Saptosa Foster
Principal
The 135th Street Agency
@135StAgency
Saptosa Foster is an award-winning communications strategist with over a decade of experience in public relations and media. She currently serves as managing partner of the 135th Street Agency, a marketing/PR firm based in New York and Atlanta. At 135th, Saptosa oversees the company’s day-to-day operations and spearheads most PR projects for film and television clients such as the Weinstein Company, OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network, Disney, Screen Gems, Turner, WE TV, Paramount, and Lionsgate.
As managing partner, Saptosa helps execute the creative vision for each client and transforms ideas into viable consumer and press activations.
She’s secured major national media placements at outlets such as ABC’s “The Chew,” CNN, HLN, USA Today, NPR, People, US Weekly and led various campaigns, including premiere events for OWN’s “The Haves and the Have Nots” and “Love Thy Neighbor;” screening programs for “Lee Daniels’ The Butler” and “Fruitvale Station;” college campus takeovers with the cast of “Think Like A Man” and “Jumping The Broom;” an 8-city mall tour for TV One’s “Love That Girl;” and publicity/red carpet management of the annual Urbanworld Film Festival.
A native of Wilson, N.C., Saptosa attended Spelman College as an English major and History minor. During her freshman summer of 1995, she landed two simultaneous internships – one as a promotions/publicity intern at Pendulum Records (where she met Founder & CEO of the 135th Street Agency, Shante Bacon) and the other as a writer in the marketing department at Bad Boy Records. Saptosa went on to graduate cum laude from Spelman in 1998 and, after a brief stint at Accenture Consulting as an analyst, she moved to New York City in 1999 where she pursued a career as a freelance writer. She got her start as a fact-checker for Rolling Stone, O Magazine, In Style, Seventeen and Blaze. She then went on to write for Vibe, Complex, XXL, The Source, Savoy, Honey, Fader, The Ave and Creative Loafing. During her writing career, Saptosa interviewed artists such as Jill Scott, Ludacris Nas, Nelly, T.I., and Bow Wow and many more.
Saptosa has been featured in Black Enterprise, ESSENCE, VIBE Vixen, KING, Rolling Out and on the Food Network.