Carlton Turner
Carlton Turner works nationally as a performing artist, organizer, policy shaper, lecturer, consultant, and facilitator. He is the executive director of Alternate ROOTS, a regional arts service organization based in the South, supporting artists working at the intersection of art and social justice.
He also founded the newly formed Mississippi Center for Cultural Production, an organization working at the intersection of new media production and agriculture to support cultural, social, and economic development in his rural hometown of Utica, Mississippi. In addition, he and his brother Maurice Turner are co-founders and co-artistic directors of M.U.G.A.B.E.E. (Men Under Guidance Acting Before Early Extinction), a Mississippi-based performance group blending jazz, hip-hop, spoken word poetry, and soul music with non-traditional storytelling.
Turner serves on the boards of First People’s Fund, Imagining America, the Center for Media Justice, and Project South for the Elimination of Poverty and Genocide. He is a member of the We Shall Overcome Fund’s advisory committee at the Highlander Center for Research and Education. He is also member of the Art x Culture x Social Justice Network steering committee, a former member of the Network of Ensemble Theaters steering committee, and a founding collaborating partner in the Intercultural Leadership Institute.
He lives in Utica, Mississippi, with his wife and three children.
