J. Joy “Sistah Joy” Matthews Alford
Author of “Lord I’m Dancin’ …As Fast As I Can” (2000) (2nd printing in 2003) and “This Garden Called Life.” (2007), Sistah Joy is host and co-producer of “Sojourn With Words,” the weekly cable television-based poetry program which airs on CTV in the MD/DC metropolitan area. The award-winning program (2007 Telly Award, 2008 CAM Award) features artist interviews and profiles, poetry readings and spoken word performances, and occasional coverage of live community based poetry events. Programs are primarily recorded at CTV studios in Largo, Maryland, and at The Sojourner Truth Lecture Hall at the Oxon Hill Library.
Sistah Joy serves as President of the Poetry Ministry and is a founding member of the Anointed P.E.N.S. (Poets Empowered to Nurture Souls) at Ebenezer A.M.E. Church in Fort Washington, MD. She is the founder of Collective Voices, a sisterhood of African-American poets that came together in Washington, DC in 1996, the group addresses socially relevant issues and challenges of today with messages of individual empowerment, inspiration and love. Collective Voices has presented “Poetry Extravaganza,” an annual free-to-the-community, mid-day literary tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library for 12 years (1997 – 2008) to help ensure that the voices and messages of Washington area artists are heard.
Sistah Joy was the recipient of the Washington, DC Poet Laureate Special Award 2002 as “Founder” of Collective Voices “for her outstanding contributions to the art of poetry in Washington, DC.” She has been commissioned to write tributes to U. S. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D.-NY), and U.S. Congressman John Conyers and other dignitaries and officials. She served as Poetry Editor of the African-American literary magazine, ACE-Dialogue, and is a founding member of Poets & Artists for Obama. Sistah Joy has been profiled in the Washington Post and Gazette papers. She conducts poetry workshops at schools, churches and community venues primarily along the East coast of the U.S. With a focus on youth, spirituality and societal issues, she is known for political poetry of conscience. Her work can be ordered at bookstores or via www.sistahjoy.com or http://www.authorsden.com/poetsistahjoy.
Cheryl Somers Aubin
Writer Cheryl Somers Aubin specializes in personal essays and memoir. Her work has appeared in the Washington Post, Boston Globe, Foundation Magazine, and other print and online publications.
Cheryl teaches memoir writing to senior citizens, meets with clients individually, and gives workshops to groups about the writing process. She holds a Master of Arts degree in writing from Johns Hopkins University.
Evelyn Torton Beck
Evelyn Torton Beck is a feminist scholar/teacher/activist and Women’s Studies Professor Emerita, at the University of Maryland, holding Ph.D.s in both Comparative Literature and Clinical Psychology. Among her many writings is the groundbreaking text, Nice Jewish Girls: A Lesbian Anthology (1982/1987) as well as studies of Franz Kafka and Frida Kahlo focusing on the healing power of their art. Her essay, “Kahlo’s World split Open,” in Feminist Studies (Spring 2006), offers a new reading of traumas in Kahlo’s paintings that have remained unspeakable.
Evelyn was born in Vienna, Austria. Displaced by the Holocaust, she and her family fled to Italy and eventually landed in Brooklyn, New York where she remained through college. Looking back, she understands this initial, traumatic dislocation as central to her life-long work focusing on social justice and personal repair. She is a self-taught artist who has discovered the healing power of art for herself through her own painting and her work using poetry as a therapeutic tool. When not writing or lecturing, she teaches Sacred Circle Dance, a practice integrating mind, body, and spirit, at Crossings: A Center for the Healing Traditions in Silver Spring, Md.
Borordados a Mano de Chile
Hand-made textile artworks made by women Imprisoned in Chilé under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.These works were made by women political prisoners and sold to raise the funds for their legal defense. As an act of solidarity with these women, Chilean Artist Carmen Barros Howell purchased these artworks over a decade ago, and has donated them to CentroNía’s Art Program.
Elizabeth Bruce (Producer)
Long-time Arts Director at CentroNía, Elizabeth is a native Texan living in northeast DC. She has received grants/fellowships in writing or acting from Poets & Writers, Inc., Readings/Workshop Program & the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities. Her debut novel, And Silent Left the Place, published by the literary press Washington Writers’ Publishing House, was the press’ 2007 Fiction Winner.
