MAISHA R CARTER
Co-Founder/Program Director
Maisha R. Carter has practically grown up in the arts, when as a young actress her mother would drag her and older brother, Amani, to television and film auditions and rehearsals at various Chicago theatres like Kuumba and Lamont Zeno. She kept them surrounded with creatives of every type… actors, singers, dancers, directors, writers…even magicians. Her educator father exposed the family to as much culture and learning as possible through weekly trips to libraries, museums, jazz concerts and college lectures featuring speakers like activist Kwame Ture (formerly known as Stokely Carmichael). But her love for writing started in junior high school where she was given an assignment in her honors English class that included keeping a journal. She found an ease in expressing herself in words. After the journal was discovered by her father, he was the first to recognize her gift and pushed her to continue. It was these early experiences that helped turn her eye to the power of the arts in the community and spark a God-given desire to express and create.
The creative partnership with her mother, Shebeta, started in 1997, when Maisha joined her in a 13 year run of the highly successful drama department at Living Word Christian Center, under the leadership of Dr. Bill Winston. She has worked as an actor, playwright, director and producer of original stage and video productions through this partnership. In 2003, the duo decided that in addition to the drama work at LWCC, they would spread their wings and make The Anointed Harvesters (AH) a separate nonprofit organization, fully devoted to continuing to use the arts to inspire, uplift and empower the community. After years in development, in 2007, the mother/daughter team shot their first film, “Of Boys and Men”, a dramatic feature starring Chicago bred actor/producer Robert Townsend, Oscar nominee Angela Bassett and Victoria Rowell of The Young and The Restless fame. The film was released on DVD in January 2011 by Warner Brothers as well as ran on BET and its affiliated cable stations through April 2013.
In addition to her work with AH, Maisha has a Bachelor’s of Science degree in News-Editorial Journalism from the University of North Texas and provides freelance writing and editing services, as well as script consulting. She has also been a Series 7 and 63 Registered Representative in the state of Illinois and has worked for an investment management firm for over 14 years.
Maisha’s most recent creative work includes lead roles in the Christian Sci-Fi feature film “LOGOS” and a short film entitled JADED, as well as lead writer/director for E-Tre Productions and Walt Whitman and the Soul Children’s “Soul Stories”. She has completed writing her first feature length screenplay entitled “trapped”, as well as a short film entitled “On the Verge of Motion” and is currently developing her original stageplay “The Falls” into a web series.
In her spare time, Maisha enjoys mentoring youth and writing poetic rants among other things on her blog, www.thirtiesgirl.blogspot.com.