Attendees will appear below as people are registered.  Refreshed every Monday

    A San Francisco native, Stella Adelman is the Program Director at Dance Mission Theater in the Mission, an artist driven space dedicated to inclusiveness, fairness, and justice that creates, produces, presents, and teaches feminist and multicultural dance/theater. She also works with Carnaval San Francisco, producing the celebratory Carnaval Royalty competition.As a performer and dancer, Adelman has had the honor of working with the legendary Rhodessa Jones and Krissy Keefer, and highly-celebrated Cuban, Haitian, and Brazilian companies, including Aguas da Bahia, Arenas Dance Company, Alayo Dance Company, and Las Que Son Son, among others.
    Rotimi Agbabiaka (writer, performer) is an actor, singer, writer, director, and teaching artist who has performed at such companies as California Shakespeare Theatre, Marin Theater Company, Shotgun Players, Beach Blanket Babylon, and the San Francisco Mime Troupe, where he is a collective member. His solo play, Homeless, won Best Solo Performance at the SF Fringe Festival and his latest solo, Type/Caste, was nominated for a 2017 Theater Bay Area Award for Outstanding Solo Production. He has done drag at such venues as Club Something and Hard French and has presented his writing at the Radar Reading Series and Queer Autonomous Zone. He studied at Moscow Art Theatre and earned his MFA from Northern Illinois University. For more info, visit rotimionline.com.
  • Brent Aldrich
  • Alec Alec De León / Show Bio
    Alec De León is a Program Specialist at NPN/VAN. He is an advocate for artists and arts organizations, supporting living wages for artists, authentic diversity, creative freedom, and the equitable distribution of resources for the arts. He holds an MFA in Painting from the Maryland Institute College of Art and a BFA in Painting and Drawing from Louisiana State University. His career in the arts has spanned 18 years, including work in commercial art galleries and as an Adjunct Professor at Towson University in Towson, MD. He is an alumnus of the 2012 NAMAC Leadership Institute. His artwork has been exhibited in New Orleans, Philadelphia, New York, Baltimore and Florida. He is also the co-founder of the influential, yet largely unknown, psychedelic rock band, the Heatbunnies.
    A Founding Partner of NPN, and an active Burner, Alliger, is the Exec. Producer of ALLIGER ARTS, was founder/Executive Director for 20 yrs of Dance Umbrella. He is the Producer/Creator of “Cool Heat Urban Beat”, the award winning “Coming Up For Air: An AutoJAZZography” and the Intl. touring production “GIMP” He has produced over 15 unique gatherings and tours, including the first-ever Aerial Dance, Jazz Tap and Hip Hop, and the Int’l Wheelchair Dance Festivals. He received the state of MA “Commonwealth Award” and Emerson College’s “Alumni Achievement” Award. He was a panel Chair at the NEA, serves on board of VSA of MA, was curatorial Dir. of Figment ALPHA. Emerson College has acquired his archives and is installing an exhibit of his legacy in Boston’s Paramount Theater.
    Tamara is ED of the School of Arts & Culture at the Mexican Heritage Plaza. Prior to serving as ED, she was the Director of Multicultural Leadership for 1stACT Silicon Valley. From 2003 to 2008 she served as ED of MACLA/ Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana in San Jose, California. She is Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees for the Western State Arts Federation and Past President of the Board for ACE Charter Schools. Tamara is co-founder of the Multicultural Arts Leadership Institute, a leadership development program for people of color working in arts, culture and entertainment. A traditional Aztec dancer for the past 18 years, she is a member of Calpulli Tonalehqueh Danza Azteca. Originally from Escondido, CA, Tamara holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Spanish Literature from Stanford.
    Star Amerasu is a multi disciplinary artist. She began creating solo performance art work as a teenager, creating gender-bending drag performance in her hometown of Austin, Texas. She won her first talent competition at 17 doing a performance of Lady GaGa’s “Poker Face” in drag, while playing the piano. Star has worked with NPN partners in NY, as well as in San Francisco. She has released two albums, in 2015 “Eclipsing” and in 2016 her critically acclaimed album “Rebecca”. She is a black transwoman whose work pulls from her experiences of, homelessness, trauma, and self-compassion. At the age of 19 having been kicked out of her home for being trans, she moved herself and her dreams to the San Francisco Bay. She considers herself an art-ivist creating works meant to break the mold.
    Roya Amirsoleymani is Co-Artistic Director and the Curator of Public Programs & Engagement for the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA) in Portland, OR, which supports international, national and local artists across disciplines through performances, exhibitions, residencies, commissions, and public programs year-round and for the annual Time-Based Art Festival (TBA). She oversees PICA’s Precipice Fund, part of the Warhol Foundation’s Regional Regranting Program. She frequently presents at and serves on local and national art conferences and committees. Roya is a founder of Portland’s Arts Workers for Equity and teaches in Portland State’s Art & Social Practice MFA Program. B.A., Contemporary Visual Culture & Gender Studies; M.A., Arts Management (Community & Contemporary Art).
    CHARLES O. ANDERSON, a native of Richmond, Virginia, is Head of Dance at the University of Texas at Austin and artistic director of the critically acclaimed afro-contemporary dance-theatre company, Charles O. Anderson/dance theatre X. He received his BA in Dance and Choreography from Cornell University and his MFA in Dance from Temple University. He was selected as one of “The 25 Artists to Watch” by Dance Magazine and is a Pew Fellowship in the Arts recipient.  Anderson also serves on the faculty of American Dance Festival’s six week summer program.  For more info visit: www.charlesoanderson.me.
    Robin Anderson joined the AXIS team as Engagement Director in 2015 and previously served as Director of Alonzo King LINES Dance Center from 2007-2014. Early in her career, she worked for a range of dance organizations in Portland, Oregon. From 2013-2016, she worked for the Performing Arts Department of the Wexner Center.  Robin is drawn to weaving arts organization into the fabric of a city’s culture and is very proud to be a part of AXIS’ 30 years of rule-breaking in Oakland.  Over the past year, she has participated in the Oakland Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership Oakland Program and while working at LINES she co-founded the 24 Days of Central Market Arts Festival and served on the Board of Central Market Community Benefit District.
    Dora Arreola is the founding Artistic Director of Mujeres en Ritual Danza-Teatro, and an Associate Professor of Theatre at the University of South Florida. A revered performer, theatre director, and teacher in Mexico, the U.S., and internationally, she is featured in “Grotowski, Women, and Contemporary Performance: Meetings with Remarkable Women” (Routledge 2014). Awards include the Thespian Prize of Honor for Artistic Excellence, Baja California (2015); and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the State of Sinaloa, México (2014). Dora holds a MFA in Directing from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, and was a participant at Grotowski’s Workcenter in Pontedera, Italy (1987-89).  She is a founding Collective Member of Art2Action Inc., and currently serves on the Board.
    Bobby Asher is the Senior Associate Director of the Artist Partner Program at The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland, where he curates 25+ music, theater, and dance performances each season. He also directs other presenting activities, including the NextNOW Fest, an multi-day festival of performance and creativity by and for UMD students, which he conceived and founded in 2014. Now entering its fifth edition in 2018, the NextNOW Fest has become a campus tradition for Maryland students.He joined The Clarice in 2010 after serving as the founding managing and artistic director of the Bailey Performance Center at Kennesaw State University near Atlanta, as well as in positions at the Columbia Theatre at Southeastern Louisiana University and Spivey Hall at C
    Andrea Assaf is the founding Artistic/Executive Director of Art2Action, Inc. A performer, writer, director, and cultural organizer, she has a Masters in Performance Studies and a BFA in Acting, both from NYU.  She’s currently Artist-in-Residence and guest faculty at the University of South Florida.  Andrea is an acclaimed performer and director, who tours original work nationally and internationally, including venues such as OSF as part of the National Asian American Theatre Festival, La MaMa, the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage, and more.  Awards include: 2017 Finalist for the Freedom Plow Award for Poetry & Activism, 2011 NPN Creation Fund commission, 2010 Princess Grace Award.  Andrea serves on the Board of CAATA and Alternate ROOTS, and is a member of RAWI for Arab American writers.
    Byron Au Yong composes songs of dislocation prompted by a broken lineage. Born to Chinese immigrants in Pittsburgh and raised in Seattle, his music investigates the interplay between the American Dream and sustainability. Examples include Activist Songbook, a manual to counteract hate in development with Asian Arts Initiative and Montalvo Arts Center, (Be)longing, a hip-hop oratorio about coming of age in an age of guns co-commissioned by the Moss Arts Center at Virginia Tech and International Festival of Arts & Ideas, and Port City, a musical product launch commissioned by American Conservatory Theater. Dedicated to intercultural collaboration, Au Yong is an artist-in-residence at the Exploratorium and teaches in Performing Arts & Social Justice at the University of San Francisco.
    Sherrine Azab is a director focused on creating original devised theater, as well as a producer, performance curator, and educator. She is the co-Director of A Host of People, a Detroit-based performance ensemble and has presented work in Detroit, Cleveland, San Francisco, New York, Berlin, and Seattle. Sherrine holds a BFA in original works from Cornish College of the Arts and a Postgraduate Certificate from the Institute of Curatorial Practice in Performance at Wesleyan University. She is a member of the 2008 Lincoln Center Directors Lab, an Associate Artist of Target Margin Theatre (NYC) and was associate producer at The Foundry Theatre in NYC for their 2011 & 2012 seasons. She is currently the Engagement Manager for the Network of Ensemble Theaters.
  • Melvign Badiola
  • Ella Baff
  • Steve Bailey / Show Bio
    Steve Bailey is the chief operating officer at the National Performance Network/Visual Artists Network. He was a founder and the producing director of Jump-Start Performance Co. in San Antonio, Texas. He was also the director of 24th Street Experiment Theater Company, research coordinator for Theater Communications Group, and artist-in-residence with Teatro del Sol in Lima, Peru. Over the past thirty years, Steve has created and/or directed over fifty original productions that have been presented across the U.S. and Latin America. He is an arts educator and has worked with numerous youth and adult groups in a variety of community settings.
    Leticia Bajuyo received an M.F.A. in 2001 from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and a B.F.A. in 1998 from the University of Notre Dame. Bajuyo teaches at Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi as an Assistant Professor of Sculpture. Prior to this professorship, she served as a Visiting Assistant Professor in Sculpture at the University of Notre Dame and Professor of Art at Hanover College in Indiana.  Bajuyo’s recent large-scale, public art installations include the ceiling of Concourse C in the Nashville International Airport, Tennessee; the Tony Hillerman Library in Albuquerque, New Mexico; and the Indiana State Museum in Indianapolis.
    Fiona is a nonprofit arts administrator and advocate. At LACE Fiona facilitates development, communications, public programs and exhibitions, and more. Fiona has previously worked at the Hollywood Arts Council as the Programs Coordinator, at the Skirball Cultural Center in the Communications and Marketing department, and at Creative Migration, a non-profit organization dedicated to art, social engagement, and sustainable futures. She served as an Arts for LA ACTIVATE Fellow in Cultural Policy for 2016-17. In her spare time, she co-produces and co-hosts Putting Out, a podcast documenting love and relationship experiences of Los Angeles twenty-somethings. Fiona holds a B.A. in Art History with a minor in Education Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles.
    Cristina Balli is a bilingual arts administrator and cultural manager with expertise in Texas-Mexican art and culture. She has directed iconic cultural institutions such as the Narciso Martinez Cultural Arts Center in San Benito, Texas Folklife in Austin, and currently the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center in San Antonio.  Throughout her career she has worked to enrich the lives of communities by presenting culturally-relevant artistic programming while organizing cultural assets that strengthen social and economic infrastructures.  Balli’s specific artistic expertise is in conjunto music, a syncretic south Texas music form involving the accordion and bajo sexto.  In her spare time she likes to study feminine spirituality.
    Co-Director, DNAWORKS, an arts and service organization that uses performance as a catalyst for dialogue and healing, engaging topics of representation, identity and heritage. Directed at: National Theatre of Uganda; Belarussian National Drama Theatre; Market Theatre, S. Africa; Playhouse Square, Cleveland; NYC and DC Hip Hop Theatre Festivals. Choreography/Movement Direction: NY Shakespeare Festival/Shakespeare in the Park; Singapore Repertory Theatre; La Monnaie, Brussels; Maurice Sendak/The Night Kitchen. Other credits: Dramaturgical team for Camille A. Brown & Dancers’ Black Girl: Linguistic Play and ink (Kennedy Center premiere); Associate Director for adaptation of Toni Morrison’s Jazz, Baltimore Center Stage, directed by Kwame Kwei-Armah. Associate Director, Theatre Without Borders.
    Mike Barclay is the Director of Exhibition of the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art (iMOCA). Educational achievements include a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts and Graphic Design from the University of Southern Indiana; a Bachelor’s degree in Art History and Classical Studies from the Herron School of Art and Design; Master’s Degree in Museum Studies from Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis. Barclay serves on the Film Selection Committee for the Indianapolis LGBT Film Festival, was a founding Board Member for Girls Rock! Indianapolis and has collaborated with Indy Pride Inc., the City of Columbus and other organizations and individuals helping them to tell and preserve their stories.
    Producer, Choreographer, Performer, Instructor, & Director of K*STAR*PRODUCTIONS, founded in 1996, a performing arts-presenting organization for the Kendra Kimbrough Dance Ensemble (KKDE) and co-presenter of the Black Choreographers Festival. She has collaborated with bay area notables in dance, theater, and world music and has received many awards through various prominent foundations. She has taught dance to adults and children through Dimension’s Rites of Passage program and Ballet, Modern, Jazz, Pilates and Yoga at San Mateo, Laney and SF City Colleges. Former artist in residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts and CounterPULSE SF. Recently restaged  “In The Meantime” a tribute to breast cancer and is a Theater Bay Area finalist as co-choreographer of Cal Shakes’ ‘black odyssey.’
    Co-Founding Artistic Director of Sandglass, has worked for thirty years as a director, playwright, performer and mask and puppet maker. In 1982, Mr. Bass founded Sandglass Theater in Munich, Germany, with his wife, Ines Zeller Bass. As a director, Eric has worked in America, Australia, Poland, and Finland, as well as the United States. Eric is currently touring in the Sandglass production of D-Generation: An Exaltation of Larks, a piece about people with dementia. He served for five years on the board of the Network of Ensemble Theaters.
    Shoshana refers to herself as one of the “daughters of sand”, and is currently part of the transition of leadership at Sandglass. Having been raised in a traveling family of internationally acclaimed puppeteers, she has spent her life witnessing and in dialogue with artistic voices of diverse cultures, heritages, and perspectives. Her performance mediums range throughout theater, dance, circus and puppetry. Graduate of Naropa University, Shoshana has performed and choreographed in Poland, the Virgin Islands, Germany, and the United States. She currently tours her solo show When I Put On Your Glove, and Sandglass ensemble shows Punschi and Babylon.
    Debra Baxter is a sculptor and jewelry designer who combines carved alabaster with crystals, minerals, metals, and found objects. She received her MFA in Sculpture from Bard College in 2008 and her BFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 1996.
    Baxter’s wearable sculpture piece Devil Horns Crystal Brass Knuckles (Lefty) is in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian
    Baxter’s work has been featured in Zoo Magazine (Germany), Edelweise Magazine (Switzerland), Zink, art ltd., Design Bureau, and Sculpture, Seattle Magazine, as well as hundreds of blogs all over the world. Her work has been exhibited in solo shows including Central Features, Albuquerque, NM; Platform Gallery, Seattle WA; and Debra Baxter, Massimo Audiello,NYC.
    Jeff Becker is a director and designer based in New Orleans who specializes in site-responsive theater with innovative transforming environments. Jeff has worked with theater companies throughout the country and abroad. He is the recipient of numerous awards including an NEA RAP Grant, SURDNA Professional Development Grant. In 2009 he received a Louisiana Division of the Arts Fellowship and a NEA/TCG Career Development Grant. He was also awarded a  MAP grant for Vessels, a collaboration with Rebecca Mwase and Ron Ragan. His current  project “SEA of Common Catastrophe.” received a Creative Capital Project Grant, a NEFA NTP grant and an NPN Creation Fund Award..  Jeff is the co-founder of Catapult, a collective performance laboratory dedicated to nurturing the creation of original theater.
  • Roberto Bedoya
  • Aisha Tandiwe Bell / Show Bio
    Bell’s practice is committed to creating myth & ritual through sculpture, performance, video, sound, drawing & installation. Bell holds a BFA, & MS from Pratt & MFA from Hunter College. Bell received a NYFA in Performance Art/ Multidisciplinary Work & held artist residencies/fellowships at Skowhegan, Corridor Gallery, Abron’s Art Center, LMCC’s Swing & Project Space, Laundromat Project, BRIC & more. She has been a fellow with DVCAI on International Cultural Exchanges (Jamaica 2012, Surinam 2013, Antigua 2014, Guadeloupe 2015 & 17). The Museo De Arte Moderno’s Triennial 2014, The Jamaica Biennial 2014 & 17, The BRIC Biennial 2016, The Venice Biennial 2017, MoCADA, The Rosa Parks Museum, CCCADI, Columbia College, Space One Eleven & Rush Arts are a few spaces where Bell has exhibited.
    Sharon Benítez is the Performing Arts Engagement Coordinator at MACLA/Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana – a contemporary Latino arts space in San José, California. At MACLA she develops the monthly First Friday performing arts series, manages the details of twice annual NPN Residencies, and coordinates community education classes, marketing, and Family Art Days. She graduated from Santa Clara University with degrees in English and Ethnomusicology. She has worked as an arts administrator with Dancers’ Group in SF and as a teaching artist at many Bay Area theaters and public schools. As a Mexican Folk Dancer/Musician, she has taught and performed in the Bay Area, México, Nicaragua, and London. Currently she performs with Los Panaderos and leads Grupo Folklorico Los Quetzales.
    Devon Berkshire and has an expansive background in events, non-profits, and theatre. By 2010 she’d co-founded two production companies, before joining TCG in 2012. With TCG, Devon has produced six National Conferences, and 13 convenings total, in various U.S. cities.; co-launched a Gender Equity Think Tank; and led conversations around parenting in the theatre. Devon joined the Steering Committee of the Parent Artist Advocacy League for the Performing Arts;  blogs at fempresario.wordpress.com; holds a BA from Vassar College and an MFA from the ART Institute/Harvard/MXAT. Devon lives in Brooklyn with her two kids and husband.
