Uncrowned Community Builders

A San Francisco/Bay Area native, Arabella Grayson combines her passion for writing and the arts in the touring exhibition "Two Hundred Years of Black Paper Dolls. The exhibition, based on her collection of 400 Black paper dolls, is the culmination of two decades of collecting, research, and documentation. The author of Precious Playthings: An Illustrated History of Black Paper Dolls, The First Two Hundred Years (forthcoming), she has served in numerous roles as an advocate for children and young adults, and recently served as a grant review panelist for the California Arts Council, and in prior years served on the Grants and Cultural Development Committee for the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission. Her work has been featured in the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Seattle Times, New Jersey Star Ledger, Sacramento Bee, Oakland Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, Antiques and Collecting, and on NPR News and Notes, KPIX, Channel 5, TomJoyner.com, HistoryNewsNetwork.com, HuffingtonPost.com, and Verizon Cable News.

A freelance writer and public relations consultant, Ms. Grayson is a contributing writer in Go, Tell Michelle: African American Women Write to the New First Lady. She has worked on a number of book projects as ghostwriter, book doctor, and researcher, including Attitude Is Everything: 10 Life Changing Steps for Turning Attitude Into Action (Harper Collins), Success Is An Attitude: Say It, Believe It and Achieve It (Hay House), An Attitude of Gratitude: 21 Life Lessons (Hay House), An Attitude of Leadership (Wiley and Sons) and Girl, Make Your Money Grow! (Broadway Books). A senior writer for the National Summit on Africa (California Delegation) National Draft Policy Plan of Action for U.S.- Africa Relations in the 21st Century, she served as a delegate in California and the spokesperson in Washington, DC for the National Summit Education and Cultural Committee. A writer-in-residence at the Santa Fe Art Institute, and Peace Writer at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice, Ms. Grayson articles have appeared in a variety of publications.

A former associate director of admissions at Mills College, Ms. Grayson worked as the marketing specialist for the Oakland-based Peralta Community College District, a five-campus district serving 26 high schools, and Black Adoption Placement and Research Center, a private adoption agency. In 1992, Ms. Grayson was awarded a 10-month graduate fellowship assignment at the Ghana Opportunities Industrialization Head Office in Accra. For her work, she was named the IFESH Outstanding Fellow of the Year. Upon returning to the United States, she completed her graduate degree in liberal studies at Mills College in Oakland, CA. Her thesis, Contemporary Art in Ghana, established her as an authority and recognized collector of the country's art. She earned her bachelor's degree in public relations at San Jose State University and is a graduate of the American Conservatory Theatre's Summer Training Congress in San Francisco.

An award-winning photographer and aspiring actor, Ms. Grayson's work has taken her to Benin, Cote d' Ivoire, Senegal, Gambia, Switzerland, Italy, England, Scotland, France, Mexico, the Bahamas and South Africa, where she traveled as a member of a film crew documenting the history of the founder of the African National Congress (ANC) and his educational ties to Massachusetts. To date, her most memorable interview was with the late ANC leader Walter Sisulu. She currently resides in northern California.