Quodesia “Quo” Johnson
Quodesia “Quo” Johnson (she/her) is an equity specialist, racial equity coach, healing practitioner, speaker, and community facilitator recognized nationally for her unique approach to shaping spaces of collaboration and creativity. Quo combines her experience in the arts, business, organizational culture, and trauma-informed healing practices to dismantle systems of oppression through a transformational, human-centered approach to working with employees, boards, artists, and communities in the nonprofit arts, culture, education, and social justice sectors.
Quodesia serves her community near and far through her collaborative consulting practice, Quo Johnson Co Project, LLC, and a personal mission to support people, disrupt oppressive systems, and create connections through truth and collective solutions.
Quo currently collaborates with organizations of local, national, and international impact to build a community committed to equity, belonging, and human-centered cultural practices. She serves as company culture consultant of The Dallas Opera, where she developed and guided the company’s cultural shift to a culture of equity and belonging; social justice advisor of OPERA America where she serves at the forefront of change toward greater justice in opera in the United States, making opera history in creating, designing, organizing, and facilitating OPERA America’s first Racial Justice Opera Forum; racial equity coach and racial healing practitioner for Dallas Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation where she serves Dallas-based organizations in creating a radically inclusive Dallas; social-emotional learning and EDI consultant for Junior Players where she helped develop award-winning arts-integrated curricula; equity, diversity, and inclusion committee chair of Bishop Arts Theatre Center; and founder and space moderator of Black Administrators of Opera, where she made opera history in organizing a national Symposium and creator, content curator, and cohost of Taking the Stage with Kristian and Quo™, an international program that took the opera field by storm with conversations at the intersection of art, culture, equity, justice, business, and wellness. The Dallas local is a trained Rx Racial Healing Circle™ co-facilitator, Storytelling Blanket™ co-facilitator, a Public Voices Fellow of The OpEd Project, a proud Prairie View A&M University graduate, and earned her MA in Arts Administration from Goucher College.
Writing
The Fulcrum | August 2024: “This is How You Create a Courageous Workplace”
Medium | February 2024: “A Letter to Black People in Opera”
Visible Magazine | January 2024: “Why Racial Healing Is A Must For Everyone”
Medium | January 2024: “What New Orleans Opera’s Announcement Represents and Why the Field is Responding”
New Thinking Magazine | July 2023: “Equity: A Journey Through Time and Space”
OPERA Magazine | Spring 2022 Issue: “Preparing for Change”
Features & News
Fort Worth Report | Article by Marcheta Fornoff: “It’s Everybody’s Work”
Voices for Change in the Classical Music Profession | Chapter by Antonio C. Cuyler: “(Un)Silencing Blacktivism in Opera”
OPERA Magazine | Article by Naveen Kumar: “Retiring Blackface”
Arizona Opera | Program by Teniqua Broughton, Luis “Weezy Errugola, and Adam Benavides: LOUD! Season 2 Finale
OPERA Magazine | Article by Gabrielle Bruney: “A New Center”
OPERA Magazine | “Future Tense”
Texas Monthly | Article by Kennedy Williams: “In a New Virtual Series, the Dallas Opera Tackles Race and Inequality”
Art and Seek | Article by Jerome Weeks: “Hit Hard By COVID Cutbacks, The Dallas Opera’s Still A Big Deal - On Facebook”
Projects & Collaborations
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Black Administrators of Opera
Quo is the founder and space moderator of the Black Administrators of Opera, a powerful community dedicated to the professional development, healing, advocacy, advancement, and collaboration of opera administrators who identify as members of the African diaspora working toward greater equity in the opera field.
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Racial Justice Opera Forum
Quo made history as the designer, curator, and facilitator of the nation’s first Racial Justice Opera Forum in 2022. Join the opera community online for the third, annual RJON Forum welcomes participants for intentional days of learning, healing, community, and action toward a more racially just opera field.
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TDO Connections™
Explore the richness of opera and its many reflections of humanity through TDO Connections™ - The Dallas Opera’s intentional process of learning and engaging audiences through human-centered, operatic storytelling designed by equity specialist and healing practitioner, Quodesia D. Johnson.
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Dallas Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation
Quo serves as a racial equity coach and healing practitioner for Dallas Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation, guiding Dallas-based organizations seeking to collectively create a more radically inclusive Dallas. Organizations include Broadway Dallas, Union Coffee, and Big Thought.
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Taking the Stage with Kristian and Quo™
Quo took the opera world on a journey like none before as the creator, content curator, and co-host of Taking the Stage with Kristian and Quo™ - providing opportunities to dig deep through conversations at the intersections of equity, inclusion, the arts, business, health, justice, and more.
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EDI & SEL Arts Integration
Quo serves as the EDI & SEL consultant for Junior Players. She combines her EDI specialist, facilitator, healing practitioner, and artist skills to develop curricula and experiences that support young minds in becoming courageous, confident, and collaborative individuals.
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Opera Conference
Building upon an unforgettable opening and closing of the 2022 OPERA Conference, Quo Johnson continues serving as the OPERA America social justice advisor, panelist, healing practitioner, and moderator for the OPERA America Conference.