Set in South Texas in April of 1963 in a world filled with racial violence, Silent is a lyric tale of violence, redemption & love reclaimed in the cruel, dry land of Texas. It was nominated for the Texas Institute of Letters’ 2007 Steven Turner Award for Best Work of First Fiction & won Bronze Prize in ForeWord Magazine’s 2007 Book of the Year Awards in General Fiction; it was also one of The Montserrat Review’s Best Books for Summer Reading, ‘08, and was recommended by Small Press Distributors. Elizabeth has also published in The Washington Post, Long Short Story, Lines and Stars: A District Literary Journal, Writers on the Green Line: An Anthology, & other publications. She participated in the Heritage Writers Workshop, founded & led by novelist Richard Bausch, at George Mason University, as well as the Jenny McKean Moore Workshop in Fiction, with novelist John McNally, at GWU& the Rappahannack Fiction Workshop.
A member of The Playwrights Forum, working with Ernie Joselovitz, she has co-authored scripts produced at Adventure Theatre, Washington Ethical Society, & Sanctuary Theatre. She performed most recently with the Irish arts company, Solas Nua, & with Sanctuary Theatre at the ‘07 Capital Fringe Festival. Her play, Sheila’s Iron, won 1st place in the W.F. Lucas Playwriting Competition at Knoxville’s Carpetbag Theatre. Her recent script, The Exile & The American, about the collision of the personal & the political within the narrative of an exiled dissident poet, will receive a reading on Tues. April 7, ‘09, at Howard University’s Environmental Theatre Space, directed by Prof. Denise Hart. She dedicates her participation to the memory of her friend, Shelley Norman.
Laura Brylawski-Miller
Laura Brylawski-Miller was born and grew up in Milan, Italy. She holds a B.S. in Allied Health and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing. She has published two books of poetry: Luna Parks and The Snow on Lame Como, and two novels, The Square at Vigavano and The Medusa’s Smile, the last three winners of Washington Writers’ Publishing House competitions. She has also published essays, medical articles and poems in various literary magazines.
Sharon Burton
Sharon J. Burton is a DC area art dealer, artist and independent curator. She is the Founder and Creative Director of Authentic Contemporary Art (formerly Authentic Art Consulting), a visual arts and curatorial company based in the Metro Washington, DC area.
Sharon has a deep interest in the intersection of art and women’s health and well-being due to her prior background as an HIV/AIDS Prevention Instructor with the American Red Cross and work with cancer and HIV prevention efforts among young women of color in the public health community at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, GA. She has co-curated an exhibition entitled “Red” with the ThickArt Colloborative in December 2007 in Baltimore, MD to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS in the Metro DC/Baltimore communities. Sharon has contributed as a writer or has been featured in ArtsInfo.com, Mahogany Butterfly, East of the River, and through her blog ‘Authentic Art Visions,’ which features art events across the DC region and beyond.
Linden von Eichel
Linden von Eichel is a teacher, tutor, therapist and writer. She received her B.A. from York University in Toronto, and her M.A. in Literature from American University. She taught Freshman Composition for nine years at The American University, and then taught creative writing, grammar and composition to fifth and sixth grades at Horace Mann Elementary School for seven years. After teaching for sixteen years she earned a Masters degree in Social Work at Virginia Commonwealth University. She is now a practicing therapist with the Wake Kendall Group in D.C.
She was selected to participate in the Jenny McKean Moore Workshop in Fiction in 1997 and then a second time for Poetry in 1999. She has work shopped with Richard McCann and Kermit Moyer, and Myra Sklarew at AU, and also with many fine writers at the Writer’s Center including Richard Bausch and Ann Darr. She has twice been selected to participate in the Plum Review workshops with Billy Collins and was selected as a Lannon Fellow at the Folger Library. She is currently working on a collection of short stories that grow out of her childhood in rural Ontario, Canada in the 1950’s.
Jade Foster
Never quick to say ‘grown’ because there is always room to grow, Jade Foster is a poet who believes in good things. Her poems travel themes of her life/the district/change, while defining what it means to be a writer as well as a performer. After losing her mom to AIDS and the devastating killing of her father; the native Washingtonian continued to hone her storytelling gift after graduating from Duke Ellington School for the Arts. She continued her education at New York’s Sarah Lawrence College, becoming a defining voice on the small campus. Her tutelages under poets like Jeffrey McDaniel, Thomas Sayers Ellis and Kenneth Carroll prepared her for life as an artist. Jade has featured at DC venues such as Busboys and Poets, Bar Nun and the new Chery’s Gone reading Series of Big Bear Cafe. She has read alongside Randall Thorton and Patricia Smith. New York provided her the opportunity to perform at Brooklyn’s Limbo Reading Series while also winning Louderarts’ Collegiate Slam in 2005.
