Screen Time: Sharon Udoh and Jonny Stax

Event Description

On Thursday, February 18 at 5:30 PM we will premiere Screen Time, a live virtual talk show airing through Zoom. The monthly program, hosted by Englert’s events director, Jessica Egli, invites teachers, artists, educational and artistic administrators, students, parents, and any other curious community member to come together to discuss the current challenges around reimagining our work for the virtual world and the execution of that work.

Each episode will feature two or three local professionals who will share their stories of hardship and triumph. The program will seek to build bridges between individuals and institutions that can benefit from developing new relationships or strengthening existing ones in an effort to deepen the impact of Iowa City’s online arts education opportunities for all.

Jonny Stax works as a multi-disciplinary artist and social equity strategist who mobilizes creative forces to manifest a more JEDI (just, equitable, diverse, and inclusive) world. As a strategist, he has brought artistic practices into public health and justice movements, propelling social transformation. As an artist, Jonny is a producer, performer, musical director, and puppetmaster.

Sharon Udoh often performs as Counterfeit Madison. She is a first-generation Nigerian-American composer, pianist, educator, actor, and cultural critic. Her work focuses on how humans change over time, the necessity of personal revolution and connection, and emotional curiosity. Her performances embody the struggle and freedom of Black and brown individuals.

About the Host:
Jessica Egli is a musician, actor, adjunct instructor at the University of Iowa, and Events Director for the Englert. Her work at the Englert has primarily involved handling logistics of show and festival production, but more recently she has had the privilege to come on as a programmer for the theater’s arts education program, Wavelength. Her first project was designing and producing the summer youth acting camp, Acting Out!. In late Spring of 2020, she and her team created the video series, Acting Out Prep School, as an answer to programming for youth at the start of the pandemic. She’s overjoyed to debut Screen Time as a platform for artists and educators in our community to share their own stories of transforming their work for the digital world.