9. Lacresha Berry and Castel Sweet

Lacresha, better known as Berry, is a singer/songwriter, actress, poet, educator and writer from Queens, New York, by way of Lexington, Kentucky. Her latest one-woman show, TUBMAN, is a re-imagining of Harriet Tubman’s life as a young girl in Harlem. She performed it to great acclaim at the IA conference.

Castel is a sociologist who explores the intricacies of community, culture and race. She is currently the Coordinator of Community Engaged Learning and Scholarship at the Fitz Center for Community Leadership at the University of Dayton.

The two met at the conference, and as they describe it, they bonded.

Lacresha and Castel discuss their professional journeys, the complexities of cultural identity and finding opportunities to communicate across cultural barriers.