Loren Lee Crawford
'80
 Loren
Lee Crawford is a performer, writer, teacher, filmmaker, and
humanitarian. She earned her theatre arts degree from Northwestern
University in 1984 and has been involved with the theater
for over twenty years, performing in more than 40 plays. Loren
has shared her writing talents with young people through artist-in-residence
programs throughout Kentucky, including one at Collegiate
in 1994.
She is currently teaching in Chicago at the
Triumphant Charter School, whose mission is "to help
middle school students experience academic success after having
known only< failure. The school cultivates the culture of
'The Scholar'-which is what all the students are called-giving
them an alternative to the street culture that threatens to
engulf them. It is 100% African-American and has an Afro-centric
focus to its curriculum." As a filmmaker, Loren produced
the documentary, "Under Kentucky Skies: 25 Years of the
Kentucky Music Weekend," which aired on Kentucky Educational
Television (KET) in January 2002, and "The Life You Save
100 Proof," which was featured in the 1997 Sundance Film
Festival.
As a member of Highland Presbyterian Church
in Louisville, she has led countless trips to do construction
work in various parts of the United States, including on the
Makah Indian Reservation in Washington state. Her proudest
moment, however, was when she became mother to Jessamine Kindred
Crawford, who was born in China and adopted by Loren in March
2002.
"What I appreciate most [from her Collegiate
education] was the depth and scope of the knowledge I received.
I learned how to make connections, to see how economic, religious,
environmental, cultural and political forces shape people
and events. I developed an intense love for literature and
history and biology and an insatiable appetite to know more.''
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