Michelle Parkerson, co-director of A LITANY FOR SURVIVAL is a writer, independent filmmaker, university lecturer, and performance artist from Washington, D.C. She has served on the faculties of Temple University, the University of Delaware, Howard University, and Northwestern University. Her films include But Then She's Betty Carter and Gotta Make This Journey: Sweet Honey in the Rock (both seen on PBS). In 1992, she received a Rockefeller Foundation Film/Video Fellowship. As a member of the American Film Institute's Directing Workshop for Women, she wrote and directed Odds and Ends, a science-fiction short about Black Amazon warriors. Among her recent short documentaries are Fierceness Served! The ENIKAlley Coffeehouse, archiving a 1980s DC Black LGBTQ+ cultural hub, and Camille A. Brown: GIANT STEPS for PBS American Masters/Firelight Media (Co-directed with Shellée Haynesworth) which was nominated for a 2025 NAACP Image Award.