The 2nd episode of “We Can’t Go Back” is live! 

The second installment stars Chesney Snow, with our host Courtney J. Boddie from the Teaching Artistry with Courtney J. Boddie podcast, who discusses the necessary components of a racially just world and what has been his contributions as an active teaching artist. Even today Snow constantly asks himself, “What am I doing with my art?”

For over two decades, Snow's work has centered on engaging the arts as a vehicle for social change and empowerment. He has been a collaborator with Emmy award-winning filmmaker Lisa Russell for over 10 years developing performances, workshops, and dialogue surrounding the arts and education with the United Nations. He has taught workshops and masterclasses in countless prisons, hospitals, public and private schools and universities including Harvard University, Juilliard, New York University, University of Wisconsin Platteville, the Kingdom of Bhutan, and the U.S. State Department with American Voices, as well as numerous theaters throughout the country. 

Chesney is a long time teaching artist with New Victory Theater and more recently with The Town Hall in New York City where he created a storytelling intensive with young incarcerated men in Rikers Island Correctional facility. 

In this episode, he shared his beliefs that building platforms where everyone can rise, seeking reparations and becoming serious about politics are the ingredients to equality. Snow acknowledged that these actions are only possible by confronting racism in America, where the responsibility to tell the truth starts in the classroom. 

Join us next week when Courtney interviews Artistic Director of New Repertory Theatre, Michael J. Bobbit, who is an arts leader, director, choreographer, and playwright.

About Chesney Snow

Snow is a Drama Desk award winner and a 3-time Artist in Residence at Harvard University with the Office of the Arts. He most recently appeared in Two River Theater’s production of Oo Bla Dee written by Golden Globe winner Regina Taylor and directed by Tony winner Ruben Santiago Hudson. He was a composer and lyricist for the McCarter Theatre’s 2018 production of Crowns alongside Pulitzer finalist and Obie winner Diedre Murray at Princeton University. He also appeared in McCarter Theatre’s “Princeton and Slavery Plays” directed by Carl Cofield. Snow is an interdisciplinary artist. He released his debut album on Warner Music in Europe as the songwriter for his group Spoken Love. 

Considered a pioneering figure in American beatbox culture, Snow co-founded the American Beatbox Championships where he served as the executive producer for 7 years. The annual event held in New York City is a 3 day international arts festival featuring performances, film screenings, workshops, gallery exhibitions, panel discussions, and of course beatboxing battles of all kinds. Snow also created, produced, and starred in the feature documentary American Beatboxer which was placed in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame archive as well as Schomburg Center for Black Research, the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Howard University, and the Harvard University Hip Hop archive. The film was licensed by Sean “P Diddy” Combs’ Revolt TV (Time Warner) after receiving accolades at numerous domestic and international film festivals. 

Snow recently starred on Broadway in the a cappella musical In Transit at Circle In The Square. He originated the role of “Boxman” both on and off Broadway. He has headlined Carnegie Hall twice with Distinguished Concerts International. His critically acclaimed autobiographical choreopoem The Unwritten Law was commissioned by Dixon Place experimental theatre and hailed as “Political Theatre at it’s best. The most powerful theatre I have ever witnessed” by BroadwayWorld.