Dill: An Immersive Screenplay Reading and Discussion

ELISE (LISE) BREEN has investigated the practice of slavery on Cape Ann, resurrecting profiles of individuals who resisted their enslavement as well as their enslavers. She has identified Cape Ann citizens’ participation in the slave trade, surfacing evidence from international archives as well as overlooked local materials from 1685 through the mid-nineteenth century. Lise has shared her research in her many public talks and with local institutions and scholars. Her essay, “Hidden City: Slavery and Gloucester’s Quadricentennial” in Gloucester Encounters: Essays on the Cultural History of the City 1623-2023 was published by the Gloucester Cultural Initiative. Lise co-authored Objects of Myth and Memory, American Indian Art at the Brooklyn Museum.

NERISSA WILLIAMS SCOTT is the producer for Dill, CEO and Lead Creative Producer of That Child Got Talent Entertainment (TCGT) and an affiliated faculty member at Emerson College in the Business of Creative Economy and Visual Media Art departments. Over the past twelve years she has produced two narrative feature films and served as production manager for a variety of documentaries/series, narrative shorts, live media installation events, theatre productions, fashion films, TV series, and music videos. She was awarded the LEF Foundation Fellowship to attend the Flaherty Seminar in 2018 as well as the LEF Development grant for Paradise, an experimental feature documentary with director Gabby Sumney. Nerissa is the treasurer for the Secret Society of Black Creatives, a member of the Coolidge Corner Theater board of directors, and the Creative Director of Sarah’s Hope Charitable and Educational Foundation in Lufkin, Texas. As CEO of TCGT, Nerissa built a thriving company that serves as a bridge for women of color to gain employment and demonstrate their brilliance while serving the greater community through teaching youth as well as elders. She received a Bachelor of Art degree in Fine and Performing Arts from Hampton University and Master of Fine Art degree in Film Production Emerson College.

BETH BOWER is an archivist and public historian. Early in her career, Beth was the staff archaeologist at the Museum of Afro American History conducting research and excavations at Boston’s African Meeting House and sites in Roxbury. She then served as the Central Artery project’s archaeological and historic resources program manager. Beth transitioned to archival and exhibit work as Suffolk University archivist and curator of the Adams Gallery. Her research and public projects have focused on African descended communities in Massachusetts and 17th century women’s history. Throughout her career she has prioritized partnership, representation, and employment of host community members in public history projects. Now retired, Beth’s current research project centers on the 1750-1850 African American community in Salem, Massachusetts. She holds a B.A. in History from Simmons University and an M.A. in Anthropology from Brown University. She is a member of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts.

JEANNE PICKERING is an independent scholar of slavery in eighteenth-century Essex County Massachusetts. She holds a MA in History from Salem State University for which she wrote a thesis on the freedom suits filed by enslaved people in Essex County during the revolutionary period. Jeanne specializes in searching for enslaved people in local archives including court, probate, town and church records. She presents her research at public history venues and academic conferences. She leads history courses at the Harvard Institute for Learning in Retirement and is an active member of the Topsfield Historical Society. She develops and maintains several online databases of her research at NorthShoreSlavery.org.