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Nolan Williams, Jr., Founder & CEO of NEWorks Productions, a leading producer of impact-arts programming and entertainment since 2003, is best described as a creative force. An award-winning producer, music director, composer/lyricist, playwright, filmmaker, musicologist, and cultural curator, the multi-hyphenate Williams, Jr. has dedicated his professional career to creating works that illuminate issues of civil rights, social justice, and cultural curiosities. His body of work includes: choral/orchestral works premiered by major American orchestras; music for television; the bestselling African American Heritage Hymnal (over 500,000 copies sold worldwide); songwriting credits on two Grammy-nominated projects; arts and educational festivals produced in partnership with The Kennedy Center and Philadelphia’s Mann Center; cultural programming developed with the Smithsonian, U.S. State Department and multiple embassies; video/documentary projects, including the star-studded viral video “I Have A Right To Vote” (over two million global media hits) and “Becoming Douglass Commonwealth” (winner of ten media prizes); and a slate of theatrical productions, including his critically-hailed new musical, GRACE (winner of eleven 2022 Broadway World Washington, DC awards, including best musical and best new musical).
A resident of Washington, DC, Williams, Jr. was named the Kennedy Center’s inaugural Social Practice Resident in 2019. He further serves as Chair of the Center's Community Advisory Board.
Williams, Jr. also serves as artistic director of the NEWorks Voices of Inspiration and is founding artistic director of the Washington Douglass Chorale.
Most recently, Williams, Jr. was featured speaker for week nine of the Chautauquan Institution African American Heritage House lecture series. He is also a new appointee to the Howard University Board of Visitors for the Divinity School.
Earlier this year, he was named a DCCAH Arts & Humanities Fellow, honored with a 2024 Living Legends Award for Service to Humanity, and recognized by Oberlin College during Black History Month as one of 21 trailblazing Black alumni.
PHOTO CREDITS: (1) Nolan music directing "A Monumental Celebration," Lincoln Memorial (2018), photo courtesy of The White House Historical Association; (2) Nolan participating in a panel discussion for the opening of the West Side/South Side exhibition at NYU-Washington, D.C., photo courtesy of NEWorks Productions; (3) Nolan conducting the National Symphony Orchestra and NEWorks Voices of Inspiration at THEARC (2012); photo by Kadesh DuBose, courtesy of NEWorks Productions
Talk about artistic excellence, Nolan and projects he has produced, directed, written, composed, and hosted have won a staggering 33 prizes in the past four years. Here is an exhaustive listing:
NEWorks Productions presents
"Rise Up & Fight"
Composed, Produced & Directed by
Nolan Williams, Jr.
Illustrations & Art Direction by
Willie Cordy, Jr.
Animation by
Gabrielle Genesis
Music Production by
Warren Jones & Nolan Williams, Jr.
Horn Arrangement by
Phil Lassiter
Mixed & Mastered by
Corey Novosel (CNOMusic LLC)
Tracking Engineers
Daryl L.A. Hunt
(Street Symphonic Studios, Inc),
Warren Jones
Brian Jacobs (Bias Recording Studios)
Featuring
Rayshun LaMarr, Benjamin H. Moore, John Riddle & Nova Y. Payton
Also featuring the NEWorks Voices of Inspiration (Simone Brown, Teriauna Duran, Jay Frisby, Ronnette Harrison-Rollins, Devin Mercer, Nova Y. Payton, Daniel Smith, Jaquay Smith, Angel Strong-Archer, Desmond Thompson, Laura van Duzer)
Narration by Teriauna Duran
Band
Warren Jones, Daryl L.A. Hunt,
Hamilton Hayes, Quincy Phillips
A Freedom Advances Civic Anthem Copyright 2024, Nolan Williams, Jr.
All rights reserved.
Special thanks to Will Robinson, The Public Concern Foundation, and David Frederick & Sophia Lynn
"Rise Up & Fight"
"Hold On"
Negro Spiritual / Freedom Song
Setting by Nolan Williams, Jr.
