Derek is a master storyteller, modern troubadour, filmmaker, web designer, and photographer. He is a co-founder of the Mirror of Race project. As a filmmaker, Derek has been working in Mexico on instructional films for health workers. His current feature length film, “Before the Trees Was Strange”, was released in 2017.
As a storyteller, Derek specializes in Afro-Caribbean and African Diaspora tales; he has been “telling” for over two decades nationally and internationally.
Derek’s work as a performer, artist, and digital technician, as well as his life-story as an immigrant to America facing the question of race, provide the inspiration for this project.
Derek was born in the Bahamas where storytelling was a vital part of the cultural tradition. He studied music at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts and for 32 years performed with the International music group Voice of the Turtle, specializing in music of the Sephardic Jews. The Sephardim were expelled from Spain in 1492. The four member group has traveled the world performing and has 12 recordings of this distinctive genre. Derek has also performed in many countries as a solo classical guitarist, flutist and singer.
As an educator, Derek presents a variety of workshops for students, educators and storytellers and has been adjunct faculty at Lesley College in Cambridge, Massachusetts and at Framingham State College for many years. He has appeared as a keynote speaker and workshop leader in these venues and in the Medical field using stories to look at diversity, healing, cross-cultural understanding and conflict resolution. At Brandeis University, he used the power of storytelling with Israeli and Palestinian students to overcome prejudice by helping them identify their common humanity.