    Jesselito Bie (performer) has danced with various companies in San Francisco such as The High Risk Group, Scott Wells and Kathleen Hermesdorf, Stephen Pelton, Kulintang Arts, Potrzebie Dance Project, Onsite Dance Company and Nesting Dolls. He has been the artistic director of STEAMROLLER Dance Company since 1996 and has presented work at the In The Street Festival, Asian American Dance Perfomances, Trolley Dances in San Francisco and Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica. For more on. STEAMROLLER Dance Company, check out the Facebook page: https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=263568340385198&tsid=0.6496863202191889&source=typeahead
    Olive Bieringa is a dance maker, somatic movement educator and therapist, and cultural producer who grew up in Wellington, New Zealand, studied at the European Dance Development Center in the Netherlands and completed her MFA in Performance and New Media from Long Island University in Brooklyn, NY. She is a certified teacher of Body-Mind Centering® and certified DanceAbility teacher, working with performers of all abilities. Together with Otto Ramstad she creates work as the BodyCartography Project whose mission is to engage with the vital materiality of our bodies to create dance in urban, domestic, wild, and social landscapes. They are deeply invested in the power of live performance to facilitate a re-enchantment of embodiment, relationship, and presence.
    Philip Bither has served as Senior Curator of Performing Arts for the Walker Art Center since 1997. At the Walker he oversaw the building of the acclaimed McGuire Theater (opened 2005); raised the Walker’s first dedicated performing arts endowment, commissioned more than 150 new works in dance, music and performance, and has supported dozens of developmental residencies for contemporary performing arts creators. In 2011, he helped found the Institute for Curatorial Practice in Performance (ICPP) graduate program at Wesleyan University and has been a Jerome Foundation Trustee since 2009. He travels globally globally to research new performance and to speak about trends in the contemporary performing arts.
  • Eyenga Bokamba
  • PAUL BONIN-RODRIGUEZ / Show Bio
    For nearly two decades Paul toured the U.S. as a writer-performer and dancer. Currently he teaches arts and culture policy for the Performance as Public Practice program at UT Austin and Chairs the undergraduate Minor in Arts Management and Administration. His 2015 book, Performing Policy, assesses how arts policy research and development initiatives since the1990s have radically reshaped U.S. artists practices. For NPN/VAN, he is currently leading the Knowledge-Building Initiative (KBI), an NEA Our Town-funded study designed to support the capacities of NPN-affiliated cultural professionals to recognize and claim their contributions to community development through networked programming efforts.
    Mary V. Bordeaux (Sicangu/Oglala Lakota) is the co-owner and Creative Director of Racing Magpie, a collaborative space with a Native art gallery and artist studios. She received her BA from the Institute of American Indian Arts and MFA from the University of the Arts both in museum studies with an emphasis in exhibition design and planning. Bordeaux is currently working on her educational doctorate at Saint Mary’s University, exploring Lakota epistemology. Bordeaux has held curatorial positions with The Heritage Center at Red Cloud Indian School and The Indian Museum of North America at Crazy Horse Memorial.
    YETLANEZI is an electro-indigenous musical family ensemble from Tonalá,
    YETLANEZI is composed of two siblings, Ce Acatl and Topiltzin Borsegui,
    who were raised in the indigenous musical tradition of Mexico alongside their
    parents in Huehuetl. With a seasoned repertoire that spans the globe, for the past
    three decades the Borsegui siblings have served as cultural ambassadors of
    indigenous Mexican music as performers, teachers, and artisans specializing in
    millennial Mexican instrumentation. Their musical proposal, YETLANEZI,
    represents a departure from the indigenous base of Huehuetl by moving it forward
    through time and into the present, creating a new generation of indigenous music that is based in today’s electronic world.
    Jessica Borusky is the Artistic Director at Living Arts of Tulsa; a contemporary arts organization that focuses on live/performative art and new genre practices. Jessica holds an MFA degree from Tufts University and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Studio Art with a concentration in Women’s and Gender Studies through the MIT Women’s and Gender Studies Consortium. Jessica has been an independent curator and critical art writer; the curator of public art practices for the Downtown Council and City of Kansas City; and previously taught coursework in performance, new media, digital design, video installation, pubic art practices, communication studies, and gender studies at the University of Missouri Kansas City and the Kansas City Art Institute. Jessica Borusky also generates performative work through video and live installation: more information can be found at www.livingarts.org and www.jessicaborusky.com .
    Loris Bradley is a collaborative producer, independent curator and arts consultant based in Richmond, Virginia and currently Creative Managing Director, company chipaumire. She served as Performing Arts Curator at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, CA; and for nine years she was the Performing Arts Director of DiverseWorks Artspace in Houston, a national non-profit artspace founded in 1983 to support experimentation by individual artists in all arts disciplines. While in Houston she created and curated the DiverseDialogues residency program, commissioning new works in multi-week residencies with artists including Victoria Marks, Pat Graney, Eve Beglarian, Suzan-Lori Parks, Rhodessa Jones, Elia Arce, John Jasperse, Robbie McCauley, and Mary Ellen Strom, among many others.
    As a writer, performer, educator, and musician, Dahlak finds a home for his various disciplines within the world of theatre. Dahlak has been featured on media outlets such as Upworthy and the last two seasons of HBO’s “Russell Simmons’ presents Def Poetry Jam”. Dahlak has worked closely with Rockefeller fellow, Marc Bamuthi Joseph, writing and performing in several of his critically acclaimed plays, including “Word Becomes Flesh” – produced at The Public Theater and The Lincoln Center.  “Spiritrials”, the solo play written, performed and scored by Dahlak, is currently on tour and has been presented at the Kennedy Center.  Through the support of CalArts’ Center for New Performance, Dahlak is collaborating with director Roberta Uno in order to adapt “Spiritrials” into an ensemble musical.
    Brevé is the Director of National Programs at the National Performance Network / Visual Artists Network. She has made her career as a visual artist, media producer, educator and arts administrator. She is a graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Association of Performing Arts Presenter’s Emerging Leaders Institute, and the Interaction Institute for Social Change’s Facilitative Leader Institute. Brevé has served on the Americans for the Arts Emerging Leaders Council, national grants panels, and was a speaker at SphinxCon 2014. She is a community mediator and a participant in the 2017 James P. Shannon Leadership cohort.
    Acclaimed International choreographer and AXIS Artistic Director Marc Brew trained as a professional dancer at the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School and The Australian Ballet School. He has been working in the UK and Internationally for the past 21 years as a director, choreographer, dancer, teacher and speaker; with the Australian Ballet Company, State Theatre Ballet Company of South Africa, Infinity Dance Theatre, CandoCo Dance Company and AXIS Dance Company. Marc was Associate Director with Scottish Dance Theatre, Associate Artistic Director with Ballet Cymru in Wales and was Associate Artist in 2015 at Tramway Theatre in Glasgow.Since 2008 Marc has dedicated time to his own choreography with Marc Brew Company. www.marcbrew.com
    A Doris Duke Performing Artist, Sharon is a writer that collaborates with actors, dancers, singers and audiences live during performance as she composes moving soundscapes of her non-linear texts. A New Dramatists alumnae, Sharon has received funding from The Whitman Institute, Creative Capital, and MAP Fund. A touring artist since 1991, Sharon’s work has been presented nationally at venues including: New York’s SummerStage Festival; Pillsbury House Theatre; Links Hall; and the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival. Sharon is Artist In-Residence at Thousand Currents – an organization that supports grassroots, community based projects lead by women, youth and indigenous people in the global south. The National Performance Network has supported Sharon’s work since 1993.
    Betsey Brock is Executive Director of On The Boards. Previously she was On the Boards Director of Patron Relations, Director of External Relations at Reel Grrls, the Associate Director for Communications and Outreach at the Henry Art Gallery at the University of Washington, and Lecturer at Seattle University in their Masters of Arts Leadership program.She has served on the Board of Directors at the Northwest Film Forum, and serves on the Advisory Boards for Teen Tix and Velocity Dance Center.
    Delina Patrice Books is a writer, producer, and performing artist, and Founder & Director of DelinaDream Productions. Her work has been commissioned by the AfroSolo Festival, YBCAway Program, The Black Choreographers Festival, Dance Brigade’s D.I.R.T Festival, Kendra Kimbrough Dance Ensemble, and University of Wisconsin: Madison’s Filipino American Student Organization among others. Brooks also facilitates community events including Writing Workshops for adults and youth, and the annual “Africa in Oakland” Dance Zone at the Life is Living Festival. Visit her at www.delinadream.com. Current projects include Izzie-Award “An Open Love Letter to Black Fathers” (dance-theater), Bare Soles Bare Soul (film), and “Seeds of Peace”, originally commissioned by AfroSolo (dance-theater).
    A break out star in San Francisco’s thriving theater scene, Echo Brown has been featured in the San Francisco Chronicle, the Oakland Tribune, and KQED. After her mega-hit one-woman show, Black Virgins Are Not for Hipsters, which played to sold out houses in San Francisco, Berkeley, and Oakland for 2.5 years, Echo attracted the attention of casting directors, literary agencies, and international audiences in Dublin, Ireland and Berlin, Germany.Echo currently splits her time between Paris and California. She is currently working on a book and a TV Pilot.
    Multi-Disciplinary, Activist Curator making space for often marginalized communities and artists.
    John Caldon is excited to bring “Mommy Queerest” to NPN’s Live & On Stage. A San Francisco based playwright and director, John’s work has been seen in the National Queer Arts Festival, New York International Fringe Festival, Frigid Festival, United Solo and Fundy Fringe Festival, as well as at The EXIT Theatre, Bindlestiff Studio, The SF Playhouse, The Thick House, Mama Calizo’s Voice Factory, The Box, the Manhattan Theatre Source and The Theatre Offensive. John is a graduate of San Francisco State University’s Creative Writing program and the Professional Program in Screenwriting at the University of California Los Angeles.
    Suzanne founded Callahan Consulting for the Arts in 1996, serving arts organizations and funders through planning, fundraising, and evaluation. She facilitated NPN’s 2012 planning process and manages Dance/USA’s Engaging Dance Audiences program. Clients include funders and associations.  Her firm developed culturally responsive evaluation tools for arts-social impact projects.  Her book Singing Our Praises: Case Studies in the Arts of Evaluation featured NPN Partners and won a national award.  She worked at the NEA, funding choreographers, service organizations and presenters. Her firm conducted national studies on dance and/or technology for the Mellon Foundation, The Pew Charitable Trusts and Chicago Community Trust.
    Phil is the best Board President in the history of arts nonprofits.
    Octavio Campos is a Cuban-American, dance theater artist, inspiration agent and subversive entertainer with BFA from SUNY Purchase, Folkwang School of Pina Bausch,  and the Devos Institute of Arts Management. He has performed within the works of Robert Wilson, Philip Glass, Cirque du Solei,to name a few.   He has been awarded many NPN residency’s,  namely with the PS 122, Theater Offensive, MACLA, Diverse Works and Miami Light Project.   Currently Octavio is SERIOUSLY LOOKING OUT WEST to bring his magic and talents to organization’s in and out of the NPN network.  He is wrapping up touring Europe with BodyTalk’s one man show: America’s Next President and continues to offer movement interventions at the United Nations supporting the Global Goals initiatives. HELP ME FIND A COWBOY.
    Nichole Canuso is a movement artist experimenting with the participation of audience bodies, personal narratives and a cross-pollination of artistic mediums. Recent projects include “Pandæmonium” (2016), a cinematic work of recorded and live movement, presented at New York Live Arts and “The Garden of Forking Paths” (2017), an embodied experience for groups of six audience members who are guided via instructions on headsets. Canuso founded NCDC in 2004 and currently serves on the faculty at Pig Iron School for Advanced Performance Training. Residencies include Maggie Alessee National Center for Choreography, Budapest Workshop Foundation, Millay Colony for the Arts. She is 2017 Pew Fellow.
    Madison Cario is Director of the Office of the Arts at Georgia Tech, which endeavors to embed creative experiences into the lives and learning of Georgia Tech students, the broader campus community, and the Atlanta community. Cario serves as a National Dance Project advisor, and is on the Board of Directors at Dashboard Co-op Gallery and the Alliance Theatre Company in Atlanta.  Cario recently received the Georgia Tech Award for Staff Performance in Entrepreneurship and the Georgia Tech Diversity Champion Award. She is a frequent panelist and keynote speaker.
  • Brad Carlin
  • Yolanda Cesta Cursach / Show Bio
    Yolanda curates theater, dance and music; international exchanges; commissioned residencies; and touring of work for MCA. Recent appointments: Advisor, Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography Forward Dialogues Residency (2017-2018); US Curator, Southern Exposure: Performing Arts of Latin America Program, appointed by National Endowment for the Arts (2015-2017); Board member, National Performance Network (2009-2015); Curator, NPN International Programs; Hub Site, National Dance Project New England Foundation for the Arts (2012-2015); Panelist, NEA, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Creative Capital, MAP Fund, CalArts Herb Alpert Award; Consortium Member, Chicago Dancemakers Forum; Chair, Advisory Committee, Chicago Cultural Accessibility Consortium; Board member, 6018NORTH.
    Leilani Chan’s newest work “Masters of the Currents,” was presented recently at the Honolulu Theatre for Youth for over 6000 students and will tour in Spring 2018 to the Maui Arts and Cultural Center and the University of Hawai’i, Hilo Performing Arts Center. This new work is being developed through a New England Foundation for the Arts – National Theater Project award to work with the Micronesian community in Hawai’i and her 4th Performance Network Creation Fund. Her previous project “Global Taxi Driver,” explored immigration and mobility in the 21st century. Leilani is co-creator of “Refugee Nation,” the first nationally touring play about Laotian refugees in the U.S. Leilani is the Founding Artistic Director of TeAda Productions www.teada.org.
    Ananya Chatterjea is a choreographer, dancer, and thinker who interweaves Contemporary Indian dance, social justice choreography, and a philosophy of #occupydance. She is Artistic Director of Ananya Dance Theatre, a Twin Cities-based professional dance company of women artists of color. The company’s work, described as “people powered dances of transformation,” includes concert performances and participatory performances in non-traditional spaces, where audiences become co-creators in movement installations. Ananya is the recipient of a 2011 Guggenheim Choreography Fellowship, a 2012 McKnight Choreography Fellowship, and a 2016 Joyce Award (with The O’Shaughnessy Theater). She is currently writing her second book reframing Contemporary Dance from the perspectives of IPOC dance-makers.
    Benjamin Cheney is a dancer. He is deeply interested the connection to land through his hands. He is searching to expand his ability to listen to and exchange gifts with ecology as a way to build a rooted sense of community.
  • Dawn Chirwa
  • Thomas Clareson / Show Bio
    Tom Clareson is Senior Consultant, Digital & Preservation Services, LYRASIS, and Project Director for Performing Arts Readiness. He consults on preservation, disaster preparedness, digitization/digital preservation, and grant writing for cultural heritage and arts organizations.
  • Harold Ellis Clark
  • Jonathan Clark  / Show Bio
    Multidisciplinary Artist, Activist and Executive Support Manager at The Carpetbag Theatre, Jonathan Clark, also know as “Courageous,” is a native of Knoxville, TN and Alumnus of the University of Tennessee. His professional performance career began at the age of 13 with Carpetbag’s Youth Theatre Ensemble and has remained a performing artist ever since.”Courageous” is writer, playwright, director, event host, actor, digital storyteller and spoken word poet. Most recently, he was selected for two prestigious fellowship opportunities; The National Institute for Directing & Ensemble Creation: Next Generation, presented by Pangea World Theater and Art2Action, and the Intercultural Leadership Institute, presented by Alternate ROOTS, NALAC, the PA’I Foundation and the First People’s Fund.
    Jackie Clay, is a writer and curator. A graduate from California College of the Arts with dual-interdisciplinary degrees, her intellectual practice centers on black visual culture. An Alabama native, she believes art and art institutions should service their publics, and organizations should encourage or sustain collective community health. She continues the Coleman Center’s rigorous program of artist driven, collaborative public works, and structural experimentation.
  • Steffani Clemons
  • Jevon Collins / Show Bio
    Jevon Collins is the Performing Arts Director at The King Arts Complex in Columbus, Ohio.  He serves on the Board of Directors for the National Performance Network/Visual Artists Network. He has served as a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ohio Arts Council and the Cuyahoga Arts Council. Jevon is a Certified Tourism Ambassador that serves on the Board of Governors for The Ohio State University – Black Alumni Society & The Ohio State University – College of Arts & Sciences: Town & Gown Committee.  He is a founding member of the Next Gen National Arts Network and the Columbus Artist Network.  Jevon has also served on The Wexner Center for the Arts – GenWex Advisory Committee, City of Columbus African American Cultural Festival & Columbus Urban League Young Professionals.
    Alvan has been with Pregones Theater for over 30 years. He has participated in the development of all of the company’s major productions. He currently the yearly music series March is Music.
    Ryan Conarro is a theater maker, arts educator, and facilitator of community engagement. He is Artistic Collaborator in Residence and Education & Community Projects Associate at Ping Chong + Company. He has lived and made work in Alaska since 2001, including long-time collaborations with Perseverance Theatre, Alaska State Council on the Arts, Alaska Arts Education Consortium, KNOM, KTOO, and the Kennedy Center Partners In Education Program. He’s a Resident Artist with international ensemble Theater Mitu and a teaching artist for Maine’s Deer Isle-Stonington Schools. Recognitions include the Rasmuson Foundation Individual Artist Award, the Connie Boochever Fellowship, the Ann Shaw Fellowship for Arts Education, and three Alaska Broadcasters Association Goldie Awards.
    Rachel Cook is a Curator at DiverseWorks in Houston. Her curatorial work reconsiders the relationship between images and objects, and investigates methods of delegation that are embedded within performative and participatory work. While at DiverseWorks, she organized commissioned projects by Keren Cytter, Danielle Dean, Tony Feher, Oliver Herring, Chelsea Knight, Liz Magic Laser, Kristin Lucas, Pepe Mar, Heather and Ivan Morison, Sheila Pepe, Sondra Perry, Mark Tribe, and Wu Tsang. Cook worked for dOCUMENTA(13)’s publication team, and was a fellow for the International Studio & Curatorial Program in New York. Cook holds a MA from the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College and a BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. Also she is the Guest Editor of Art Lies for Gulf Coast.
