News and Links List

Joanne is featured on a podcast interview on Episode 10 of Creativity From Within. With The Town of GreenBurgh, New York.

When was the last time a real human read to you live? For many of us, it was in childhood.

Dr. Joanne Kilgour Dowdy is on a mission to re-ignite human connection and intimacy. Through free live readings of her latest book, Granny Tales, she creates intimate moments of storytelling designed to make people feel seen, strengthened, hopeful, joyful, and less alone.

US based Trinadadian author Dr Joeanne Kilgour Dowdy presented her newest book, Granny Tails, durning a vibrant community gathering in St. Petersburg, Florida on October 25, 2025.

US based Trinadadian author Dr Joeanne Kilgour Dowdy presented her newest book, Granny Tails, durning a vibrant community gathering in St. Petersburg, Florida on October 25, 2025.

The dancers and their teachers continued to seek the highest standard possible in the classroom and on stage. We are pleased to share the news about our newest scholarship award winner: Christina Gooding.

This scholarship honours the late Kathleen Armstrong Kilgour (KAK), mother of Dr. Joanne Kilgour Dowdy.

To mark the 20th anniversary of the death of her father, late Olympic medallist Lennox Kilgour—a scholar, author, dancer, thespian and retired professor at Kent State University, Ohio, USA—Joanne Kilgour Dowdy has uploaded the animated film Olympic Hero—Lennox Kilgour’s Story on her website

TRINIDAD AND Tobago’s first two Olympic medallists – weightlifters Rodney Wilkes and Lennox Kilgour – have been inducted posthumously into the Pan American Weightlifting Federation Hall of Fame.

KAK Dance Scholarship 2024 winner, Sy'mara George, is the member of the dance company who has earned the KAK award and the opportunity to study with Garth Fagan Dance in New York for three weeks. The scholarship from GFD was donated by the Executive Director of the dance company, Natalie Rogers-Cropper. We are indebted to this alumna of the Caribbean School of Dancing, former dancer with Garth Fagan, and Principal of the Garth Fagan School.

Join me in conversation with Professor Dr. Joanne Kilgour Dowdy (International Dance and Theater Artist, Adult Learning Specialist, and Education Innovator and Visionary)  discussing her life of melding artistry and scholarship, her lifelong archiving practices, and  performing after 40.

We are happy to bring you very good news this year. Thanks for supporting us on the journey to this high and inspiring altitude. KAK Dance Scholarship 2023 winner, Isabelle Julien, is also a choreographer-in-training, and a company member who will visit with the Peter London Global Dance Company in Miami from July 29, 2023.

This article presents the findings from a qualitative research project about a group of Black women scholars who discuss their experiences as academics in a predominantly White setting. The scholars represent fields including anthropology, education, Pan African studies, art education, and language studies.

For some of us, Mother’s Day as it is generally celebrated is not a day of celebration.  We have had to adapt the tradition of honoring the queen in our lives to suit our purposes. In my case, my mother has long been deceased so my way of memorializing her does not depend on society granting me a space to honor her legacy.  When I hear the advertisements and discussion panels repeat their mantras of motherhood, mostly traditional, I am forced to ask myself how many people listening to these programs turn off the radio, television, or podcast.

Audio Interview with Joanne and Rhoma Spencer

We are happy to bring you good news this year. Our forced shut down, due to the COVID 19 pandemic in 2021, gave us time to watch the dancers in the company grow and blossom. KAK Dance Scholarship 2022 winner, Cheyenne Carrington-Green, is on the way to the Boston Conservatory of Music and Dance in the heart of Boston. It is a good omen, indeed!

On October 9, 2021, I joined my fellow writers for the "Meet the Authors" Local Author Exhibition event at Kenmore Library in Akron. This is the first time that I have done a book signing outside of the higher education environment. It was a blessing because I had the company of authors who were included in the new anthology SIX FEET APART Anthology by The Writers Group.

A compelling reason to read this collection of essays about surviving the impact of a racist and divisive culture that has threatened the prosperity of generations of black and non-white citizens for centuries is its clarion call to all who support and participate in the efforts to emancipate adults and children from mental slavery.

Mpa kwè m te janm li yon liv an Kreyòl lè m t ap grandi Ayiti pandan ane 1970 yo.  Tout liv m te li yo te an Fransè. Kreyòl se lang nou te pale nan mache, nan lari osinon nan match foutbòl.  Ann Ayiti, yo konsidere moun ki pale Fransè tankou moun ki gen “bon jan edikasyon.” Moun ki te pale Kreyòl sèlman yo, yo pa t konsidere yo tankou moun ki edike.

It was decided early in the year to postpone the announcement of the 2020 KAK Dance Scholarship winner until we could meet physically in a studio. Our plans had to change to keep everyone safe.

