Erin Michelle Washington is a Creative, Scholar, and Waymaker from Montgomery, Alabama, whose work sits at the intersection of art, community, and economic justice. She earned her MFA in Acting from the American Conservatory Theater after completing her undergraduate studies at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University.

In 2009, Erin founded Soul Productions, an arts company dedicated to bold, innovative approaches to music and theater. Her career as a Digital and Creative Producer has spanned collaborations with nationally renowned institutions, including Arena Stage, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Public Theater, Penumbra Theatre, HowlRound, and The Curran. In 2016, she served as Interim Associate Artistic Director at American Conservatory Theater, where she produced the Women’s Leadership Conference and created the Bayview Arts Festival. Later, she joined the faculty of Spelman College’s Theater & Performance Department, where she taught and mentored the next generation of Black creatives.

Today, Erin leads a visionary ecosystem of organizations in the South. She is the founder of SoulCenter, a creative studio where Black queer/trans/gnc artists ages 18–35 imagine, build, and thrive through storytelling, design, and cultural strategy. In recognition of this work, she was named a 2024 Camelback Fellow with SoulCenter. She also co-founded the Clarke Street Fund, a legacy-rooted collective advancing art, food sovereignty, and mutual aid on Montgomery’s Westside; FreshGreens Market, an urban farm and grocery store reimagining food access through justice and joy; and HBCUx, a digital platform connecting HBCU creatives to the resources and futures they deserve.

Erin’s work is devoted to the regeneration of the South—centering Black and Indigenous communities, fostering creative empowerment, building regenerative systems, and reshaping how capital flows to support artists, entrepreneurs, and local economies.

As a 2025–2026 USC Civic Media Fellow, Erin is developing Alabama Hold On, a multi-media project exploring the ways Alabama folk make and remake themselves through story, resilience, and cultural practice. She continues to live and create between Georgia and Alabama with her beloved partner Shanya, weaving together art, land, and community as her core for devising a world she desires to live and love in. "A people entrenched in another people's fiction is an endangered people" -Toni Cade Bambara