More recently, Jade has given her time to work with youth living with AIDS in the home or in the body. With DC have the most concentrated area of AIDS in the country, services Pediatric AIDS/HIV Care provide are crucial to changing the stigma around the disease and stopping its spread. An advocate for social justice and civil rights regardless of personal background Jade also serves on the board of Women in the Life Association. Humbled and still standing Jade Foster is working to make a space where women like herself can exist however they want. Her works continue a tradition while creating/ defining a new future.
Kimberly C. Gaines
Kimberly C. Gaines was born and raised in Camden, New Jersey and “grew up” in Washington DC. In the chocolate city she studied film and photography at Howard University. She is the founder of sondai expressions, her own graphic design and photography firm, where her mantra is “i keep pushing forward expressions”. Kimberly is also a teacher of design and photography at CentroNia, a non profit community organization. Her skills as a visual artist have lent her to be a consultant for over 6 years on various mulitmedia productions.
Her photographs have appeared in Metro Connections, the Source, Urb Magazine and the Smithsonian Institute’s National Portrait Gallery. She has also completed designs for the Harlem Theatre Company, Duke Ellington School of the Arts, Green and Williams Enterprises, Inc. and the stage musical The TRUTH. In 2005, Kimberly was selected by the Museum of the African Diaspora to be apart of their permanent exhibit with her portrait series Lady’s Day in the Park. Currently, Kimberly is working on an interactive exhibition on sensuality and a production of For Colored Girls…
Julia Garcia
Julia Garcia was born in Cochabamba, Bolivia, and grew up in a cultural world where the education of a child is the responsibility of everyone; which is to say, the transmission of values, customs, rights and rituals was the homework of the entire community. She learned from her ancestors how to live in harmony and equilibrium with nature and La Pachamama-Mother Earth-where every species or living thing is important to the interrelationship and continuation of life.
Her first language is Quechua; she learned to speak, read and write Spanish in elementary school. During her secondary school education, she worked transmitting radio programs in her native language. In 1968, she taught Quechua in El Instituto Lingüístico de Verano Maryknoll in Bolivia, and from 1968 to 1977, she studied linguistics in rural areas of Bolivia, working with programs of bilingual education and educational radio, as well as puppetry and theatre with the Centro pedagógico Portales Cochabamba, Bolivia. In 1972 she graduated from the Teachers School at the Universidad- Catolica San Pablo Cba.-Bolivia (Normal Católica) as a secondary school teacher in foreign languages and Quechua.
From 1974-77 Ms. Garcia was Professor of Educational Psychology/Comparative Education and Quechua for Student Teachers at the Escuela de Maestros Normal O. Únzaga de la Vega Cba. Bolivia, and from 1974 to 1988 she was a Professor in the Secondary Schools of Cochabamba, teaching English, French, and Quechua. In 1977, Ms. Garcia received her Post-Graduate Special Education Degree in Educational Psychology from El Instituto superior de Educación Franz Tamayo la Paz Bolivia.
In 1998 in the United States, Ms. Garcia was a Pre-Kindergarten Teacher for CentroNía (then Calvary Learning Center), and from 2000-2003 she was a Second Grade Teacher in the dual-language immersion program at Oyster Bilingual Elementary School. From 1998-2005, she taught Social Studies and Culture, and Spanish Practicum at Escuela Bolivia, a Saturday enrichment program, and served as Director of Escuela Bolivia from 2006-08. In 2003 she was invited to teach the language of Quechua in the Humanities Department of George Mason University. Currently, she is a Spanish Teacher at Thomas Jefferson Middle School in Arlington, Virginia. From 1997 to the present, Ms. Garcia has also served as Director of the Sociedad Cultural Tradiciones Bolivianas, an organization dedicated to the preservation and presentation of folkloric dances of Bolivia, and from 2000 to the present she has taught classes in the language and culture of Quechua to students of Latin American Studies at Georgetown and George Washington Universities.