    Joseph Copley has been Company Manager of ODC/Dance for 4 years. Previous to ODC he held similar positions at Amy Seiwert’s Imagery, Dance Through Time, and other cultural institutions. His dancing career included Oakland Ballet, San Francisco Opera Ballet, Margaret Jenkins Dance Company and many others. The San Francisco Department of Public Health awarded Joseph for “outstanding leadership in the community that will help end the HIV epidemic”. He is on many panels & boards including Isadora Duncan Dance Awards Committee, Dance USA Arts Managers Council, WAA, and other cultural committees within the field. He is particularly interested in advancing the visibility of LGBTQ+ artists and issues nationally and internationally.
    Chris Cowden has served as the Executive Director of Women & Their Work for a long time. Based in Austin (not to be confused with Texas), Women & Their Work encourages artists to create new work in visual and performing art and has been a member of NPN since its founding.   During this time, Cowden has worked with over 1500 visual and performing artists, helping to bring the work of women to a national audience and working with many others to develop Austin as a vibrant, cultural center.
    An arts administrator for over 25 years, Allison Coyne Carroll is the director of Middlebury College’s Performing Arts Series, currently celebrating its 98th season. The series, renowned for its classical chamber music programming, is expanding under Allison’s leadership to present more jazz, folk, and new music, dance, theatre, and world arts. Allison advocates regularly for cultural diplomacy and specifically for improving U.S. visa and taxation policies for foreign artists.
  • Amorette Crespo
  • Rondell Crier / Show Bio
    Rondell Crier is a hybrid-creative working at the cross section of art, civic engagement, and community leadership. He began his career in New Orleans, through a local youth arts organization, YAYA. There he worked on various commission projects and received opportunities to travel and exhibit in Japan, Germany, Italy, New York, Holland, and numerous cities across the States, and later served as Creative Director for 11 years. He currently lives in Chattanooga, TN, where his public art sculptures, murals, installations, and community projects contribute to the city’s creative vibrancy. Rondell has public art sculptures in the city’s collection and has exhibited work in Detroit, Houston, New Orleans, Chattanooga, and Miami, and continues to make investments in people through creativity.
    Leah Crosby (BFA, CYT) graduated summa cum laude from Ohio University’s Honors Tutorial College. Her choreography has been performed at Triskelion Arts in Brooklyn, The Yard, ACDFA East Central, Ohio University, Wilson College, Alfred University, and many nontraditional spaces.
    Leah lives on Martha’s Vineyard where she teaches creative dance to islanders of all ages (literally) as The Yard’s MAKING IT Artist Educator. She is half of the creative partnership LanDforms, which makes sometimes funny, usually tragic, always unusual performative work. Leah plays highly distorted violin, an antique keyboard, and sings back-up vocals with the band Nina Violet and the Showtimes.
    Sage Crump is a culture strategist who seeks to expand and deepen the work of artists, cultural workers and arts organization in social justice organizing. Based in in New Orleans but working nationally, she believes in leveraging art, creative practice and the cultural sector to transform systemic oppressions.  Sage is currently Program Specialist for Leveraging a Network for Equity at NPN/VAN and a member of Complex Movements, an artist collective that uses art, complex sciences and technology to support community organizing.  She is board member for the Center for Media Justice, Art2Action and a member of Alternate ROOTS.
    Shoshona Currier brings nearly twenty years of experience in the contemporary performance field to her new role as Director of the Bates Dance Festival. She is the previous Director of Performing Arts for the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. In her five years with that department she was integral in the development and integration of dance and theater into Chicago’s civic programming. Prior to her role at DCASE, Ms. Currier served in Producer positions at Dance New Amsterdam and Performance Space 122 in New York City. Shoshona holds degrees from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, and the New School University and was a member of the inaugural class of the Institute for Curatorial Practice in Performance at Wesleyan University.
    Laura is the Grant Program Manager for the Arts & Civic Engagement Department at Burning Man. She plays a key role in administering and developing the grant­making functions and capabilities of Burning Man. She has a leadership role with the Global Art Grant program and is also a support for the Temple Grant, BRC Honoraria, and Burners Without Borders grant managers.
    Shannon leads the Cultural Affairs Division for the City of Santa Monica, where she works to integrate the arts into all aspects of life in the community. She was previously the Executive Director of the Alaska State Council on the Arts. While there, she re-imagined and re-invigorated the leadership role of the agency in state policy, from tourism and economic development to education and Alaska Native cultural advancement. Prior to moving to Alaska, Daut was Deputy Director of the Western States Arts Federation (WESTAF), where she oversaw the organization’s work in the areas of cultural policy and technology. Daut has served on the boards of the National Performance Network/Visual Arts Network, the Association of Performing Arts Presenters and WESTAF.
    Ashley Walden Davis is the Managing Director at Alternate ROOTS and oversees the day-to-day activities of the staff, and operations, while working to achieve the long range goals and objectives of the organizational strategic plan, grounded in the ROOTS mission. ROOTS is a Southern based regional arts service organization with 40 years of history. As a member-driven national resource for artists and cultural organizers, we seek to champion social and economic justice and the work of people in our field. Ashley, a North Carolina native, is an arts administrator, theater manager, mommy and wife with an affinity for working with community. Ashley is an APAP Leadership Fellow and leader of Next Gen National Arts Network. Education: Calarts MFA Producing and Old Dominion University BA Theatre
    Thalma de Freitas is a public figure in her homeland. Afro-Brazilian actress + singer-songwriter with over 20 years of acting in a variety of TV shows and performing her smooth samba-jazz in major venues and festivals. Living in Los Angeles since 2012, Mrs. Freitas is the founder and creative director of agency Brazilla Music Collective, a cultural machine dedicated to promote Brazilian excellence in west coast.  www.thalmadefreitas.com | www.brazillamusic.com”
  • MARÍA DE LA ROSA
  • Frederick Delahoussaye
  • Ryan Dennis / Show Bio
    Ryan N. Dennis is the Public Art Director and Curator at Project Row Houses in Houston, Texas. Her work focuses on African-American contemporary art with a particular focus on socially engaged practices, site-specific projects, and public interventions.
    Celeste Di Iorio is an established, first-class booking agent and manager working over the last 6 years with Cary Morin (The Atoll, Young Ancients, Pura Fe Trio). Celeste has vast experience in both national and international booking to include venues, festivals, and special events. Celeste has routed extensive tours throughout the U.S. and Europe. She has been instrumental in branding and rebranding artists as well as creating many CD release campaigns that have resulted in increased artist visibility, airplay, and CD sales.Celeste’s previous professional life was that of leadership coach and consultant, and educational administrator.  Her background in leading non-profit organizations, leadership development, and organizational development lends many transferable skills as a agent
    SAMMAY is a choreographer/producer and interdisciplinary performance artist of Kapampangan, Ilokano, and Bikol descent who envisions a future in which our indigenous traditions co-exist with(in) our urban landscapes. She invokes performance ritual in which the body is activated as a vessel for intercession and believes her role as kinetic storyteller and healer is ancient medicine from her maternal lineage. SAMMAY is the Founding Artistic Director of URBAN x INDIGENOUS and is presently a Resident Artist with API Cultural Center. She is a three-time recipient of the “Presented by APICC” Artist Award; Featured Artist for APAture 2016: Here; and Performing Diaspora 2016 Artist-in-Residence at CounterPulse. SAMMAY is a proud company member of Hip Hop dance theatre company, Embodiment Project.
    Sean Dorsey is the nation’s first acclaimed transgender contemporary dance choreographer. He has toured his work to 29 cities. Dorsey’s new work BOYS IN TROUBLE is supported by NPN, NDP, Bates Dance Festival, Dance Place, the Queer Cultural Center, 7 Stages, Maui Arts & Cultural Center and Highways Performance Space — and will premiere in April 2018. BOYS IN TROUBLE investigates ‘outsider’ experiences of contemporary American masculinity. In 2018, Dorsey is launching TRANSform Dance, a new national program addressing the crisis of the continued exclusion of trans/GNC people in Dance (contact him for info!). Dorsey’s THE MISSING GENERATION (based on 75 hours of oral history interviews Dorsey recorded with trans/LGBT longtime survivors of the early AIDS epidemic) is now on a 20-city tour.
    Elizabeth Doud is a Miami-based theater artist with a background in creative writing and contemporary performance, and 20 years experience as arts organizer, presenter and educator, with an emphasis on international cultural exchange and climate arts. She has worked extensively in Latin America and the Caribbean in the performing arts, and co-created Climakaze Miami with FUNDarte in 2015, an annual climate performance and dialogue platform. She currently leads the Performing Americas Program of the National Performance Network, while pursuing a Ph.D. in Performing Arts at the Federal University of Bahia, Brazil.   Since 2014, she has organized various forums on cultural collaboration and climate action. Her latest ongoing project is an eco-performance entitled The Mermaid Tear Factory.
    Erin Boberg Doughton is PICA’s Performing Arts Program Director, curating and producing PICA’s performance programs including dance, music, theatre and multi-disciplinary forms as part of PICA’s annual TBA (Time-Based Art) Festival as well as year-round presentations and residencies including the Creative Exchange Lab. She recently served as a Hub Site representative for the National Dance Project (NDP), as a board member of the (NPN) and as a curator for NPN’s Performing Americas Program. She serves on the advisory board for the residency space New Expressive Works and is an Assistant Professor at the Pacific Northwest College of Art where she teaches performance and serves as a mentor for MFA candidates.
    Julieanne Ehre is the founder and the director of Pivot Arts in Chicago. She both leads the organization and curates performances including the Pivot Arts Festival. She was the NEA/TCG New Generations “Future Leaders” Fellow at the Goodman Theatre where she served as producer on Latino Festival. Through TCG, Julieanne served as a delegate to the Santiago a Mil Festival in Chile and the ITI World Theater Congress in Xiamen, China. She was the Artistic Director of Greasy Joan & Co. for five years where she produced and directed critically acclaimed adaptations of classic plays. Ehre holds an MFA from Northwestern University.
    Leatrice Ellzy, a cultural curator, producer, thinker and fan of disruption is the interim executive director of Hammonds House Museum. She has a penchant for pushing the envelope to engage new responses to old questions and solutions to old problems. Her unique skill set has been developed over 28-years of migrating through non-profit management and development, broadcast, media relations, arts presenting and technology. Her arts management and administration experience developed through work in two major arts institutions, Woodruff Arts Center and the National Black Arts Festival (NBAF). Leatrice is active in the field and is frequently asked to sit on panels, serve on advisory committees and participate in conversations about the state of the arts nationally, regionally and locally.
    Rory Erler Wakemup has 20 years of experience in American Indian arts. As a student, artist, and curator Rory has continually worked at the intersection of contemporary Native arts and community activism. After receiving his BA from the Institute of American Indian Arts and his MFA from the University of Wisconsin, Madison Rory began his tenure as the Director of All My Relations Arts. As a practicing artist, he also manages Wakemup Productions, a collective of artists working to bring art therapy and “funktavism”, or “fun activism”, to indigenous communities.
    Kat Evasco is writer, stand up comedian, and performance artist living and working in the San Francisco Bay Area. She has performed at venues including the Haha Cafe, San Jose Improv, the Purple Onion, Napa Valley Opera House, Logan Center for the Arts, Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, and FringeArts. Evasco is best known for her touring autobiographical one-woman show, Mommy Queerest. Her current projects include Prieto written and performed by, Yosimar Reyes; Locus of Control written and performed by Jason Bayani; co-director of the Resilience Archives, a collection of memories and historical moments centered on  the LGBTQ Asian American Pacific Islander community. She holds a BA in Asian American Studies from San Francisco State University.
    Laura Faure has just retired as the Director of the Bates Dance Festival at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, a position she held for 30 years. During her tenure she developed the Festival into an internationally acclaimed contemporary dance program known for its artistic excellence, curatorial vision, and commitment to building community through dance. A former dancer, choreographer and teacher with thirty-six years of experience in the field of dance, Ms. Faure also works as an independent producer/curator and consultant helping artists advance their work.  She has served as a panelist, project coordinator and consultant for the federal, regional, and state agencies as well as for many foundations, and individual artists and arts groups.
    Ms. Feder oversees grantmaking for performing arts and related organizations, helps develop new initiatives, and works closely with other programs on grants of overlapping areas of interest. Before joining the Foundation, as vice president of the music publishing firm G. Schirmer, Inc., she spent 20 years developing the careers of many leading composers in the United States, Europe, and the former Soviet Union.  Earlier in her career she was editorial coordinator of The New Grove Dictionary of American Music, program editor at the San Francisco Symphony, and a freelance writer on music.  A graduate of Princeton University, she serves on the university’s Music Department Advisory Council and the Alumni Schools Committee.  Feder also received an MA in the history and literature of music
  • Jaime Fennelly
  • Ana Fernandez / Show Bio
    I learned to see and experience the world growing up in Mexico.
    Now, as a citizen of this earth, I choose to spend half my in water, mostly surfing, because the sea awakens me to different parts of myself. It teaches me to listen to it carefully so I can dance and battle with it more gracefully.
    In turn, when I am on land, I do the same, except I attempt to keep making those waves, creating swells of feelings within people that move them to think critically or instigate a new way of seeing.
    Star Finch is a proud second- generation San Franciscan trying her best to hold ground amid the erasure of gentrification. Her play, “H.O.M.E. (Hookers on Mars Eventually)” was produced by Campo Santo Theater Company in 2016. In August 2017 she contributed to the Campo Santo and Rashad Pridgen collaborative performance piece, “Ethos de Masquerade.” In January 2018 AlterTheater will remount their production of her play, “Bondage” (Princess Grace Award semi-finalist) at A.C.T.’s Costume Shop.
    Finch is excited to be an inaugural cohort in Crowded Fire’s R&D LAB 2017. She is currently working on a new play for Campo Santo slated for production in 2019.
    Finch holds an MA in Creative Writing and a BA in Anthropology, both from San Francisco State.
    Randal is the Producing Director of the ’62 Center at Williams. He has served as the President of the New England Presenters, advisory board for Vermont Performance Lab, and the board of directors for the José Limón Dance Foundation where he was also the Executive Director. Prior to Limón Randal worked for Goldman Sachs as a project manager building trading floors in New York and Europe. Randal is a graduate of the Kennedy Center Fellowship and Wesleyan’s ICPP.
    In his creative practice as a spoken word artist, poet, playwright and performer, Paul S. Flores explores the intersection of urban culture, Hip-Hop, and transnational identity. His latest theater works include On The Hill: I AM ALEX NIETO (2016), PLACAS: The Most Dangerous Tattoo (2012), You’re Gonna Cry (2011), and REPRESENTA! (2007). He is a 2015 Doris Duke Performing Artist, 2014 KQED Hispanic Heritage Local Hero, and 2011 San Francisco Weekly Best Politically Active Hip-Hop Performance Artist. Support for his work includes the MAP Fund, Gerbode, Hewlett Foundation Theater Commission Award, National Performance Network Creation Fund, NEA Theater grant, Creative Work Fund, and NALAC Individual Artist Award. He is an adjunct theater professor Theater at the University of San Francisco.
    Evelyn Francis is a theatre artist, educator and administrator that joined TTO as lead teaching artist for True Colors: OUT Youth Theater in 2001. She was promoted in 2010 to oversee all elements of TTO’s OUT in Your Neighborhood strategy. As a co-author of the Boston Youth Arts Evaluation Project, Evelyn developed a set of evaluative tools which are utilized across the continent.  Evelyn also served as the lead researcher with the Boston Children’s Hospital studying the effect of LGBTQ-specific theater as an intervention for low self-esteem and depression in LGBTQ youth.  She is the Founding Co-Chair of The Pride Youth Theater Alliance, and in 2016, Evelyn accepted the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award from First Lady Michelle Obama on behalf of True Colors.
    Brit Frazier is a Bay Area actor,director, playwright and teaching artist. She has creatively collaborated as an actor with: Campo Santo Theater Co., Cuttingball Theatre, The Shotgun Players, Brava: Theater for Women, The Ubuntu Theater Project ,The Marin Theater Company ,The San Francisco International Arts Festival, Berkeley Repertory Theatre , The San Francisco Playhouse and ACT’s Strand . Most recently she played Hedda in Hedda Gabler at The CuttingBall Theater SF, directed by Yuri Urnov and Woman #2 in HOME by Samm Art Williams at the Lorraine Hansberry Theater. As a teaching artist, Brit has directed for Disney Theatrical NY and Bay Area Children’s Theater as a part of their Disney Musicals in Schools Program, Cal Shakes and ACT. Currently she is an Artistic Cohort at YBCA,SF.
    Eric Fredericksen is the Public Art Program Manager for the City of Vancouver, BC. Since 1991, Vancouver’s public art program has used City capital funds, grants, and private development requirements to build a robust collection of permanent works, along with temporary projects and community-engaged work. Previously the Waterfront Program Art Manager for the City of Seattle, Fredericksen commissioned artists including Ann Hamilton, Oscar Tuazon and Buster Simpson to create permanent works for Seattle’s Central Waterfront. Working with the Seattle collectors Bill and Ruth True, he was the founding director of the exhibition space Western Bridge, 2003-2012.
    Asia was born in Mexico and raised with a subsistence lifestyle in Alaska. After graduating from Yale College, international travel and volunteer work inspired her to deepen the ways in which we can exchange and explore the arts as a shared language of a global community. When Asia returned to Alaska in 1992 she co-founded Bunnell Street Arts Center, Alaska’s longest-lived independent arts center. In addition to dozens of residencies, workshops and symposia, she has curated hundreds of exhibitions including the nationally-touring exhibit, Decolonizing Alaska. Asia is an adjunct instructor in Art for the University of Alaska since 1999, and as a volunteer for Alaska-based cultural initiatives.
    DAN FROOT is a Bessie Award-winning performance artist who has collaborated with such artists as Yoshiko Chuma, Ping Chong, Dan Hurlin, Ralph Lemon, Guy Klucevsek, and Victoria Marks. He and choreographer David Dorfman, created “Live Sax Acts,” a series of interdisciplinary duets they have performed on five continents. His current project, “Pang!,” is a triptych of short radio plays based on oral histories of families living with hunger in Miami, Cedar Rapids and Los Angeles. He has been a Fellow at MacDowell Colony and a Knight Foundation Artist In Residence at Miami Light Project, and teaches creative process and business of the arts at UCLA.
    Nathaniel Fuentes is a producer with the company Rezonate Art, LLC and the non-profit, REZILIENCE Indigenous Arts Experience. Nathaniel’s 15 years of experience with business and event planning contributed to establishing the two-day REZILIENCE festival, an event that focuses on sharing Art, Education, Wellness and Technology programs. Nathaniel’s role as the “VOICE” Producer has him overseeing all performance programming and managing the logistics for the VOICE section of REZILIENCE event. In its first two years, REZILIENCE has featured all-star indigenous dance performers and music artists from various parts of the globe, in genres ranging from Hip Hop and Rock to traditional styles of song and dance.
