFramed and screened at the Whitney Museum in July 2020. Other directing credits include The Happy Sad, Billy and Aaron, Close To Home and the upcoming documentary short Portal. Rodney was a 2020 Sundance Momentum Fellow and a Ford/Mellon Disability Futures Fellow for 2021. Kayla Hamilton (dancer in Vision Portraits) is an artist, producer, and educator originally from Texarkana, Texas and now resides in Bronx, NY. Kayla earned a BA in Dance from Texas Woman’s University and an MS Ed in Special Education from Hunter College. She is a member of the 2017 Bessie-award winning cast of the Skeleton Architecture, the future of our world's curated by Eva Yaa Asantewaa. In addition to Skeleton Architecture, Kayla dances with Sydnie L. Mosley Dances and Gesel Mason Performance Projects, nd teaches master classes around the United States, and is the recipient of Angela’s Pulses’ Dancing While Black 2017 Fellowship. Under K. Hamilton Projects, Kayla self- produces numerous projects, organizes community events, writes arts integrated curriculum throughout NYCand is a special education teacher at the Highbridge Green School. GUEST SPEAKERS - 22