Roz Goodman
Roz Goodman is a dual Dutch/American citizen. A recovered lawyer, she used to practice as an attorney in Paris, France. Now an artist, she studied art in the Netherlands, South Africa and in Washington, DC at the Corcoran College of Art + Design, from which she received the 2008 Linda and Douglas Rosenbaum Scholarship for Excellence in Drawing and Painting. She participated in various recent public projects, including Faces of the Fallen and the National Symphony Orchestra’s Art of Note. She paints with acrylic on large canvases, depicting women’s deepest emotions and life’s dark undercurrents; she also paints portraits on commission.
Mary Grigonis
Born in Brazil and raised in Ghana, Mary S. Grigonis specializes in oil paintings done from life, on site almost anywhere. She has painted outside across DC, from Anacostia to the National Cathedral, and internationally from France to Siberia–construction sites, train stations, museums, subways, “the more chaotic, the better.” Grigonis is in the archives of the National Gallery as the painter who recorded the 1995 Vermeer exhibit. Her most recent site-specific work is her 2008 Golden Triangle Call Box Series. The subject of a cover story in Art Calendar, Grigonis was also featured in an article in American Artist magazine.
She has studied at the Corcoran College of Art + Design, Santa Reparata Scuole in Florence, and the University of Virginia, and received funding from the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities, Art in Public Places & Cultural Tourism Programs; Vermont Studio School/Colony; Massachusetts Council on the Arts and Humanities; NNEDV; and the Allstate Foundation Education and Job Training Assistance Fund. She has exhibited at Georgetown University Hospital, Washington Studio School, Museum of Contemporary Art, Willow Street Gallery, the Children’s National Medical Cen ter, Galerie Vielle du Temple in Paris, the Puck Building in NY’s Soho, and the Bayly Museum in Charlottesville. She as worked as a visual consultant with Dr. Allen Salerian and long contributed to CentroNia’s Arts Galas. Reviewed widely, she has work in private collections throughout the U.S. and Europe. She has long been represented by Burton Marinkovich Fine Art in Washington, DC’s Dupont Circle.
Deborah Harris-O’Brien, Ph.D.
Dr. Harris-O’Brien is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Trinity University in Washington, DC. She holds a Ph.D. and an M.S. from Ohio State University, and a B.A. from Catholic University of America.
Patricia “Pati Lami” Henske
I was born in 1950 and had a happy childhood. Adolescence was hard, as simply “growing up” and “maturing” took many, many years. I graduated with a BA in Psychology, with Honors, from the University of Texas at Austin. I pursued, but did not finish, a Master’s Degree. Bipolar Disorder has been a terrible interruption to my life. I have struggled with it for 30 years-often doing well, but just as often falling apart. I have had numerous hospitalizations, going through the Emergency Room many times. The severe mood swings have caused chaos and imbalance to my life. There has been trauma, drama and crisis. Luckily, I have found ways to deal with all this. I have strong religious faith, and reading the Bible provides structure, consistency, and self-discipline. I also read lots of biographies-getting involved in someone else’s life gets the attention off my own life.
My favorite creative outlet, however, is my photography-it fills me with endless joy. My favorite photos are often those with lots of symmetry and balance. Shooting them and just looking at them calms my spirit. I also like to take mood photos-they reflect my more somber self. My manic photos are full of color and movement. I do have normal mood and phase, at times. These photos are probably my very best. It is these that I have sold at Dickens on the Strand in Galveston, Texas, and that hang in friends’ houses and doctors’ offices.
Timothea Howard (Associate Producer)
Timothea Howard is the Program Integration and Expansion Manager for CentroNia a community based, bilingual, multi-cultural learning center in Washington, DC. She is a community, labor and cultural organizer.
As a working artist, Timothea graduated from the Corcoran School of Art with Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Upon graduation, she worked as a painter before entering the theater full time. Beginning with the Source Theater Company under the mentorship of Bart Whiteman and at DC Stage with Dorothy Neumann, Timothea worked as a stage manager, stage hand, properties manager, producer and director for 11 seasons with Gala Hispanic Theater, The New Arts Theater, Sanctuary Theater, the Kennedy Center Opera House and Programs for Children and Youth, the National Theater, New Playwrights Theater, Horizon Feminist Theater, Dance Place, the Pola Nirenska Dance Company, the Primary Movers Performance Company and Anacostia Repertory Company.