    Michelle Fujii is Co-Director of Unit Souzou, a contemporary taiko ensemble based in Portland, Oregon. She creates contemporary work through the art forms of taiko and Japanese folk dance, placing traditional ethnic art within the present. Prior to founding Unit Souzou, she has worked with taiko groups, On Ensemble, TAIKOPROJECT and Portland Taiko. With a degree in Ethnomusicology from UCLA, Michelle began her taiko career as a performing member of San Jose Taiko. She went on to win a Japanese fellowship to study with Warabi-za, Japan’s foremost traditional folk dance troupe. Michelle has been a taiko educator for over 20 years is a community leader serving on the resource council for New Expressive Works and as a fellow with the Asian Pacific America Women’s Leadership Institute.
  • Colleen Furukawa
  • Anna Gallagher-Ross / Show Bio
    Anna Gallagher-Ross is a curator at Fusebox Festival, Austin. Most recently, she was editor of aCCeSsions online journal of curatorial studies, curatorial fellow for the Live Arts Bard Biennial We’re Watching at the Fisher Center for Performing Arts, and curator of the exhibition and performance Whispers in the Grass: The Living Theatre and The Brig (Hessel Museum of Art). Her writing and interviews have appeared in C Magazine, the Walker Art Center Reader, Theater magazine, and other places. She is a graduate of Bard College’s graduate program in curatorial studies.
    “Whether retelling myths of being carried off or tales of contemporary transportings played out on the L.A. landscape, Gamson has the charm of the campfire storyteller or tribal griot, interweaving circuitous tales with movement, music, words and stagecraft. …this choreographic provocoteur and her superb collaborators should not be missed.” – Ann Haskins, LA Weekly”Visual splendor is a welcome component of the pieces created by Rosanna Gamson…”  – Lewis Segal, Los Angeles Times”The choreography and music are gripping, the company is impressive and the uses of mixed-media are meaningful.”   –Mark Swed, Los Angeles TimesSee more here: http://www.rosannagamsonworldwide.org/about/

    Olga Garay-English has been an independent arts consultant since 2014. During this period, she has worked with organizations and individuals such City of Los Angeles Councilman Tom LaBonge; UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance; Emerson College Office of the Arts; Fundación Santiago a Mil in Chile; California Institute for the Arts (CalArts; the Ford Foundation; and France Los Angeles Foundation (FLAX). She was recently appointed Interim Executive Director of the Ford Theatres in the Hollywood Hills.From 2007 to 2014, Olga was Executive Director of the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) where she managed a $50-million budget portfolio in FY13/14. She was Founding Program Director for the Arts for the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (1998-2005).

    I’m aligned with Highways’ commitment to diversity, to the development of new works, to the exploration of new forms of performance, and to our commitment to the First Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. I continue to facilitate artistic expression in a supportive, non-elitist, non-judgmental, non-dogmatic way. At Highways, I believe that we contribute to culture and society by affecting progressive change through performance. There’s no place I’d rather be.
    Eric Garcia is the Co-Artistic Director of detour dance. He is a choreographer, performer, filmmaker, teacher, and activist whose feet are deeply rooted in the Bay Area. He proudly serves as Production Coordinator with Fresh Meat Productions, Sean Dorsey Dance, and the San Francisco Transgender Film Festival. He has previously served as a Development Associate for Quinn Associates, and has held administrative/production positions for artists and organizations such as Dancers’ Group, Z Space, and CounterPULSE. He was the Spring 2017 choreographer-in-residence at the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance and a 2016-17 Emerging Arts Professionals SF/BA Fellow. He is the recipient of the 2017 CHIME Award with Margaret Jenkins Dance Company.
  • Tony Garcia
  • Stephanie García / Show Bio
    Mexico City (May 28th, 1987).Bachelor in Contemporary Dance (INBA) and Bachelor in Cultural Management (UDG). García is a performer, choreographer, performing arts director, cultural manager and Co founder of Sur Oeste Arte Escénico AC in 2010. Since then, Stephanie has been Director of  Management and Strategy Departments. She has worked consultancy with several Mexican companies and individuals in restructuring, capitalization, developing and designing of cultural and art projects, that has helped to create a solid framework aimed to professionalizing and promotion of dance.At 30 years old and with 13 years dance and arts administration experience, Stephanie has been considered by the press to be one of the best dancers in Mexico.
  • Mica Garcia de Benavidez
  • Jennifer Gardner / Show Bio
    Jenn Gardner has been with DiverseWorks since 2012, and Deputy Director since 2015. Prior to that, she held positions in education and development at Arthouse in Austin, TX (now the Contemporary Austin).
  • Addam Garrett
  • Eureka Gilkey / Show Bio
    Eureka Gilkey serves as Executive Director of PRH, a unique experiment in activating the intersections between art, historic preservation, affordable and innovative housing, community relations and development, neighborhood revitalization, and human empowerment. Gilkey’s tenure began in 2015 and her work has advanced the realization of PRH’s strategic planning goals and organizational development in significant ways. Under Gilkey’s leadership, board membership has increased by 50%, the number of individual donors has increased by 25%, and the amount of funding allocated for general operating support has increased over $300,000 from the previous fiscal year. Gilkey is a graduate of Howard University and currently resides in Historic Third Ward in Houston, TX.

    Cristal Gonzalez is a first generation Chicana actress, playwright, and director from the small rural town of Watsonville, California. Cristal holds a B.A in Theatre Arts from San Jose University and is a Reed Award recipient for Excellence in Acting. Her first play, “La Sombra,” a solo performance about immigration trauma, loss of innocence, and the cycle of domestic violence, was featured at the LA Women’s Theater Festival. Her first full length play PIERNAS: The Story Between Our Legs is the story of resilience and struggle faced by all families. PIERNAS had a sold out workshop production run at ETC in May 2017. She is a company member of El Teatro Campesino, the oldest Chicano Theater in existence.
  • Claudia Gonzalez-Griffin
  • Kathryn Grabowski
  • Elliat Graney-Saucke / Show Bio
    Elliat Graney-Saucke is a documentary filmmaker, cultural researcher, networker, organizer and curator. Elliat’s MA thesis in World Heritage Studies (Germany) was a case study of NPN and equity in contemporary US performed heritage, leading to her current role as Media Documentation Research Lead on the Knowledge Building Initiative at NPN. Based in Seattle, Elliat owns Elliat Creative LLC, producing videos for organizations, businesses and individual creatives that ‘Document Your Legacy.’ Elliat is President of Seattle Documentary Association and is director of the decade-long documentary film “Boys on the Inside” about ‘boy’ identity in women’s prisons in Washington state. Brought into NPN by Pat Graney Co, Elliat is deeply committed to intergenerational knowledge exchange.
    I am a Washington, DC-based arts administrator and performance maker. As the artistic and community program manager at Dance Place, I coordinate world-class dance performance and community engagement through the performing arts.I manage all production and administrative aspects of programming at Dance Place, including the yearlong Main Stage season and outdoor Art on 8th and 8th St Arts Park community programming.Outside of Dance Place, I work as an assistant producer for independent productions. Recent projects include 20 Rue Jacob, a salon-style queer multimedia performance installation (Mt Rainier, MD, June 2017) and Kitchen Sink Fest, a mega-collaborative one-minute dance festival featuring 22 DC choreographers (Washington, DC, July 2016.)
    Virginia Grise is a recipient of the Whiting Writers’ Award, Princess
    Grace Award in Theatre Directing and the Yale Drama Series Award. Her published work includes Your Healing is Killing Me (Plays Inverse
    Press), blu (Yale University Press), The Panza Monologues co-written
    with Irma Mayorga (University of Texas Press), and an edited volume of Zapatista communiqués titled Conversations with Don Durito
    (Autonomedia Press). She earned her MFA from the California Institute
    of the Arts and currently lives and writes in the Bronx.
  • Sarah Guerra
  • Tom Guralnick
  • Nicole Gurgel-Seefeldt / Show Bio
    Nicole Gurgel-Seefeldt is a poet and performer, as well as the Communications Manager for Alternate ROOTS, a regional non-profit arts organization based in the South supporting artists working at the intersection of arts and social justice. She is currently touring 900 Gallons, a solo performance that traces the subtle and not-so-subtle ways white supremacy is woven into her family’s history. She holds an MFA in Performance as Public Practice from the University of Texas at Austin. Midwestern by birth, she makes her home in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

 

    Peter Hay is a visual artist, conceptual artist, and arts administrator. His personal work is based upon embellishments of current ecological issues, which could be described as environmental realism. Hay received his Associates of Art from Northern Oklahoma College, Bachelors of Art from Northeastern State University, and Master of Fine Arts from Louisiana Tech University, where he held a Full Teaching Assistantship and graduated as an Academic Excellence Honoree. As an arts administrator, Hay was Director of Development and Public Relations for Living Arts of Tulsa and is currently Exhibits Director of Durango Arts Center and owner/artist at Studio & Gallery in Durango, CO. In addition, Hay has completed several murals, worked as a freelance artist, and has participated in multiple
    Rickie Hecht has a degree in video production from SF State and is currently the new business owner of “Landscapes Cafe” in Seattle, WA. Rickie loves some good humor, being around gay men, and good food. This is her first NPN meeting and she is looking forward to supporting the Knowledge Building Initiative (KBI) as a videographer on the documentation team.
    Anjee Helstrup-Alvarez is the Executive Director of MACLA/Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana. She’s led transformative efforts at MACLA to build organizational capacity, secure a permanent facility, launch a youth digital media lab, and deepen engagement programs while ensuring artistic excellence and community relevance. As a lifelong arts advocate she is a frequent advisor to the philanthropic field. Anjee’s areas of expertise include: commissioning new work, capacity building, real estate development, diversity, equity and inclusion, fund development, and creative placemaking. She served on Knight Foundation’s National Arts Advisory Committee from 2012-2015. Anjee earned an MA in Visual Criticism from California College of the Arts and a BFA from San Jose State University.
    Activated by experimental performance practices – in dance, ritual, activism, and teaching – Keith Hennessy engages anarchism, critical whiteness and queered feminist theories & bodies to re-consider socially engaged performance. Member of Sara Shelton Mann’s legendary Contraband (1985-1994). Co-founder of 848 Community Space and CounterPulse. Late blooming MFA and PhD from UC Davis. 2016-17 collaborators include Peaches, Meg Stuart, Jassem Hindi, J Jha, Annie Danger, Gerald Cassel, Scott Wells, and the collaboratives Blank Map and Turbulence. Hennessy tours to a range of social/economic contexts from DIY studio shows to international festivals. Awards include Guggenheim, USArtist, Sui Generis, Bessie, Izzie. 2017 cities include: Moscow, Boston, San Diego, Portland, LA, Warsaw, Vienna…
    Angela Hennessy is an Oakland-based interdisciplinary artist and Associate Professor at California College of the Arts where she teaches courses on visual and cultural narratives of death. Through writing, studio work, and performance her practice examines mythologies of blackness embedded in linguistic metaphors of color and cloth.Hennessy volunteers with hospice and works with families on home funerals, death vigils, and grief rituals. She is certified in the Grief Recovery Method and has trained with Final Passages and the International End of Life Doula Association. She leads death workshops and lectures nationally.
    Cindy Hennessy, Florida Dance Association Board Member- Cindy swam, walked, and then danced, in that order. She earned a BFA in Dance at FSU, and upon graduation worked with Barton Mumaw, exploring the influence of Delsarte principals. In the last 10 years she has focused on Skinner Releasing Technique and improvisation, earning her Skinner Releasing Teacher Certification. Ms. Hennessy is one of the 1997 founders of Moving Current Dance Collective, which to date has, produced over 70 concerts, presenting local and national choreographers, dancers, musicians, poets, actors, and visual artists. Annually with Moving Current she choreographs and conducts residencies. Honors include: Hillsborough County Individual Artist Grant, State Individual Artist fellowship and Tampa Bay Artist of the Year
    F. John Herbert is co-founder and executive director of Legion Arts, an Iowa nonprofit dedicated to contemporary artists, community development, and cultural diversity. Based at CSPS, a renovated Czech social hall in downtown Cedar Rapids, Legion Arts maintains vigorous presenting programs in the visual and performing arts.
    While at Berkeley Rep (eons ago), I received valuable advice from Barney Simon, the South African director. He asked, “Why are you waiting for ‘Them’ to tell you what you can do?”.
    After a serious recalibration, a move from SF to Seattle was made.
    A founding artistic instigator of theater simple, who has toured extensively in Australia and Canada since 1990, creating over 50 productions. The podcast series PARK BENCH debuted in Australia, and currently profiles The Network of Ensemble Theatres in a 5-part look at legacy and future.
    The award-winning original adaptation of THE MASTER & MARGARITA is on currently on the ’18-19 docket, with live music.
  • Rashunda Holloway
  • Krys Holmes / Show Bio
    Poet. Writer. Mountain mama. Alto. Loves “Wings of Desire,” and Maya Angelou. Shattered by that certain blue-black the sky turns in winter, just before dark.
    Tahni Holt is a choreographer and founder and director of FLOCK Dance Center based in Portland OR, who has been creating performances, programing, and community making for the past nineteen years.Holt actively uses her intuition, improvisational forms, collaborations with performers and other makers, her ongoing somatic practice, and any other thing that she obsesses about, to create work. Her work deals with perceptions of both audience and performer-always with the desire to never quite reside in certainty. Much of her work expresses aspects of cultural body, individual body, the projected body, the labored body, the materiality of bodies and potential body with shape shifting expression. Holt’s work holds space for complex organizations of meaning making with the desire to confuse.
    Jake Hooker is a director, writer, projection designer, and educator. He is the co-Director of A Host of People and, in addition to Detroit, his work has been see in NYC, Chicago, New Orleans, San Francisco, Berlin, Seattle, and points in-between. He olds a BFA in Original Works from Cornish College of the Arts, an MA in Performance Studies from the Centre for Performance Research in Wales, and an M.Phil from the CUNY Graduate Center where he is finishing writing his PhD dissertation. Jake is a proud Associate Artist with Target Margin Theater in NYC and teaches theater at Oakland University.
    Heidi S Howard is the AD of 7 Stages. She loves devising, directing new and classic plays, teaching arts-based curriculum, and collaborating with international, national, and local artists. Highlights include Curious Human Encounters, White Woman in Progress with Tara Ochs and Michael Molina’s Mass Transit Muse. She has toured throughout the USA as well as to Israel, The Netherlands, Serbia, and China. She is the founder of Youth Creates, an Artistic Associate w/ Synchronicity, and serves on the Board of Theatre at Emory. She studied at Stetson the Lincoln Center Director’s Lab and the DAH Lab in Serbia. She has received support from TCG, Artslink, the Israel Cultural General and The Netherlands American Foundation to support cultural exchanges. When we create together anything is possible
    Nick joined NPN early this fall as the Convenings Intern to fulfill the program requirements for his Master’s in Arts Administration from University of New Orleans (UNO). Before moving to New Orleans to pursue his Master’s, Nick worked with other internationally-minded arts organizations like Movement Exchange and Playing for Change. Nick is passionate about the ability of the arts to foster conversation, engagement, education, and growth in communities and around the world. This is his first NPN/VAN Conference.
    Director, Actor, Arts Ed. Directing: Perseverance Theatre; Northwest Asian American Theatre; East West Players, Artists At Play, USC; UCI; CSLA. At OSF, FAIR Program, Dramaturgy, and founded the API 2x2 Lab New Works Lab. At CTG,the Front and Center Partnership between Culver HS and Kirk Douglas Theatre and continues work in community partnerships and education programs. Teaching: USC, UCI, EWP, CTG, CSLA, Perseverance Theatre, ACT, Cold Tofu, Chance Theatre, Fitzmaurice Institute. Producer: The 5th CAATA ConFest and international conferences. E/D/I/A: artEquity Team, launch of TCG’s E/D/I Institute. National Cultural Navigation Theatre Project: Founded for the sustainability of theatres and artists of color.
    Alumni: Arts4LA ACTIVATE, FAIR, Fitzmaurice Associate. SDC,AEA, SAG-AFTRA
    Jefferson James attended Juilliard School of Music, Columbia University, & UC-CCM. She founded Contemporary Dance Theater in 1972. During the course of her leadership of Contemporary Dance Theater, Ms. James has presented over 240 dance presentations and overseen numerous productions of new work.
    She has choreography fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Ohio Arts Council.   James received the Scripps-Corbett Lifetime Achievement Award.  Ms. James is co-chair for the Greater Cincinnati Dance Alliance developing strategies to promote and celebrate the diversity of dance in the community.  Jefferson James and Contemporary Dance Theater were recognized by OhioDance as historically valuable assets and are featured in OhioDance’s Virtual Dance Collection online.
    Chloe Jones is Development Coordinator and Associate Producer at The Yard on Martha’s Vineyard. As a dancer and choreographer, she has had the pleasure of performing at The Yard, Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out, Triskelion Arts, Built On Stilts Dance Festival, and Wesleyan University. Her writing has been published by H.O.W. Journal, the MVTimes, Wesleyan’s Center for the Arts, Loam Magazine, and VICE Media’s The Creators Project. She holds a B.A. from Wesleyan University where she was a double major in Dance and Hispanic Literatures and Cultures.
    Holly Jones is the Director of Artist Services/Associate Producer for The Yard as well as a freelance dancer/educator based in NYC/Martha’s Vineyard.  She graduated from Marymount Manhattan College (BFA Dance).  Recent Projects Include: CoreDance, Lori Leshner Dance Project, Fooju, Skint/Caitlin Cook, CDPNYC, & DanceTheYard. Ms. Jones also serves on the board of directors for The Clive Barnes Foundation in New York.
    Carol Katz is a theatre maker, writer, director, and performer living in Los Angeles. She was a member of the Rachel Rosenthal Company and co-founder of movement theatre company, “Gaerung” – named “One to Watch” by LA Weekly.  She has performed with Zoo District/LA and Band of Toughs/Boulder,CO. Her work has been seen at the New York Fringe Festival, REDCAT, and  Bootleg in LA.  She is the writer/director of “Daedalus’ Daughter”, an original movement theatre piece based on a retelling of the Icarus myth from the point of view of his sister.  Choreographer Rosanna Gamson was the physical dramaturge on this project.