In response to the global pandemic caused by COVID 19 virus, it was decided to postpone the announcement of the 2020 KAK Dance Scholarship winner. We are celebrating our 10th anniversary as a Dance Scholarship Fund.

Keanu Mohammed is our KAK 2019 Dance Scholarship Award winner. The scholarship was presented in April at the Caribbean School of Dancing in Port of Spain, Trinidad, by Terry Springer, artistic director of the dance company 'Coearte' in Venezuela. He now teaches at University of Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean School of Dancing.

Dominique Bones is our 2018 Dance Scholarship Award winner. The  scholarship was presented on April 27 at Queen’s Hall in Port of Spain, Trinidad, by Sonia Alexis.

Marianna Frederick is our 2017 Scholarship award winner. The award was presented on April 27 at Queen’s Hall in Port of Spain, Trinidad, by Kenneth Walker and his sister Gillian de Souza. The presentation took place after the first performance of the Metamorphosis Dance Company’s annual

season.

In the past decade Dowdy has emerged as one of the most visible and influential voices in education. She hails from a close-knit family in Port-of- Spain and speaks nostalgically about her parents and time as a student of Newton Girls’ School. “Both my parents were renaissance people,” she says. “My dad, Lennox, was an Olympic weightlifter, painter and sculptor.

The KAK Dance Scholarship is an annual award presented to a deserving Metamorphosis dancer for commitment and dedication to dance practice. The award is in memory of the late Kathleen Arm- strong Kilgour, mother of professor, author, actor, dancer and Trinidadi- an Dr Joanne Kilgour-Dowdy.

Jada Blanc, a member of the Metamorphosis Dance Company is this year's recipient of the Kathleen Armstrong Kilgour (KAK) Dance

Scholarship The award, which honours the mother of Trinidadian writer, former dancer and now Kent State University Professor Dr Joanne Kilgour-Dowdy, is presented annually to a deserving Metamorphosis dancer for commit-ment and dedication to dance practice.

Young and talented Mercedes Prevatt, member of the popular Metamorphosis Dance Company, which comprises senior talented students of the well-established Caribbean School of Dancing, has received 2014 the Kathleen Armstrong Kilgour (KAK) Dance Scholarship.

Two weeks ago, over 100 volunteer tutors from across the country gathered in Belmont for Alta's Annual Tutors Meeting. Tutor meetings are a combination of on-going training and relationship building at Alta–all part of developing a culture of collaboration and maintaining high calibre tutors to serve our students.

Despite being one of the best known dance organisations in the Caribbean, with international collaborations, a record number of students accepted into top dance schools and dance companies across the globe, and 18+ years of successful dance seasons, the Metamorphosis Dance Co has yet to attract a long-term investor.

Joanne Dowdy, a professor at Kent University (OH) in the School of Teaching, Learning and Curriculum Studies, is a name synonymous with fine literature. In this, her latest oeuvre, she seals her worth as a literary artist and one of the best the Caribbean has produced. ‘Olympic Hero: Lennox Kilgour’s story ‘is inspirational as it is instructive.

Talented seventeen year old Marie Lashley has received the 2013 award of the Kathleen Armstrong Kilgour (KAK) Dance Scholarship. Marie is a member of the popular Metamorphosis Dance Company, which comprises senior talented students of the well- established Caribbean School of Dancing.

Educational Leadership: Building Bridges Among Ideas, Schools, and Nations breaks new ground by connecting many ideas to educational leadership that have traditionally been discussed as part of leaders’ contexts by connecting them and showing how international issues can unite scholars and educators in action. The book draws on the authors’ extensive experiences in U.S. public schools, research in the field of educational leadership, and programmatic practices to prepare school leaders to commit themselves to social justice.

For her debut as a children’s book author, Joanne Kilgour Dowdy pays tribute to a very close and dear person: her father. This perhaps accounts for the fact that Dowdy does not quite adhere to the standard characteristics of a biography, but instead moves between a presentational and literary mode which gives the book a surprising literary flair but also allows the author to foreground her emotional and deeply personal attachment to the theme:

Kilgour Dowdy captures an important part of our Olympic history in this picture book- an aspect of our history which is sadly lacking. While there are publications which include the history of our Olympians, Dr Basil Ince’s The Olympians, and Nasser Khan’s Profiles Heroes and Role Models of Trinidad and Tobago, are not geared for children.

Local scholars pushed an audience of 250 people to have more open and healthier discussions about race at a town hall meeting Wednesday night, a day after the United States elected its first black president.

