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About
My Story
Music was my first love. The Bach Well-Tempered Clavier, Richard Smallwood’s Total Praise, and the Verdi Requiem hit me in waves in my teen years and released oxytocin and endorphins in a powerful cocktail that hooked me for life. Then the careers of Leontyne Price, Kathleen Battle, Grace Bumbry and Denyce Graves inspired me to go further and pursue classical singing as a career. In the 25+ years since, I’ve exploring my curiosity and coming up with new answers as a teacher, performer, and researcher that I could not have previously hypothesized. A lot of this has to do with the reality of moving through educational and professional spaces as a Black queer body, othered in every space I’ve entered by the institution or sometimes by the scores themselves. This started in my undergraduate career, where try as they might, many of the teachers could not distinguish me, Carl, from my classmate, let’s call him “Connor”, who also happened to be Black. The transcendence of Mozart (we were both cast in Cosi fan tutte) somehow could not protect us from the humiliation of spending four years in a small vocal program where our faculty could not reliably discern one Black face from another.
Since then, I’ve sought ways for art to be an intervention within the academic atmosphere, so everyone is inherently worthy of dignity and respect by virtue of their humanity. I believe the arts play a crucial role in a university by promoting creativity, critical thinking, and cultural understanding. I believe art, however, must also be interrogated, dismantled, and digested with, by, and for students. This process provides an avenue for students to express themselves and explore their identities, while also engaging with diverse perspectives and experiences. This process also contributes to the development of skills that are valuable in various fields, such as problem-solving, communication, and collaboration. Skills that will be valuable in the mosaic careers that we can expect our students to develop.
I began DuPont Consulting, LLC, when I realized that many of my colleagues thought this work was important, but few knew how to begin it. I heard of lot of “that’s not my area of expertise.” Although they felt comfortable adjusting their teaching to fit the material or the student, they did not see the connection to DEIB. I thought this was a great opportunity to help!
As a trained musician, I understand the value of an iterative discipline. Today’s work cannot be done tomorrow and was not available yesterday, therefore we must work on it every day. We must attend to the details while observing the final product. We prioritize process and avoid short-cuts that would later compromise the foundation of a building, the integrity of a sculpture, or the connection in a scene. I think this is valuable for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) as well as for the academia.
We must continually do the work of DEI to unlearn systems of oppression and re-learn relational awareness. We are looking for strategies with measurable outcomes, not solutions with finite goals. This is essential as we train students for an unpredictable future. Students with a robust education in the arts will be prepared for careers in various fields or further studies in graduate school. Our process as artists plays a critical role in building a vibrant and inclusive university community, fostering cross-disciplinary collaboration, and promoting social and cultural awareness.
My hope is that every future Carl and Conner that fall in love with the arts and seek to further their education in a university setting will be celebrated as a unique artist that can then fully engage with the university and contribute to is longevity.
Let’s Work Together
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