BLM Seacoast to honor Black, Brown and Indigenous community members who have contributed greatly to the Seacoast
Portsmouth, NH – Black Lives Matter Seacoast invites you to attend our 2nd Annual BLM Seacoast Excellence Awards Ceremony.
The mission of Black Lives Matter Seacoast includes uplifting people of color in the Seacoast areas of New Hampshire, Maine, and Massachusetts and we created this event to honor the many wonderful people of color whose hard work has benefited the Seacoast. Due to the overwhelming impact of our first BLM Seacoast Excellence Awards and the endless list of incredible Black, Brown and Indigenous community members to honor, we had to run it back in 2022!
The hosts for the event will be the co-founder and current board chair for Black Lives Matter Seacoast, Tanisha Johnson and Saniyah Bolton, the current co-director of the Black Lives Matter Seacoast Youth Division.
The event will feature an incredible Keynote Speaker, Samrawit Silva, a 2021 BLM Seacoast Excellence Award Winner, who is a graduate from Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics at the University of New Hampshire. She has always been one to speak up, but UNH is where she became heavily involved in social justice, partaking in forming the 8PercentSpeaks movement at the University. It is her passion for justice that brought her to 350NH, where she currently works as an Electoral Climate Organizer, from helping organize peaceful protests to volunteering as a peacekeeper in protests in Concord, to speaking to the youth.
Her focus for the past year has been raising awareness for the Tigray genocide that continues to be waged on her and her family. Having lost a handful of people already and not knowing the status of her mother or youngest siblings, Samrawit continues to advocate non-stop. While fighting to end the genocide – Samrawit is doing her best to help those who are still alive including by traveling to Sudan to help the refugees.
We will be honoring the following five individuals with our 2022 BLM Seacoast Excellence Award.
Najee Ayman Brown
Najee Ayman Brown (he/him) can be described as nothing other than a young entrepreneur. After starting his media company, Mindlezz Thoughtz, in 2011 he has helped provide numerous resources to aspiring artists. In addition to running his own media and arts company, Najee Brown also produced his own music and has danced on every stage from the Apollo to Carnegie Hall. Most recently, Najee wrote and produced his play The Bus Stop, which sold out six times in New York City, and was recently featured at the Seacoast Rep last summer. He co-wrote and directed the musical Glimmerings Of Hope, which premiered in New York City and toured Michigan in the spring of 2019. He also directed and choreographed the award-winning musical Henry Box Brown A Musical Journey, in Edinburgh, Scotland in the summer or 2019. Brown oversees the “Sol,” series at Seacoast Repertory Theatre, which will focus on presenting Black, Indigenous, and People Of Color (BIPOC) narratives. Stokley and Martin and Nevaeh’s Brother, are his newest plays to premier at Seacoast Repertory Theatre. Most recently Najee founded his own theater company called Theater For The People. Theater For The People is a BIPOC produced, touring theater company based in New England. Through curating thought-provoking plays accompanied by dialogue spaces, he seeks to build community through the pursuit of oneness and diversity.
Saniyah Bolton
Saniyah Bolton (she/her) is an ongoing sophomore attending Exeter High School while currently being the co-director of the BLM Seacoast youth division. Known for her strong aspiration within equal rights, she is involved in many initiatives working to increase racial justice and diversity within her community. She has completed many projects and writings in hopes to educate others and will continue her devotion to achieving equity and inclusiveness for all communities. Still continuously being involved in promoting representation for people of color everywhere, she hopes to create long-term change, intersection, and education for youth.
Sandra Guzmán
Sandra Guzmán (she/her) is an EMMY award-winning journalist, documentary filmmaker and author. She is a producer of The Pieces I am, a critically acclaimed film about the art and life of her literary mentor Toni Morrison. Other documentaries include The Women’s List and The Boomer List, for the American Masters portfolio and The Latino List for HBO. The identity film series explores gender, culture, race, sexuality, ethnicity through a series of intimate interview portraits of trailblazing achievers. Sandra is the author of the non-fiction book, The New Latina’s Bible, a feminist self-help guide for two generations of women. Her work explores identity, land, memory, race, sexuality, spirituality, culture, and gender. She was editor of Latina and Heart & Soul magazines. Her work has appeared on HBO, NBC News, CNN, Audubon, Univision, Telemundo, El Diario-La Prensa, and PBS among other media outlets.
Sandi Clark Kaddy
Sandi Clark Kaddy (she/her) is a resident of NH by way of NY, upstate that is. Second oldest of 10 children, wife, mother of two Kings, step-mom and combined grandmother of 5. She holds a B.A. from Elmira College, Elmira N.Y. Using her degree in theater Sandi has been blessed to work in the area at professional and community theaters. Sandi wanted to see and be a part of a more diverse stage presence. She wanted to see actors/singers and musicians of color represented locally in the theatre scene so in 2004 she began the first Seacoast black female owned theater production company “Jukwaa Mazoa.” #Seacoast Sandi, as some refer to her as, has produced, directed, performed and created many productions for the stage in NH, Maine and Mass. She is the creator of “Set The House On Fire,” a gospel concert celebrating the life of Rev. Dr Martin Luther King. Sandi is happiest when she’s busy, a lady that really doesn’t know the word no. Sandi serves as Board President for the nonprofit organization Seacoast African American Cultural Center (SAACC). She is excited by learning, creating, growing as a person, being a role model, advocate, Christian and activist. She loves her church North Star Ame Zion church located in Newington where she serves as a missionary, deaconess, choir member and shares black history as often as possible as part of her Sunday duties as church announcements and greeter. Recently retired she needed one more thing to do so she partnered up in November 2021 with a friend (sista’s in charge) and opened another female black-owned business “2Clark’s Specialty Gifts.”
