EDUCATION

Master of Fine Arts in Film San Francisco Art Institute,  San Francisco, CA, May 2009
Certificate in School-based Restorative Practices Implementation, Georgia Conflict Center April 2024
Certificate in Documentary Video Production University of Washington,  Seattle, WA, June 1996
Bachelor of Arts in English, concentration in Women’s Studies Millsaps College,  Jackson, MS, May 1992

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

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2013-present    ALLUVIAL COLLECTIVE Community Building

2022 - 2025 Director of Community and Capacity Building, The Alluvial Collective (formerly the Winter Institute)
2021 Interim Co-Executive Director, William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation     Oxford MS
2018 - 2022 Director of Community and Capacity Building, William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation     Oxford MS
2013 - 2018 Community Building Coordinator, William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation at the University of Mississippi     Oxford MS 

2021    University of Mississippi

Adjunct Professor, School of Journalism and New Media Oxford MS

2011-2013 Video Production Lead

Apex Learning          Seattle WA

2010-2011 Film Instructor

Purple Thistle Centre           Vancouver, BC, Canada

2010-2011 Freelance website designer

Fraser Health Psychiatry         New Westminster, BC

2005-2009 Documentary Educator

William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation at the University of Mississippi        Oxford, MS

2001-2005 Freelance video, film, and documentary research work

Oxford MS
Clients included PBS, The History Channel, the University of Mississippi, and the Southern Poverty Law Center
For PBS
•   Slavery and the Making of America, documentary series (2003)
•   The Murder of Emmett Till, American Experience documentary by Stanley Nelson (2002)•   “The Blues: Feel Like Going Home” documentary by Martin Scorsese (2002)
•   “The Blues: The Soul of a Man” documentary by Wim Wenders (2002)
•   “The Blues: Warming by the Devil’s Fire” documentary by Charles Burnett (2001)
For Nonprofit Organizations
•   The University of Mississippi, video projects (2001-2005)
•   Southern Foodways Alliance, oral history projects (2003)
•   The Southern Poverty Law Center, research project (2003)
•   Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi, anti-smoking PSA (2002)
•   The National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (1999)

1999-2001 Project Coordinator and Instructional Designer

AdvanceOnline, Incorporated      Seattle WA

1996-1999 Article editor, technical editor, and project coordinator

Full time contractor for Microsoft Corporation (Encarta Encyclopedia) and Wasser Inc. (Microsoft Press) Redmond/Seattle, WA

publicationS AND featured media

• Shannon R. Sharp, Judith C. P. Lin, Patchareeya P. Kwan, Sarah Mason, Jessica Wilkerson & April Grayson (2024) Oral History in Evaluation: A New Partnership to Expand and Enhance Both Fields, The Oral History Review, DOI: 10.1080/00940798.2023.2284391

• Engelage, Navina; Grayson, April; Lamplugh, Gabrielle; Neu, Elena; Pfaffinger, Teresa; Surak, Sarah M. Elevating Youth Voices: From Public History to Civic Engagement, Transatlantic Exchange of Civic Educators, June 2022

• Grayson, April. “Geschichte, Erinnerung und der Weg zur Racial Justice im „Bauch der Bestie“” Außerschulische Bildung – Zeitschrift der politischen Jugend- und Erwachsenenbildung, (in German) January 2022

• Rendon, Jim. “Zoom Gives a Boost to Nonprofit’s Work Advancing Racial Healing,” The Chronicle of Philanthropy, June 29, 2021

• Whitlinger, Claire. Between Remembrance and Repair: Commemorating Racial Violence in Philadelphia, Mississippi, The University of North Carolina Press, 2020

• Grayson, April. “Unearthing and Confronting Oxford’s Lynching History With Rev. E.W. Higginbottom Sr.” Mississippi Free Press, May 19, 2020

• Featured guest on Community Chats podcast by Community Engagement at the University of Mississippi, 2020

• Neiman, Susan, Learning from the Germans: Race and the Memory of Evil, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019

