Producer/Artistic Director

In 1999, Ms. Bateman conceived and produced the Gospel play, We’ve Got the Victory which was performed in New York City and at various venues in New Jersey.She revived the production with a new cast in December 2016, and presented it at Newark Symphony Hall. One of her short stories, “The Rebirth of William,” was published in PBS talk show host, Tavis Smiley’s book Keeping the Faith which won an NAACP Image Award in 2003. Her essays have appeared in Hycide magazine and journalist Guy Sterling’s book The Famous, the Familiar and the Forgotten: 350 Notable Newarkers. Her short essay “#MeToo Who” was performed by actress Phyllis Yvonne Stickney at the 50in50 “Me Too” event at the Billie Holiday Theatre in Brooklyn (2018). For several years, Ms. Bateman hosted NewarkARTS, a public access show on Cablevision and Arts & Entertainment Review a cable radio show produced in conjunction with the now defunct Newark Entertainment Network where she interviewed many performers of note. She also voiced, for several years, the “Brick City Beat,” an arts and entertainment calendar on WBGO, and sat on the Board of Directors of WBGO-Jazz 88 for five years.

In 2012, she conceived and produced for The Newark Public Library In the Words of A King, which featured some of the well-known and lesser-known speeches of the great Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The production featured actors Marie Thomas, Count Stovall, Jamil A. C. Mangan (director) and Nana Camille Yarbrough who performed dramatic readings of MLK’s speeches. The readings were accompanied by gospel, civil rights and spiritual selections by Provenance Gospel ensemble and a keynote address by community activist Lawrence Hamm.

In 2015, she formed the Five Women Performance Ensemble and created the production It’s All Just Words and Music. Five Women consists of five talented poets, writers, singers and performing artists whose mission is to promote the works of known and lesser-known women singers, writers, playwrights & poets with emphasis on themes of freedom and empowerment. In 2016, Five Women performed a tribute to famous Newark Women Singers called We Lift up Their Voices in conjunction with Newark’s 350^th Anniversary, accompanied by a four-piece band and under the musical direction of singer/songwriter Gail Lou DeSandies, The group performed songs by singers Tisha Campbell, Faith Evans, Connie Frances, Gloria Gaynor, Whitney & Cissy Houston, Queen Latifah and Sarah Vaughan. (Photos by Z. Risasi Dais)

In October 2021, Ms. Bateman premiered her first documentary Gone Too Soon about the Life, Legacy and Loss of several of Newark, New Jersey’s Cultural Icons who changed the landscape of the city, but passed away before they could appreciate the fruits of their labor. The film garnered local and international recognition including an award for “Best Soundtrack” from the New York International Film Awards. As Director Ms. Bateman won “Best Senior Film” (Cannes World Film Festival), and a Best Song nomination for “One More Life” by German producer Wolfgang Lackerschmid (Cannes World Film Festival) in 2022. The film was a semifinalist in the 2022 Berlin Art Film Festival and that year it was screened as part of the Newark International Film Festival. Her second documentary Stronger Than Steel: The Senator Wynona Lipman Story, is about the first African American woman – a political powerhouse ahead of her time — to serve in the New Jersey State Legislature. The documentary has received many accolades including a grand jury prize from the New York International Film Awards, Best Senior Film from Cannes World Festival 2024 among others. The film is currently screening on NJ PBS and was recently accepted into the 2025 Women of the Lens Film Festival in London.

Ms. Bateman’s most recent production I DREAM A WORLD: Song & Verse to Inspire a Nation was selected as part of the 2026 North 2 Shore festival sponsored by the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. IDAW, the title taken from the Langston Hughes poem of the same name, was developed to acknowledge the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and the United States of America’s Semiquincentennial. “This fusion of music, narration, film footage and historic photos, examines the trials, tribulations and triumphs of African Americans in America,” says producer and artistic director Celeste A. Bateman. “It tells a story of the country we’d like America to be. “

The program touches on important moments and markers from the 19th, 20th & 21^st centuries — from the slave trade and the Emancipation Proclamation, through Reconstruction, the Jim Crow Era, the Civil Rights Movement and Black Lives Matter to the 2024 Presidential election. It includes thought-provoking text and powerful and moving songs from such artists as Laura Nyro, Dr. Bernice Reagon (Sweet Honey in the Rock), James Brown, Donny Hathaway, Beyonce, Stevie Wonder and music from the West Side Story, Selma and Harriet soundtracks.