Join us after the show on Friday, April 28, and Saturday, April 29 for a post-show performance by poet Daniel Johnson paying tribute to American journalist James Foley, who was killed by ISIS in Syria in 2014. In a multi-media presentation, Johnson explores his nearly twenty-year friendship with Foley, while layering poetry over combat footage, still photos, and live music. Ebele Okpokwasili-Johnson, Johnson’s wife, joins him and provides vocal accompaniment.

Daniel Johnson is the author of How to Catch a Falling Knife, published by Alice James Books. Currently, he is working on his second collection of poems titled In the Absence of Sparrows, which explores his nearly twenty-year friendship with American journalist James Foley, who was killed by ISIS in Syria in 2014. Johnson’s poetry has been featured on National Public Radio, PBS News Hour, The Washington Post and in a variety of journals and anthologies including Best American Poetry, The Iowa Review, and I Have My Own Song for It: Modern Poems of Ohio. A former finalist for Poet Laureate of Boston, Johnson has received recognition for his poetry from Poetry Center of Chicago, Ohiana Book Awards, Foreword Book Awards, Tucson Festival of Books, and elsewhere. From 2007 to 2016, he served as the founding executive director of 826 Boston, a youth writing center in Roxbury’s Egleston Square, which is part of the national network founded by writer Dave Eggers and educator Ninive Calegari.

Dr. Ebele Okpokwasili-Johnson, a soprano for the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, is also a Child & Adolescent & Adult Psychiatrist and Medical Director of the Behavioral Health Department at Boston’s South End Community Health Center. An alumna of the Freehold Regional Performing Arts Center in Howell High School, Ebele attended Columbia University for college where she appeared in a number of plays and wrote and directed an original play titled “The Quest.” Ebele later attended the University of Illinois, where she earned her Medical Degree and Master’s of Public Health. Ebele currently studies voice with Robert Honeysucker and has performed for eight years with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus including a U.S. premiere of James MacMillan’s “St. John Passion” with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. She credits James Foley for introducing her to her husband Daniel and misses James dearly. Ebele lives in the Boston area with Daniel and their two children.

Join us after the 8 PM performance of Paradise on Friday, April 7, 2017 for a discussion with Cambridge City Councilor Nadeem Mazen, the first Muslim politician elected to a Massachusetts government post.

Nadeem Mazen is an educator, entrepreneur, and community organizer. He was elected to Cambridge City Council in 2013 after an energetic grassroots campaign, winning by just 6 votes – being returned to office in 2015, receiving the most votes across all 23 candidates for City Council. In his first two terms, he has worked to make city government more accessible to the public and is building coalitions that address Cambridge’s most pressing issues. He has also focused on social justice issues and greater equity for all members of our community. You can read his civic updates at Nadeemtron or learn more about his campaign at VoteNadeem.

Join us in the studio before the 8 PM evening performance of Paradise on Saturday, April 8, 2017,  for a convening of female scientists to compare notes from the field.

Dr. Lesley Mathews Griner, Phd is a Research Investigator II in Molecular Pharmacology within Oncology Research at the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, MA, USA. Her role at NIBR is find novel therapeutics to treat a number of progressive cancers using targeted genetics and also to develop novel 3D model systems of cancer. In addition, Lesley is a lead teacher in the Community Exploration Learning Lab housed at Novartis. Prior to her role at NIBR, Lesley was a Research Scientist in the Biomolecular Screening and Profiling/Probe Development group at the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She joined NCATS in December 2010 after completing her postdoctoral research training at NCI-Frederick working on epigenetics and cancer stem cells. Lesley completed her Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and earned a Bachelor’s in Biology at Clark University in Worcester, MA. Lesley lives in Ayer, MA with her husband Nicholas who is also a scientist, and her two cats Bailey and Schwartz. When not studying cancer Lesley enjoys yoga and reading, and is also currently pursuing a degree in teaching high school biology at Lesley University.