• Mississippi Folklife, “Interview with Eddie F. Carter, Jr.,” February 4, 2019

• Gregory, Vanessa, “A Lynching’s Long Shadow,” New York Times Magazine, April 25, 2018

• Schilling, Mary Kaye, “America's Lynching History: How the Equal Justice Initiative is Helping Counties Acknowledge Terrorism,” Newsweek magazine, November 29, 2018

• Yeoman, Barry, “Healing Racial Fault Lines,” Mindful magazine, August 11, 2016

• For other articles and quotes, visit the Lafayette Community Remembrance Project website

AWARDS AND GRANTS

• Mississippi Historical Society Award of Merit to the Lafayette Community Remembrance Project (2025)

• Transatlantic Exchange of Civic Educators (TECE) fellowship, a project of the Arbeitskreis deutscher Bildungsstätten e.V. (AdB) and the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life (July 2021-May 2022)

• University of Mississippi Excellence in Community Engagement Award, team award with Lynching Memorialization in Lafayette County group (2022)

• University of Mississippi Excellence in Community Engagement Award finalist, team award with Lynching Memorialization in Lafayette County group (2019)

• Finalist, A Blade of Grass Fellowship (2017)

• Mississippi Historical Society’s Elbert Hilliard Oral History Award (2009)

• Murphy and Cadogan Fellowship in the Fine Arts, San Francisco Foundation (2008)

• Year of Delta Heritage Award, Delta State University (2008)

• Best Experimental, Delta International Film and Video Festival (2008)

• RUMA Award for Most Promising Mississippi Filmmaker, Crossroads Film Festival (2008)

• American Association of University Women (AAUW) Career Development grant (2007)

• Mississippi Film and Video Alliance completion grant (2007)

• Mississippi Arts Commission artist mini-grants (2006, 2007)

CONFERENCES, PRESENTATIONS, & SCREENINGS

• “Critical Youth Work (non)conference,” Weimar, Germany (2024)

• Bundeskongress Politische Bildung, 15th Federal Congress on Civic Education 2023, Weimar, Germany (2023)

• Community Oral History Workshop, COFO Center, Jackson State University, Jackson MS (2023)

• Community Oral History Workshop, Smith Robertson Museum, Jackson MS (2023)

• Anti-Racism and Community Memory Work, Martin University, Indianapolis IN (2023)

• University of Hertfordshire, guest presenter, United Kingdom (2022)

• Harvard University, Harvard Law School, guest presenter (2022)

• Taos Center for the Arts, Open Screen, film screening (2022)

• Video series: Elevating Youth voices, Transatlantic Exchange of Civic Educators (2022)

• Georgia Tech, School of Architecture, guest presenter, (2022)

• Princeton University, School of Architecture, guest presenter, Princeton NJ (2021)

• Western Carolina University guest panelist, Cullowhee NC (2021)

• North Mississippi Rural Legal Services oral history phase 2 presentation, Oxford MS (2021)

• National Day of Racial Healing virtual conference presenter, Mississippi (2021)

• University of Hertfordshire, guest lecturer, United Kingdom (2020)

• National Day of Racial Healing presenter, Jackson MS (2020)

• Land & Power: The Summit, Mississippi Museum of Art’s Center for Art and Public Exchange, Lafayette County MS (2019)

• North Mississippi Rural Legal Services oral history phase 1 presentation, Oxford MS (2019)

• Racial Redress Conference, Columbia University, New York NY (2019)

• PROJECT(ion) Fringe Festival, Oxford MS (2019)

• Association of African American Museums annual conference presenter, Jackson MS (2019)

• Oral History Association, paper presented at the OHA annual conference, Montreal, QC, Canada (2018)

• Welcoming Interactive, Welcoming America conference, Louisville KY (2018)

• Southern Legislative Conference, Biloxi MS (2017)

• The Unitarian Universalist Association General Assembly session “The 'Welcome Table:’ Building Trust Relationships That Work!” New Orleans LA (2017)

