“Jennifer Lanier lived most of her life being someone she wasn’t. Growing up in Greensboro, North Carolina as a gay American Indian and African American, being who she was was not OK. It was a message that was drilled into her brain continuously by her peers, by her family, by her culture. She was not black enough, not feminine enough, too brown or too muscular.”
 photo: kinawilliams.com |
“None of the Above,” Jennifer Lanier’s original, one woman show, is a humorous presentation around sensitive issues, including gender and racial identity, family dynamics, and coming of age crises. She has toured the east coast with this performance, including New York, Washington DC, Pennsylvania, Maine, and North Carolina as well as Hawaii. Jennifer’s performance has won acclaim from educators, arts reviewers, service providers, and human rights organizations.
Listen to an interview with Jennifer Lanier about her new show, “None Of The Above.”
With a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the prestigious North Carolina School of the Arts, she continues to work with NCSA as a guest artist and coach. She is a member of the Screen Actor’s Guild and the Actor’s Equity Association.
 photo: kinawilliams.com |
Jennifer relates to all ages, socio-economic backgrounds, as well as to minorities, being several herself. She has performed and taught for universities, schools, faculty groups and even a prison. Her theatre based master classes include acting, improvisation, creating gender switching roles, and how to prepare for auditions. Other keynote presentations and workshops include “Getting Your Life Back No Matter Who Wants It: Personal Achievement in the Face of Personal Adversity”, “Instant Acting: Taking Improv Skills into Interviews, Presentations, and Meeting the Parents”, and commencement/convocation addresses. With a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the prestigious North Carolina School of the Arts, she continues to work with NCSA as a guest artist and coach. Jennifer was inducted into the Order of the Golden Fleece Honorary Society at the University of North Carolina. She is a member of the Screen Actor’s Guild and the Actor’s Equity Association.
Always a child at heart, Jennifer performs for children as young as 3 years of age, using African American and American Indian folk tales to educate them in cooperation, honesty, tolerance & acceptance as well as sequencing, analysis, and teamwork. She conducts workshops and performs for elementary, middle school, and high school students around personal achievement, diversity, and acting. Jennifer works with educators on using drama as an “in” to other parts of the curriculum. Her work has made an impact even at the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women where she directed a show based on inmates’ writings. Jennifer has worked with a variety of companies including the United Stage; Smithsonian Institution’s Discovery Theater; Bank of America, RJ Reynolds, and First Union corporations; and the A+ Schools Summer Institutes in North Carolina as a founding fellow.
Jennifer’s skills have translated into emceeing events, writing & performing spontaneous songs created with information provided by the audience on the spot, getting a crowd of hundreds to play games together and bringing out the “inner actor” in audience members by bringing them into the story. She has been seen in theatres across the country as well as in films and television. You may even have seen her on late night TV as a spokesperson for the Christian Children’s Fund. Jennifer’s Website
Curve Magazine Interview
Catch Jennifer Lanier (current schedule)
“by her peers, by her family, by her culture. She was not black enough, not feminine enough, too brown or too muscular.” That certainly hits home, Brielle. Thanks for the brilliant Jennifer info, honey.
Your welcome Cara. I was inspired by Jennifer’s story a lot. Every so often I run into someone on the web and they are so undeniably authentic – it’s something for me to aim for, and even though I get disheartened for knowing I could try harder, it still makes me want to do just that. Try harder. I seem to remember someone else like that who told me her dream quite a while ago, and now it’s a reality, not to mention that she walks the talk with her politics. Love always, Brielle.