DREAMLEAPERS® with Harriette Cole

Paul Tazewell is an award-winning American costume designer celebrated for his groundbreaking work across Broadway, film, and television. His acclaimed credits include Hamilton, The Wiz, West Side Story, and Wicked. In 2025, Tazewell made history as the first Black man to win the Academy Award for Best Costume Design for Wicked. Known for his exceptional creativity, attention to detail, and ability to bring characters to life through fashion, Tazewell has become one of the entertainment industry's most influential costume designers. His remarkable career reflects a commitment to artistic excellence, cultural representation, and the transformative power of storytelling.

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Janai S. Nelson is a nationally recognized civil rights attorney, election law scholar, and President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), America's first civil rights law organization.

A leading advocate for racial justice and voting rights, Nelson has dedicated her career to advancing equality, protecting democracy, and challenging systemic discrimination. Her work focuses on voting rights, educational equity, criminal justice reform, and the protection of fundamental civil rights.

Before becoming President and Director-Counsel in 2022, Nelson served as LDF's Associate Director-Counsel and held academic leadership roles, including Associate Dean for Faculty Scholarship at St. John's University School of Law.

Through litigation, scholarship, public advocacy, and organizational leadership, Nelson continues to champion equal justice under the law and empower communities across the nation.

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April Ryan is a veteran White House correspondent, political analyst, author, and speaker who has covered the White House since 1997. She is the longest-serving Black White House correspondent in U.S. history, having reported across six presidential administrations. Ryan currently serves as a White House correspondent for The Contrarian, a political analyst for MS NOW, and host of The Tea with April Ryan. April Ryan

A Baltimore native and graduate of Morgan State University, Ryan has received numerous honors throughout her career, including being named the National Association of Black Journalists’ Journalist of the Year in 2017 and receiving the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press Freedom of the Press Award in 2019. April Ryan

She is the author of several books, including The Presidency in Black and White, At Mama’s Knee, Under Fire, Black Women Will Save the World, and her forthcoming fifth book, Notes on a Blacklash: When a Black Woman Goes Viral, releasing October 6, 2026.

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This week on DREAMLEAPERS® with Harriette Cole, Harriette welcomes Dr. Janet Taylor, psychiatrist and self-care expert, for a timely conversation about mental health, wellness, and the importance of caring for yourself while navigating the demands of everyday life.

Dr. Taylor brings her expertise and perspective to a meaningful discussion designed to encourage listeners to prioritize their emotional well-being, recognize what they need, and make self-care an intentional part of their lives.

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Elizabeth Alexander is a prize-winning and New York Times best-selling author, renowned poet, educator, scholar, and cultural advocate. Her memoir, The Light of the World, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award. She composed and recited "Praise Song for the Day" for President Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration and is currently president of the Mellon Foundation, the nation’s largest funder of the arts, culture, and humanities. She lives and works in New York City.

Elizabeth Alexander is a prize-winning and New York Times bestselling author, renowned poet, educator, scholar, and cultural advocate. A nationally recognized thought leader on race, justice, the arts, and American society, she is also president of the Mellon Foundation, the nation’s largest funder of the arts and humanities.

In her latest book, Signals Across Vast Distances: Essays and Tales, Dr. Alexander offers close readings of beloved writers—including Muriel Rukeyser, Gwendolyn Brooks, Audre Lorde, James Baldwin, and June Jordan—paired with works by some of our most extraordinary contemporary visual artists, exploring how language, art, and values can sustain and inspire us.

Her previous book, The Trayvon Generation—grown from her landmark, National Magazine Award–winning New Yorker essay of the same name—traces how a generation of Black youth has come of age unshielded from graphic violence, and how art has shaped their resilience. The book was named a Most Anticipated Title of 2022 by Time, The New York Times, and Bustle, and earned widespread critical acclaim.

Among the fifteen other books she has authored or co-authored, her poetry collection American Sublime was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry in 2006, and her memoir, The Light of the World, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Biography and the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2015.