Work in Academia: Underrepresented Racial and Ethnic Female

Scholars in Higher Education

Writing helps us in remembering and re-imagining our common humanity. It also connects readers to their past and future present. Some books inspire

us through wonderful photography, and others are demon- strative in their telling by mediating our understanding and appreciation of the worlds that we help to re-fashion.

When Trinidad-born Joanne Kilgour-Dowdy began her term as an associate professor in teaching, leadership and curriculum studies in her department at Kent State University, she was the only black woman in the faculty. The experience became even more isolating when in her third year, during an exchange among faculty members about their areas of expertise, one of them told her that all she did was tell other people's stories.

Dr. Kjersti VanSlyke-Briggs, associate professor of secondary English education and literacy at SUNY Oneonta. Research focus is in literacy and feminist examinations of education. VanSlyke-Briggs’ book, The Nurturing  teacher, tackles the concerns of stressed teachers. Whether from nurturance suffering (stress related to caring for students) or from the piles of paperwork yet to be tackled, this text helps the reader sort through the causes of stress, the emotional, physical and social reactions to stress and how one can begin to plan a stress management plan.

Dr. Joanne Kilgour-Dowdy is one of our most prolific writers, with a bibliography that's several pages long. Her publications span the topics of education, dance, drama, feminism, and culture.The Julliard alum is also still heavily involved in dance, theatre and film, and the video and theatre productions she has written, produced or directed are dedicated to the upliftment of women and their communities, particularly women of colour in the racially charged North American environment.

Celebrated Trinidad-born arts practitioner and educator Dr Joanne Kilgour-Dowdy will launch her latest book Artful Stories: The Teacher, the Student and the Muse on August 5, at Nalis in Port-of-Spain. The book is an exploration of the role of the artist as teacher and relationship that evolves between the teacher and the student in the creation of new work, whether it is lighting design, drama, dance, or music. 

Accompanied by a female dancer, Juan Pablo Alba Dennis sails through the air. Photos courtesy: Metamorphosis Dance Company
He is not yet 20 and already an accomplished actor, singer and dancer. For Juan Pablo Alba-Dennis, life, as full as his name, has only just begun. He is a member of the popular Metamorphosis Dance Company, which comprises senior talented students of the well-established Caribbean School of Dancing. Metamorphosis is now in rehearsals for its season performances, scheduled for May 5-8, at Queen’s Hall.

College of EHHS administrators and faculty hope to launch two new semester in Florence programs in Fall 2011. This is part of the campus-wide internationalization initiative headed by President Lefton. In his State of the University speech in September, President Lefton stated, “Our goal of  creating an optimum environment for acquiring, generating and sharing knowledge makes it imperative that we expose them [KSU students] to  different cultures, languages and modes of thinking that exist in our world.”

Trinidad-born US-based writer and professor Joanne Kilgour Dowdy will in the next few months release Connecting the Literacy Puzzle. Co-edited with Dr Sandra Golden of Ohio the book will feature work from Eintou Springer, Nancy Herrera ALTA and internationally writers from Morrocco and Senegal. KATHY DUNN of the Kent State University reviewed an advance copy of the book.

The introduction to this pictorial journey details the childhood of an aspiring artist in war-torn Trinidad and Tobago where political and social upheaval temporarily reigned. Joanne Kilgour Dowdy, however had an element of prestige acquired in her formative years at a top of the line Roman Catholic school for girls, where appearances and accomplishments meant  everything. Her photographic compilation shows the years when her sensational art endeavors were first beginning. Joanne learned to utilize the constraints of the turmoil her country faced before she let it restrict her own visions.

On reading “In the Public Eye” I felt there is a story of the life of Joanne Kilgour Dowdy within it waiting to be told.  The book is unique in presenting the published narratives of her life supported by excellently appropriate pictures, yet I felt something is obscured, or is the reader to read between the lines? Whatever is missing or untold this autobiography makes an excellent contribution, briefly, to the history of a particular time in two countries, Trinidad and Tobago and the United States of America.

Joanne Kilgour Dowdy’s In the Public Eye (Commess University Press, 2009) capsulates her professional life in a series of photos from productions, TV series, rehearsals, and posed shots. Her book conjures up the spirits of many artists and mentors—some of them “no longer on this earth”—who inspired Kilgour Dowdy as an actor, dancer, woman, and educator. The photo captions are both ones created by Kilgour Dowdy for this book and past performance reviews and newspaper articles that include the New York Times, Trinidad Guardian, Weekend Magazine (Trinidad), and college newspapers.

