KEMATI JANICE PORTER is an eminent theater arts executive, producer, director and performer whose tremendous career includes a 40+ year relationship with Chicago’s eta Creative Arts Foundation. She contributed to and supported over 500 productions, workshops, conferences, and programs during her tenure.
Porter received her MFA degree in directing from The Theatre School of DePaul University, where she was awarded the Michael Maggio Directing scholarship. She was one of the organizers of the first African American Women in the Arts Festival (1991-94) and served simultaneously as an Artistic Director with The Martin Luther King Jr. Arts Complex and Artistic Coordinator at The Columbus Urban League in Ohio. From 2003-2007, she was a Theatre Communications Group Fellow at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey. In 2007, she became the first Producing Artistic Director for eta Creative Arts Foundation; she subsequently served as both the Executive Director and Producing Artistic Director until 2019. She owns FirstVoiceWorks, LLC, a curatorial service for playwrights.
Bio as of 6/2026