Member Profile
Wilna Julmiste Taylor
Vanderbilt University - Assistant Director
Email: wilna.j.taylor@vanderbilt.edu
Open to talking with: Activists, Artists, Government Officials, Journalists, Non-Profit Organizations, Policymakers, Scholars, Students (College)
Interests: Arts, Performing, Black studies, Cultural Studies, Decolonization, Diaspora studies, Education, Environment, History, Human rights, Identity, Immigration, International Relations, Literature, Mental health, Psychology/ Social psychology, Religion, Women’s and Gender Studies
Bio:
Wilna Julmiste Taylor is a Haitian born actor, writer, producer and art administrator. She is an alumna of the Negro Ensemble Company in New York. She also studied acting at Rutgers University, The Wilma Theater and the Walnut Street Theater in Philadelphia. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology at Rutgers University and a Master of Science in Arts Administration from Drexel University.
Ms. Taylor is currently the Assistant Director at the Curb Center for Art Enterprise and Public Policy at Vanderbilt University. She oversees all aspect of the Curb Scholars Program in Creative Enterprise and Public Leadership. She also leads the Creative Campus Initiative, and manages the Creative Catalyst grant awards. Lastly, she works with Nashville Metro Arts on the Racial Equity and Arts Leadership program.
In addition to her role as an arts administrator, Ms. Taylor continues to write, produce and act. Her work often highlights her Haitian heritage, folklore, and Afro Caribbean and Black cis women lived experiences. Her work has been produced at venues such as the Manhattan Repertory Theatre, the National Black Theater Festival, New York International Fringe Festival, and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland. Ms. Taylor has also been published in the 25th-anniversary volume of the Caribbean Writer where she was noted as an “emerging Haitian-American voice”.