Profile: Anwar Pinckney

Anwar Pinckney is the friendly face you see at the Paramount Center’s loading dock. He has been the loading dock supervisor since the Paramount opened in 2009.

His main responsibility is to oversee the deliveries made to the loading dock. Every day he receives a schedule of deliveries from Property Management and inputs it into the Event Management System (EMS), the computer program that the College uses for reservations of rooms, spaces, and loading docks. He also writes out the schedule on a dry-erase board to inform other staff members. During the school year, there are approximately five deliveries per day in addition to UPS, FedEx, and Staples deliveries.

Many deliveries consist of filming equipment and building materials, which are used on the soundstage and in the scene shop. During the school year, when the café is open, there are also food deliveries. He works closely with the Office of the Arts, the Equipment Distribution Center, and Facilities Management.

Pinckney said that delivery schedules are never set in stone, which keeps the job interesting. Traffic is often an issue, as is the fact that some truck drivers are not used to maneuvering their vehicles in tight downtown spaces. And because space is limited behind the buildings on Washington Street, he also sometimes has to coordinate with the Opera House next door when it has touring productions loading in and out.

Besides managing the flow of deliveries, Pinckney maintains the cleanliness of the dock and the alleyway and ensures that all parts of the dock are in working order.

Before becoming the Paramount’s loading dock supervisor, Pinckney served as the Rotch Field supervisor for four years. He was hired when it was refurbished in 2005. Among his responsibilities were maintaining the equipment and setting up for practices and games, which entailed bringing out and putting away soccer and lacrosse goals, soccer corner flags, and softball bases. He also operated the scoreboard and stadium lights. Upon receiving the job at the Paramount, he trained for a month at the College’s other dock, which is located next to the Cutler Majestic in Allen’s Alley.

Prior to his arrival at Emerson, Pinckney was a clerk at Brooks Pharmacy and worked in receiving at Tower Records. He started working at age 16 at a local Saucony outlet store. He got his first taste of employment as a participant of the Mayor’s Summer Youth Employment Program in Cambridge, Massachusetts, when he was a teenager.

Pinckney was born in Charleston, South Carolina, and grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He attended Cambridge Rindge and Latin and still lives in Cambridge today.

His hobbies include drawing and producing music, and he often catches up with friends while playing sports video games. Recently, he’s been busy exploring Boston with his eight-year-old daughter, Haylee, visiting a number of museums.

Pinckney likes working at Emerson because both he and his daughter enjoy creative pursuits, and, as he said, “Being surrounded by a constant air of creativity and imaginative people from all around the world is pretty cool. It keeps me inspired to stand out and be creative in the things I do.”

Nancy Howell (Creative Services)