Uncrowned Community Builders

Lorna C. Hill is the founder and Executive Director of Ujima Company, Inc., the oldest professional repertory theatre company in Western New York. Ujima, a multicultural membership organization, is dedicated to providing a vehicle for African American performers, theatre crafts people and administrators.

Ms. Hill is also an actress. Her experience includes stage, feature film, television, commercials, industrial films, and voice-overs. She is also widely known as a storyteller par excellence. Ms. Hill is a poet and playwright. Her best known play, "Yalla Bitch" was performed as part of the first International Women Playwrights Conference in 1986.

Ms. Hill serves as a community resource - appearing as a role model in various school programs, providing consultant services to community agencies and serving as a guest speaker for organizations whose agendas include women's issues, arts and culture, children's rights, non-violence and building the beloved community.

Ms. Hill is a teacher - giving writing workshops to young people, teaching acting, providing in-service training to teachers in the use of culture as an academic resource, acting before the camera, television interview techniques, language development and personal presentation.
Ms. Hill was the first woman accepted at Dartmouth College, where she received her B.A. in American Intellectual History in 1973. She is a perpetual Ph.D. candidate at the State University of New York at Buffalo (ABD), where she received her M.A. in 1978.