• Race and Sustainability Conference, "Vulnerability, Historical Memory and Healing," University of Mississippi School of Law (2017)

• The Radical South conference, University of Mississippi (2017)

• CUNY Law School, New York NY (2016)

• Silicon Valley social media executives and data center staff, Oxford MS and elsewhere (2016)

• National Endowment for the Humanities forum “Civil Rights Literacy and the Common Good,” 3 events in Jackson MS, Biloxi MS, Oxford MS (2016)

• Colgate University, Hamilton NY (2015)

• University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson MS (2015)

• Oral History Association, paper presented at the OHA annual conference, Madison WI (2014)

• Delta State University, Cleveland MS (2013, 2014, 2015)

• StoryCenter digital storytelling workshop/screening at Loyola University, New Orleans (2014)

• Tulane University, New Orleans LA (2014)

• Columbia University, “Talking Before the Talking: Oral History as an Important Tool for Historical Dialogue,” paper presented at the Historical Justice and Memory: Questions of Rights and Accountability in Contemporary Society conference, New York NY (2013)

• Brandon High School guest lecturer, Brandon, MS (2014)

• Western Carolina University visiting artist and lecturer, Cullowhee, NC (2013)

• Gallery Vertigo, Vernon, BC, Canada (2013)

• Ozark Foothills FilmFest (2010)

• Cream from the Top, Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA (2010)

• Lo-Fi Hi-Fi, Gallery 130, University of Mississippi (2010)

• San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA (2009)

• Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, MS (2009)

• Oxford Film Festival, Oxford, MS (2009)

• SWARM Gallery, Oakland, CA (2009)

• Vernissage, SFAI MFA exhibition, Herbst Pavilion, San Francisco, CA (2009)

• Alive and Kicking! group show, Swell Gallery, SFAI, San Francisco, CA (2009)

• Documenta Quito, Quito, Ecuador (2008)

• SF IndieFest, San Francisco, CA (2008)

• CineSlam Park City, Park City, UT (2008)

• Immediate Future: The 2008 Murphy and Cadogan Fellowships in the Fine Arts group show, San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery (2008)

• Chow Fun show, Swell Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA (2008)

• Oxford Film Festival, Oxford, MS (2008)

  Delta International Film and Video Festival, Cleveland, MS (2008)

  Crossroads Film Festival, Jackson, MS (2008)

  Winter Institute annual meeting, University of Mississippi (2008)

  University of Mississippi guest lecturer, Brooke White’s art class (2007)

  MFVA Award Winners screening, Jackson, MS (2007)

  Winnipeg International Film Festival, Winnipeg, MB (2007)

  Oxford Film Festival, Oxford, MS (2007)

  Delta International Film and Video Festival, Cleveland, MS (2007)

  Crossroads Film Festival, Jackson, MS (2007)

  Tupelo Film Festival, Tupelo, MS (2007)

  Moviate Artsfest Film Festival, Harrisburg, PA (2007)

  FESPACO Pan African Film/Television Festival, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (2007)

  Ghana’s Fiftieth Jubilee Celebration, Accra, Ghana (2007)

  MFA group show, Swell Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA (2007)

  I Shoot Myself group show, Diego Rivera Gallery, SFAI, San Francisco, CA (2007)

  MFA group show, Swell Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA (2007)

  Voices from the American South, Diego Rivera Gallery, SFAI, San Francisco, CA (2007)

  University of Mississippi guest lecturer, art department (2006)

  Mississippi Public Broadcasting television broadcast (2006)

  Aarhus Festival of Independent Arts, Aarhus, Denmark (2006)

  Crossroads Film Festival, Jackson, MS (2006)

  Tupelo Film Festival, Tupelo, MS (2006)

  Site Specific Acts group show, San Francisco, CA (2006)

  Swallows Nest, Swell Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA (2006)

  Center for the Study of Southern Culture, Oxford, MS, (2005)

  Oxford Film Festival, Oxford, MS (2005)

  KCTS arts focus, Seattle, WA (2000)

  9-1-1 Media Arts, Seattle, WA (1996)