Linda G. Griffith, PhD, is the School of Engineering Teaching Innovation Professor of Biological and Mechanical Engineering and MacVicar Fellow at MIT, where she directs the Center for Gynepathology Research and the Human Physiome on a Chip Project supported by the DARPA/NIH-funded Microphysiological Systems Program. Dr. Griffith received a Bachelor’s Degree from Georgia Tech and a PhD degree from the University of California at Berkeley, both in chemical engineering. Dr. Griffith’s research is in the field of regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. Her laboratory, in collaboration with J. Upton and C. Vacanti, was the first to combine a degradable scaffold with donor cells to create tissue-engineered cartilage in the shape of a human ear. The 3D Printing Process she co-invented for creation of complex scaffolds has been commercialized for manufacture of FDA-approved scaffolds for bone regeneration. She is also a pioneer in devising ways to control nano-scale stimulation of cells by molecular cues, and in creation of 3D tissue models for drug development. The 3D perfused “LiverChip” liver tissue culture technology has been commercialized for applications in drug development. A current focus is integration of tissue engineering with systems biology, with an emphasis on endometriosis and other women’s reproductive diseases. She is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, the Popular Science Brilliant 10 Award, NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award, the MIT Class of 1960 Teaching Innovation Award, Radcliffe Fellow and several awards from professional societies. She has served as a member of the Advisory Councils for the National Institute for Dental and Craniofacial Research and the National Institute of Arthritis, Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases at NIH. As chair of the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee for Biological Engineering at MIT, she led development of the new Biological Engineering SB degree program, which was approved in 2005 as MIT’s first new undergraduate major in 39 years.

Dr. Irene Porro is the Director of the Christa Corrigan McAuliffe Center for Integrated Science Learning at Framingham State University. The Center’s mission is to be a leader in developing opportunities for integrated science learning through the sharing of resources, building of partnerships, and advancement of educational practices. A professional scientist with a deep commitment to social justice, in her work Dr. Porro combines research skills in physics and astrophysics with an interdisciplinary approach to education. Through her professional experience Dr. Porro developed a deep understanding of issues of engagement and retention in K-16 science education, especially for groups traditionally underrepresented in science and engineering disciplines. A native of Torino, Italy, Dr. Porro received her Ph.D. in Space Science and Technology from the University of Padova, Italy. Before entering the field of education she was a researcher in astrophysics at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the Max Planck Institut für Astronomie, in Heidelberg, Germany. She then joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she became the Director of the Education and Outreach Group of the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research. She is an alumna of the International Space University, an international education program that specializes in providing graduate-level training to the future leaders of the emerging global space community. Dr. Porro has personally experienced the benefits and sense of empowerment that the exposure to the integration of art and science learning experiences produces. Through her work she is especially committed to promote initiatives where both the arts and the sciences are fully respected and valued. To that end, she is proud to serve on the advisory board for Catalyst Collaborative @ MIT.

Be amongst the first to see  Paradise and join the cast and crew to celebrate with wine and refreshments after the show.

Join us directly following the 7:30 PM performance of Paradise for a conversation with Eboney Hearn, the Executive Director of Engineering Outreach Programs at MIT. Eboney Hearn deals daily with students who have similar dreams and similar face challenges as Yasmeen, Paradise‘s brave protagonist. Come hear her perspective on how the story in the play connects with students’ real lives.

Prior to her role as the Executive Director of the MIT Office of Engineering Programs, Eboney Hearn served as Assistant Dean for Graduate Education, Diversity Initiatives  at the Office of the Dean for Graduate Education (ODGE) from 2014-2016 and as Program Director, Diversity Initiative at the Broad Institute from 2008-2014. In both roles she provided strategic direction, keen insight, and coordination to increase student diversity and academic success at all levels.

At ODGE she oversaw retention and recruitment efforts of underrepresented minority graduate students, staff training, budget management, and in collaboration with the foundation relations and development offices, secured contributions to support existing efforts and to create new ones such as the University Center for Exemplary Mentoring at MIT. Eboney has also served on a variety of MIT-wide committees and working groups, including the Committee on Race and Diversity; Mind, Hand, and Heart Academic Environment; and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day planning.

At Broad, she heightened the visibility of diversity training programs (that served audiences from high school students to faculty), collaborated with HR and academic affairs to lead efforts addressing the professional development needs of women, to implement and evaluate a mentoring program for scientists, and to create a seminar series to prepare Broad research technicians to pursue graduate degrees in STEM and medicine.

Prior to coming to MIT, Eboney was a mathematics teacher at public middle- and high schools in Boston for five years and was a manufacturing engineer at IBM, where she led several manufacturing processes in circuit board printing and co-patented a novel photolithography process. In addition to her undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering from MIT, she earned an Ed.M. from Harvard University in 2004. Outside of her work life, she enjoys being the mother of an active and curious toddler, spending quality time with family and friends, traveling, skiing and salsa dancing.