Welcome to the Nia Network: A Program Bureau, a division of Celeste Bateman & Associates. The program bureau features visual and performing artists, historians, writers and motivational speakers of African descent who present in various venues nationally and internationally. CB&A has compiled a roster of extraordinarily talented individuals who are available to perform and present at colleges and universities, performing arts centers, schools, churches, corporations, festivals, trade shows, etc. What makes this program bureau unique is that all of the participants present topics and art forms pertaining to the African Diaspora.
Nia is the Swahili word for ‘purpose.’ Our purpose is to promulgate what is rich and positive about African, Caribbean, and African-American culture, history, heritage and art. For booking information, email us at info@celestebateman.com or call 973.705.8253.
PLEASE NOTE: We are unable to take on additional artists/speakers at this time, but please feel free to forward your information for future consideration.
Nia is the Swahili word for ‘purpose.’ Our purpose is to promulgate what is rich and positive about African, Caribbean, and African-American culture, history, heritage and art. For booking information, email us at info@celestebateman.com or call 973.705.8253.
PLEASE NOTE: We are unable to take on additional artists/speakers at this time, but please feel free to forward your information for future consideration.
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Valerie Wilson Wesley
Valerie Wilson Wesley is the author of the novels Playing My Mother’s Blues, Always True to You in My Fashion and Ain’t Nobody’s Business If I Do for which she received the 2000 Award for Excellence in Adult Fiction from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association (BCALA), and seven Tamara Hayle Mysteries. Her mysteries include When Death Comes Stealing, Devil's Gonna Get Him, Where Evil Sleeps, No Hiding Place, Easier to Kill, The Devil Riding, Dying in the Dark and Of Blood and Sorrow, which was published in 2008. Most of her books have been Blackboard bestsellers, and When Death Comes Stealing was nominated for a Shamus award.
The Tamara Hayle Mysteries are published in Great Britain, France, Germany and Poland. Ain’t Nobody’s Business If I Do and Always True to You in My Fashion are published in Germany. Her short stories and essays are included in the anthologies The Bluelight Corner, Black Women Writing on Passion, Sex and Romantic Love, edited by Rosemarie Robotham, Gumbo, A Literary Rent Party, edited by Marita Golden and E.Lynn Harris and Room to Grow, edited by Christina Baker Kline. Ms.Wesley’s books for children include seven books in her Willimena Rules! series, Freedom’s Gifts: A Juneteenth Story, Where Do I Go From Here, and The Afro-bets Book of Black Heroes, which she co-wrote with Wade Hudson.
Ms.Wesley served as artist-in-residence at Columbia College in Chicago for the spring semester of 2005. She is currently an adjunct at Ramapo College. She is the former executive editor of Essence magazine. Her fiction and nonfiction for both adults and children have appeared in many publications, including Essence, Family Circle, TV Guide, Ms, Creative Classroom and Weltwoche, a Swiss weekly newspaper.
Ms. Wesley is a 1993 recipient of the Griot Award from the New York Chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists. She has received awards from several book groups and community organizations including the 2004 Author of the Year from the Amigirls Book Club and the 1996 Author of the Year from the Go On Girls Book Club. She is a former board member of Sisters in Crime, an organization committed to promoting women writing mysteries.
Ms. Wesley is a graduate of Howard University and holds masters degrees from both the Bank Street College of Education and the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. She is married to noted screenwriter and playwright Richard Wesley and has two adult daughters.
The Tamara Hayle Mysteries are published in Great Britain, France, Germany and Poland. Ain’t Nobody’s Business If I Do and Always True to You in My Fashion are published in Germany. Her short stories and essays are included in the anthologies The Bluelight Corner, Black Women Writing on Passion, Sex and Romantic Love, edited by Rosemarie Robotham, Gumbo, A Literary Rent Party, edited by Marita Golden and E.Lynn Harris and Room to Grow, edited by Christina Baker Kline. Ms.Wesley’s books for children include seven books in her Willimena Rules! series, Freedom’s Gifts: A Juneteenth Story, Where Do I Go From Here, and The Afro-bets Book of Black Heroes, which she co-wrote with Wade Hudson.
Ms.Wesley served as artist-in-residence at Columbia College in Chicago for the spring semester of 2005. She is currently an adjunct at Ramapo College. She is the former executive editor of Essence magazine. Her fiction and nonfiction for both adults and children have appeared in many publications, including Essence, Family Circle, TV Guide, Ms, Creative Classroom and Weltwoche, a Swiss weekly newspaper.
Ms. Wesley is a 1993 recipient of the Griot Award from the New York Chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists. She has received awards from several book groups and community organizations including the 2004 Author of the Year from the Amigirls Book Club and the 1996 Author of the Year from the Go On Girls Book Club. She is a former board member of Sisters in Crime, an organization committed to promoting women writing mysteries.
Ms. Wesley is a graduate of Howard University and holds masters degrees from both the Bank Street College of Education and the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. She is married to noted screenwriter and playwright Richard Wesley and has two adult daughters.