Indira Etwaroo

Dr. Indira Etwaroo garners various titles such as producer, educator, artist, and scholar. On January 26, 2015, she was appointed as Executive Director of The Center for Arts and Culture at Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation. She has been described as “a seeker of meaning, of relevance, of values; and a meaning-maker; searching for relationships, striving towards depths of understanding and seeking transformation.” As the Executive Director, she aims to bring together "all of these already successful arts-related endeavors under one umbrella," and to "re-imagine them from a multi-disciplinary point of view.” She oversees and directs the Billie Holiday Theatre, Youth Arts Academy, Skylight Gallery, and Restoration Plaza’s Presenting Program in her position in The Center for Arts and Culture. The mission of CAC is "to present, promote, and preserve the artistic legacy of the African Diaspora and further the artistic development of the community." In 2009, Dr. Indira Etwaroo was listed in the Forty Under 40 Dynamic Achievers Award.

Early life and education

Dr. Indira Etwaroo grew up in Newport News, Virginia. Later she attended Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia, where she received her bachelor's degree in Music education in 1994. In 1999, Dr. Etwaroo attended Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to receive her Masters in Dance education. In 2004, she received her PhD in Cultural studies also from Temple University with a concentration in Dance, and a Graduate Certificate in Women's studies, Anthropology, and African-American studies.

After receiving degrees in cultural studies, music and dance education, Etwaroo performed at the National Black Theatre Festival. In 2003, Dr. Etwaroo worked for a year in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia as a Fulbright Scholar where she collaborated with a group of refugee Somali women and children "to explore the performance aesthetics that surround the controversial practice of female genital cutting." For her endeavors, Dr. Etwaroo received the Emerging Doctoral Scholar Award and the Graduate Research Award from the National Congress on Research in Dance. Within the same year, she has also served as Adjunct Professor teaching Dance, Movement and Pluralism, and Research Methods at Temple University. Before joining the New York Public Radio (NYPR) in 2006, she offered her services at BAM (The Brooklyn Academy of Music) where she cultivated some of the most notable education and humanities programming in the music, dance, drama and visual arts field.

Work

Dr. Indira Etwaroo joined New York Public Radio (NYPR) in September 2006, and worked there until May 2013. In 2009, she was Executive Producer and founder of the Jerome L. Greene Performance Space. The Jerome L. Greene Performance Space's mission statement is to "galvanize conversations around the life, arts and politics of our city and our world." The Greene Space is situated on the ground floor of NYPR's headquarters, inviting New Yorkers to become a part of live broadcasts and taping of WNYC's signature programs. Following her time at NYPR, Dr. Etwaroo joined NPR (National Public Radio) as Executive Producer and Director of a project called NPR Presents, a program creating a "live storytelling experience" by "bringing together national and local news coverage, music, poetry and visual projections on a selected topic. NYPR programs start out as live events, and are then available for download on the NYPR website."

In January 2015, Dr. Etwaroo was appointed as the Executive Director for the Center for Arts and Culture at the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation, but continues to contribute to NYPR. Prior to her work at CAC, Dr. Etwaroo is noted for teaching music and dance in Tegucigalpa, Honduras and Richmond, Virginia. She acted as an adjunct professor, lecturer and scholar/artist-in-residence at colleges and universities across the country and globe. She has also worked at the Brooklyn Academy of Music where she worked on education and humanities programming in music, dance, drama and visual arts fields. Since 2015, Dr. Etwaroo has been directing projects at the Billie Holiday Theatre, Youth Arts Academy, Skylight Gallery, and Restoration Plaza's Presenting Program for the Center for Arts and Culture at Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation.

Exhibitions

In early 2016, Dr. Etwaroo collaborated with artist Hollis King for a show at the Skylight Gallery. The Skylight Gallery is an exhibition space widely noted for its long and rich tradition of celebrating artists of the African diaspora. She invite King to curate this exhibition because, as she considers him to be an "artistic risk-taker," and "passionate about disrupting trends in contemporary thought that serve to marginalize people according to gender and race." She has also exhibited the work of artist Otto Neals at the Skylight Gallery. “Otto Neals exemplifies,” says Etwaroo, “what it means to be an artist who has literally and artistically sculpted a people so we may recognize our own infinite beauty and power.”

Awards

In 2003, Dr. Etwaroo received the Emerging Doctoral Scholar Award along with the Graduate Research Award from the National Congress on Research in Dance for her work in Ethiopia. For her work at BAM, Dr. Etwaroo received BAM's Dance Africa Award for Outstanding Service and for her work at Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation received the Education and Community Heritage Award among various other grants and awards. In 2009, Dr. Etwaroo was among many other recipients for the Forty Under 40 Dynamic Achievers Award.