Robert Richard-Snipes
Robert Richard-Snipes (he/him) originally born in North Carolina, Robert grew up in various places in the world with his mother who was in the Navy. For the majority of his adolescence, he grew up in Norfolk, Virginia. He came to New Hampshire in 2012 to run track at UNH and soon learned that diversity was not something that this state had much to offer – or so it seemed. He studied Political Science and Women’s Studies and began to pursue leadership opportunities within student organizations that focused on diversity and inclusion. This led him to become really passionate about community work and serving those who might be most marginalized. While obtaining a Master’s in Community Development he began working at SOS Recovery Community Organization as a Quality Improvement Coordinator. Being able to bring diversity and representation into a field that has historically left many out of the conversation is something that really gets him out of bed each morning. When he’s not working, you can most likely catch him at my local CrossFit gym – complaining more than working out!
We will also be presenting for the first time a unique award, called the BLM Seacoast Black-Owned Business Award. We made this award to honor Black business owners who are successful and thriving in the region. The first ever award will go to Leroy McGhee, operating Leroy Styles in Somersworth.
Leroy McGhee
Leroy McGhee (he/him) was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts. His parents relocated to Boston from Alabama in the mid 1960’s in search of greater opportunities. After graduating from Jamaica Plain High School in 1987, he went into the Local #12 Plumbers Union. Leroy obtained Journeyman status and worked on several different jobs during the Big Dig. After an unexpected life changing event, Leroy decided to leave the city and head north to New Hampshire for some rest and regrouping. He had been to Portsmouth and the Lakes Region several times as a young man and he really liked the area. Leroy settled in Portsmouth in the Spring of 1996 and met his amazing wife, Theresa. He relocated to Somersworth and after working a few years in the building trades, Leroy decided to go to Empire Beauty School and obtain his Cosmetology License. He had been going back and forth to Boston for a precision haircut because he was not able to find anyone in this area who had the ability to groom African American hair: hence, Leroy saw a need with a great business opportunity.
He graduated from Empire Beauty School in 2002 and began a career as a stylist at the brand-new Dover Supercuts shortly thereafter. His goal was to work there for 5 years and build a clientele that would support his dream of owning and operating his own salon. Leroy has been blessed with achieving that goal and has owned and operated Leroy’s Styles, LLC at 59 High Street in Somersworth for 15 years. He is the longest running business owner in downtown Somersworth and the first brick and mortar Black business owner in the Tri-City area.
The event will also feature an interview with a local and highly talented artist, Duaa Zuhra, the Featured Artist for BLM Seacoast Excellence Awards. Duaa Zahra (she/her) is a first generation Iraqi-American artist. She was born in Baghdad, Iraq in 1991 and now lives and works in New Hampshire. She earned her BFA from the School of Museum of Fine Arts and Tufts University in Massachusetts. The mystical representation of the human experience is the essence of her visual language. Her experiences as a war refugee displaced by war influence her work and are woven together with her visionary explorations. Duaa expresses her work predominantly with oil and acrylic paint on canvas. She has exhibited her work in various local shows and galleries.
The event will additionally feature two incredible performances from The Loop and The Block Collaborative.
The LOOP, which stands for “ladies of opportunity and promise,” want their music to represent all one can achieve in life. Boston-based teen artists, Marcia Bibbins and M’Zariah Starr, ages 15 and 16, formed the contemporary urban pop/R&B duo in their teens after connecting through their childhood and school friendship, a passion for music and a collaborative strength to share their vision on life’s perceptions. The duo has embarked on an enthusiastic and committed plan to explore opportunity and promise through their music and aspiring and heartfelt activism. Their music fits across many genres and is a unique blend of pop, R&B, rap and spoken soul, that removes all judgment and creates an open mind on how people envision the world and those in it. They bring their own spin to old and new sounds with their genre-blending style, creating an artful fusion that captures emotion and drives their activism.
The Block Collaborative is an artistic community space in Portsmouth, NH, operated by co-owners and siblings, Anthony and Brenda Bounphakhom. The mission is to help express one’s unconditional love in a style of art to help unite and grow the community. The individuals from the Block Collaborative that will be participating in the performance are: Anthony Bounphakhom, Justin Espaillat, Mikayla Martin, Adam Wertheimer, Tea Buble, Jason Beruke, Delaney Inman, Joelle Minisce, Caitlin Peeler and Yoshi Maysonet!
Join us on Sunday, February 27th, 2022, at 6 p.m. to recognize and honor these individuals who are going above and beyond to make the Seacoast a more diverse and inclusive region.
Where to watch?
The event has been pre-recorded during the month of February at the Career Technical Center within Somersworth High School in Somersworth, NH. The event will be broadcast on various different public tv stations in the area: Public Portsmouth Media TV, Concord TV, Exeter TV, Dover TV, Berwick TV, Somersworth TV; and our BLM Seacoast Facebook & YouTube Pages. A special presentation of the event will be featured on NHPBS in the future.
More details will be posted on our website here in the following days.