About Us

Executive Director and Co-founder

Joe Baker, enrolled member of Delaware Tribe of Indians, is a direct line descendent of notable Lenape leaders, including Simon Whiteturkey, Captain Anderson Sarcoxie (Treaty of Greenville 1795), Captain White Eyes (Treaty of Fort Pitt 1778), Netawatwees or King Newcomer (Treaty of Conestoga 1763), Tamanend, King Tammany (1625-1701), Chief Nutimus (signed the confirmation deed, Walking Purchase 1737).
Baker is co-founder, executive director of Lenape Center in Manhattan, and an artist, educator, and curator who has been working in the field of Native Arts for the past 30 years. Baker is an adjunct professor at Columbia University's School of Social Work in New York, and was recently Visiting Professor of Museum Studies at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He serves as a board member for The Endangered Language Fund, CUNY, and is on the Advisory Committee for the National Public Art Consortium, New York. Baker is also a cultural advisor for the new CBS series, "Ghosts."
Baker has guided, in his capacity as executive director for Lenape Center, partnerships with the Metropolitan Museum of Art (his work is currently on exhibit there), Brooklyn Museum of Art, American Ballet Theater, Moulin Rouge on Broadway, The Whitney Museum of Art, and others. He served as a consultant for BKSK Architects for the renovation of the international award-winning Tammany Hall in New York, and is cultural consultant for Inwood Scared Sites for the development and conceptual design of a project in the Inwood community, Manhattan. In partnership with Farm Hub in the Hudson River Valley, Baker and Lenape Center are championing the return of ancestral seeds in the homeland through a seed rematriation project. This seed saving project, now in its second year, has done much to contribute to the cultural foodways of the Lenape diaspora.
In partnership with the Brooklyn Public Library, Baker is the curator of the first ever Lenape exhibition of cultural arts in the city of New York, opening January 2021. Baker graduated from the University of Tulsa with a BFA degree in Design and an MFA in painting and drawing, and completed postgraduate study, Harvard University, Graduate School of Education, MDP Program.

Co-director and Co-founder

Curtis Zunigha, an enrolled member of the Delaware Tribe of Indians, the modern-day descendants of the Indigenous people of Lenapehoking. He served his tribe and Indian Country for nearly 40 years including being elected Chief (1994-98) and Cultural Director (2017-2022). Curtis has over thirty years experience in government leadership, community development, multi-media production, and cultural education. He is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force (1972-1978).

Co-director, Co-founder & Emissary

Hadrien Coumans' work is centered in empowerment, cultural continuance, genocide healing, and prevention. He serves in the areas of strategic institutional partnerships, fundraising, initiatives and development. Lecturer, Department of Population and Family Health, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University. He is a traditionally adopted member of the WhiteTurkey- Fugate family. 

Co-director

Brent Michael Davids (Mohican/Munsee-Lenape) is an internationally celebrated composer, and a music warrior for native equity and parity, especially in concert music where there is little indigenous influence. Davids is co-director of the Lenape Center in Manhattan, and is enrolled in the Stockbridge-Munsee Community. Davids places Native voices front and center. He co-founded the renowned Native American Composer Apprentice Project (NACAP) with the Grand Canyon Music Festival, championing indigenous youth to compose their own music. He uses indigenous instruments, including handmade quartz flutes, and pens performable notations that are themselves visual works of art. His composer career spans nearly five decades, with myriad awards and commissions. In 2022, the Venice Biennale Musica featured the choral works of Davids, premiering a newly commissioned work. In 2015, the prestigious Indian Summer Festival awarded Davids its “Lifetime Achievement Award.” Davids holds Bachelors and Masters degrees in Music Composition from Northern Illinois University and Arizona State University respectively, trained at Redford’s Sundance Institute, and apprenticed with film composer Stephen Warbeck (Shakespeare In Love). He has garnered the Distinguished Alumni Awards from both of the universities he attended.