Dr. Joanne Kilgour Dowdy’s latest book, In The Public Eye,  (Commess University, 155 pgs., 2009), is a glossy, expertly- done, impressive-looking, photograph-filled autobiography of a  Trinidadian-born, professional actress, dancer and educator.  It is also a fine, nicely-crafted, clear example of a bold, colorful, roller-coaster life that proved that hard work always pays off. Dowdy, a Kent State University (Ohio) professor, is a former Wilmington, North Carolina resident, a New Hanover High School “Teacher of Year,” a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

We have come to expect credible, pedagogic, empirical work from Professor Joanne Kilgour Dowdy. In her previous works, Kilgour Dowdy has explored race, gender, language, literacy, social equality and educational reform. She has accumulated six books and numerous articles, chapters and reviews on her way to becoming a full professor at Kent State University. But, it is in Kilgour Dowdy’s most recent book, “In the Public Eye,” that she turns the  mirror on herself to reveal that the issues that she champions and fertilizes as a scholar are indeed reflective of her performance journey, beginning as young seedling in Port of Spain, Trinidad.

T&T born US-based writer and Kent State University professor, Dr Joanne Kilgour Dowdy, is due to release yet another book. Artful Stories: The Teacher, the Student, and the Muse, is currently being prepared for printing and will be released by year's end from Peter Lang Publishers. It will be added to Kilgour Dowdy's growing body of publications including Readers of the Quilt, The Skin that We Speak (with Dr Lisa Delpit, McArthur Genius Fellow), PhD Stories: Conversations With My Sisters, GED Stories, Teaching Drama in the Classroom and recently In The Public Eye. The book focuses on the personal narratives of four black, male artists who teach in higher education institutions and perform as professionals in their field.

This email update is distributed to the Women’s Center listserv subscribers every Friday, and is intended to detail the events scheduled for the following week. Occasionally, we will send out additional reminders about specific events or activities. Emails will be kept to a minimum, to not burden your inbox.

The mission of Peter London Global Dance Company (PLGDC) is to advance the Founding Artistic Director’s vision to offer new choreography of the highest artistic caliber grounded in Miami’s diverse and rich multicultural heritage. The Company’s core focus is to produce new works by its Founding Artistic Director, train and mentor new generations of South Florida dancers and choreographers, and create unparalleled opportunities to showcase their talent to the world.

Finding herself the lone Black, female professor in her department, Dr. Joanne Kilgour Dowdy confronted her situation the best way she knew how. She would apply her research skills to finding, interviewing and writing about other Black women with Ph.D. degrees. In 2001, she had just arrived at Kent State University in Ohio from Georgia State University to be a professor in the Department of Teaching, Leadership and Curriculum Studies.

ALER seeks to stimulate the self-development and professional growth of professors, teachers, reading specialists and students at all educational levels. We encourage the continuing improvement of college and university curricula and assist preparation programs for teachers and reading specialists. Our members work at the forefront of policy, pedagogy and practice.  Further, we encourage the continuing improvement of administrative, clinical, diagnostic and instructional practices related to the learning process.

Joanne Kilgour Dowdy has been reminded of some of the areas of life she doesn't fit into ever since she moved to the U.S. from Trini-dad; while learning at the same time what was expected of her in the many roles she DOWDY has filled during the past 28 years she has been here. All of this cat-egorizing, this belonging and not belonging, has taught her there is a larger group she fits perfectly into - that of the human race.

We take great pleasure in presenting this book, Relief of Tension, Depression and Anxiety through Spiritual Living, as we believe the practical suggestions given by its author will do much to relieve people of the tensions of modern life. This work is meant not only for those expressly suffering from mental tensions, but also for all of us who are swept up in this fast- paced, high-tech world that is devoid of any concern for human feelings.

Based in Trinidad and Tobago, Metamorphosis Dance Company is the dance company of the Caribbean School of Dancing.

It provides an opportunity for young local dancers to metamorphose into able, professional dancers as preparation

for professional dance careers locally, regionally and internationally.

This Website Showcases Writers from Trinidad and Tobago

Since 1974, Banyan has distinguished itself as a producer of innovative and entertaining programmes which aim at the same time to inform and reflect Caribbean people and culture. This mixture of entertainment and social comment so akin to the Calypso, the folk song form originating in Trinidad, has become identified as the Banyan style and is applied in the hundreds of productions Banyan has presented in the last 40 years.

Our academic departments offer a wide range of experiences in preparing the next generation of educators, university leaders and counselors who will inspire future generations of students.

A Collection of Writings in response to the book Readers of the Quilt: Essays on Being Black, Female, and Literate by Joanne Kilgour Dowdy, and other essays by Jacqueline Royster, Elaine Richardson, and Star Parker.

A Collection of Writings in response to the book Readers of the Quilt: Essays on Being Black, Female, and Literate by Joanne Kilgour Dowdy, and other essays by Jacqueline Royster, Elaine Richardson, and Star Parker.