Performers

Janice Curtis Greene is an award-winning author, master storyteller, and historical reenactor, an American griot, keeping the stories and history of the African diaspora alive. She is past president and life member of both the Griots’ Circle of Maryland, Inc., and the National Association of Black Storytellers, Inc. (NABS). In 2017, Maryland Governor Lawrence Hogan appointed Mrs. Greene to serve as a commissioner on the Maryland Commission on African American History and Culture, representing Baltimore County, and on September 19, 2022, proclaimed Mrs. Greene the “Official Griot for the State of Maryland”.

Janice the Griot has delighted adult and student audiences at various venues nationally and internationally with folktales, song, dance, audience participation, original and personal stories, and Bible Stories set to syncopated Rap rhythms. The original healing stories and poems of her triumph over tragedy have been inspirational to many.

Mrs. Greene has narrated with the Baltimore and Memphis Symphony Orchestras. She is known for her portrayals of historical African American women, such as Harriet Tubman, Venerable Mother Mary Lange, Oblate Sister of Providence, and others. Mrs. Greene is the resident Harriet Tubman for the Harriet Tubman Museum and Visitor’s Center in Cambridge, Maryland.
Mrs. Greene has recently joined the faculty of the Johns Hopkins University Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, Undergraduate Program in Theater Arts, as a Guest Artist.

Her Awards include numerous Maryland Gubernatorial and Mayoral Citations and Proclamations, Harriet Tubman Lifetime Achievement Award, Zeta Phi Beta 2015 Women of the Year in the Cultural Arts, National Association of Black Storytellers’ Zora Neale Hurston Award, Continental Service Award, and many more.