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Andrea Ambam (she/her, Moderator) is a Brooklyn-based actress and playwright whose roots sprout from Cameroon. As a politically engaged storyteller who believes in the art’s potential for movement building and transformative justice, Andrea best intersects spaces where community, performance, and truth-telling pulsate. Currently, she is a Brooklyn Arts Exchange Artist-In-Residence developing a one-woman show and serves as a Lead Facilitator for Broadway Advocacy Coalition's Reiminaging Equitable Productions workshop, addressing racial equity within broadway, off-broadway, and touring theatre companies. She has developed her practice as an Inaugural Artivism Fellow with Broadway Advocacy Coalition, an Artist-in-Residence for Anna Deavere Smith, an EmergeNYC Fellow at the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics, and as a competitive public speaker/performer where she has been awarded 10 national championships including "Top Speaker in the Nation" three times and gone on to debate conservative pundits on live TV. As a performer, writer, and facilitator, she’s worked with Classical Theatre of Harlem/Playbill, gal-dem, Abrons Arts Center, NYU Prison Education Program, Artists’ Literacies Institute, Centre for Social Innovation, and others. She is in the core acting ensemble of the NYU Verbatim Performance Lab. Andrea has a master’s degree in Art & Public Policy from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

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Vanessa Williams is one of the most respected and multi-faceted performers, whose work in film, recordings, TV, and theatre have earned her four Emmy nominations, eleven Grammy nominations, a Tony nomination, three SAG award nominations, seven NAACP Image Awards, three Satellite Awards and a star on the Hollywood Walk-Of-Fame. Her autobiography, You Have No Idea, co-written with her mother Helen Williams, was a NY Times Bestseller. Broadway credits include: The Trip to Bountiful, After Midnight, Sondheim on Sondheim, Into The Woods, and Kiss Of The Spider Woman; with special engagements in Hey, Look Me Over at NY City Center, the recent Anyone Can Whistle at Carnegie Hall, and the West End revival of City of Angels. One of the world’s most accomplished concert artists, Vanessa appears regularly with prestigious symphony orchestras, including The Kennedy Center’s National Symphony Orchestra. She supports various organizations including Black Theatre United (Co-Founder), Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation, Special Olympics, and Broadway Cares-Equity Fights AIDS.

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LaTosha Brown is an award-winning visionary thought leader, institution builder, Cultural Activist and Artist, and Connector. She is a nationally recognized, “go-to” expert in Black Voting Rights and Voter Suppression, Black Women’s Empowerment, and Philanthropy.

Her voice is the nexus between the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Power Movement, and Black Lives Matter.

“There is power in my voice! It is a divine gift that I use to connect different worlds. I bridge the philanthropy world to the grassroots community, traditional politics to grassroots politics, and practitioners to the scholarship of movement building.”

LaTosha is the Co-Founder of Black Voters Matter Fund and Black Voters Matter Capacity Building Institute. These initiatives are designed to boost Black voter registration and turnout, as well as increase power in marginalized, predominantly Black communities.

LaTosha is also the Visionary, Founder and Co-Anchor of a regional network called the Southern Black Girls & Women’s Consortium. This is $100 million, 10-year initiative to invest in organizations that serve Black women and girls. The goal of the consortium is to create a new approach to philanthropy by allowing every component of the program, inception to execution, to be created by Black girls and women in the South.

In 2021 LaTosha Brown was named one of Glamour Magazine's " Women of the Year" after inspiring voter turnout, mobilizing hundreds of thousands of citizens and notched three historic wins for the Democratic Party in the state of Georgia.

Ms. Brown is also the 2020 Hauser Leader at the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard Kennedy School, the 2020 Leader in Practice at Harvard Kennedy School’s Women and Public Policy Program, and a 2020-2021 American Democracy fellow at the Charles Warren Center at Harvard.

What’s Next?
LaTosha has worked in 23 different countries to include Kenya, Guyana, and Brazil. Her next mission involves resourcing and empowering women across the Diaspora. “I don’t want women to be seen as victims; they are the problem solvers for the world. I am convinced that Black Women are going to liberate the world!”

In the Media
Ms. Brown has received numerous awards and accolades for her work. She has been featured on ABC, CBS, CNN, Democracy Now, and PBS. Her Op-Eds have been showcased in the New York Times, Politico and Essence. Her work has also been highlighted in several docuseries: What’s Eating America?,  American Swamp, and Finding Justice. To learn more about LaTosha, please visit www.mslatoshabrown.com

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Charlotte Clymer is the former press secretary for rapid response at the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest civil rights organization dedicated to advancing lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) equality. Her day-to-day work involves running the organization’s messaging in response to the White House and federal policy.

She also serves on the D.C. Commission for Persons with Disabilities, the Board for the Center for Law and Military Policy, the Military and Veterans Advisory Council for Outserve-SLDN (Servicemember’s Legal Defense Network), and the Advisory Councils for Running Start and the Lone Star Parity Project, organizations working toward gender parity in elected office.

She is also a Political Partner in the Class of 2019 at the Truman National Security Project, which works to bring together leaders with national security backgrounds to deliver concrete solutions to pressing global challenges for leaders at the local, state, and national levels.

Her commentary has been quoted by the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, the Guardian, TIME, Newsweek, and numerous other publications. Her work has been published in the Washington Post, NBC News, GQ, the Independent, Quartz, Dame Magazine, and others.

She is a 2019 40 under 40 Queer Women of D.C. Honoree and graduate of Georgetown University, and one of Fortune Magazine’s 40 under 40 (2020).

