Welcome to SPARK, a podcast from the South Fulton Institute.

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This week we sit down with Co-founders of Reentry Arts Connection. The Reentry ARTS Connection was established in Atlanta, Georgia, in the Spring of 2021, by co-founders Curtis Alexander King, CEO, and Garry Yates, Creative Director. With combined experience, King and Yates have spent over 50 years of service and patronage in the arts. They understand, on a personal and professional level, how the arts can be transformative and have life-long effects on individuals and communities.

The Reentry ARTS Connection seeks to serve individuals impacted by the justice system by creating platforms, places, and possibilities where their creative voices can be expressed through the arts.

For over 30 years, Curtis Alexander King has been a champion for the arts, beginning in the mid-1980s with his involvement at the Los Angeles Inner City Cultural Center, a multi-arts institution founded as a positive response to the Watts Riots. He relocated to Washington, DC, and worked in public relations and marketing at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. King distinguished himself as a leader in audience development as the Community Relations Director for the Alliance Theatre Company and for Kenny Leon’s True Colors Theatre Company, respectively. During his tenure at the Alliance, he also led the Patron Services Team.

Garry Yates has worked in Theatre Arts, Television, Film, and higher education from Atlanta to LA for over 20 years. He has consulted with various organizations on innovative curriculum design and performing arts creations and has memberships with the Actors Equity Association, Screen Actors Guild, Stage Directors, the Choreographers Society - Associate Member, and the North American Association of Drama Therapy. He is an academician, actor, director-writer, a pioneer in theatre. Yates has held leadership roles throughout Atlanta as the Chair of the Theatre Arts and Mass Media Arts academic programs at Clark Atlanta University and the Educational Director for Theatre in the Square.

Hosted by: Jennifer Bauer-Lyons, Executive Director

Produced by: Jordan Battle, Administrative Assistant

Episode 10: Robert Drake

SPARKBy South Fulton InstituteMay 24, 2023