Ms. Howard is a member of Sophie’s Parlor Feminist Radio Collective one of the oldest women’s radio collectives in the US. She is currently developing a girls radio project that will come on the air during 2007 International Women’s Day. Timothea also was the host of Another Perspective a radio program produce by the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC. Ms. Howard is the National Outreach Coordinator for RACE – The Power of an Illusion a three-part documentary series produce by California Newsreel for public television. In 1999, Timothea was awarded the Rockefeller Foundation Next Generation Leader Fellowship.
Hedieh Javanshir Ilchi
Hedieh Ilchi (BFA 2006, Corcoran College of Art + Design) was born in Tehran, Iran, and now works in the Washington, DC area. Her mixed media paintings present a timely message and reflect deeply personal explorations of the current culture clash between East and West. Hedieh’s paintings embody Persian motifs, childhood memories, and Farsi script, which transcend the material space of her paintings to a hoped-for future.
Carolyn Joyner
Carolyn Joyner’s poetry has been anthologized in 360 A Revolution of Black Poets, Mass Ave Review, Beyond the Frontier, and Gathering Ground. She is a Cave Canem fellow, and in 2003, and 2004 was awarded fellowship grants by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She resides in Washington, DC. http://aalbc.com/authors/carolyn.htm
Kathy Keler
Born in Budapest, Hungary, Kathy Keler has lived most of her life in the United States. Since receiving her B.A. from Bryn Mawr College, and moving to Washington DC in 1980, she has organized and/or participated in numerous exhibitions and art exchange programs. These included residency/exhibit projects in Budapest, Hungary; Lyon, France; and Calcutta, India. Showings of her work have included a group exhibit at the Corcroran Gallery/ Hemicycle in 1993, and solo exhibits at the District of Columbia Arts Center in 1994, at the American Cultural Center in Calcutta in 2000, and at the Washington Theological Union in 2006. She received an individual artist grant in 1995 from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities.
Heather Bradley Kubo
Heather is a native of Las Vegas, but now moving into her seventh year as a district resident considers Washington her home. She has taught photography to children in El Salvador with the United Nations and worked on different community arts programs with immigrant youth in Washington DC. Heather first came on board last year as an Event Manager for the Gandhi Brigade’s Youth Media Festival. She hails from a family of African American, Japanese, Caucasian and Hawaiian influence and grew up in eight different states and three different countries. Consequently, diversity, tolerance and experience are the cornerstones of her youth and photography work. She looks forward to working and having fun with the creative youth of Gandhi Brigade and is excited to see them take on growing roles as community leaders and social artists.
Cynthia Matsakis
Cynthia Matsakis, MFA, LCSW-C, is an expressive psychotherapist and working artist with a private practice in both Silver Spring and Columbia Md. Over the past fifteen years Cynthia has developed a unique therapeutic approach using symbolic objects and images in tandem with self-expression through art and movement to work through the aftermath of trauma. She works with children, adults and families and is the creator of Animal Guides Game and Symbol Tools.
“We are all works in progress and the imagination is the aspect of the self that continues to learn and innovate throughout life. If it is frozen by trauma, we stagnate. My work, both as an artist and a therapist, focuses on reinvigorating the sense of adventure and spontaneity we all need if we are to heal.”
Carolina Mayorga
Carolina Mayorga’s artwork addresses issues of social and political content. Comments on migration, identity, war, often translate into, performance art pieces, photography, site- specific sculpture/installations and video.
Her work was last seen in 2008 at Arlington Arts Center, Arlington, VA. Mayorga was born in Bogotá, Colombia and lives in Washington, DC. For more information please visit carolinamayorga.com.
Cheryl Miner
Novelist Cheryl Miner received her BA in Literature from American University. She is a Glimmer Train Fiction Open Finalist and a DCCAH Fellow. Cheryl has participated in the Hurston/Wright Writers Week, The Breadloaf Writers’ Conference, Jenny McKean Moore workshops, and The Bethesda Writers’ Center novel writing workshop. She has taught at the Washington Saturday College Howard University Campus, The Watha T. Daniel Library Cultural Series, and The Terrell Elementary School social studies program. Having once served as an executive secretary of the now defunct John Oliver Killens Writers Guild, she is currently at work on a novel.
