Dr. Amanda Kemp

Dr. Amanda Kemp puts racial justice and mindfulness in the same lane.

The founder of Racial Justice from the Heart, she provides private mentoring to leaders who want to create change in their organizations, schools and faith communities--while practicing compassion and self-care.

A sought after speaker and equity consultant, you can find out more about Dr. Amanda at www.dramandakemp.com

But if you want to keep reading her bio...

She blends activism and spirituality, theatre arts and history. A survivor of the New York City foster care system, Dr. Kemp has been a lifelong poet-performer and advocate of racial justice and equality since her first anti-apartheid march in 1983.

Dr. Kemp earned her B.A. from Stanford University where she helped to lead the Stanford out of South Africa divestment movement and the successful struggle to revamp the University's Eurocentric humanities requirement.

Awarded Stanford's prestigious Gardner Fellowship for Public Service, Dr. Kemp apprenticed with the Honorable Maxine Waters and the Rev. Jesse Jackson. For her work in organizing statewide student movements, including a 10,000 strong March on Sacramento, CA for educational rights, Rainbow/PUSH awarded Kemp their 1989 Citizenship Award.

A poet and playwright, Kemp left politics to pursue a doctoral degree in Performance Studies at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. After two years of doctoral work, Dr. Kemp traveled to South Africa to work with the Ford Foundation where she consulted and co-authored on a report on the complex and dynamic women's movements during the transition to democracy.

Enriched by her South Africa experiences, Dr. Kemp completed her dissertation on African American and South African ties in the 1920s and 1930s. She has since published articles about South African politics as performance and performed a one-woman show on being Black but not African in South Africa.

A master teacher, Dr. Kemp has taught at Cornell University, Dickinson College, Millersville University, and Franklin & Marshall College where she served as the chair of Africana Studies. She regularly keynotes Martin Luther King programs at colleges, high schools, and in elementary school settings. She is currently a Visiting Scholar in Africana Studies at Franklin & Marshall College and continues to publish on race, performance and freedom.

In 2007 Dr. Kemp founded Theatre for Transformation, a performance method and theatre company whose mission is to create a world of forgiveness, abundance, and peace. She has authored several plays including "Emancipation Sweet," "Hoodwinked," "Show Me the Franklins! Remembering the Ancestors, Slavery and Benjamin Franklin” and “Sister Friend: Phillis Wheatley and Obour Tanner on Love, Freedom and the Divine.”

Dr. Kemp's books include: "Stop Being Afraid: 5 Steps to Transform your Conversations about Racism" and "Say the Wrong Thing: 5 Ways Black women in predominantly white spaces can create change without sacrificing themselves."

Quick Facts about Dr. Amanda Kemp

degrees

Stanford (A.B.)

Northwestern (PhD)

professor & teaching experience

Cornell

Dickinson

Franklin & Marshall

founded

Racial Justice from the Heart

Theatre of Transformation

Inspira

awards

John Gardner Fellowship, Stanford University

People United To Save Humanity (PUSH) Award

Racial Justice Award, YWCA of Lancaster

NAACP Lancaster Civic Award

Pennsylvania Council on the Arts

Pennsylvania Humanities Council Award

National Endowment for the Humanities

Ford Foundation Pre-Doctoral Fellowship

Connect with Amanda!

Amanda is available for speaking, workshops, performances, and book signings.

She is also available for private mentoring and conversations on the issues!

CONTACT AMANDA at saythewrongthing at gmail dot com