Schyleen Qualls

 

Schyleen Qualls, CEO of Arkeon Productions, is a creative arts entrepreneur with an impressive track record of producing innovative and socially conscious entertainment designed to inspire audiences worldwide. Awarded the Harvard University Foundation Medal for her "contributions to American Performing Arts and Intercultural Relations," Schyleen Qualls has served as a U.S. ambassador for the arts in delegations to China, Nigeria and Germany and given keynote addresses at numerous national conferences including the League of Women Voters and the National State Boards of Education. She has appeared with jazz ensembles and symphony orchestras and her one-woman show of poetry, THE LAST WORD, has been highly acclaimed for its focus on global citizenship, inspired by her travels to over sixty countries.

Schyleen Qualls was Director of the Capital Campaign for the Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) in San Francisco, the first major museum of its kind in the world. She is also Co-Founder of the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble, one of America's foremost modern dance companies. She wrote and narrated the film "Family Reunion, Americans at FESTAC" which has been shown in 80 countries documenting FESTAC '77, a month-long festival held in Lagos, Nigeria which brought together 17,000 artists of African descent from around the world.

The first African American to serve on the Board of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP) -- a leader in the global astronomical community since 1889 -- Qualls pioneered the Arthur B. Walker III Award to celebrate astronomers and scientists of African descent. In 2016 she presented the Inaugural Award to Katherine Johnson, renowned NASA mathematician.

Ken Kesey, author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Sometimes a Great Notion, wrote, "Schyleen Qualls is a treasure, a flower, a trump, a peach, a humdinger of a word slinger, a corker of a talker, a heller of a storyteller, the cream of the crop, dawn's first light and a downright delight."