Nolan Williams, Jr., artistic director
Kevin Parisi, video director
Xavier Mack, associate director
Music produced by Nolan Williams, Jr. and Robert Ellis
Choreographed and performed by: Xavier Mack, Bianca Melidor, Terrell Rogers Jr., and Isabel Wallace-Green
Filmed on location at Griggs Park and Klyde Warren Park, Dallax, TX
Monique Steele Griffiths, soprano
Nova Y. Payton, soprano
Vocals recorded at Bias Studios, Springfield, VA
Engineered by Brian Jacobs
Photographic images by Sam Teague
Additional images by Jack Delano, Bernard Gotfryd, Warren K. Leffler, Jim Peppler, Peter Pettus, Rowland Scherman, and Marian Trikosko, courtesy of The Library of Congress and the Alabama Department of Archives and History
Footage courtesy of The Library of Congress
"Becoming Douglass Commonwealth" is a one-hour documentary that chronicles the long and complicated journey towards Washington, District of Columbia becoming our 51st state, Washington, Douglass Commonwealth. The documentary has aired in five CBS east coast markets and on DCTV.
Presented by The Executive Office of Mayor Muriel Bowser
Produced by NEWorks Productions
Nolan Williams, Jr., Producer/Director/Writer
Mike D. DuBose, Associate Producer
Rod McDonald, Consulting Producer
Kadesh Dubose, Director of Photography/Lead Editor
Chris Myers Asch and George Derek Musgrove, Co-writers
Hosted by Andrea Roane and Bruce Johnson
Narrated by Ralph UriYah Wesley
"Becoming Douglass Commonwealth"
"Becoming Douglass Commonwealth"
Nolan Williams, Jr., Director, "Becoming Douglass Commonwealth"
"Becoming Douglass Commonwealth"
"Becoming Douglass Commonwealth"
Nolan Williams, Jr., Producer/Director
Mike D. DuBose, Associate Producer/Editor
Rod McDonald, Consulting Producer
Kadesh Dubose, Lead Editor
Mike Lyon & Adrienne Boykin, Editors
"Becoming Douglass Commonwealth"
"Becoming Douglass Commonwealth"
"I Have A Right To Vote," the star-studded voting rights music video composed and directed by Nolan. Featuring Billie Jean King, Billy Porter, Carla Hall, Christopher Jackson, Ebony JoAnn, Hill Harper, Sheila C. Johnson, and Ryan Jamaal Swain, this voting rights anthem garnered over 1.2 million views during the 2020 national election cycle.
Produced by Nolan/NEWorks Productions and Dale A. Mott/Edgewood | Executive produced by David Frederick, Sophia Lynn and Bohemian Foundation
Williams co-hosted the #ByGrace Live Chat Series with celebrity chef Carla Hall from April 21 to May 26, 2020, inspired by the history and themes of Williams' new musical, GRACE. The series, with featured guests like Broadway legend Brian Stokes Mitchell, James Beard Award winner Dr. Jessica B. Harris, culinary historian Michael Twitty, broadcast journalists Michelle Miller and Angie Goff, drew a global audience of 500,000+.
Co-produced by Nolan/NEWorks Productions and Dale A. Mott/Edgewood
#ByGrace Live Chat Series
"Becoming Douglass Commonwealth"
"I Have A Right To Vote," the star-studded voting rights music video composed and directed by Nolan. Featuring Billie Jean King, Billy Porter, Carla Hall, Christopher Jackson, Ebony JoAnn, Hill Harper, Sheila C. Johnson, and Ryan Jamaal Swain, this voting rights anthem garnered over 1.2 million views during the 2020 national election cycle.
Produced by Nolan/NEWorks Productions and Dale A. Mott/Edgewood | Executive produced by David Frederick, Sophia Lynn and Bohemian Foundation
Nolan Wlliams, Jr.
GRACE, the Musical
GRACE, the Musical
Robert Barry Fleming, GRACE, the Musical
Nolan Williams, Jr., GRACE, the Musical
Robert Barry Fleming, GRACE, the Musical
GRACE, the Musical
Nova Payton, GRACE, the Musical
Xavier Pierce, GRACE, the Musical
Dominique Fawn Hill, GRACE, the Musical
Jason Ardizonne-West, GRACE, the Musical
David Budries, GRACE, the Musical
The images below feature celebrity chefs Carla Hall and Rock Harper, along with inaugural Grace Awards recipients: Virginia Ali, owner of Ben's Chili Bowl; Dr. Lance London, owner of Carolina Kitchen; and Dr. Erinn Tucker Oluwole and Furard Tate, co-founders of DMV Black Restaurant Week.
Here's a link to the Broadway World feature story.
Marc Bamuthi Joseph & Nolan w/ Grace Awardees Dr. Erinn Tucker-Oluwole, Virginia Ali, Furard Tate, & Dr. Lance London (Credit: Jermoni Dowd/ NEWorks)
Copyright © 2021, Nolan Williams, Jr.
All Rights Reserved.
COVER PHOTO CREDIT: Marvin Joseph
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