Alva Rogers (born 1959) is an American playwright, composer, actor, vocalist, and arts educator. She is known for the use of dolls and puppetry in interdisciplinary work. Rogers performed in the role of Eula Peazant in Julie Dash's 1991 film Daughters of the Dust. and was a vocalist in the New York City alternative rock band Band of Susans. Early life Rogers was born and raised in New York City, where she graduated with a concentration in vocal music from The High School of Music & Art. She has a bachelor's degree in American history from Marietta College. In 1995, she received a Master of Fine Arts in musical theater writing from Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. In 1998, she received a Master of Fine Arts in literary arts from Brown University, and in 2013, she received a Master of Arts in teaching with a focus on history from Bard College. Personal life Rogers lives and works in Manhattan. Career Art Rodeo Caldonia Rogers has been a part of numerous notable artist collaborations. From 1985 to 1989, she was a founding member of Rodeo Caldonia, a black women's art collective formed in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Fort Greene that included fellow artists Lorna Simpson, Chakaia Booker and Sandye Wilson among others. With Lisa Jones, also a member of Rodeo Caldonia, she wrote a series of radio plays--Aunt Aida's Hand (1989), Stained (1991), and Ethnic Cleansing (1993)--for New American Radio on National Public Radio. In 2015 Greg Tate facilitated a panel discussion with Rogers and Lisa Jones about Rodeo Caldonia in the 2011 film Brooklyn Boheme. Alva Rogers and her work with Rodeo Caldonia was included in the 2017 Brooklyn Museum exhibition We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965–1985 curated by Rujeko Hockley and Catherine Morris. During Robert Colescott's 1989 exhibition at the New Museum Rogers was featured in Black to the Future: Alva Rogers in Performance, a public program that unpacked the issues in Colescott's work. The program was curated by Kellie Jones. Puppetry With puppeteer Heather Henson and the composer Bruce Monroe, she created three musicals: nightbathing, mermaid, and Sunday (performed Off-Off-Broadway as part of the New Works Now! series at the Public Theater. Rogers also created audio recordings for Whitfield Lovell's work Whispers from the Walls. Other work Rogers appeared on the cover of Essence Magazine's beauty issue in January 1993. She has