Shawn Rawls is an artist, activist, and community leader. He is the Founder and Artistic Director of Emotions Physical Theatre, a performing arts nonprofit in the greater New York area, and the Black Boy Healing Project, a community dedicated to fostering the mental, emotional, and social development of Black and Latino boys and men through the arts. Born and raised in the Jehovah's Witnesses community, he left as a teen. Shawn holds a Master of Fine Arts with a focus on interdisciplinary skills and choreography and is a New York Certified Peer Specialist.