About the Founder and Director

Dr. Johonna McCants is an educator, scholar, organizer and artist who has lived in the D.C. Metropolitan area since the age of seven. She discovered the need for new approaches to youth and violence while working on anti-prison, juvenile justice reform, and feminist anti-violence campaigns with various grassroots organizations, particularly the Blackout Arts Collective, Justice 4 D.C. Youth! Coalition, and Incite! Women of Color Against Violence. In 2006, she  applied for and won a 2007 Soros Justice Advocacy Fellowship from the Open Society Institute to launch an 18-month project on using the arts to engage youth in peacebuilding and promote community-based solutions to violence.  During her  fellowship term (March 2007 to August 2008), Johonna conducted research on transformative justice and community-based responses to violence; developed and led workshops for youth and youth workers on social justice and anti-violence praxis; and designed and implemented the Visions to Peace Project’s first youth leadership programs – the Flip the Script! Media Arts Workshop (Feb. – March 08) and the V.I.P Summer Arts and Organizing Program (June – Aug. 08). Since the end of her fellowship term, she has continued to direct the Visions to Peace Project in a volunteer capacity.

Johonna completed her Ph.D. in American Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park in 2009. Her doctoral dissertation is titled, “Re-Visioning Violence: How Black Youth Advance Critical Understandings of Violence in Climates of Criminalization.” The study examines how Black youth and other youth of color have used hip hop music and community organizing to publicly articulate their analysis of violence and shape public discourses, ideologies and policies. It also unmasks how everyday discourse on youth and violence criminalizes young people of color and sustains the continuation of violence against youth. Overall, “Re-Visioning Violence” reveals how critical and holistic frameworks on youth and violence can lead to personal and social transformation and the presence of safety and justice. Johonna also holds a Graduate Certificate in Women’s Studies from the University of Maryland. A Christian, she is currently a member of New Covenant Church of Maryland.  Johonna is the proud aunt of one niece and two nephews. Red Light, Green Light is one of her favorite games of all time.