Amanda Kemp

Dr. Amanda Kemp is a Visiting Scholar at Franklin & Marshall College where she chaired the Africana Studies Program. An author, consultant, and performer, she blends activism and spirituality, theatre arts and history. A survivor of the New York City foster care system, Dr. Kemp has been a lifelong poet-performer and advocate of racial justice and equality since her first anti-apartheid march in 1983. Dr. Kemp earned her B.A. from Stanford University. Awarded Stanford’s prestigious Gardner Fellowship for Public Service, she apprenticed with the Honorable Maxine Waters and the Rev. Jesse Jackson. Kemp also earned a doctoral degree in Performance Studies at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. As a consultant, Kemp works with organizations and individuals concerned with diversity, inclusion and sustainability. In 2008 she founded Theatre for Transformation and has taught at Cornell University, Dickinson College, University of the Arts, and Franklin & Marshall College where she chaired Africana Studies. She currently tours with Theatre for Transformation, and conducts racial justice arts and academic residencies at schools.