Our host, Stephanie Fortunato speaks to Adriane Jefferson, Director of Cultural Affairs for the City of New Haven. They discuss cultural equity planning at a city level, the fundamental shifts it has facilitated for New Haven, as well as the challenges and opportunities of creating a living and actionable plan to create a more equitable and more culturally diverse ecosystem, written for and by the people.

External references:

• City of New Haven Department of Arts, Culture and Tourism: https://www.newhavenct.gov/government/departments-divisions/arts-culture-tourism
• City of New Haven’s Cultural Equity Plan (2022): https://www.newhavenct.gov/government/departments-divisions/arts-culture-tourism/cultural-equity-plan
• Black Wallstreet Festival: https://www.instagram.com/blackwallstreetfestival/
• The Greater New Haven Creative Sector Relief Fund: https://www.newhavenarts.org/relieffund
• The Creative Entrepreneurship Decoded (ED) program: https://www.togethernewhaven.com/deprogram
• Together New Haven Arts for Antiracism Pledge: https://www.togethernewhaven.com/pledge
• The Breed Entertainment: https://www.thebreedmadeit.com/
• Sweets and Sounds Conference: https://www.sweetsandsounds.com/
• Seeing Sounds Festival: https://www.seeingsoundsfest.com/

LinkedIns

• City of New Haven: https://www.linkedin.com/company/city-of-new-haven/about/
• Adriane Jefferson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adriane-jefferson-a3484319/

Adriane Jefferson Bio

Adriane V. Jefferson is an award-winning Cultural Equity Leader who has worked professionally in the Arts & Culture sector for over 19 years. As the Director of Cultural Affairs for the City of New Haven and the Executive Director of New Haven Festivals Inc. in Connecticut, she has spearheaded several significant initiatives such as The Unapologetically Radical Conference, the City of New Haven’s inaugural Black Wall Street festival, and the first Cultural Equity Plan in the State of Connecticut. Adriane is also a seasoned public speaker, regularly sharing her expertise on cultural equity and activism with various organizations and platforms like Yale University, the NAACP and CT Magazine to name a few. Her work has been featured in Cosmo Magazine, black enterprise magazine, yahoo news, among many other reputable news, sources. She is also currently teaching Arts & Entertainment Management as a professor at Eastern Connecticut State University, she is a Yale Trumbull College Fellow and a member of Delta Sigma sorority Inc.