21 Feb Perform in Community: A Message from Shadae McDaniel
InflexionPoint Podcast
Episode 80 | February 19, 2025
Performance and Improv As a Catalyst for Development and Change
Tune in to the latest episode of InflexionPoint Podcast where we are dedicated to the art of listening in authentic conversation.
Core Question of This Episode
How can performance and improv possibly serve as a catalyst for development and change? The deeper question: Is it possible to throw together unlikely partners and say, “You’re going to perform together?”
Shadae McDaniel
Senior Vice President/Programs and Strategic Initiatives/Director, All Stars Project (ASP) of New Jersey. Operation Conversation: Cops & Kids Demonstration Workshop
Unlikely Partners: Operation Conversation Cops & Kids
Shadae McDaniel explains how Operation Conversation: Cops & Kids brings unlikely partners together to build bridges, develop youth leadership and strengthen communities.
2025 Theme: Community Engagement and the Grassroots of Change
“We’re using improv to break the barriers between people who would never have had this intersectionality,” McDaniel said. “We’re throwing together unlikely partners and saying, ‘You’re going to perform together.” — Shadae McDaniel, Roi-nj.com Article
Call to Action from InflexionPoint Podcast
#StayWOKE – Well-informed. Open-minded. Kind. Empathetic.
#VOTE – Voices Organized To Empower.
In this episode we continue our case study of the All Stars Project (ASP) founded in 1981 as a 501(c)3 national nonprofit that uses a performance-based approach to help inner-city youths and their families create success in their lives.
Shadae McDaniels is a graduate of the Kellogg Executive Development Program, and she earned a bachelor’s degree in health sciences at Howard University and a master’s degree in social work from Rutgers University.
In this conversation she expands our view of the All Stars Project and Operation Conversation Cops & Kids using her voice, her personal and professional journey, and her passion for performance.
Segment 1 -Who Is Shadae McDaniel?
Personal Journey: Rooted in Howard University
“At Howard, I learned what it means to perform in your community and what it means to be part of the global community. Even more, I realized that our existence is predicated on how we help others.” — Shadae McDaniels, NJ Urban News
Passionate about performance and a dancer for much of her life, Shadae spent 15 years prior to joining the ASP working in the local, state and federal nonprofit sector, where she provided innovative community-based education to thousands of young people and their families in underserved communities.
Segment 2 - Journey to the All Stars project
“I always knew I would be involved with a nonprofit organization – I just didn’t know what it would look like,” she said. “I started in health and schools and other community-based work that supported poor communities, black and brown. Then, in 2014, I met the All Stars.”
— Shadae McDaniels, NJ Urban News
Shadae was first introduced to ASP when she attended an All Stars Project of NJ Afterschool Development conference in 2014. A year later, she was hired by the ASP of NJ as a Senior Program Manager and then six months after that, promoted to Director of Youth Programs. Shadae was named City Leader in 2020 and Director of the ASP of NJ and VP of Strategic Initiatives in 2022.
Segment 3 - The Power of Performance: Operation Conversation Cops & Kids
“We’re using improv to break the barriers between people who would never have had this intersectionality,” McDaniel said. “We’re throwing together unlikely partners and saying, ‘You’re going to perform together.”
Segment 4 - The Journey Continues
Most recently, Shadae and her team designed and delivered “train the trainer” sessions to the NPD training supervisor officers to prepare them to facilitate a comprehensive Youth Engagement Strategy: Strengthening Community – One Conversation at a Time, and implement the training.
“People think about performance in a lot of different ways. But performance is really doing something different for the first time. And, when you do that with somebody that you don’t know, the experience is leveling, because everybody is doing it for the first time at the same time.” — Shadae McDaniel, ROI-NJ, Inclusion through Improvisation, November 3, 2022
Call to Action
CLOSING
“America now is stumbling through the darkness of hatred and divisiveness. Our values, our principles, and our determination to succeed as a free and democratic people will give us a torch to light the way. And we will survive and become the stronger - not only because of a patriotism that stands for love of country, but a patriotism that stands for love of people.” – President Gerald Ford
Q: Is it possible to imagine a future free from the shackles of divisive conversations? I believe the answer is a resounding, “Yes!”
And we all have a role to play – the key is transformative engagement.
The question is what will YOU do to contribute?
You can start by joining the conversation on our Private Facebook Page under the podcast name InflexionPoint Podcast.
CTA: Join the IPP Private Facebook Page:
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