Cultural Catalysts with Alison McNeil

Consultant, strategist, and CJAM Consulting Principal Candace Jackson joins Cultural Catalysts for this season’s final episode to trace how an operations and HR leader inside arts organizations became a designer of what she now calls “executive management consulting.” She shares how believing in serendipity and deja vu as confirmation helped her recognize when she was on the right path, including the “accident” of shortening her too-long business name—Candace Jackson Arts and Management Consulting—into CJAM at a client’s request so it would fit on a check. Candace unpacks early missteps in setting her hourly and day rates based on her last salary, before realizing she needed to price in overhead, insurance, and employer taxes, and reflects on being repeatedly tapped as an interim executive director by boards navigating leadership transitions. 
Candace’s experiences clarified that she no longer wanted to stay inside the organizational frame permanently and instead wanted to enter as an external partner who can stabilize, support, and then step back out through CJAM’s executive management consulting model—combining interim leadership, executive searches, and deep partnerships with leadership teams. Throughout the episode, Candace talks about naming and claiming her lane, treating “accidents” as alignment, and building a consulting practice that centers clarity, structure, and care for the people doing the work.​
Find out more:
CJAM Consulting / CJAM Consulting on Instagram
Candace Jackson

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Entertainment executive and booking agent Anshia Crooms joins Cultural Catalysts to share how a small-town girl who fell in love with film and music, built a nearly 20-year career shaping live experiences and artist opportunities. As founder, CEO, and Chief Booking Agent of Briclyn Entertainment Group, Anshia has evolved her company from an artist management shop launched at age 23 while in grad school at The New School into a boutique booking and events agency representing Adam Blackstone, Eric Roberson, Gabby Samone, and more, placing them on stages from Afropunk to the Kennedy Center and Jazz Café in London. She breaks down the difference between management and booking, how her SummerStage apprenticeship became a masterclass in live production, and why every artist on her roster must be able to deliver a powerful live show. 
Anshia also discusses the role of relationships and team “zones of genius” in sustaining festivals like the Love Music Festival and East Orange’s Mac Fest, and how her faith and instincts guide who she works with and which pivots to make as the live events landscape shifts. Anshia is candid about seasons of being broke in New York, weathering slow ticket sales and economic uncertainty, and using affirmations, prayer, community, and simple joys like nails, massages, and quarterly “friend dates” to stay grounded while continuing to pour into others.
Links:
Briclyn Entertainment Group
Anshia on Instagram
Project Hygiene: [email protected]
The Recording Academy: MusiCares | Grammy U
Mastering Publicity Strategies with Nyle Washington: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

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Tony-nominated choreographer, director, and artistic director Camille A. Brown joins Cultural Catalysts to talk about how a shy Black girl from Jamaica, Queens who choreographed to DuckTales and TailSpin theme songs grew into one of the most influential voices in contemporary theater and dance. From early training at Bernice Johnson Cultural Arts Center and the Ailey School to dancing with Ronald K. Brown/Evidence and then founding Camille A. Brown & Dancers, Camille shares how movement became both a safe space and a calling as she navigated body policing, “ideal” ballet standards, and the scarcity of Black women choreographers on major stages. She opens up about creating a distinct choreographic voice, saying no when asked to imitate others, and building an organization that now includes mentorship, touring concert works like Black Girl: Linguistic Play and ink, and her social dance platform, Everybody Move, which celebrates African American social dances as archives of history and joy. 
Camille and Alison also dig into the realities of being the first Black woman since Katherine Dunham to direct and choreograph a Broadway play, the toll and responsibility of “breaking glass,” and the lineage of Black women artists and administrators whose names and labor she insists on honoring. Along the way, Camille reflects on directing and choreographing across Broadway, opera, and film; the collaborators and administrators who helped her grow from a one-woman shop; and how she is learning to hold grief, boundaries, rest, and humanity alongside unprecedented professional visibility.
Find out more:
Camille A. Brown & Dancers
Every Body Move
NEFA's National Dance Project Production Grant
Six Black women choreographers whose Broadway work precedes Camille: Katherine Dunham 
Debbie Allen
Mabel Robinson 
Hope Clarke 
Diane McIntyre 
Marlies Yearby 

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Tewodross Melchishua “Teo” Williams—award-winning filmmaker, animator, Afrofuturist, and Professor & Department Chair of Visual Communication & Digital Media Arts at Bowie State University—joins Cultural Catalysts to explore how movement, music, and Black futures shape his visual storytelling. From being inspired by seeing Black people in space in Star Trek and Star Wars, to creating his “visual jazz” style, Teo shares how synesthesia, hip hop, jazz, reggae, and house music inform his animation, film work, and live projections for projects like Cinderella: The Remix at Imagination Stage and the Shaolin Jazz “The 37th Chamber” and “Page to Stage” collaborations. He dives into Afrofuturism as a lens for centering Black narratives, details his new sci-fi feature he’s calling, ‘The Beat,’ and explains how HBCUs like Bowie State function as interdisciplinary laboratories where dance, immersive media, VR, gaming, fashion, and film collide. 
Find out more: 
About Tewodross “Teo” Williams:Visual Jazz studio: visualjazzmedia.net 
Instagram: @soulcinematic
"Planet X Marks the Spot: Nommo Music for the Suckas" 

Bowie State University – Department of Fine and Performing Arts / Visual Communication & Digital Media Arts (VCDMA)
Megamind Media / Tressa “Azarel” Smallwood 
Shaolin Jazz 
Listen to Above the Clouds by Gang Starr: Spotify | Apple Music

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Shirley Taylor, Executive Director of Mind-Builders Creative Arts Center, joins the show to share the story of her journey from visual artist to transformative arts administrator, and the creative vision that powers her legacy in New York City. In this conversation, Shirley reflects on her early days at NYFA, her award-winning student arts exhibitions, and launching youth career pipelines at the Apollo Theater. She discusses what it means to design programs that empower young people, support whole-person growth, and offer real-world opportunities—from internships to paid creative jobs. Together with host Alison McNeil, Shirley opens up about the personal values that guide her leadership, the challenges of fundraising and strategy, and her deep belief in centering community, preserving cultural heritage, and making arts access a reality—especially for historically underrepresented youth. If you care about mentorship, creative careers, or building authentic opportunity through the arts, this episode offers wisdom, energy, and hope for what’s possible when the community leads.
Find out more: 
Mind-Builders Creative Arts Center
The Apollo Theater
Shirley Taylor on LinkedIn 
Laura Greer

Want to know more about the Impact Roadmap: The Art of Describing Your Impact? Join the waitlist to get first access.
🔗 Connect with Alison:
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🌐 Find out more about McNeil Creative Enterprises.