About Vanessa

Vanessa Johnson sees the world around us the evolution and blending of many cultures - for us to know who we are, we need to understand and celebrate those cultures. Ms. Johnson is an African American storyteller, artist, educator, historian and actress. She uses her many talents, her passion for history and her love of working with children to bring African American heritage to life in stories, plays and educational programs.

Ms. Johnson first began working with children at the Syracuse Model Neighbors Southwest Center as Director of Youth and Teen Programming. She wrote grants which garnered hundreds of thousands of dollars for programs to prevent teen pregnancy and support mentally challenged youth.

As director of the J.P.Morgan Chase Interactive History Museum, she founded and directed a youth drama group and developed interactive programs to bring historical themes to life. She also joined the Onondaga Historical Society as Director of Education where she developed and implemented educational programs and curriculums both in the museum and in a new school-based program that reached over 300 students per week in 25 area schools. Vanessa also initiated history youth theme camps at the Association and at community organizations.

Throughout this time Vanessa established her " Mosai Village Enterprises as an important local resource for exciting educational programming and performances for conferences, community celebrations, television and radio.

A Sampling of Storytelling Performances

Performances

WAER Women's Voices Radio: "Herstory Series" - Autobiographical Story Tells featured once per month.
1. Vera House for Battered Women(Syracuse, NY): "Healing Grace" - Three performance series.
2. University of Miami (Oxford, Ohio): "Freedom Aprons" - Women's resistance on the underground railroad at the Gender Resistance Conference.
3. Lemoyne COllege (Syracuse, NY): "Stories of the Underground Railroad" - as part of the Elderhostel Program.
4. Wora-Wora (Ghana):"Animal Tales, Underground Railroad Tales and the Civil Rights Stories" - Featured event of West African village gathering.
5. Northern Onondaga County Public Libraries (Brewerton, Cicero and North Syracuse, New York): "Southern Tails".
6. Blue Cross Blue Shield Insurance (Syracuse, NY): "The Soft Whispers of Ancestors & Tales of the Underground Railroad" - Black History Month Celebration
7. CANOPY (Syracuse, NY):"The Legend of the Creek" - a commissioned story on the environment for the community organization dedicated to cleaning up Onondaga Creek.
8. Delaware School:"Talking Kenya" - a five week storytelling program featuring stories from Kenya, mask and instrument making, stroy writing and performances by the students.