BAMkids Celebrates MLK Day: Nurturing the Seeds of Resilience

Vibhuti Arya Amirfar is a storyteller at heart and has worked for over 20 years to bridge the gap between healthcare, well-being, and equity. She brings together her experiences in social justice, education, theater, meditation, and healing to create brave spaces for people and systems to intentionally work towards dismantling structural racism. Vibhuti celebrates being an immigrant in Washington Heights (before it was a musical), a yoga teacher, and a generic brown woman to find ways to energize education one human at a time. She currently teaches at St. John’s University and works with the New York City Health Department. Vibhuti works on programs, policy, and workforce development, and did a TEDx talk on Bringing Light to Structural Racism. Vibhuti earned her PharmD from St. John’s University College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, completed a two-year residency in Pharmaceutical Care Leadership at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, and earned her MPH from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg College of Public Health. She joined the BAMKids Parent Advisory Circle in 2024.

East Flatbush native David C. Brown is a producer and writer with credits for Netflix, Hulu, Starz, ESPN+, Viceland, VH1 and more. He received two Sports Emmys for NBC’s coverage of the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games and a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Lifestyle Program for Sparking Joy with Marie Kondo. The 2024 MGM+ series Hollywood Black, about the history of Black filmmakers, is a professional and personal highlight, premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival. David is an alumnus of Boston University and a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated via Sigma Chapter, the same chapter Dr. King was initiated into in 1952. He is humbled and proud to celebrate the humanity, legacy, and vision of this great man. David joined the BAMkids Parent Advisory in 2024.

Kyung Jeon-Miranda is a storytelling visual artist who captures the wonder and complexity of childhood by creating images that speak to both personal and universal experiences. Based in Brooklyn, her work has been exhibited internationally, and since joining the BAMkids Parent Advisory Circle in 2021, she has brought her passion for family-centered cultural programming to community events. Kyung is a Teaching Artist with The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), where she teaches Narrative in Art, and with City Lore, where she leads dynamic arts residencies exploring themes such as superheroes, comic-book creation, storytelling, identity, and community.

Jashua Sa-Ra is an award-winning performance poet, author, event producer, host, lecturer, playwright, educator, graphic designer, and percussionist. He has produced and hosted several critically acclaimed performance events, including a festival in Brooklyn, concerts, open mics, showcases, slams, and a variety of special events. He has published two CDs, a DVD, and two books of his poetry as well as four math books.

Adia Tamar Whitaker, Artistic Director of the 21-year old Brooklyn based dance theater ensemble Àṣẹ Dance Theatre Collective, has performed contemporary dance, vernacular movement, Afro-Haitian, and Haitian dance for 22 years. Whitaker has traveled to Haiti, Cuba, Brazil, France, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Ghana, Jamaica, and Trinidad to study, perform, and teach. Whitaker received an M.F.A. in Dance from Hollins University, a B.A. in Dance from San Francisco State University, and completed the Professional Division US Independent Studies Program at The Ailey School. She was also an Urban Bush Women Apprentice, a Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography @ FSU Creative Entry Point Choreographic Fellow, a Jerome Foundation grantee, and an Isadora Duncan Award recipient. In 2019, Whitaker received the NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship Award in Choreography and completed a residency at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Also that year, her third evening-length work, Have K(NO!)w Fear; A Bluessical, premiered at ODC Dance Theater in San Francisco. Whitaker is full-time tenured faculty at an independent private school in Manhattan. She continues to work as a college student advisor, university guest lecturer, and teaching artist. Most recently, she completed a dance film for BAM’s DanceAfrica 2021, but she is most proud of her accomplishments as a mother.