Iryna Natalushko
Visual thinking and visual experiencing are the processes that underlay Iryna’s artwork. Artwork presents itself as the painter’s kinesthetic, emotional, and conceptual action. In the creative process, Iryna watches her work become a separate entity and resonate with the current physical, emotional, and mental state. Resonance brings the unity, the wholeness, the completion. Then, the artwork “walks away” to do the same job for somebody else.
Iryna was born and grew up in central Ukraine where she was trained at an art studio by two wonderful artists, Viktor Chumachenko and Natasha Boichuk. In 2001-2006 she participated in a number of art shows with Kirovograd Union of Artists “Koleso.”
She is currently a grantee of the Fulbright Graduate Student Program at GWU’s Art Therapy Department.
Evette “Billye” Epps Keene Okera
Billye Okera, poet and author of “THE MOURNERS’ BENCH” was born Evette Billye Epps in 1950, Washington D. C. Billye has been writing since the age of 17 when she was awarded a prize in the Gerry Poetry Contest sponsored by the D. C. Public Schools. She is A Folk-Performance Poet whose Akan name “Okera” means “In the Likeness of God.” Her work has appeared in Mynd Magazine, Dialogue, Poetry and Prose for a New Millennium, and Experience, Expression and Expansion. She is a former member of COLLECTIVE VOICES, a sisterhood of African American Poets founded in 1997 by Sistah Joy, Ladi Di and herself. Her Book, THE MOURNERS’ BENCH and Other Stations Of Weeping and Joy, premiered on March 6, 2004, and is a living testament to her triumph over her own child sexual abuse and rape.
Ms. Okera has performed at various venues including Café Myth.Com, The Lincoln Theater, The Smithsonian’s Haupt Garden and Hirshorn Museums, Sankofa Books, Howard University, The University of the District of Columbia, The Black Family Reunion and Brixton Theater. In addition, she has performed with poets and writers of such notoriety as Dolores Kendricks, Hale Gerima, J. California Cooper, E. Ethelbert Miller, Haki Madkabuti, Sonja Sanchez, Eloise Greenfield, and Nikki Giovanni. In 2000 Ms. Okera was chosen as a Nation’s Capitol Poet in Progress by Dolores Kendricks, the Poet Laureate of Washington, D. C., in conjunction with the Folger Shakespeare Library.
Deeply concerned about women’s issues, a significant body of her work highlights the trauma of domestic violence and sexual abuse.
On the Green Line Youth Photography Project
CentroNía’s community was profoundly enriched by the cutting-edge work of the late, internationally-recognized photographer/ educator, Nestor Hernandez, Jr. Nestor won many awards from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, Mayor’s Art Awards, and the African-American Photographers’ Association. On the Green Line featured CentroNía and Birney ES youth photographing the changes in Columbia Heights and Birney ES in Anacostia, both “on the Green Line.”
Kat Parrish
Residing in Montgomery, PA, Kat Parrish is a mother of three who has seen first-hand what abuse of varying sorts can do to a child and the resulting journey through life. The motivation behind Kat’s decision to write the Mrs. Pea children’s book series comes from a desire to help abused children overcome the trauma and have a promising future. Kat has used this artistic expression to steer herself to brighter days. Her sights are set in eventually opening a foundation for abuse victims.
Patricia Pedraza
Bolivian artist Patricia Pedraza is a printmaker and art teacher currently pursuing post baccalaureate studies at the Corcoran College of Art and Humanities, with undergraduate and graduate studies at NUR University, Santa Cruz, Bolivia. She has studied extensively with Corcoran printmaking faculty member Manuel Navarette, as well as fibre artist and Corcoran faculty member Candace Edgerley; Ms. Pedraza was recently honored for Student Excellence in Surface Tension Textiles by the Corcoran College of Art & Design. She currently teaches art at CentroNía and DC Bilingual Public Charter School.
Sarah Pleydell
A native of the UK, Sarah Pleydell is a writer, actor and educator. She has performed in many venues and over many years, most recently with the Word Dance Theatre’s Capital Fringe Festival 2008 production of Revolutionary: Isadora Duncan’s Words, Music, Dance at Shakespeare Theatre Company.