Other works include Crave Radiance: New and Selected Poems 1990–2010 (2010), Power and Possibility: Essays, Reviews, Interviews (2007), The Black Interior: Essays (2004), Antebellum Dream Book (2001), Body of Life (1996), and The Venus Hottentot (1990).

She has been awarded the Jackson Poetry Prize, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, the George Kent Award, the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and three Pushcart Prizes for Poetry. Notably, she composed and delivered “Praise Song for the Day” for the 2009 inauguration of President Barack Obama.

Dr. Alexander has held distinguished professorships at Smith College, Yale University—where she taught for over 15 years and helped rebuild and chaired the African American Studies Department—and Columbia University.

Prior to joining the Mellon Foundation, she served as the director of Creativity and Free Expression at the Ford Foundation, shaping Ford’s grantmaking vision in arts and culture, journalism, and documentary film. During that time, she co-designed the Art for Justice Fund, an initiative that uses art and advocacy to address the crisis of mass incarceration.

Dr. Alexander holds a BA from Yale University, an MA from Boston University, and a PhD in English from the University of Pennsylvania. She serves on the boards of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and New York-Presbyterian Hospital, and is Chancellor Emeritus of the Academy of American Poets and a former co-chair of the Pulitzer Prize Board.

In 2019, she received the W. E. B. Du Bois Medal from Harvard University. Among her many other honors, she has been recognized as Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture and as one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People.

Elizabeth Alexander is the author of six books of poetry, including American Sublime, a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize; two collections of essays; and The Light of the World, her critically acclaimed memoir on love and loss.

In 2009, she wrote and delivered her poem “Praise Song for the Day” for President Barack Obama’s first inauguration.

Alexander has received many awards, fellowships, and honorary degrees, among them grants from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Anisfield-Wolf Award for Lifetime Achievement in Poetry.

Alexander is also a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. Recently, she was named the Wun Tsun Tam Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University. Her profile photo is by Alpha Smoot.

She is also a founding member of Cave Canem, the influential organization dedicated to nurturing and supporting Black poets and poetry.

MORE ABOUT ELIZABETH ALEXANDER

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Dionne Williams is owner of D. Williams Public Relations & Event Management Group which specializes in public relations, brand strategy, experiential services, content creation, influencer marketing and event management.

In over 25 years in the public relations arena Dionne has developed a proven track record for providing quality public relations campaigns and concepts that are executed in national and local urban markets.

Her clients have been featured in local and major market newspapers, national magazines, national shows, such as Billboard Magazine, E! Entertainment, Black Entertainment Television (BET), ABC, NBC, CNN, and CBS radio and television affiliated networks locally and nationwide.

Clients have included: ORS haircare, tgin haircare, Ambi skincare, Jamaican Mango & Lime, Oscar Award Winning Actress Jennifer Hudson, R&B Legend Chaka Khan, Dwayne Wade’s Wade’s World Foundation, Playwright and actress Regina Taylor, American Association of Blacks in Energy (AABE), American Family Insurance, Johnson Publishing Company, Paul G Stewart Housing Campus, The N’Digo Foundation, The HistoryMakers, The Alliance of Business Leaders & Entrepreneurs (ABLE), The Goodman Theatre, just to name a few.

Dionne Williams is a premier Event Management professional producing high-end and large events, galas, celebrity concerts and conferences. Dionne manages some of the most notable events in the nation and was nominated Event Producer of the Year by BizBash in 2012.

Dionne is also the owner and producer of Emerge! Fashion Show which takes place during New York Fashion Week. Emerge! is one of the top collective emerging designer showcases during NYFW. Every year Emerge! presents the coveted Fashion Innovator Award which has been presented to Andre’ Leon Talley, Bethann Hardison, Pat Cleveland, Dapper Dan, Sergio Hudson, Law Roach, Beverly Johnson, Karl Kani to name a few. Emerge! has since expanded to London, spotlighting black emerging designers in the UK.

