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Mwalim (Morgan James Peters), also known as ‘DaPhunkee Professor’, is an internationally recognized educator, performing artist, writer, filmmaker, and Black Arts scholar. Considered by critics and peers alike to be one of the contemporary masters of the oral tradition, his award-winning body of works spans the mediums of theater, music, fiction, essays, poetry, film, television, and spoken word. A quasar in the field of Black Aesthetics scholarship, ethnic studies, and contemporary Black and Native American performance traditions; his works have been performed and presented throughout the United States and Canada, as well as the Caribbean and the U.K.  His stages have included theaters, schools, churches, museums, jails, libraries, cafes, festivals, street corners, colleges, and powwows. He is a singer and keyboardist for the multi-Grammy nominated soul-funk-blues band, The GroovaLottos.

A “teacher’s teacher,” he is a former literacy, performing arts, and curriculum development consultant, working with middle and high schools throughout New England, New York, and Pennsylvania. He is a tenured professor of English and Black Studies at UMass Dartmouth. A Mashpee Wampanoag, he is a founding member of his tribe’s Educational Department and is a trained Parent’s Advocate in Special Education and was appointed to the advisory board for Special Education of the Bureau of Indian Education by the Secretary of the Interior in 2011. He is also one of the only living authorities on the ‘Ahaneenun’ (sacred clown) tradition of the Wampanoag people.