LySaundra Campbell

LySaundra Campbell (she/her) is a multidisciplinary storyteller, writer, and musician. Her artistic practice leverages Black feminist ideology, Black theology, magical realism, and spirituality to create stories that encourage radical honesty, imagination, communal healing, and joy. LySaundra grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, and graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a B.A. in Sociology and a Multicultural Studies certificate. She is a classically trained violinist and pianist, and taught piano and orchestra for several years while working in the nonprofit sector for fifteen years at the collegiate, local, state, and national levels, focusing on the intersections of racial and gender justice, community violence prevention, and narrative strategy.

As a consultant, LySaundra merges creative writing, music, and somatic practices to develop arts-centered curricula and workshops for violence prevention, public health, and mental health advocates in the collective practice of witnessing and being witnessed. LySaundra was a 2025 EmergeNYC fellow at Brooklyn Arts Exchange, a 2025 lordship house fellow, a 2024 and 2021 Anaphora Literary Arts Residency Fellow, and a 2021 Center for Cultural Power Artistic Fellow for We, As Ourselves, a national campaign reshaping narratives about Black survivors of violence. Her words are found in the New York Writers Coalition anthology Common Unity, midnight & indigo, The New Territory Magazine, Permission to Write, and more.

 lysaundrajanee.com

What drew you to the M.A. in Arts Politics?

The multi/inter/trans-disciplinary approach to creative and performance arts and social engagement drew me to the Arts Politics program. I have consistently searched for and gravitated towards spaces where my commitment to social change and artistic practice can genuinely collide and simultaneously be challenged and nurtured. As Toni Cade Bambara tasked artists with making the revolution irresistible, APP seems like a fertile space to continue blossoming.