With Victoria Brown, Ph.D., she co-authored the award-winning book, The Dramatic Difference: Drama in the Preschool and Kindergarten Classroom (2000), Heinemann Press, and, with Dr. Brown, has worked for more than twenty years with such organizations as the National Head Start Bureau, the National Association for the Education of Young Children, the American Alliance for Theatre and Education and Wolf Trap’s Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts. Sarah is currently on leave from the University of Maryland, where she teaches in University Honors, to focus on fiction. Her latest novel explores the violence of the Texas/Mexico border.
Gloria Quirarte
Born in Allende Coahuila, Mexico, Gloria grew up in the Texas – Mexico borderlands and San Antonio. Women artists and their paths in the world of creative expression have fascinated her since I was a child. The life of Frida Kahlo, in particular, her struggle, her accomplishments, her body politics and how this is narrated through her paintings and poems initiated my own creative expression. As a child her paintings were a world of fantasy that both sheltered and translated for me social cultural dynamics related to gender, family, religion, and politics into a more visually accessible form.
“My art boxes are an idolization; an embellishment; a nurturing of Frida Kahlo and other Mexican icons, celebrities, or heroes. I carve, recycle, and collage with discarded jewelry, paper prints, wood boxes, cloth and more. To this day, I have many friends and family who send me knick knacks (prints, jewelry, cigarette boxes and other objects) from their travels in the world.” Gloria holds a Masters Degree in Social Cultural Anthropology from Johns Hopkins University and is the Director of Operations at the Multicultural Community Service in Washington, DC.
Carly Sachs
Award-winning poet, author, educator & activist, Carly Sachs is an Arts Fellow at the Drisha Institute in New York City & teaches creative writing at the George Washington University. Her first book of poems, the steam sequence, won the 2006 Washington Writers’ Publishing House Book Prize. She is also the editor of the why and later (Deep Cleveland Press, 2007), an anthology of female-authored poems about rape and assault. Her poems have appeared in such journals and anthologies as The Best American Poetry 2004, Alimentum, Another Chicago Magazine, Beltway Quarterly Review, Coconut, CrossRoads, MiPoesias, Poem Memoir Story, Nextbook, No Tell Motel, Runes Review, and were features as part of the inaugural Moving Minds: Verse and Vision Project. She has read her work widely regionally and nationally, & taught poetry to high school and adult students in Virginia, DC, and New York. This spring, Sachs will be completing her training as a yoga instructor at The Kripalu Institute.
Lisa Schamess
Lisa Schamess is a writer and teacher who has lived in Washington, D.C. since 1986. Her work includes a novel Borrowed Light (SMU Press, 2002) which won the Texas Institute of Letters First Novel Award. She has written columns and features for Belief.net, Planning Magazine, and Architectural Record.
Captain Leslie Smith (Ret.)
Leslie Smith is a Public Affairs Specialist with the Department of Defense in Virginia after having been medically retired as a Captain in the Army with 12 years. Her military career began in May 1991 and held a variety of both exciting and demanding assignments throughout her proud Army career. However, Leslie was completely unaware her life was about to change forever during Operation Joint Forge, an eight-month peacekeeping deployment to Bosnia-Herzegovina. Unfortunately, Leslie became ill two weeks before completing the deployment and was sent back to the United States. From there, Leslie was admitted to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. and doctors diagnosed her with a rare blood disorder. Complications from this disorder led to the amputation of Leslie’s left leg just below the knee and major tissue loss over both legs. She spent seven long months at Walter Reed, undergoing more than 20 operations, in intensive care, recovery and rehabilitation. Leslie beat the odds and emerged with a new outlook on life.
Now Leslie is actively involved with fellow wounded military service members by personally visiting and encouraging them and their families at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio and Balboa Naval Hospital in San Diego. Leslie is a qualified “peer visitor” with the Amputee Coalition of America and can visit disabled veterans at their bedside. She motivates wounded warriors to overcome their physical challenges through athletics, just as she has done, and assures them they will be up and running again. Since her injuries, Leslie has completed four marathons, one triathlon and was recruited to try-out for the U.S. Paralympics Women’s Sitting Volleyball team for the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing, China.
Through her work with the wounded warriors, Leslie has become a strong advocate and serves in leadership positions with several organizations that support disabled veterans as she spreads her positive message, “AMPlify Your Life!”