    Patrick Kennelly writes, produces, directs, designs, edits and curates for film & video, theater, and the performance and visual arts. In his highly stylized and darkly surreal genre-infused works, Kennelly explores issues of social, cultural and personal identity.Kennelly was a recipient of the Princess Grace Award for Theater, and has received fellowships and grants from the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, the City of Santa Monica, and the Center for Cultural Innovation. He received his BFA in Film/Video at CalArts and an MFA in Theater Direction at UCLA.Kennellys most recent project was the feature film EXCESS FLESH. It premiered at SXSW in March 2015 to much controversy and acclaim. The Daily Beast called it “the most twisted movie at SXSW and of the year.”
  • Kristen Kern
  • Damia Khanboubi / Show Bio
    Born in Casablanca, Morocco and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, Damia Khanboubi has always found herself immersed in the transformative power of culture. Her introduction to her passion work of supporting African & African American culture began over 7 years ago at Ashé Cultural Arts Center, a 19 year-old organization based in Central City in New Orleans, as Executive Assistant to Executive Director & Co-Founder Carol Bebelle. She continues her passion work as Program Associate and Project Manager of the Homecoming Project at Junebug Productions.
    Taous Khazem is an actress, director and teaching artist. She has worked as a theatre artist in Algeria, Morocco, Jordan, Egypt, France and Cameroon in addition to her work in the Twin Cities (Minnesota). She stars in the hit Algerian sit-com Sultan Achour 10 as the ex-Queen Maria. She has self produced three Algerian inspired shows TIZI OUZOU, IN ALGERIA THEY KNOW MY NAME and SUNRISE AT MIDNIGHT. Taous is the recipient of a Jerome Travel/Study Grant, two Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative grants and is a TCG/Fox Fellow this year with Mixed Blood Theater. She trained at the Jacques Lecoq School in Paris, France and holds a BA in Theater and French from Macalester College.
    JANE KIM is an artist, science illustrator and founder of Ink Dwell. Her art career started very early in life by obsessively painting flowers and bears on the walls of her bedroom. She received more formal training at the Rhode Island School of Design and then Cal State Monterey Bay, where she received a Certificate in Science Illustration. Jane loves to be outdoors, on adventures, and brings the joy she gets from nature back to her studio. She has created works for institutions including the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, National Aquarium, de Young Museum, Smithsonian, and Yosemite National Park. She still enjoys painting flowers and bears, though nowadays she doesn’t get in trouble for painting on the walls.
    Benjamin Kimitch Senior Producer at Performance Space 122. Prior to joining the Performance Space 122 team in 2015, he held positions at the Park Avenue Armory, New York Live Arts, and Dance Theater Workshop. Benjamin is also a choreographer whose work has been presented by Danspace Project, The Noguchi Museum, and The Kitchen.
    Cariel Klein has been a part of Double Edge since before she can remember. After performing in the theatre as a child, she left to pursue her degree in Political Performance of the Self at New York University. In 2016, Cariel began her own boutique marketing and IT business, leading to her return to Double Edge as Marketing Director. She also began leading permanent body therapy training for the theatre and incorporated her circus choreography and work as an aerialist in DE’s indoor and outdoor performance work. As of August 2017, Cariel assumed a permanent role as Associate Producer of Double Edge, including involvement with the theatre’s performance, production, and business activities.
    Cutting his teeth in opera and Queer performance, for the past seven years Joel has been the Executive Director of Made in BC, the arts service organization tasked with building markets for BC-based contemporary dance at home and abroad. He is also the board chair of the BC Alliance for Arts and Culture (BC’s primary service and advocacy organization for the arts and culture sector), and the BC representative for the Canadian Arts Coalition, the primary Canadian national arts advocacy organization.He is here representing both Made in BC – Dance on Tour and the West Coast Indie Opera Incubator.
    Drew Klein is Performing Arts Director at the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) in Cincinnati, Ohio. There,
    he curates the Black Box Performing Arts Series, exploring the full spectrum of disciplines. Drew’s curation centers on championing the adventurous within a context that honors the community for which he works. His international program has included national and regional premieres of work by many emerging makers. Joining NPN in 2016, CAC Creation Fund projects include Takahiro Yamamoto’s “Direct Path to Detour”, and Kaneza Schaal’s upcoming “JACK&JILL”. Prior to joining the CAC, Drew worked in the New York independent film world with Cinetic Media and Barcelona-based Garage Films. He holds a BFA in Electronic Media from the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music.
    Autumn Knight is an interdisciplinary artist working with performance, installation and text. Her performance work has been in group exhibitions at various institutions including DiverseWorks Artspace, Art League Houston, Project Row Houses, Blaffer Art Museum, Crystal Bridges Museum, Skowhegan Space (NY), The New Museum, The Contemporary Art Museum Houston, and Krannart Art Museum (IL). Knight has been in residence with with In-Situ (UK), Galveston Artist Residency, YICA (Yamaguchi, Japan) and Artpace (San Antonio, TX).She attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (2016) and holds an M.A. in Drama Therapy from New York University. In 2015, Knight was an Artadia awardee. Knight is one of the 2016-2017 artists in residence at the Studio Museum in Harlem (NY).
    Pam Korza co-directs Animating Democracy, a program of Americans for the Arts that inspires, informs, promotes, and connects arts and culture as potent contributors to community, civic, and social change. She co-wrote Aesthetic Perspectives: Attributes of Excellence in Arts for Change; Civic Dialogue, Arts & Culture, among other publications. Pam was co-chair of the Assessing Practices in Public Scholarship for Imagining America (IA), which advances public scholarship in the humanities, arts, and design and served on IA’s National Advisory Board. Pam began her career with the Arts Extension Service, UMass where coordinated the National Public Art Policy Project and directed the New England Film & Video Festival. She sings badly but with abandon in a community rock choir called Rock Voices
    SHANNON KURASHIGE co-founded S&F in 2011. She has also performed with Liss Fain Dance since joining the company in 2010, and previously worked with Christian Burns (burnsWORK), Alex Ketley (The Foundry), and Amy Seiwert. Shannon attended the North Carolina School of the Arts, where she studied under Melissa Hayden, and graduated from the University of California, Irvine with a BFA in Dance Performance and a minor in biology. She also received extensive training at the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance under the tutelage of Summer Lee Rhatigan. Shannon is also an artist and freelance graphic designer.
    Thomas LaBlanc, Tatanka Ohitika, (Strong Buffalo) is an enrolled member of the Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota, and a decorated Vietnam veteran. He has been writing poetry before there was anything called Native poetry, starting last century. His words, translated in more than 17 languages, 3 published books, 6 CD’s, lectures and performances contribute to a world where we use creativity and options other than war, racism, classism, and exploitation to solve the problems that we all share, by just being alive…
    Cofundadora y directora artística de Teatro Línea de Sombra desde 1995, ha trabajado como actriz en más 30 obras teatrales así como productora de las piezas de la compañía desde ese año.
    Es artista creadora de  montajes escénicos de TLS , las últimas creaciones como  Pequeños Territorios en Reconstrucción , y  Durango66 en su versión de La Brisa con la artista uruguaya Tamara Cubas.
    Curadora  y Productora de Transversales Encuentro Internacional de Escena Contemporánea organizado por la misma compañía.
    Ha participado en diversos jurados, internacionales y nacionales, en mesas de diálogo sobre gestión y producción .
    Actualmente es productora y artista en el proyecto escénico de TLS comisionado por el Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Chicago para su estreno en Octubre del 2018 .
    Justin works as the managing partner of Hillombo LLC, a company “Lifting African descended perspectives, hacking, negotiating & building alternatives to systemic racism & capitalism, in the memory of our ancestors, for the benefit of people of African descent.” Before beginning Hillombo in early 2017, Justin worked for more than a decade as Senior Program Officer for Arts & Culture at The Heinz Endowments & before this was the Asst. Dir. of Nego Gato, Inc, an Afro Brazilian capoeira, music and dance organization. Justin is from Silver Spring MD (with an infant stint in Boston) and has lived in Pittsburgh since coming to Pitt in 1988. He is the dad of Kufere, Etana and Adeyemi & husband of Bonnie & a pretty good 30 minute vegan cook, if he does say so himself.
    I have enjoyed my work in the non profit sector, in education and in the arts. My love of the arts has always been as a participant and as a patron.  Since joining the Hayti Heritage Center staff in 2013, Angela has become even more immersed in cultural arts not only through programs at the Center but through her work on Durham’s Cultural Advisory Board and through partnerships formed with organizations such as the Durham Symphony Orchestra and the North Carolina Central University College of Arts and Sciences. I enjoy reading, following the Pittsburgh Steelers, time with family, being active, and the color purple. I have strong faith and believe in the power of love.   
    Lenora Lee has been a dancer, choreographer, producer and artistic director for the past 20 years in San Francisco, Los Angeles and NYC. She has been an Artist Fellow at the de Young Museum, a Djerassi Resident Artist, a Visiting Scholar at NYU, and a Resident Artist at Idaho State University and Dance Mission Theater. For the last 10 years, she been pushing the envelope of large-scale, site-specific, immersive, and multimedia dance performance that connects various styles of movement and music to culture, history, and human rights issues, inspired by individual stories as well as community strength. Her work has grown to encompass the creation, presentation, and screening of films, museum and gallery installations, civic engagement, and educational programming. www.LenoraLeeDance.com
  • Desiree Lee
  • Ben Levine
  • Cheryl Lewis
  • Daniela Lieja Quintanar / Show Bio
    Daniela Lieja Quintanar (Mexico City, 1984) is a researcher and Curator at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE). She works between Los Angeles and Mexico City, emphasizing contemporary art and curatorial practices that explore the politics and social issues of everyday life. She serves as Project Coordinator and Contributing Curatorial Advisor for Below the Underground: Renegade Art and Action in the 1990s Mexico at the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena. In 2016, she worked with artist Teresa Margolles for her contribution to the Public Art Biennial CURRENT: LA Water. She curated LACE Summer artist residency: Home away from by Jimena Sarno (2017), El Teatro Campesino(1965-1975) at LACE (2017, co-curated with Samantha Gregg), Between Words and Silence: The Work of Translation a
    Have worked in the non profit sector, and at Hayti, for much of my professional life. Outside of work my interests include caning and reading.
    Hanmin Liu is an outsider who discovers how community work on the inside at Wildflowers Institute. He is the author of “In Search of the Informal Capital of Community,” Jossey-Bass (2011) and Sustaining Social Innovation (in progress). His work has been featured in the New York Times article “As Wealth Changes the Tenderloin, a Move to Preserve Artistic ‘Gems'” by Patricia Leigh Brown and the video Tenderloin Artists Unite by NYT videographers Sean Patrick Farrell and Ashley Maas (January 8, 2015). ArtPlace America wrote two blogs on his strategies: “The Healing Power of Arts and Culture” (August 15, 2016) and “Community-Driven and Second Chances” (November 22, 2016). Also see “A Creative Community Discovered” by Jacqueline White, Public Art Forum (issue 56, spring/summer 2017).
    Joyce Lu is a performing artist, director, and educator currently based in LA. She premiered her original work, Grace Needs A Mirror, directed by Barry Shabaka Henley last year at Highways Performance Space. This work deals with institutionalization in America and demonstrates her desire to make performances that heal and promote social change. She has roots in the Bay Area where she was a member of the Living Arts Playback Theater Ensemble and where she still dances with Christine Germain and Dancers. Joyce is also a member of Body Weather Laboratory in LA and has performed in works with them and the Arcane Collective at the RedCat, the Getty and Guggenheim museums and more . . .Joyce is also a certified Feldenkrais Method Practitioner.
    George Lugg has been working in the field of contemporary dance and performance for more than 25 years. He is a co-Director of Los Angeles Performance Practice, a non-profit producing and presenting organization, and program consultant to Kelly Strayhorn Theater in Pittsburgh, PA. He was on the founding team that launched the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater and served as Associate Director of REDCAT for a decade. He served as Associate Producer for both editions of RADAR L.A. (2001, 2014) and as Hub Site Representative for the National Dance Project (2012-14), Lead Program Consultant in the Performing Arts for the Creative Capital Foundation (2011-2012), and on the U.S. curatorial team for the NPN’s Performing Arts Asia Project (2011) and Performing Americas Project (2009-10).
    Alice Ly is an arts administrator and community organizer from the San Jose, CA. She double majored in Sociology and Theatre and Performance Studies at UC Berkeley. She has participated in FAIR, the professional development program at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival as the Audience Development Assistant in 2016. During her time at OSF, she helped organize community gatherings, POC Affinity Company Retreats, CAATA ConFest and CultureFest, and the board of the Travel Professional of Color’s site visit. Other theatres she has worked/interned at include: Impact Theatre, Playwrights Foundation, Cal Performances and Pan Pan Theatre (Dublin, Ireland.)
    Alexis Macnab is a multi-media theatre director working in adaptation, puppetry, dance, site-specific and immersive performance, and stop-motion animation. Her work has been produced internationally and across the U.S. Macnab is Founder and Artistic Director of Chamber Shakespeare, a company bringing intimate adaptations of classic plays into people’s homes. She is Director and Curator of Alexis Macnab Projects (amp) which showcases artists working across disciplines and creates unique themed events bringing together art, science, technology, and performance. Macnab is Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts & Dance at Sonoma State University.
  • Tobiah MacNutt
  • Steve MacQueen
  • Betelhem Makonnen / Show Bio
    Betelhem Makonnen, native of Ethiopia, is an artist curator living and working in Austin, Texas.
    http://www.betelhemmakonnen.com
    https://www.fuseboxfestival.com
    http://icosacollective.com/home.htm
    Now retired, Malina was NPN partner since the 80’s for two organizations, Helena Presents/ Myrna Loy Center (Montana) and Flynn Center for the Performing Arts (Vermont). He is currently involved in some great organizations in Burlington.
    Patricia Maloney, a writer, curator, and educator became the Executive Director of SoEx in 2016, bringing a respected history of creating initiatives, public programming, and coalitions that serve Bay Area visual artists. She founded Art Practical in 2009, became the publisher of the international online art journal Daily Serving in 2013, and in 2014 she forged the partnership between Daily Serving | Art Practical and California College of the Arts. She has been an Associate Professor in Visual and Critical Studies at the California College of the Arts and is a senior correspondent and producer for the weekly contemporary art podcast Bad at Sports.
    For the past thirty years, Nola Mariano has provided administrative, marketing and touring support for contemporary and multicultural visual and performing artists who create work of high artist caliber, deep social import, and wide cultural impact. She has worked in the non-profit sector collaborating with universities, museums, local, national and international performance spaces to provide their communities with culturally enriching experiences. As Co-Director of Circuit Network, she has been instrumental in the commissioning, producing, and touring of dozens of original productions by such preeminent artists as Contraband, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Culture Clash, and James Luna among others.
    Betty Marín is a cultural worker from Wilmington, CA. Her work centers on creating educational spaces that encourage dialogue and solidarity between different communities. She is currently based in her home city of Los Angeles, where she continues to explore the theory and practice of popular education. She is a proud member of the language justice collective Antena LA, the pop ed and research collective School of Echoes, and the Los Angeles Tenants Union, which she helped found in 2015.
    Emily Marks is committed as an artist, curator and producer to reinvigorating work for youth in compelling, adventurous, and meaningful ways. She is a 2017 APAP Arts leadership fellow and recently completed her studies at Wesleyan University’s Institute for Curatorial Practice in Performance. Upcoming projects include developing a docu-performance with Memphis teenagers tracing the legacy of Stax Records, a three-city launch of “Malibu Stacy” which explores gender and identity through re-purposing of 3000 Barbie dolls, and the upcoming national tour of “Petra and The Wolf” featuring puppetry by Glass Half Full Theatre set to a live original score by Mother Falcon. Emily is also proud to be the founder of Girls Rock Camp in Austin, Texas which recently celebrated its tenth anniversary.
    Victoria Marks, an Alpert Award winner, Guggenheim and Rauschenberg Fellow, and Fulbright Distinguished Scholar, has been practicing knowing and unknowing, making dances for stage and film, for the past 37 years. Victoria’s creative work migrates between choreo-portraits and action conversations for individuals who don’t identify as dancers, and dances for dancers that fuel her inquiries into movement. The Truth, a choreographic exercise in lying and sincerity premieres in Arkansas this Fall. Upcoming, Marks and Dan Hurlin re-envision Appalachian Spring. Victoria serves as Associate Dean in UCLA’s School of Arts and Architecture, and as the Chair of UCLA’s Disability Studies minor.
    Marneur was selected as one of the 12 most influential designers in the UK by the Society of British Theatre Designers, representing the UK at the 2011 Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space. In 2007, she received the prestigious Linbury Biennial Prize for Stage Design, the highest award for stage designers in Europe.
    Executive Artistic Director Garance Marneur moved to San Francisco from London, where she founded her production company Garance Marneur Design Studio to take the helm of LEVYdance in 2015 and steward the company into its second decade of artistic excellence, strengthening and expanding current programs, inviting the participation of a greater array of artistic voices and creating new partnerships and community collaborations.
    Shauta Marsh is a co-founder of Big Car Collaborative and the Director of Programming and Exhibitions at their headquarters, Tube Factory artspace. Tube Factory is a 12,000 square foot museum space curated based upon the themes of community, place, memory and mythology. We commission contemporary visual and musical artists, borrow artifact-based exhibits and create community-sourced exhibits.
    2011-2015 Marsh was executive director/curator at the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art (iMOCA). There she curated and/or organized more than 40 exhibitions working with artists like LaToya Ruby Frazier, Toyin Odutola,Richard Mosse,Trenton Doyle Hancock,etc. Since returning to Big Car she has curated six exhibitions including Scott Hocking:RCA, Carlos Rolón/Dzine:50 GRAND, Carl Pope:Mari Evans.
  • Stetson Marshall
  • Candi Martinez Carthen / Show Bio
    Candi Martinez Carthen (her / she) is a veteran Event and Festival Producer, Publicist and Marketing Professional with over twenty years of experience in her beloved trades.She is passionate about bringing people together and has worked with a myriad of organizations including National Recording Academy, East Bay Meditation Center, Youth Speaks and Girls In Tech. In 2015, she was featured in Oakulture Magazine’s “Women Runnin’ It” series and in 2016, she won an Oakland Indie Award for her work in community organizing. She is a 2017 fellow at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and serves as Creative Director / Cultural Advisor for the Laurel Street Fair World Music Festival in Oakland. She is also the Managing Director / General Manager of Embodiment Project.
