Janera Solomon
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR | Kelly Strayhorn Theater
For Janera Solomon, a theater isn’t just a place to see a pricey performance a few times a year. It should be a neighborhood hub for friends, family and fellowship that anyone can enjoy.
In her 10 years as executive director of the Kelly Strayhorn Theater, she has strived to transform the 104year-old theater in East Liberty into a space where artists and audiences from all walks of life can come — and will want to come back again and again. In 2011, the historic theater merged with Dance Alloy in Friendship, where the Kelly Strayhorn holds artist residencies, dance classes and other programming.
“The first year I started this job I took a trip to New York and I went to the Apollo Theater,” Ms. Solomon says. “While I was standing in line, a woman who I didn’t know started to talk to me. She said, ‘I live around the corner. This is my neighborhood theater.’ ... That stuck with me from the very beginning. I wanted Kelly Strayhorn to be that kind of place.”
A varied path — dotted with stints in music, teaching and museum work across the country — led Ms. Solomon, 43, of Shadyside to KST. Born in Guyana, her family moved to the U.S. in 1984 when she was 9. They lived in Oakland, where there were a lot of immigrant families at the time, she says. She attended the University of Pittsburgh and designed her own major: a mix of Africana studies, economics, a bit of history and philosophy of science.
She admits the role of executive director is one she has had to grow into.
“There were lots of people who just couldn’t see how an arts organization outside of Downtown could really thrive,” Ms. Solomon says. “I think that was also part of the challenge. What niche could we fill as an arts organization?”
During her tenure, the Kelly Strayhorn Theater and Alloy Studios have made queer and multiracial arts and social arts activism cornerstones of programming, along with dance, music and theater works by Pittsburgh-based and national artists.
Her family life greatly impacts her work at the theater, she says. She has an 8year-old daughter who regularly accompanies her to events and isn’t shy about sharing her ideas.
“She has a sense that she can make something happen, which is really what I want to give her,” Ms. Solomon says.
When life gets tricky, she looks to her parents and grandparents for inspiration.
“So many times when I’m having challenges, I think, well, if my parents could pick up and move to another country with their four kids, I can make it,” she says. “I try to bring that kind of energy to what we do here at KST.”