Dionne Williams is a passionate advocate for diversity within the fashion industry, particularly among designers and the creative community. She serves on the executive board of the Chicago Costume Council at the Chicago History Museum and plays a pivotal role on the steering committee for Chicago Fashion Week, where she champions inclusion and innovation in fashion.

Prior to starting consulting, Dionne worked for the community affairs, publicity and promotions departments for NBC Chicago, Cook County Bureau of Health Services and Museum of Science and Industry. Dionne has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Management from Chicago State University. She is currently the President of the Black Public Relations Society of Chicago.

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Named to Ebony Magazine’s “Power 100” of influential Black Americans and JetMagazine’s 40 under 40, Atima Omara is a multiple award-winning political andadvocacy strategist, leader, advocate, and author of The Instigators: How BlackWomen Are Essential to Democracy, and What We Can Learn from Them. She hasdedicated nearly two decades to engaging youth, women, and people of color in

the political processes, focusing on electoral politics and advocacy within theprogressive movement.As Founder & Chief Strategist of Omara Strategy Group, she partners withprogressive candidates and organizations nationwide, bringing a diversebackground working for a Governor, members of Congress, and variousDemocratic candidates at the federal, state, and local level, including forprogressive causes such as reproductive rights and justice, labor unions,disability rights, and criminal justice reform. Atima is a sought-aftercommentator on national politics, candidates, policy, race, gender, and culture.She has been quoted in national outlets, including The New York Times, BostonGlobe, and The Atlantic; written for the Washington Post, the American Prospect,The Nation, The Root, Teen Vogue, and other national outlets, and has appearedon CNN, PBS, Fox News, BBC, CBC, NPR, and MSNBC, including Joy Reid’s TheReidOut.Omara began writing The Instigators in late 2021, driven by a deep-seatedfrustration with the status quo in politics and a desire to prompt thought andaction on the most pressing issues of our time, to build a more inclusivedemocracy. This is her first book. Learn more about Atima and her advocacywork here.

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One of the nation's most prominent scholars, Dr. Eddie S. Glaude Jr., is aneducator, author, political commentator, and public intellectual who examines thecomplex dynamics of the American experience. His writings, includingDemocracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul, In a Shade of Blue:Pragmatism and the Politics of Black America, and his New York Times bestseller,Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for our Own, take anexhaustive look at Black communities, the difficulties of race in the United States,and the challenges we face as a democracy. His latest book, We Are The LeadersWe Have Been Looking For is a radical and passionate call for everyday people to take responsibility for saving democracy. Glaude is the James S. McDonnellDistinguished University Professor in African American Studies at PrincetonUniversity. He is also on the Morehouse College Board of Trustees. He frequentlyappears in the media as an MSNBC contributor on programs like Morning Joe andDeadline Whitehouse with Nicolle Wallace. Glaude is a native of Moss Point,Mississippi.

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Mary Chatman is a visionary servant leader and proud purveyor of Black Love stories. She is the Owner, CEO, Editor-in-Chief, and Publisher of Black Bride Magazine and Black Bride, the iconic multicultural bridal and lifestyle brand celebrating couples of color since 1998.

After a successful corporate career at AT&T, Mary retired early to pursue an entrepreneurial journey rooted in purpose, love, and legacy. What began as contributing stories about love and marriage ultimately led to her acquiring Black Bride and expanding its mission of representation.

Under her leadership, Black Bride has grown into a powerful platform celebrating Black love, marriage, culture, family, and life before and after the aisle, while elevating the wedding professionals who help couples bring their visions to life.

Through publishing, storytelling, signature events—including the Black Bride Luxury Bridal Show and Black Bride Awards Gala—and major brand collaborations, Mary continues to build a legacy centered on faith, representation, and preserving Black Love stories for generations to come.

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