    Kristin Marting is Co-Founder and Artistic Director of HERE, Founding Co-Director of Prototype and a director of hybrid work. At HERE, she cultivates artists & programs events for 2 performance spaces for an annual NYC audience of 30,000. HERE has garnered 17 OBIEs, 2 OBIE grants, the Ellen Stewart Award, an Edwin Booth Award, 5 Drama Desk nominations, 4 NY Innovative Theatre Awards, a Bessie & a Pulitzer. She co-created HERE’s Artist Residency Program, The American Living Room, NYC’s first summer festival; & Queer@HERE. She was recently named a nytheatre.com Person of the Decade, a Leader to Watch by Art Table and honored with a BAX10 Award. She has created 28 works for the stage, is currently developing Assembled Identity at HERE and recently premiered Silent Voices in BAM’s Opera House.
    Louise Martorano is the Executive Director of RedLine, a non-profit contemporary art center located in Denver, Colorado. RedLine’s mission is to foster education and engagement between artists and communities to create positive social change. Under her leadership, RedLine has received the Denver Mayor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts (2014 & 2015), the Greenway Foundation’s “Partner in Change” award, and recognition from Denver Public Schools for excellence in community engagement. She holds a M.H. from the University of Colorado at Denver with a focus in Contemporary Art History & Music. In 2017, Martorano was awarded a Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Livingston Fellowship for nonprofit leadership.
    I am formerly the Head of Family Programs at the Skirball Cultural Center, recently appointed to Public Programs where I help to oversee programs designed to illuminate cultural connections and bring people of all backgrounds together. My previous experience as a performer and a leader in public education positioned me to be a programmer in the arts, where building and strengthening community is my passion. The Skirball is guided by the Jewish tradition of welcoming the stranger, and aspires to help create a more just society–a mission that I am honored to be a part of.
    Kristine Mays is an sculptural wire artist living and working out of San Francisco. She breathes life into wire by creating garments from thousands of pieces of wire hooked and looped together,ultimately revealing an invisible occupant. Her work explores themes of women’s rights,humanity and social justice.
    Bernardo Mazón is a native to bordertown Chula Vista, California. He was born of Mexican parents and Lebanese grandparents. He recently graduated from San Diego State University in double honors for Literature and Theatre Performance. While in school, Bernardo worked outside as a performer, director, dramaturg, educator, and producer. He is currently the Literary Resident at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival through the FAIR program as an emerging professional artist and leader. Bernardo is driven to create and participate in arts that brings different peoples together. His focuses are in the craft of storytelling as well as the support of storytellers.
    Kiyoko McCrae, a theater and film artist and consultant is director of Visible Productions and former managing director of Junebug Productions. Film credits include “Come Home”, “Black Back”, “Free Southern Theater: Beginnings”. She helped develop “Gomela/to return” (NEFA NTP recipient) as producer and dramaturg, directed “Lockdown” (Big Easy award nominee) and has performed at La Mama Theater and Henry Settlement Theater. She is currently developing “Breaking the Thermometer to Hide the Fever” with Leyla McCalla, commissioned by Duke Performances, “The Stranger Disease” with Goat in Road Productions and is in production for “Artist in Exile”, a short documentary film about Sunni Patterson with Junebug Productions. She is also co-producer for NTP production, “Vessels”. www.kiyokomccrae.com
    Stephanie McKee is a performer, choreographer, educator, facilitator and cultural organizer based in New Orleans, LA. She is the Executive/ Artistic Director for  Junebug Productions Inc., the organizational successor to the Free Southern Theater (FST), which was formed in 1963 to be a cultural arm of the Civil Rights Movement and was a major influence in the Black Theater Movement. Ms McKee is a member of Alternate ROOTS, a board member of National Performance Network and  is a New Voices emerging Leader alumnus. As an artist and cultural organizer, Stephanie is deeply committed to creating art that substantively reflects disparate conditions and leveraging that art as a powerful tool for change.
    My name is Chrystion McKibben, and I’m 17 years old. I was born in Chattanooga TN, and currently a junior at Redbank High School. I’ve been working at Studio Everything along with Rondell Crier for over 3 years now. I have learned a lot and worked on a lot of projects most recent being a stage design project for our local The Wiz musical play. This year, I also helped make a coat rack, a coffee table, and transformed spaces at my middle school this summer. In 2015, I helped write a $10,000 grant to launch a project to get 100 kids together to do 10 projects in the community like getting homeless kids school supplies for school, a t-shirt campaign, and we also hosted a multi-cultural Christmas party.  I also enjoy, rock climbing, detailing cars with my uncle, and listening to music.
    Founding Artistic Director of Philadelphia based olive Dance Theatre, is equally committed to the tradition of breakin’ and the creation of contemporary dance theatre. She holds a BA in Theater and Dance with minors in Criminal Justice and African-American Studies from Temple University, as well as a Teaching Artist Certificate from The University of the Arts. She has received a PCA Fellowship in the Arts for Theater and a Ford Foundation FAAR Fellowship. She is a first generation artist. Her main tools for creation are techniques are borrowed from theatre, concert dance and literature: the physical utility is breakin’.
    Celeste Miller is a solo performer (text + movement), ensemble choreographer and community arts animator. Her stage work intertwines movement with text in a choreographed arrangement of the body and spoken language to create a mytho-poetic symbol system. As a result, the relationship of text to movement and image are in a constant shift of subtext to one another through the manipulation of juxtapositions. Celeste explores the possibilities of dance as a performing art, cultural practice, political act and a method for the embodiment of ideas and beliefs. She has been at this for over thirty years, most recently exploring scale, scope, visibility, invisibility and performing in domestic spaces.
  • Edgar Miramontes
  • indee mitchell / Show Bio
    indee mitchell (they/them/theirs and he/him/his) is a Black feminist and performance based artist from Virginia interested in creating experimental and community based work. indee has been living in New Orleans since 2013 and is currently a co-director of LOUD, New Orleans Queer Youth Theater Ensemble and a main conspirator of blaQballet–a dance and performance platform for Queer and Trans Black artists. Additionally, indee has been working with Last Call–an oral history and performance project–since 2015 and is a co-director of the project’s first full length, ready-to-tour production: “Alleged Lesbian Activities”
    I have served as an advocate and booking agent for authentic and meaningful music for over 25 years.My agency, THE MM MUSIC AGENCY, LLC., is dedicated to representing the finest artists in Jazz, Afro-Caribbean, Brazilian, and contemporary music.Our booking services include the territories of North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. In addition to booking, we also specialize in curating concert programs for various theatres, festivals, and other music presentersSome of the great artists we represent include ABDULLAH IBRAHIM, AHMAD JAMAL, CARMEN LUNDY, FREDDY COLE, HENRY BUTLER, JAMES “BLOOD” ULMER, JARROD LAWSON, JASON MARSALIS, LOSTON HARRIS, OMAR SOSA, PAT MARTINO, RANDY WESTON, ROY AYERS, SOFIA REI, VERNON REID, & VINICIUS CANTUARIA.
    Warren Montoya is born of Santa Ana Pueblo(Tamaya) and Santa Clara Pueblo(Khapo Owinge’) in New Mexico. Warren received a Bachelors Degree in Art from Fort Lewis College, in 2006 and in 2013, Warren started the company REZONATE Art, LLC with the mission to promote the work of contemporary Indigenous artists through an online store and at different events throughout the southwest. In 2015 he pivoted the companies mission toward coordinating and producing public arts projects and events. Also in 2015 Warren founded the organization, the REZILIENCE Indigenous Arts Experience. REZILIENCE is an annual event in its third year and takes place the first week of June in Albuquerque New Mexico.
    Lorena Moran Project Director of Teatro Jornalero Sin Fronteras(Day Laborer Theater Without Borders) of Guatemalan origin, came to the US 10 years ago and has lived and worked throughout the cities of Long Beach and Los Angeles as a day laborer. Lorena Has lived and witnessed the oppression and marginalization of the day laborer and immigrant community. Because of this, she made the decision to do something. She found that theater is an educational tool and allows to show the reality of the day laborer, as well as the difficulties they face. Lorena believes that it is possible to achieve a change in society and that Teatro Jornalero Sin Fronteras,contributes and is part of this change. In the last 4years she lead transnational projects with youth in El Salvaldor and Guatemala in Central A
    Christopher K. Morgan is the Executive Artistic Director of Dance Place in Washington, DC, where he oversees the curation of 45 weekends of performances by national and international choreographers annually, a school for youth and adults, youth enrichment programs and continues Dance Place’s leadership in creative placemaking. He is also the Artistic & Executive Director of contemporary dance company Christopher K. Morgan & Artists (CKM&A) and the Director of Dance Omi, an annual collaborative residency for international choreographers in New York.  Born in Orange County, CA, Christopher’s Native Hawaiian ancestry and a diverse, international modern dance career influence his work as an administrator, choreographer, educator, facilitator, curator and performer.
    Described as “one of the best acoustic pickers on the scene today,” Cary Morin brings together the great musical traditions of America and beyond like no other. With deft fingerstyle guitar and vocals that alternately convey melodic elation and gritty world-weariness, Morin crafts an inimitable style often characterized as acoustic Native Americana with qualities of blues, bluegrass, jazz, jam, reggae, and dance.Crow tribal member and son of an air force officer, Morin was born in Billings, Montana. He spent the bulk of his youth in Great Falls, where he cut his teeth picking guitar standards at neighborhood get-togethers, before relocating to Northern Colorado. TThe Atoll, a band he founded in 1989 and that toured nationally, gaining a devoted following. 
    Noted as a “contemporary opera mastermind” (LA Times), Beth Morrison is an opera-theatre producer. In 2006 Beth created Beth Morrison Projects (BMP) to identify and support the work of emerging and established living composers and their multi-media collaborators through the commission, development, production and touring of their work. In 2013 Beth co-founded the PROTOTYPE Festival with HERE, which has become “essential to the evolution of American opera”(New Yorker).  Beth served a founding tenure as Producer for the Yale Institute for Music Theatre, as well as Producer for New York City Opera’s VOX: Contemporary American Opera Lab. She holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees and a MFA from Yale School of Drama.  bethmorrisonprojects.org | www.prototypefestival.org
    Tanya Mote is the Associate Director at Su Teatro Cultural and Performing Arts Center where she has practiced for 20 years to become a better fundraiser, organizer and facilitator.
    As the Director of Artistic Logistics Lisa Mount works as a consultant with non profit arts organizations focusing on strategic thinking and organizational advancement, often by facilitating dynamic meetings. Recent and current clients include Theatre Communications Group, Cleveland Public Theatre, the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Dance/USA, the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, the National New Play Network and the Joan Mitchell Foundation. She produced the acclaimed Headwaters community story plays at the Sautee Nacoochee Center, and continues to create and perform there. She has served as the Board Chair for Alternate ROOTS, and currently serves on the board of the Network of Ensemble Theaters.
  • Destiny Muhammad
  • Dipankar Mukherjee / Show Bio
    Dipankar Mukherjee is a professional director originally from Calcutta, India with a 25-year history of directing. He is the Artistic Director of Pangea World Theater. As a director, he has worked in India, England, Canada and the United States. Dipankar has worked at the Guthrie, Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival, New World Theater, Alliance Theater and the Young Vic in London. His aesthetics have evolved through his commitment to social justice, equity and deep spirituality and this forms the foundation of this work along with a response to socio-political relevance. Dipankar has been a Ford Foundation delegate to India and Lebanon.
    Mark Murphy, Executive Director of REDCAT, is an influential leader in the national
    and international field of contemporary performing arts, with over 30 years of experience
    producing, presenting, and developing audiences for interdisciplinary performances.
    Murphy served as Chairman of the Choreographer’s Fellowship Panel for the National
    Endowment for the Arts, was a founding board member of the National Performance
    Network, an advisor to the National Dance Project, and a member of the Advisory Board
    for the Japan Foundation’s Performing Arts Program. As Artistic Director of On the
    Boards, a contemporary performing arts center in Seattle (1987-2001), Murphy helped
    establish an international profile for the organization, while also producing hundreds of works by Seattle artists.
    Sara is the Program Director for Dance at the New England Foundation for the Arts. Prior to joining NEFA in 2011, Sara managed the USArtists International grant program at Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation and worked as Senior Producer at Dance Theater Workshop (New York Live Arts), where she oversaw international programs and developed residency programs for commissioned artists. Sara has worked at Tanec Praha, an international contemporary dance festival in Prague, and at the British Council in London. She has served as a speaker and panelist for organizations including the Alliance of Artists Communities, Dance/USA, The Japan Foundation, MANCC, and the National Performance Network, among others.
    Meena Natarajan is a playwright and director and the Executive and Literary Director of Pangea World Theater, a progressive, international ensemble space for arts and dialogue. She has led the theater’s growth since it’s founding in 1995. Meena has co-curated and designed many of Pangea World Theater’s programs including the National Institute for Directing and Ensemble Creation. She serves on the boards of the Consortium of Asian American Theater and Artists and is a National Theatre Projects Advisor for NEFA. She was recently awarded the Visionary Award for mid-career leaders from the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits
    Dahlia Nayar’s multimedia work encompasses live performance and post performance gallery installations. She investigates belonging and non-belonging, the performance of the quiet, and unlikely sources of virtuosity. Her most recent work, 2125 Stanley Street is a collaborative performance with artists Margaret Sunghe Paek, and Loren Kiyoshi Dempster that has been adapted for galleries, grange halls, a Buddhist church and other alternative spaces throughout the United States. Stanley Street pools the artists’ deeply personal multicultural histories, and has been supported by a Vermont Performance Lab residency, a Bates Dance Festival New England Emerging Choreographer Residency, a National Dance Project Touring Award for 2016-17. 
    Sham-e-Ali Nayeem is a poet, visual artist and consultant. Through her work, poetry and visual art she explores the human cost of displacement, economic justice, racial justice, feminism, ending islamophobia & uplifting our shared humanity. She has worked as program director at Leeway Foundation for several years focusing on supporting women and trans* artists & cultural producers working in communities at the intersection of art, culture, & social change.  A previous recipient of 1997 Echoing Green Fellowship, she initiated a economic justice legal program for survivors of domestic violence.  As a poet, she is the recipient of the 2016 Loft Literary Center Spoken Word Immersion Fellowship. She is currently working on her forthcoming book of poetry,  The City of Pearls (UpSet Press, 2018)
  • Natalia Neira
  • Jennifer Newman / Show Bio
    Jennifer is a New York based theater-maker, educator, and producer. Jennifer is an NPB Creation Fund Award recipient for her performance installation, The Geneva Project, an interdisciplinary and immersive dance work directed by Charlotte Brathwaite which has been presented at the Central Arts Festival in Seoul, Korea, JACK NYC, and Bronx Academy of Art and Dance (BAAD!). Jennifer has been an artist in residence at Yale University, Central Connecticut State University, The Field, Mabou Mines, Baryshnikov Arts Center, 651 Arts, and Sisters Academy in Malmö, Sweden. As a teaching artist, Jennifer has taught workshops across the United States as well as in Sweden, South Africa, China, and Mexico. Her class focuses on embodiment and non-verbal communication.
    Richard Newman is the Co-Director of The Hinterlands, a Detroit based company that explores American performance traditions, subculture, and archetypes through the creation of visceral and physical theatrical works. Often participatory and always explosive, The Hinterlands work imagines theatrical space as a ground for ecstatic interaction. Currently, The Hinterlands is developing The Enemy of My Enemy, a multi-year collaboration between artists in the U.S. and artists in China, Russia, and Iran that explores national identity through live-streamed, simultaneous performance. Richard is a co-curator of Play House, a house turned performance space run in collaboration with Power House Productions on the Detroit/Hamtramck border.
    Johnny Huy Nguyen is a dancer, performance artist, activist, and child educator based in San Francisco. With a movement practice that ranges from street dance to contemporary, he seeks to tell stories with his physicality, in combination with whatever modalities necessary, while staying true to the root.Always looking to continually expand his expression, Johnny’s vision is to use his creativity and craft to activate awareness, healing, and action in ways that are raw, vulnerable, and honest. For him, to create is to pray, resist, channel, and exist.
    Vice President of the production company owned by dance artist Alice Sheppard. Together we are launching art experiences at the intersection of disability + tech + design.
    The Japan Foundation is a vital contributor to world culture and the arts.
    We provide funding and exchange opportunities for individuals and institutions across the spectrum of artistic and cultural disciplines, by supporting and initiating cross-cultural programs and events including exhibitions, film screening, and festivals.
    The Japan Foundation carries out arts and cultural exchange programs to enhance mutual understanding between Japan and the United States.
    Based in Oakland, California, Kelly Ording has exhibited her work both in the U.S. and Internationally since graduating from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2000. In addition to her works on paper, canvas and collages, Ording has created several large scale public works and murals. Her public works and murals can be seen in San Francisco’s landmark Clarion Alley, Unity Plaza in San Francisco, Facebook Headquarters, as well as other locations throughout the Bay Area and Internationally. Her work is included in several collections; such as the SFMOMA Collection and the San Francisco Arts Commission Public and Civic Art Collection. She is currently an Artist in Residence at Kala Art Institute where she is collaborating with fellow artist and husband, Jet Martinez.
    Joan Osato has played a pivotal role in local and national theater for over two decades and has been a core member of Youth Speaks since 2001. At Youth Speaks she produces live performance events for the organization including Brave New Voices International Youth Poetry Festival as well as Life is Living in cities around the country. Independently she produces for critically acclaimed companies The Living Word Project and Campo Santo.She has been recognized for her work as a photographer from Artslant, Prix de Photographie, Laguna Arte Prize 2017 and has exhibited throughout the San Francisco Bay Area since 2009. She is a proud Board Member of both NPN/VAN and CAATA (The Consortium of Asian American Theaters and Artists) and overjoyed to welcome you to the Bay this year!
  • Lillian Osei-Boateng
  • Akiko Ostlund
  • Onye Ozuzu / Show Bio
    Will provide at a later date.
    Alleluia is the driving force behind Kularts and respected elder artist in the US and the Philippines. She is an artist who is at home in both Pilipino tribal & traditional arts and American contemporary forms. Although she has extensive training and years of performance experience in indigenous Mindanaoan dances, trained in the Pilipino blade fighting system and have become an honorary clan member of the Talaandig tribe in Mindanao, she does not consider herself a traditional artist. However, her work is deeply influenced by this history.Her dance film She, Who Can See will be released in 2018. The world premiere of her dance & media work Incarcerated 6x9  is scheduled for May 2018. She is member of SOMA Pilipinas and the recipient of the 1st SFAC 2017 Legacy Artist Award.