Andrea Springs
I am an excited founder/partner in Traci Lynn Fashion Jewelry. I have had the pleasure of presenting our fashion jewelry to several women and have enjoyed every minute. This jewelry speaks to women. It represents elegance and boldness, complementing our natural born beauty. I also enjoy sharing our wonderful business opportunity on how any woman can have their own business doing what they love while being gorgeous, and loving every minute of it. Tracilynnjewelry.com/andreasprings.
Alivia Tagliaferri (Associate Producer)
An author, publisher, producer and documentary film-maker, Alivia is the founder of Ironcutter Media, LLC, an independent publishing and media production company based in the Washington DC area. Blending socially-conscious themes with traditional and new media technologies to create ‘media that matters,’ Ironcutter Media specializes in publishing and producing historical fiction, children’s book and social documentaries.
She is the author of ‘Still the Monkey, What Happens to Warriors after War,’ (March 2007), a work of historical fiction portraying the mentor relationship of a warrior of old and warrior of today dealing with life after combat and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The novel is being re-released this spring 2009 as a second edition entitled ‘Beyond the Wall: The Journey Home.’ Her first documentary, ’Beyond the Wall: Homeless Zone,’ a social documentary explores the issues of homelessness among veterans in the DC area. Alivia is also the publisher of the upcoming ‘Mrs. Pea Children’s Book Series,’ a beautifully authored and illustrated collection by Kat Parrish of life and social lessons created to empower children and families.
Andrea R. Thompson
Andrea R. Thompson has woven African dance forms into her body for the last 15 years. Andrea studies, teachers, and performs Afro-Brazilian Samba, North African Belly Dance and Afro-Cuban. She has danced with “Sarava” an Afro-Brazilian company, “AshéMoyubba ” and “Alafia” Afro-Cuban folkloric companies.
She currently teaches Afro-Cuban Dance at the University of the District of Columbia and is a board member of the Latin American Folk Institute. Andrea has allowed her politics of movement to take her to five different continents, fulfilling the roles of dance instructor, student, performer, observer and patron. She holds a Bachelor of Science from Howard University.
Veronique Tran
Veronique is a retired professional dancer and the founder and executive director of Circle of World Arts, a Washington, DC-based nonprofit whose mission is Peacebuilding through the Arts to help refugee and at-risk women and youth learn self-healing techniques, become empowered individuals, and contribute to their society. Circle of World Arts brings together Veronique’s diverse experience in the arts and business. She has more than 20 years experience of performing and teaching around the world-from rural classrooms to the Lincoln Center in New York City-and is proficient in six languages. From at-risk youth to single mothers on welfare to local county social workers, Veronique helps build bridges of friendship, break down barriers of fear, and bring communities together.
Ellie Walton
A native Washingtonian, Ellie is a documentary filmmaker and educator, committed to using art as a vehicle for community building and social change. Whilst completing a degree in Social Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh, she worked at a variety of radio stations in Guatemala, Scotland and Washington DC, producing a series of documentaries about the Guatemalan peace process which aired on the Pacifica Network.
Since graduating from film school at the University of London, she has been touring her first feature documentary, “Chocolate City“, which explores the poetic resistance to the gentrification of Washington DC. Ellie has facilitated film workshops with at risk youth and has recently completed a project making films with young offenders in two UK prisons. She is currently working on a multi-media performance piece exploring issues of class in DC.
Eileen Wasow
Life-long educator and advocate Eileen Wasow is currently Chief Academic Officer at CentroNía. Previously, she served as the Executive Director of the Ellington Fund, the fundraising arm of the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington DC. She was the Associate Dean in the Division of Continuing Education at Bank Street College in New York City. For over twenty years, while at Bank Street, Ms. Wasow focused her professional career on working with children, families and teachers, first as a pre-school teacher, then as a Family Therapist, and for the past ten years as an early childhood teacher trainer. Having also lived abroad for extended periods of time with her family in diverse settings such as Bangladesh, Kenya, the Czech Republic and Germany, Ms. Wasow also has a special interest in multicultural education. She has worked as a curriculum consultant for organizations across the United States and internationally.
Kerrie Wrye
An artist since childhood, this gift of identification, for which I am grateful, continues to provide the freedom to define my own sense of self.
I am returning to paint about intimacy through my observations of the human figure, unaware. There is much to “say,” in essence, consciously see, concerning self-value and how that personal awareness translates into quality of life. May my explorations be of healthy benefit for all.