She is a Texan, military veteran and proud transgender woman, currently based in Washington, D.C.

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Carol Jenkins is the President and CEO of the ERA Coalition and the Fund for Women’s Equality, sister organizations dedicated to the adoption of the Equal Rights Amendment. She is also founding president of The Women’s Media Center, and former chair and current board member of Amref Health Africa USA. As a pioneering African American television reporter, Jenkins was an anchor and correspondent for WNBC TV in New York for nearly 25 years. Ms. Jenkins is also an author, the three-time NY Emmy-nominated host of Black America on CUNY TV, the executive producer, writer and documentary correspondent of an award-winning film, a podcast host, and co-anchor of CUNY TV’s live election night coverage.

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Zakiya Thomas is a change agent; helping businesses, nonprofits, and political campaigns transform. For over 10 years she has worked with organizations in transition to execute and achieve their goals. Whether leading a nonprofit through its next phase, managing a political campaign to victory, or consulting with a start-up company, Zakiya helps organizations chart their course to success. She is an adept campaign manager and strategist with a proven record of helping candidates surpass expectations and win. Zakiya founded a consulting firm on the premise of doing well while doing good to help organizations grow, adapt, and thrive. She is an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown Law teaching a nonpartisan course on how to run for political office. A licensed social worker, Zakiya volunteers as a group facilitator for a parenting education program, working with parents and children. She is also on the Board of NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia. Zakiya received a Master of Science in Social Work from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Science from the College of William and Mary.

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Lea Delaria was the first openly gay comic on television in America, and is an accomplished Jazz performer who has performed in concert venues all over the world. She is best known as ‘Big Boo’ from “Orange is the New Black” (3 SAG Awards). Lea can currently be seen in the feature film Potato Dreams of America, and in the upcoming Indigo Girls jukebox feature film, Glitter & Doom. TV credits include “The Blacklist”, “Physical”, “Reprisal”, “Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness”, “Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts”, “Shameless”, and “Broad City”. Film credits include Cars 3, Support The Girls, and First Wives Club. Broadway credits, The Rocky Horror Show (Eddie/Dr. Scott) and On The Town (Hildy), Obie and Theatre World Awards. @realleadelaria www.leadelaria.com

★ Streaming live from HENRIETTA HUDSON in New York City. ★

Long heading is what you see here in this feature section

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LIVE CLOSED CAPTIONS (beta)
ENCORE

Feminism & The White House

In an exciting conversation moderated by Andrea Ambam, join feminist greats, Gloria Steinem and Jamia Wilson, in conversation with playwright Selina Fillinger as they explore the past, present, and future of intersectional feminism and politics through the lens of POTUS.

ENCORE

(Re)Shaping The Story of Women of Color in Politics

Join host Andrea Ambam in conversation with cast member Suzy Nakamura, president of She The People, Aimee Allison, and political narrative strategist Maya Contreras, and explore how reshaping the cultural narrative can support the on-the-ground effort for more women of color in politics.

ENCORE

MOTHERHOOD IS POLITICAL, TOO

More To Talk About host Andrea Ambam moderates this rich conversation between Vote Mama Founder and CEO Liuba Grechen Shirley, NYS Senate candidate Françoise Olivas, and POTUS's Lisa Helmi Johanson,  as they explore the political landscape for mothers and caregivers running for office, the issues they are uniquely fit to address, and why we need more moms and caregivers in the white house.

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BLACK WOMEN & DEMOCRACY

Join activist and Black Voters Matter Co-Founder LaTosha Brown and POTUS’s Vanessa Williams, in a conversation moderated by Andrea Ambam, as they get real about the role that Black women have played in uplifting and protecting democracy in America. Looking forward, they discuss how we can move beyond praise and into tangible support of Black women’s political power.

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Dismantling Obstacles to Equality: An Urgent Excavation In Honor of Pride and Resistance

Join Carol Jenkins and Zakiya Thomas of the ERA Coalition, activist Charlotte Clymer, and POTUS’s Lea Delaria, in a conversation moderated by Andrea Ambam. The urgent need for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, as well as tools of resistance for personal, local, and national activation—such as the creativity and narrative power of POTUS, live theater, and art—will be examined.

ENCORE

Majority Rules: Feminism On the Ballot

In POTUS, Harriet  (1 of the 7 women trying to keep a great dumbass alive) is the president’s chief of staff and is the real reason the country hasn’t fallen apart yet, though her achievements  have always lived under the president’s spotlight.  Hosted by Andrea Ambam join us in conversation with Julie White (the tony-nominated actress who plays Harriet), Amanda Brown Lierman (Executive Director  of Supermajority Education Fund ), and Stephanie L. Young (Executive Director of When We All Vote), as we seek to dismantle the narratives that keep women from achieving greater political power and organize around what it means to operate with a feminist agenda that creates greater equity for us ALL.

ENCORE

My Body, My Choice: Sexual & Reproductive Justice

In POTUS, Dusty (1 of the 7 women trying to keep a great dumbass alive) is the president’s dalliance and one of the most unexpected voices for reproductive rights (and other hot button issues) throughout the show. She’s also got a knack for conflict mediation.  In conversation with Gisela Chípe (POTUS company), Nancy Northup (President & CEO of Center for Reproductive Rights), and Yolanda Miranda (National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice), host Andrea Ambam talks all things body autonomy including the right to choose, and how organizers across the country are working to protect every person’s right to access safe and affordable reproductive care.

VISIT POTUSBWAY.COM FOR MORE INFO