An inspiring speaker
Antoinette Cooper is a highly respected speaker and thought leader in her field. She brings decades of experience as an educator, writer, and advocate for healthcare equity, trauma healing, social justice, and decoloniality. Her TEDx talk, “Death by Chocolate Cyst: What if My Illness Had a Voice,” has garnered over 7k views, and her Columbia Writing Program interview has over 50K views.
Topics:
Writing the body
Endometriosis and chronic illness
Narrative Medicine and abolition medicine
Historical and collective trauma
The importance of racial literacy
Creating sanctuary
Past Clients
The Metropolitan Museum
The Poetry Foundation
The Eileen Fisher Foundation
Columbia University
WCAPS- Women of Color Advancing Peace and Conflict Resolution
What People Are Saying
“Thank you, Antoinette! Your words were so powerful and inspiring and will stay with me.”
— Participant, Women Together Series with the Eileen Fisher Foundation
“I basically put my entire rating on the last day with Antoinette Cooper. She was terrific, not disregarding the other speakers, but it appears the best was saved until last.”
— Participant, Racism & Health Literacy Symposium with Say-Ah!
“Honestly, this workshop was amazing. I wish there were a part two. I am so hungry for more.”
— Participant, Writing the Body Workshop with the Poetry Foundation
Past Speaking Engagements
Ceremonialist | PAINT2POWER Public Art-Making, Hosted by the world-renowned New York cultural institution La Mama, alongside activist Julia Haart, star of Netflix’s “My Unorthodox Life,” PAINT2POWER created a powerful public artwork centered on justice for women.
Teaching Artist | The Poetry Foundation, Writing the Body. The body—whether individual or collective—are monuments, memory, and at times, mystery. In this session, we centered the body as a rich creative source for embodied writing.
Teaching Artist | The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Art of Protest: Poetry and Fugitivity. Participants were guided in “listening” to the works in the Hear Me Now: The Black Potters of Old Edgefield, South Carolina exhibit to consider the role of language as a liberatory practice.
Keynote | The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Met Professional Learning Community
Speaker | Say Ah! Symposium, Racism & Health Literacy, Session III: Bearing Witness
Speaker | Eileen Fisher Foundation, Women Together, Writing the Body
Speaker | Eileen Fisher Foundation, Women Together, Being Sanctuary
Actor | SHE/HER presented by Brian Cox (Succession) and Actor’s Rising Productions at the 2022 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Read reviews in The Times and The Guardian.
Panelist | Association for Writers and Writing Programs 2021, Panel title: Code-Switching in Class: Writing and Teaching in Vernaculars. (W159)
Panelist | CUNY Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access Conference 2023, The Illusion of Inclusion: Collaborative Solutions for Performative Diversity, Panel title: We Can Only Teach What We Practice: Reparative Social Justice & Narrative Medicine.
Speaker | Women of Color Advancing Peace and Security, Race, Social Justice & The Arts
Podcast Guest | Parenting Decolonized, Episode title: Black Exhale and Embracing Rage
Plenary Session Speaker | Lives in the Balance Health Summit, Presentation: At The Intersections of Illness and Inequity
Panelist | Our Word, Columbia University, Panel title: Writing an Identity: Finding and Reaching Readers
Presenter | University Writing Speaker Series, Columbia University, Introduction for speaker Kimberlé Crenshaw, Co-Founder and Executive Director of the African American Policy Forum
Interviewer | University Writing Speaker Series, Columbia University, Interview with Dr. Rita Charon, Founder/Director of the Narrative Medicine program for the University Writing Medical Humanities track