JOHN DOUGLAS THOMPSON – PERFORMER
Broadway: King Lear, Becker in August Wilson’s Jitney (Tony nomination), A Time To Kill, Cyrano de Bergerac, Julius Caesar. Off-Broadway: Julius Caesar at Public Theater, The Iceman Cometh at BAM (Obie and Drama Desk Awards); Tamburlaine at Theater for a New Audience (Obie, Drama Desk and AUDELCO Awards ) ; Satchmo at the Waldorf (Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and NAACP Awards) at the Westside Theater, King Lear , Macbeth (title role); Othello (Obie Award, Lucille Lortel Award, Joe A. Callaway Award) at TFANA; The Forest at Classic Stage Company; The Emperor Jones at Irish Repertory Theatre (Joe A. Callaway Award and Lucille Lortel, Drama League and Drama Desk nominations); Hedda Gabler at New York Theatre Workshop. Regional credits: Joe Turner’s Come and Gone at Mark Taper Forum (Ovation Award); Antony and Cleopatra at Hartford Stage; Red Velvet, Othello , Richard III , King Lear, and Mother Courage at Shakespeare & Co; Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train at The Wilma Theater (Barrymore Award) and productions at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, Trinity Repertory Company, American Repertory Theater and Yale Repertory Theatre. His television and film credits include: “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks”, “Wolves”, “Bull”, “Person of Interest”, “Madam Secretary”, “Law & Order”, “Conviction”, “Bourne Legacy”, “Glass Chin”, “Michael Clayton”, “Malcolm X”. Upcoming films: “21 Bridges”, “355”, and “Let Them All Talk”. John is a Fox Fellow recipient, has received the Samuel H. Scripps Award, and the Robert Brustein Award for sustained excellence in American theater.
CIARÁN MADDEN, Consul General of Ireland, New York
Ciarán Madden was born in Co. Cork, Ireland. His career at the Department of Foreign Affairs began in November 1994. Ciarán’s early career with the Department included various roles in the Department in Dublin from; at Ireland’s Permanent Representation of Ireland to the European Union, and as Advisor to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on European Affairs, 2002 – 2003. From 2003 – 2005 he was assigned as the Press Officer for the Department and following this he spent a year in the Department’s Development and Co-operation Division. During his time here he co-drafted the White Paper on Irish Aid. Ciarán also served as Private Secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs before moving on to become the Head of Finance and Planning from 2007 to 2009. Ciarán served for four years as Ambassador of Ireland to the United Arab Emirates (also accredited to Qatar and Kuwait), from 2009 to 2013. On his return to Dublin, he was appointed Director for the Irish Abroad Unit in September 2013, and led the drafting of The Global Irish – Ireland’s Diaspora Policy. Following this role, Ciarán was appointed Director for the Middle East and North Africa in January 2015. He took up duty as Consul General of Ireland in New York in August 2017. Ciarán is married to Lana Fitzsimons and they have one daughter, Ruby.
Dr. Miriam Nyhan Grey
Miriam Nyhan Grey is Associate Director of Glucksman Ireland House NYU, where she is also director of Graduate Studies for the MA in Irish and Irish-American Studies program. She earned her Ph.D. in History and Civilisation from the European University Institute (Italy), after having been awarded an MPhil at University College Cork (NUI). With an interest in the intersections of the history of migration, race, and ethnicity, she is currently collecting oral histories with Black and Brown Irish Americans for NYU’s Archives of Irish America.
Professor Westenley Alcenat
Wes is a scholar, teacher, mentor, and academic consultant. He is an Assistant Professor of History, Urban Studies & American Studies at Fordham University in the Bronx, NY and teaches courses on nineteenth century United States, Atlantic, and Afro-Caribbean history. He is currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate and a Visiting Assistant Professor of African-American Studies at Princeton University’s Department of African American Studies (2020-2021). Wes is a native of Haiti and partly grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He lives in the Bed-Stuy neighborhood of Brooklyn with his beloved pet rabbit, BB King.
PETER QUINN
Peter Quinn received a B.A. from Manhattan College in 1969 an and M.A. in history from Fordham University. In 1979, He was appointed to the staff of Governor Hugh Carey as chief speechwriter and continued in that role under Governor Mario Cuomo. He retired in 2008 as Corporate Editorial Director at Time Warner. Quinn’s 1994 novel Banished Children of Eve won a 1995 American Book Award. He co-wrote the script for the 1987 television documentary “McSorley’s New York,” which was awarded a New York-area Emmy for “Outstanding Historical Programming.” He was an advisor on Martin Scorsese’s film “Gangs of New York” and helped conceive and write the script for the documentary “The Road to the White House,” which aired on TG4, in Ireland. He received the @019 Eugene O’Neill Lifetime Achievement Award from Irish American Writers & Artists. He is a member of the board of NYU Glucksman Ireland House.
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