Griots  

Keynoters • Workshop Presentations
Performance Readings • Author Signings

            Our clients are talented individuals in the field of professional speaking and highly regarded literary professionals, authors, trainers, educators, motivators, consultants, and offer individual expertise in such areas as education, medicine, publishing, entertainment law, theatre, film, song and play writing and productions, and much more...

Ed Bullins  Living Legend and pioneering artist of the Black Theater movement of the 1960s and 1970s, Mr. Ed Bullins is known for writing plays such as In the Wine Tine (1968) and Goin A Buffalo (1968).  He has received numerous awards for playwriting including an Obie Award for distinguished playwriting and the Black Arts Alliance Award for The Fabulous Miss Marie (1971), and In New England Winter (1969). For the Taking of Miss Janie,  Mr. Bullins received the Obie Award for distinguished playwriting and the New York Drama Critics Award.  In 1971 and 1976, he won the Guggenheim Fellowship for playwriting.  In 1975, he won the Drama Desk-Vernon Rice Award, two more Obies, two Guggenheim fellowships, four Rockefeller Foundation playwriting grants, and two National Endowment for the Arts playwriting grants. His 50 + plays include How Do You Do? (1965, one act), Dialect Determinism, or The Rally (1965, one act), Clara's Ole Man (1965, one act), The Corner (1968), The Duplex (1970), Home Boy (1976), Daddy (1977), and Salaam, Huey Newton, Salaam (1991).  Professor, Distinguished Artist-in-Residence, Northeastern University, Mr. Ed Bullins is author of eight books including ED BULLINS: 12 Plays and Selected Writings (U of Michigan Press, 2006), The Reluctant Rapist (1973, novel), and The Hungered One (1971, short stories, recently republished).  Education: BA, Antioch University, MFA, San Francisco State University.
 

Gregory J. Reed  An author, song, film, and play producer, agent, entertainment attorney Reed’s experiences are diverse and he is the only attorney to represent six (6) world champion boxers and was credited with negotiating the largest contract in boxing history. He represents sports figures, entertainers, firms, and numerous persons from TV to Broadway.  He is one of the founders Vice President board member of The Black Entertainment Sports Lawyers Association (BESLA).  He is the first African American lawyer to Chair a Sports and Entertainment Lawyers Section in the United States and is widely recognized as an expert witness in entertainment-related matters nationwide.  For over two decades Mr. Reed has championed the right of private individuals to control the commercial use of their own image, voice and likeness.  Some of his career highlights include his suits on behalf of Mrs. Rosa Parks and the family members of the original Temptations music group.  He also successfully litigated against the Miss USA beauty pageant.  He challenged the terms of beauty contest employment contracts and forced the industry to adopt more equitable terms for their titleholders.  On October 17, 2003, The State of Michigan Arts, Communication, Entertainment and Sports Section presented him with the John Hensel Award.  The Section gives the Hensel Award each year to a Michigan attorney who has made significant contributions to the arts, communications, entertainment or sports area. He is the first African American to receive a Masters in Taxation in Michigan.  He has been a professor of taxation in the School of Business at Wayne State University, and is the first African American lawyer to be a member of the Internal Revenue Service Advisory Board of the United States. Author of 14 books, his books include This Business of Entertainment and Its Secrets (1985), Negotiations Behind Closed Doors (1992), Quiet Strength with Mrs. Rosa Parks (1995, Zondervan Publishing Company), Dear Mrs. Parks (1996, Lee & Low Publishing), and Economic Empowerment Through The Church (1994, Zondervan Publishing Company).  Education: B.S., Michigan State University (Engineering); M.S., Michigan State University (Management Science); J.D., Wayne State University; L.L.M., Wayne State University (Master Of Taxation Law).