Celebrating Georgia Hudson

This conversation gathers three generations of one Arkansas family in celebration of Georgia Hudson, a mentor in the Arkansas Folk and Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program who passed in 2025.

Agnolia Gay is an educator, poet, performer, and leader. She taught for over 20 years, most of them at Little Rock Central High, and currently works as a Park Ranger for the Central High National Historic Site. She is passionate about sharing her love and expertise of the performing arts.

Agnolia Johnson is an eighth grader in the Fayetteville Public School District and the co-author, with her mother Chy’Na, of A Little Different: Somewhere on the Spectrum. She apprenticed with her grandmother, Georgia Hudson, in the tradition of African American gospel before Georgia’s death in 2025.

Chy’Na Nellon is a Ph.D. Candidate in Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, where she also works as the Assistant Director of Learning Innovation and Assessment. She is co-founder of Cultural Immersion Media.