    Cassandra Parker – Nowicki is the Cultural Center Supervisor for the Carver Community Cultural Center, a multicultural, multidisciplinary performing and visual arts center in San Antonio, Texas. In this capacity, Cassandra is largely responsible for the Carver’s artistic programming, as well as general oversight of the three facility performing arts complex. Cassandra holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Theatre from Southwestern University (Georgetown, TX) and has worked in arts administration for over 20 years, including at The Majestic and Empire Theatres in San Antonio and the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center in Baltimore, MD.
    Linda Parris-Bailey is the Executive/Artistic Director of the Knoxville, TN-based Carpetbag Theatre Inc., a professional, multigenerational ensemble company dedicated to the production of new works. She is the primary Playwright in residence and the recipient of the 2015 Doris Duke Artist Award in Theater. Her story-based plays with music are focused on themes of transformation and empowerment. Her current work, Speed Killed My Cousin (2012), presents the story of a young, African-American female veteran of the Iraq War, and her struggle with Moral Injury, Post Traumatic Stress disorder and Military Sexual Trauma. “Speed” was awarded a NEFA National Theater Project grant to support touring (2015-2016) and an NPN Creation Fund grant (2011).
    Linda Parris-Bailey is the Executive/Artistic Director of the Knoxville, TN-based Carpetbag Theatre Inc., a professional, multi-generational ensemble company dedicated to the production of new works. She is the primary Playwright in residence and the recipient of the 2015 Doris Duke Artist Award in Theater. Her story-based plays with music are focused on themes of transformation and empowerment. She is a founding member of Alternate ROOTS and Senior Advisor to the International Women Playwrights Conference. Her works have been published in Alternate ROOTS: Plays From the Southern Theater, Ensemble Works! and other anthologies of contemporary plays. She has presented at Americans for the Arts, Imagining America, Veterans in Society and the National Performance Network respectively.
    Dancer originally from Stockton, in practice for 8 years. Here performing with Embodiment Project.
    Thom is the artistic director of Walkabout Theater, a laboratory ensemble of experimental theater artists in Chicago.  Recent directing credits include Walkabout’s international touring performance, The Wild, as well as its outdoor spectacles Tall Girl and the Lightning Parade and Beach Party at the End of the World.  Most formidable in Thom’s experience were his years as a company member of Double Edge Theatre in MA, his training at the Odin Teatret in Denmark and the Grotowski Institute in Poland.  An actor, director, educator, and producer, Thom is most interested in ensemble culture, holistic practice, and rewriting the American narrative. Thom teaches acting and movement at the University of Illinois at Chicago, University of Chicago, and Columbia College.
    New Orleans International Muralists (NOIM) are addressing the need to complete community inspired and educational public murals. We are looking to create murals that are both culturally significant to the neighborhood, educational in nature, and historically relevant around this great city of New Orleans. We believe that murals are one of the best ways to create aesthetic beauty on a bare wall within a neighborhood that would otherwise not be utilized. We’ve been creating murals in and around New Orleans and the world since 2002.
    Flannery Patton, Director of Member Services + Communications | Alliance of Artists CommunitiesFlannery Patton is the Director of Member Services + Communications for the Alliance of Artists Communities, where she has worked since 2012. An international association of artist residencies, the Alliance works to support, promote, and advocate for creative environments of all types that support the work of today’s artists. In her current role, Flannery works with over 400 artist residency programs from around the world and curates content for the Alliance’s annual meetings and web platforms.  Prior to working at the Alliance, Flannery held positions working as a public programs coordinator for the Downtown Providence Parks Conservancy, National Parks Service, and The Hive Archive.
    Taylor Rose is the Director of Arts and Cultural Engagement with the Native American Community Development Institute (NACDI) in Minneapolis, MN. Originally from the Turtle Mountain Anishinaabe Reservation in North Dakota, Taylor Rose received her BA in Women’s and Gender Studies from Dartmouth College in 2015. She comes to the work with a firm belief in the power of Native arts and culture to empower communities.
    Devi Peacock is the founding Artistic and Executive Director of Peacock Rebellion, a San Francisco Bay Area -based crew of queer and trans people of color who work at the intersections of art, healing, and social justice.

 

    Prior to arriving at ArtPower at UC San Diego in 2014, I spent 18 years at Skirball Cultural Center on Los ANgeles whenre I was Vice President and Director of Public Programs. I was also the Co-Artistic Director at Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica. I originated the J. Paul Getty Center’s performing arts series and sat on the Artistic council of France’s Centre International de Bagnolet pour les Œuvres Chorégraphiques for which I organized a West Coast platform for their Rencontres Chorégraphiques Internationales de Seine-Saint- Denis
    Born in Argentina, raised in Texas, and naturalized in Alaska 12 years ago, Adele manages Bunnell Street Arts Center’s general operations. She studied Philosophy at Rice University before moving to Homer, Alaska, where she now lives with her two children and fisher-husband. She gardens both as community art and to replace her lawn with lush edible landscape. She has led various civic efforts around trails and walkability, and participates in Homer’s lively cultural ecosystem through community theater, community choir, and the occasional burlesque show.
    Jenni Person has worked as an award-winning performer, writer, and arts professional for over 25 years, producing projects and fostering the work of emerging, culturally-rooted, and community-engaged artists. Selected organizations include the Loft Theatre; ArtCenter/South Florida, where she created Here & Now, Miami’s first commissioning program for locally-based creators; Alternate ROOTS; the Workmen’s Circle/Arbeter Ring, a national organization presenting Yiddish cultural programs; and the Guava Rugelach Festival, a music festival she founded celebrating tropical Jewish sound which grew into Next@19th, an arts organization committed to new Jewish culture. She holds a BA in Drama from Bennington College and MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College.
    Aimée M. Petrin is the Executive & Artistic Director of Portland Ovations, an 87-year-old multidisciplinary presenter. Since her 2006 arrival, Petrin has led three strategic planning processes; launched a new arts education and community-based outreach program; secured major regional and national funding and a new dedicated Endowment; led Ovations’ first commissions; introduced an expanded contemporary dance and international series; and renamed and rebranded the organization. She is active in the field, participating in regional and national grants panels, showcase juries, curating excursions, and panels; and is committed to initiating and supporting reg & nat’l performing arts projects. Petrin served on the board of APAP, Bates Dance, Maine Arts Commission and was an NPN regional desk.
    Renata Petroni has developed cultural exchange programs and international partnerships since 1980, first as Director of the National Performance Network (NPN) and The Suitcase Fund, two programs of Dance Theater Workshop in New York City and later as Director of Projects and Partnerships at Arts International. Following her engagement at the Universal EXPO 92 in Seville, Spain, she founded Two Moon, an international production company which produced and toured new works by contemporary U.S. and European artists.  In 2014, after ten years at the NPN as International Projects Director, Ms. Petroni founded Renata Petroni Designs, a boutique firm dedicated to residential and stage design as well as creating art objects from repurposed materials.
    Anh-Thu Pham is a board member at Pangea World Theater. She works at the University of Minnesota as an accountant in the Provost Office. She immigrated to the U.S. from Viet Nam with her family in 1975 after the end of the war. Her family raised her on the tenets of “serve the people”. Anh is involved in a number of political organizations and movements from international solidarity, labor rights, women’s rights and immigration. She finds that art is healing for activists and for non-activists helps them to look at political issues that they would not have otherwise.

 

    Lionel Popkin is a choreographer/performer who sees the world as hybridized over homogenized, gloriously confusing instead of needing fusion, and who consistently values bodily experience as the primary way we orient to our world. During the decade from 2004-2013 he made works looking at the cross-cultural conversation between his post-modern training and the imagery and iconography of the Indian subcontinent that surrounded his youth. His recent work has focused on the more intimate familial world, questioning conceptions of home from the point of view of the itinerant, the domesticated and the mobilized. Lionel is a certified teacher of Skinner Releasing Technique and on the faculty at UCLA.
    Julie Potter is a performance curator, public practice specialist and writer based in San Francisco. As the Director of the ODC Theater, she serves executive and artistic functions including season programming, public engagement and resident artist opportunities. Potter was previously the Creative Ecosystem Senior Program Manager at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts designing community engagement programs including YBCA:You, at the intersection of art and wellness, and YBCA Fellows, weaving creative practice and social responsibility. In 2016 Potter completed her MA as part of the inaugural class of Wesleyan University’s Institute for Curatorial Practice in Performance. She lectures in Stanford University’s “Arts In Context” course.
    Laree Pourier is Oglala Lakota and from Pine Ridge, South Dakota. She received a Bachelors of Arts in Social Welfare and Justice from Marquette University. Laree is now the Program Manager of Dances with Words at First Peoples Fund where she learns alongside young people how to use oral tradition and the art of storytelling as a means of healing and reclaiming agency.
    Anastacia Powers Cuellar, Executive Director of Brava! for Women in the Arts and Brava Theater Center since 2012, has transformed the Theater Center into a cultural hub in San Francisco’s Mission District. Her work at Brava has enabled the underrepresented voices in the performing arts to be heard, seen and have a life-changing influence in the pursuit of social justice. Anastacia has worked in San Francisco’s arts community for 33 years working with many esteemed artists and organizations as Producer and Financial Consultant including the San Francisco Mime Troupe, Dr. Loco, Dance Brigade, Queer Cultural Center, Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, Edris Cooper-Anifowoshe, Vidhu Singh, Marga Gomez, Frameline, Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, Cuicacalli Dance Company, and Epiphany Dance.
    A Bay Area native, Maisha’s 20-year career has been as a social justice organizer, cultural worker, arts and policy manager, and communications director. Most recently, Maisha served as the Community Programs Director at EastSide Arts Alliance, where she led efforts to advance place-based equity and develop a Black Cultural Zone (BCZ) in East Oakland. Prior to her work at EastSide, Maisha was the Communications Director and Family Advocacy Coordinator at Legal Services for Prisoners with Children in San Francisco, where she managed a statewide network of family members advocating for policies that addressed conditions of confinement, sentencing and compassionate release.  An organizer since high school, Maisha believes that strategies of cultural equity are essential to movement building.
    Laurel Raczka has been the Executive Director of the Painted Bride Art Center for 18 years. She provides both artistic vision and managerial leadership for the Bride. Formerly the Program Director of the Bride, Ms. Raczka was responsible for all performance and gallery presentations, educational and community events, she also was the Director of the Bride’s New Forms Regional Grant Program. She has worked at the Bride since 1992.  Trained as a visual artist, she received her BFA from the University of Arizona and her MFA from Rutgers University.  Laurel has served on countless panels for grantmakers as well as on issues of Community Arts, Presenting Innovative Programs, Partnerships, and Leadership Transition. 
  • Gabriela Raczka

 

  • Steve Raider-Ginsburg
  • Rontherin Ratliff / Show Bio
    Rontherin Ratliff was born in New Orleans where he currently lives and works. He is a self-taught artist who’s work explore the relationship between aspects of architecture as analogous to the characteristics of the human conditions. He is a member of Antenna and LEVEL Artist Collective in New Orleans. Recent exhibition venues include the Elsewhere Museum (Greensboro, NC), Art Route 2017 (Groningen, NL), Xavier University Gallery (New Orleans, LA), Tulane University Carroll Gallery (New Orleans, LA), Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator, Deering Estate (Miami, FL), Governor’s Island, (New York,NY), 516 ARTS (Albuquerque, NM) and Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery (Worcester, MA). Learn more at www.rontherin.com.
    Marcus Red Shirt is an Oglala Lakota activist, spoken word artist, and youth advocate from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Marcus is an alumnus of Youth Speaks’ annual Brave New Voices poetry festival and the First Peoples Fund program, Dances with Words. Marcus is currently a freshman in college studying Native American Studies with a focus in law.
    Muthi Reed works with digital media and design to generate their Krewe Coumbite micro environments. Reed is an ethnographic artist and multi regional local. Their frequent life patterns of geographic & social migration are the premiere creative avenues for growing and shaping their community and kinfolk connections. Krewe Coumbite is Reed’s DJ/Veejay archive platform. The generative DJ sets use QR codes programmed with visual & sonic information from popular and local Black culture, mixed in a spatial environment tooled with speculative prompts for interactive remixing. Reed’s work is shaped in relationship. Relationship with people, environment, space, objects, movement, energy. The tools they use to articulate their work are loop- color-  light-  body-  sound- remix*
    Joey Reyes worked at MACLA from 2003-2006 and re-joined the organization in 2011. As Curator of Engagement & Dialogue, Joey oversees the development of MACLA’s programs to ensure that both artistic excellence and community relevance are at the center of the organization’s work. He directly supervises a team of four people who work to implement programs. Joey has over 10 years of experience in the museum and gallery field with a background in donor development, museum education, public programs, volunteer management, youth mentorship and exhibition coordination.Reyes holds a BFA in pictorial studies from San Jose State University with two years of additional study at Syracuse University.
    Jovelyn Richards is an African-American/Native American writer/director/teacher and performance artist living in Oakland, CA. She has done solo performances at The Marsh, La Peña and other venues; she has published short stories and a novel, Tulips for Evening; and she is the host of a radio show on KPFA that explores the racial and other divisions in our society. In addition to her solo work, Richards often leads workshops and residencies around race and gender issues. She is currently working on a residency to help sex workers in the San Francisco Bay Area tell their stories.
    Martha Richards is the Executive Director of WomenArts, a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing visibility and opportunities for women artists in all genres. Prior to WomenArts, Richards served as Executive Director of Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College and as Managing Director of StageWest, a LORT theatre in Springfield, Massachusetts. Richards has a B.A. in Economics from the U.C. Berkeley and a J.D. from the U.C. Hastings College of Law. She is a member of the California bar and was one of the founding board members of California Lawyers for the Arts.
    Shane Richardson is an auditory and visual artist, technician, and art administrator with over a decade in live performance production. Previous work includes Company Management with Adirondack Theatre Festival, Producer at Lost Boys Productions, Production Manager at P.A.R.K. Productions, System Design with Neu Kirche Contemporary Arts Center. Shane holds a B.F.A. in Theatre Arts from Point Park University. SMRichardson.com
    Here is what you need to know about Douglas Ridloff.  He is a proud resident of Brooklyn, USA.  He likes: black coffee, street art and denim.  He does: poetry, storytelling, emceeing and freestyling, all in Sign Language.  He is: a fearless visual artist, a poet, a performer, the owner and executive director of ASL SLAM, a monthly open mic event that is much more than just open mic, and isn’t just happening in NYC but also in D.C. and Chicago.  Lately he has been: curating performances at museums such as the Whitney Museum, the Jewish Museum, SITE Santa Fe and 9/11 Memorial Museum.  He believes:  that Sign Language is something that can be done straight or way out there-doesn’t matter, as long there’s a stage and the freedom of language. He is the currently the ASL Consultant for Paramount
    Tlaloc Rivas is a founding member of the Latinx Theatre Commons (LTC). He is director, writer, and theatre-maker based in the Midwest. Recent productions: Abigail/1702 (Merrimack Rep); Peribañez (Quantum Theatre); Johanna: Facing Forward (Cleveland Public); Wit and Mariela in the Desert (Aurora Theatre); In Love and Warcraft (Halcyon Theatre) and The New World (Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis). He is the recipient of a Creation Fund Award from National Performance Network to write Anthem to Aztlán, with support from Su Teatro, Cara Mia Theatre Company, and Borderlands Theatre. He holds degrees from UC Santa Cruz and The University of Washington. Tlaloc currently is Assistant Professor of Directing at The University of Iowa.
    Jalisa Roberts is a writer, educator, Black Studies scholar, singer, and choreographer. With more than 20 years of dance experience locally and internationally, she has most recently trained in modern and African forms of dance at Swarthmore College, and explores how all of these different artistic interests live in one body and influence each other.
    Her choreography sparks conversations on identity and memory. Much of Jalisa’s work explores how individuals relate to and influence groups, and how our narratives on similar events can differ greatly based on our individual experiences.
    As dance has been an essential part of her identity and wellbeing, Jalisa’s mission is to use dance to create space for dialogue and change. Currently, she is an arts educator in New Orleans.
    Orchid is Program Associate for Convenings and National Programs as well as Production Coordinator for Live & On Stage at the National Performance Network/Visual Artists Network. After graduating with a BA in Psychology (Loyola University), and moving to Austin, TX she began her first arts administrative pursuits, producing independent exhibitions and community-based art projects with local musicians and fellow visual artists. What followed was a year in northern India and South America, before returning to Louisiana to work as a children’s librarian and earn her MA in Arts Administration (UNO). Lucky to call New Orleans home once again, Orchid spends much of her free time constructing elaborate costumes and headpieces while hosting an endless carousel of houseguests.
    Malik Robinson is the Executive Director of Cleo Parker Robinson Dance (CPRD), a not-for-profit cultural arts institution based in Denver, Colorado. As an internationally recognized arts organization, CPRD has served as a leader in preserving the rich heritage of legendary American modern dance choreographers. The organization is also distinguished for its arts-in-education and arts advocacy work. In his role, Malik directs a small administrative staff that coordinates multiple facets of the organization with an operational budget of $1.2M. Malik is a Leadership Denver graduate, Livingston Fellow, Association of Performing Arts Professionals (APAP) Fellow and a Dance/USA Trustee.
    Letetia Rodriguez is the Business Manager at MACLA/Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana. In her leadership position, she oversees operations, facility and contract management, human resources and financial management. She has a thirty-year career working in non-profit administration supporting organizational development, event management, and compliance. She has worked with organizations around issues of leadership development, civic participation, and preserving cultural heritage such as the San Jose GI Forum, Mexican Heritage Corporation, the Mexican Consulate and Vida Nueva, Sober Living Environment. She currently serves as Board Member of San Jose GI Forum Scholarship Foundation and the American GI Forum of Santa Clara County Veterans Outreach Program.
    Born in Morelos, Mexico, Jorge Rojas is an artist, independent curator, and educator. He studied Art at the University of Utah and at Bellas Artes in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Rojas uses performance, visual art, and social engagement to examine cultural, social, and mediated forms of communication. His work and curatorial projects have been exhibited in galleries and museums across the U.S. and internationally. He has received grants and fellowships from NPN/VAN, Experimental Television Center, and Vermont Studio Center. Rojas is currently director of education and engagement at Utah Museum of Fine Arts (UMFA) where he oversees all education, community engagement, and public programming initiatives. Jorge lives and works in Salt Lake City, Utah, with his two sons, Felix and Emiliano.
