Helena D. Lewis
Award Winning Actress, Poet, and Playwright
Helena D. Lewis is an award winning actress, poet, and playwright. Her one-person show, “Call Me Crazy: Diary of A Mad Social Worker,” chronicles her work in the social service field portraying twenty-five characters from pimps to menopausal women. Call Me Crazy has had over fifteen sold-out performances and was profiled on the National Association…
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Full Bio
Helena D. Lewis is an award winning actress, poet, and playwright. Her one-person show, “Call Me Crazy: Diary of A Mad Social Worker,” chronicles her work in the social service field portraying twenty-five characters from pimps to menopausal women.
Call Me Crazy has had over fifteen sold-out performances and was profiled on the National Association of Social Workers’ (NASW) Social Workers Speak website and Rutgers Alumni Magazine. Call Me Crazy is the winner of the AUDELCO 2014 Best Solo-Performance, Best Short at the Downtown Urban Theater Festival (DUTF) in NY, and was festival pick at the inaugural DC Black Theater Festival. Lewis has also performed Call Me Crazy at the NASW-NJ 2012 Annual Conference, Wurzweiler School of Social Work, Kumble Theater at Long Island University, Rutgers University School of Social Work Field Day, and was produced by Urbintel, Inc. in conjunction with the New York Public Library at the Schomburg Center in NY.
Lewis has performed at numerous universities and colleges across the country and has been featured in the Peabody Award Winning series, “Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry.” Lewis is currently a member of the performance troupe HERStory, the host of VERSES at the Nuyorican Poets Café in NY, and the host of the Midnight Poetry Jams at the National Black Theater Festival (NBTF) in Winston-Salem, NC. Lewis was most recently a featured performer at the 2015 Mother Tongue Monologues produced by Black Women’s Blueprint, and can be seen in the television series, “The Cipher;” the Hip-Hop horror movie, “Golddigger Killer,” which won Best Short at the Odyssey Awards; “What Goes Around Comes Around;” Freshman Seminar; and is a featured artist in “Art of Love & Struggle: Women in Hip-Hop.” Her new one-person play, Shenanigans, will debut at the 2015 DUTF in NY at the HERE Arts Center.
In addition to her career as a performer, Lewis received her Master of Social Work (MSW) from Rutgers University School of Social Work. Lewis is also a Licensed Clinical Drug and Alcohol Counselor (LCADC) and HIV/AIDS Health Educator who developed, implemented and supervised a drop-in center for drug-addicted prostitutes for the Community At Risk Reduction (CARR) Program in Newark, NJ. She also spoke at the New Jersey Woman and AIDS Network (NJWAN) Annual HIV/AIDS Symposium and her work with prostitutes has been featured on New Jersey News Network. Ms. Lewis has 14 years of experience working in prisoner re-entry. She helped develop a vocational rehabilitation component for a Department of Corrections (DOC) Community Release Program for women. She also spent three years working on a CDC/HRSA Correctional Demonstration Project providing prevention case management to HIV positive male inmates. Lewis is also the former program manager of three transitional housing programs for formally incarcerated men and women. She is currently the program director of a residential drug treatment facility in Newark, NJ.
Testimonials
Ernie was perfect for our Elders Conference at Little River Casino Resort in Manistee, Michigan. We will definitely be using PDA again!
LITTLE RIVER BAND OF OTTAWA INDIANS
Our speaker was great and the crowd enjoyed her! She was very engaging. Thank you again PDA for the great list of suggestions!
MEDTRONIC
Everything went great! and our speaker was wonderful! Thank you so much for all your help PDA! Looking forward to the next one.
UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI – KANSAS CITY
I hope that this message finds you well. We had a phenomenal time with Atsuko this past Thursday. We wanted to just let you know how amazing she was. All those that were in attendance thoroughly enjoyed her and had nothing but amazing things to say about her. Thank you for working with us to make sure this happened!
BAYLOR UNIVERSITY CAMPUS
We had a fantastic day with Inge! She was very engaging with all those that attended. Her personal stories about the holocaust were very special and we were moved that she was willing to share them with everyone. Thank you again, PDA for all your hard work and dedication to make this program such a success!
SALT LAKE COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Dear PDA Group, Thank you so much for your hard work in scheduling our speaker! From the moment we reached out to you the first time, you worked with us on all details and logistics and kept us up-to-date on the progress. Thank you for all your hard work on making our event such a success! We couldn't have done it without you and your team!
SAP COMPANY
Thank you again, Dr. Kimbrough, for a great presentation, our attendees are still talking about it!
CAMPUS LABS
Dr. Henry Lee's presentation was entertaining, insightful and wise. I, and everyone at Pfizer, especially appreciate the remarks you directed about following your passion and preparing yourself to excel. Thank you, everyone, at PDA for helping to make this happen!
PFIZER
The event was successful! I received many messages expressing how awesome, outstanding and inspiring Ms. Webb-Christburg's speech was."
DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. MEMORIAL BREAKFAST, BOSTON, MLK SPEAKER
Everything went well. Atsuko was very easy to work with and the students enjoyed her performance! Thank you again for your recommendation and I hope to work with you again in the future!
CENTRAL MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY
Dr. Novello left this morning after a very successful event on our campus! Thank you PDA Group for your help from the first phone to the last you were with us every step of the way.
GRAND VALLEY STATE UNIVERSITY
Jordan Carlos was very very entertaining! A majority of students who answered the event survey indicated they really enjoyed Jordan and definitely will bring him back!
WESTERN CAROLINA UNIVERSITY
On behalf of myself and my organization Entertainment Unlimited the Campus Programming Board of Ferris State University, we thank you PDA and Dan for a successful event!! Dan was magnificent! Students really enjoyed the presentation. I know I did. Can't wait to bring in more programs with PDA Group.
FERRIS STATE UNIVERSITY
It was a great pleasure to work with PDA Group! The communication was always prompt, friendly and helpful. We loved the speakers and events we booked through Mr. Peter Walker (PDA Group).
WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY
Thank you, Peter, for all your help, you'll be happy to know that the event went incredibly well! Aneesa Ferreira was by far one of the best speakers we've ever had!
FURMAN UNIVERSITY
Topics
An Evening With Helena D. Lewis
Videos
Helena D Lewis - Stank Breath on Def Jam Poetry
Diary of a Mad Social Worker - Helena D. Lewis
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