    Co-Artistic Director, Sokeo was born in a Cambodian refugee camp in Thailand, arriving in the United States at the age of three. As a sophomore in high school, he began performing with the Carriage House Performers, a Providence-based hip-hop group. In 1998, Sokeo joined Everett as a creator and performer. Since then, he has been in 5 touring pieces, including Freedom Project, which explores mass incarnation. Sokeo also has a solo show entitled From Refugee Camp to Project, that tells of his life story. He has been an artist/guest speaker at many events such as TEDxProvidence, a Refugee panel discussion at Yale university and guest speaker at Rhode Island school of Design. Sokeo Ros is also artistic director of Case Closed!, a youth hip-hop dance company. “The stage is yours!”
    UNIVERSES Is A National Ensemble Theater Company, Of Multi-Disciplined Writers And Performers, Who Fuse Theater, Poetry, Dance, Jazz, Hip Hop, Politics, Down Home Blues And Spanish Boleros To Create Moving, Challenging And Entertaining Works For The Stage. The Group Breaks The Traditional Theatrical Bounds To Create Its Own Brand Of Theater.Founded In The Bronx, New York In 1995, The Members Of UNIVERSES Came Together In The Urban Poetry And Music Scene Of The Late 1990s; Quickly Moving Through The “Down Town” Performance Scene To Build A Home For Themselves In American Theatre.In Their 21+ Years, They Have Taken Their Original Pieces Around The World, Electrifying Crowds And Sparking Conversation About Just What It Means To Be An American Citizen: Right Here And Right Now. The Group
    Megs is responsible for the management of Burning Man’s Regional Network, comprising 280+ Regional Contacts in 37 countries and over 80 official Regional Events around the globe. Megs oversees the production and programming of Burning Man’s annual Global Leadership Conference and the European Leadership Summit;. She has a passion for bringing ideas to life, for public speaking, and for learning new languages. Called to the desert in search of exciting performance art opportunities and dusty dance floors, Megs first started Burning in 2005. The creative community in the Bay Area drew her in and she moved to San Francisco from Chicago in 2007 and began working for The Man in 2008. Megs moonlights as a jazz singer in her band The MegaFlame Big Band and Cabaret, and as a an actress.
    Abe co-founded The Theater Offensive in 1989 and serves as the Executive Artistic Director. He collaborates with artists, residents, community groups and local businesses to create OUT performances in Boston neighborhoods. Programs Abe started include True Colors: OUT Youth Theater; the safe-sex-activist group A Street Theater Named Desire; OUT on the Edge Queer Theater Festival; and the band Adult Children of Heterosexuals. As a playwright and community activist, Abe has won the numerous honors including the Jonathan Larson Award for the book to Melissa Li’s musical “Surviving the Nian”. He was declared one of the “Heeb 100” progressive Jewish world cultural leaders. Abe serves on of the NPN/VAN Board. He was recently named Honorary Drum Majorette by South End Dynamite girls drill team.
    Michael Sakamoto is a dance theater and media artist, photographer, and one of the leading butoh-based performers in the USA. Deicated to intercultural dialogue and cultural sustainability through performative and visual methodologies, Michael creates choreographic and narrative performances, media works and photo essays to challenge dominant paradigms and reveal diverse experiences across geography, language, and social boundaries. His works have been presented in 14 countries worldwide, including “Flash”, a butoh/hip-hop duet with Rennie Harris; “Soil”, an dance theater trio with Southeast Asian dancers; and “blind spot”, a performance solo exploring mass-mediated identity and corporate militarism. Michael is also writing a book project for Wesleyan University Press.
    Sean San José is a part of the new performances group Campo Santo, founded 1996 in San Francisco.
    UNIVERSES Is A National Ensemble Theater Company, Of Multi-Disciplined Writers And Performers, Who Fuse Theater, Poetry, Dance, Jazz, Hip Hop, Politics, Down Home Blues And Spanish Boleros To Create Moving, Challenging And Entertaining Works For The Stage. The Group Breaks The Traditional Theatrical Bounds To Create Its Own Brand Of Theater.Founded In The Bronx, New York In 1995, The Members Of UNIVERSES Came Together In The Urban Poetry And Music Scene Of The Late 1990s; Quickly Moving Through The “Down Town” Performance Scene To Build A Home For Themselves In American Theatre.In Their 21+ Years, They Have Taken Their Original Pieces Around The World, Electrifying Crowds And Sparking Conversation About Just What It Means To Be An American Citizen: Right Here And Right Now. The Group
    Suzanne Sbarge is a gallery director, curator, graphic designer and arts organizer. She is the Founder & Executive Director of 516 ARTS (www.516arts.org), an independent, nonprofit contemporary arts organization in Downtown Albuquerque that has shown over 1000 artists in over 150 exhibitions since it was founded 11 ago. She received an M.A. in Art Education from UNM (1991) and a B.A. degree in Art History and Studio Arts from Barnard College (1987). She has studied and done residencies at Anderson Ranch, Penland School of Crafts and Vermont Studio Center, among others. Her mixed media collage paintings have been widely exhibited since the late 1980s, and are represented by Turner Carroll Gallery in Santa Fe and Mariposa Gallery in Albuquerque. www.suzannesbarge.com
    Kristen Sbrogna leads Ripple and Stream, a consulting firm focused on non-profit strategic planning, executive leadership and coaching, budget and structural reorganization, and business plan development. With 20 years of experience in non-profit administration and management, Kristen has served the arts and culture community as executive director of La Pena Cultural Center and program director of Ashkenaz Music and Dance Community Center.  Kristen is a natural leader with an entrepreneurial spirit and a keen ability to identify opportunities for maximizing organizational sustainability, equity, and financial health.  Based in the San Francisco East Bay area, Kristen is originally from Worcester, Massachusetts.
    Jenny Schlenzka was recently appointed Performance Space 122’s Executive Artistic Director and is the organization’s first female artistic leader. Prior to joining PS122, Ms. Schlenzka was the Associate Curator at MoMA PS1 in New York where she established the interdisciplinary live program Sunday Sessions. Prior to her work at MoMA PS1, Ms. Schlenzka was the Assistant Curator for Performance in the Department of Media and Performance Art at The Museum of Modern Art from 2008 to 2012, where she focused on presenting, collecting, and exhibiting performance-based art, including co-organizing the Performance Exhibition Series with artists like Tehching Hsieh, Simone Forti, Roman Ondák, Jerome Bel, Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, and Allora & Calzadilla, among others.
    Chris Schlichting is a Minnesota-based choreographer, performer and dance enthusiast who believes in a flexible definition of dance.
    (@turnerschofield) is a performer, lecturer, author & advoc whose work centers on transgender themes from the inside, out. His solo work “Becoming a Man in 127 EASY Steps” received a Creation Fund Award in ’07 (Pat Graney Company, 7 Stages, DiverseWorks.) Ahead of its time, it has toured the NPN circuit and the world to critical acclaim, and in this political climate is now more relevant and urgent than ever. The show is in preproduction to become a groundbreaking film / multimedia project in 2018: check out tiny.cc/support127. Named a “Trans Influencer of Hollywood” by OUT Magazine, Schofield acts in regular guest roles on CBS’s The Bold and The Beautiful and Amazon’s Pride: The Series. Look for his first starring role in a major motion picture coming January 2019. www.scottTschofield.com
    Bill Shannon is an interdisciplinary artist and maker based in Pittsburgh PA who explores body-centric work through video installation, sculpture, choreography, dance and political activism. Bill has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in Choreography, a Foundation For Contemporary Art Fellowship in Performance Art, and has worked as a choreographer and performer for Cirque Du Soleil. In 2016 Bill was awarded a National Dance Project Production Award to support the development of his latest work, “Touch Update.” Currently Bill is a Fellow of the Frank-Ratchye Studio For Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon University and the Penn Avenue Creative Artist in Residence at Kelly Strayhorn Theater (KST).  “Touch Update”will premiere in May of 2018 at KST’s New Moves Contemporary Dance Festival.
    Rosy Simas is Haudenosaunee, Seneca, Heron Clan.Rosy is a choreographer who unifies physical movement with time-based media, sound and objects for both stage and installation. In her choreography she unites cultural ideas and images with scientific theories to create work that is literal, abstract and metaphoric.She is a McKnight, First Peoples Fund, Guggenheim and Native Arts and Cultures Foundation. Her work has been presented Internationally and has been supported nationally by MAP Fund, NEFA National Dance Project, NPN Creation Fund, MAAF USArtists International, and the Knight Foundation – Knight Arts Challenge. Her new work WEAVE will be presented by the Ordway Performing Arts Center in partnership with O’Shaughnessy Auditorium at St. Catherine University.
    Raissa Simpson, MFA, is artistic director of PUSH Dance Company and director of PUSHfest Dance Festival. PUSH has toured to Joyce SoHo, Dance St. Louis, Washington Ensemble Theater, Ferst Presents, Links Hall; and, has received the California Art Council, SF Arts Commission, Kenneth Rainin Foundation, SF Foundation, Zellerbach Family Ftd., and  AATAIN – a Hewlett Grant program. As an educator, she has served on the faculty and guest choreographed for 3rd St Youth Center, Santa Clara Univ., A.C.T., Sacramento State, San Francisco State Univ., UC Davis, and Alonzo King Lines Dance Center. Her works are sweeping and vibrant, and not restricted by conventional boundaries. Recently, Simpson completed her second of three parts of ‘Mothership’ an Afrofuturistic multi-disciplinary dance series.
    Thomas Robert Simpson, an award winning actor, director, producer, and writer, is the founder and artistic director of the AfroSolo Theatre Company.  Since 1991 he has concentrated on presenting Black art and culture through solo performances, the visual and literary arts, and community engagement projects designed to inform, uplift and inspire.Simpson writes and performs solo work that gives voices to the Black male experience. 
For the past twenty-three years Simpson has produced the award winning and critically acclaimed AfroSolo Arts Festival in San Francisco. He has presenting over two-hundred solo performance, visual and literary artists.
    Nick Slie is a New Orleans-based performer, producer and cultural organizer and the Co-Artistic Director of Mondo Bizarro. Nick’s creative endeavors range from interdisciplinary solo performances to large-scale community festivals, from innovative digital storytelling projects to site-responsive productions.  Since 2002, Nick has toured a wide array of imaginative projects to art centers, universities and outdoor locations in 34 states across the country and abroad. For more than a decade, he has been passionately engaged in rebuilding his hometown of New Orleans, collaborating across sectors on a vast array of local performance and arts-based civic engagement projects. 
    JUDITH SMITH, Founder and Director of AXIS Dance Company, has earned an international reputation in the field of physically integrated dance. Upon taking over artistic leadership of AXIS in 1997 she began commissioning works by some of the nation’s best choreographers. She teaches and lectures at community organizations, universities and conferences. Judith was honored with an Isadora Duncan Dance Award for Sustained Achievement in 2014, the O2 Initiatives Sabbatical Award in 2015 and was honored as one of Theatre Bay Area’s 40 people that have changed the face of Bay Area theatre in 2016. In her spare time, Judith is actively involved in thoroughbred racehorse rescue and carriage driving.
    Davia Spain is a multi-media performing artist from the SF Bay Area. She creates art in the fields of music, theatre, dance, and film.
  • Lauren Spencer
  • John Spriggins
  • Annie sprinkle / Show Bio
    Annie Sprinkle is an ecosexual performance artist, filmmaker, author and educator. She has made work about sexuality, feminism and environmentalism for over four decades. This year she was a Documenta 14 artist, where she had an exhibition, did performance, and premiered her new film, Water Makes Us Wet-An Ecosexual Adventure. Sprinkle has collaborated with her beloved life partner Beth Stephens for the past 16 years. Her new book is “Explorer’s Guide to Planet Orgasm.” Sprinkle was proud to be awarded the Artist/Activist/Scholar Award from Performance Studies International, and the Acker Award for the Avant Guard. She is based in San Francisco. The Earth is her lover.
  • Michèle Steinwald
  • Harold Steward / Show Bio
    Harold is an accomplished arts administrator and theater practitioner. He joined The Theater Offensive in June 2017 and oversees fund development, communications, and operations throughout the organization. Harold most recently served as Manager of the South Dallas Cultural Center, a division the City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs, which provides instruction and enrichment in the arts with an emphasis on the African contribution to world culture. Steward also founded Fahari Arts Institute in Dallas in 2009 after recognizing a gap in the landscape for local LGBTQ artists of color in Dallas. Fahari Arts Institute celebrates displays and produces the work of queer artists from the African Diaspora. Harold is a member of the Board of Directors for the NPN/VAN.
  • JD Stokely
  • Caitlin Strokosch / Show Bio
    Caitlin Strokosch was appointed president and CEO of NPN/VAN in 2016. Most recently, she served as Executive Director of the Alliance of Artists Communities – an international association of artist residency centers. As a member of the board of directors of Grantmakers in the Arts, she serves on the Racial Equity committee and Support for Individual Artists committee. Strokosch holds a bachelor’s degree in music performance from Columbia College Chicago and a master’s degree in musicology from Roosevelt University, where her research focused on music as a tool for building communities of resistance and social dissent.
    Quita Sullivan (Montaukett/Shinnecock) is Theater Program Director for New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA), including the National Theater Project which supports the creation and touring of devised, ensemble theater through grants to artists and presenters. She holds a BA and MA in Theatre, as well as a JD. She worked as a Stage Manager, an Administrative Assistant for a nonprofit artist management office, and practiced Environmental Justice law for 10 years in Detroit and Boston. Prior to joining NEFA as a staff member, Quita was an Advisor for NEFA’s Native Arts Program. Quita is enrolled member of the Montaukett tribe.
    Amara Tabor-Smith describes her experimental dance theater work as Afro Futurist Conjure Art. Her dance making practice utilizes Yoruba spiritual ritual to address issues of social and environmental justice, community, gender identity and belonging. She is the artistic director of Deep Waters Dance Theater (DWDT). She has worked with dance and theater artists such as Ed Mock, Joanna Haigood, Ronald K. Brown, Faustin Linyekula, Ana Deveare Smith, Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Julie Tolentino and she is the former associate artistic director and dancer with Urban Bush Women. She is a 2016 co-recipient of the Creative Capital Grant with Ellen Sebastian Chang, and she is a 2017 recipient of the UBW Choreographic Center Fellowship.
    Beatrice Thomas is an arts & equity consultant, social practice artist, & director. Her creative work explores the intersections of identity, race, gender, sexuality &
    Thomas leads workshops & facilitates dialogues on income strategy, queer arts, & cultural equity. They served as Program
    Officer for San Francisco’s Cultural Equity Grants program, Program Manager for First Night Austin,
    an interdisciplinary, urban, arts festival, & Chair of the Austin Art & Public Places Panel. Currently, they are working on equity intitiatives with L.A.N.E/NPN (Leveraging Arts Networks for Equity), SAFEHouse Arts, & the Akondadi Foundation. Thomas is passionate about promoting queer & POC arts on the national platform.
    Vincent E. Thomas founded VTDance as an outlet for performance projects including solo, group, and collaborative choreographic endeavors. VTDance is multi-dimensional. The work builds on the use of contemporary dance, improvisation, text/ movement, a variety of sound sources, and collaborations with other artists, including dancers, musicians, poets, visual artists, and others [to be discovered]. These ideas coupled with witty, poignant, athletic and gestural movement are the rich palette for VTDance.
    Alisha Tonsic is Executive Director of the Network of Ensemble Theaters (NET); she transitioned to the position in 2015 after 10 years with NET, first as Board Treasurer, then as Managing Director. Previously, she served for 10 years as Sojourn Theatre’s first Managing Director, working in partnership with the ensemble and founding Artistic Director Michael Rohd. Prior experience includes positions in finance, fundraising, general management, program development, field research, and literary management/dramaturgy at American Repertory Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club, McCarter Theatre, and Theatre Communications Group, and as an independent non-profit arts consultant focusing on small- and mid-sized companies. She is a Performing Arts Alliance board member.
    Anthony Torres served on active duty in the U.S. Army from 2002-2006, which included a yearlong deployment to Abu Ghraib Prison, Iraq where he provided mental health treatment to U.S. troops and Iraqi detainees. Following an honorable discharge he relocated to Miami, Florida to continue his education. He earned a Master’s degree in Social Work from Barry University in 2016. Anthony is a co-founder of The Combat Hippies, a collective of combat veteran performing artists who use spoken word poetry to raise awareness of veteran’s issues and promote Post-Traumatic Growth.
  • Bianca Torres
  • José Torres-Tama / Show Bio
    José Torres-Tama is a 2015 MAP Fund recipient for his “Taco Truck Theater / Teatro Sin Fronteras”, a radical ensemble show that challenges the anti-immigrant hysteria. Also, an NEA Regional Artist Project Award winner for his hybrid performances, “ALIENS, IMMIGRANTS & OTHER EVILDOERS” is “a sci-fi Latino noir” solo that chronicles the rise in hate crimes against immigrants. Both shows are NPN Creation Fund projects. He tours nationally and internationally, and across the Atlantic, Roehampton University and Live Art Development in London; Bluecoat Arts Centre in Liverpool; and performance festivals in Poland, Slovenia, Canada, and Mexico have presented his solos. Vanderbilt, Duke, Cornell, LSU, OSU are some of the many academic institutions that have presented his shows for social change.
    Anna Trier is the Associate Director of Links Hall where she runs the CoMISSION summer intensives, residencies, and fellowships programs that incubate and present new works of live art in Chicago. She also runs Links Hall’s touring program, curatorial residency, and co-produces Links Hall’s presenting season. Outside of Links Hall she has curated programing for ACRE, The Chicago Artists Coalition, Columbia College Chicago, Rapid Pulse International Performance Festival, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Chicago Cultural Center. Anna served on the National Performance Network’s Asian Exchange Program from 2014-2017.Trier graduated from Columbia College Chicago with a BFA in Studio Art and Art History in 2009 and from the Institute for Curatorial Practice in Perfomance.
    Performer, choreographer, organizer, and creative change-maker, Keisha Turner, has Chicago and Brooklyn roots, and is based in Oakland, CA. She is a former touring company member with critically acclaimed dance company, Urban Bush Women and has also performed with Deep Waters Dance Theater, ABD Productions, Notoriety Variety and many others.  She is thrilled to now make soul-stirring magick as a performer with Embodiment Project.  Keisha’s artistic practice activates ancient Afro-diasporic cultural wisdom and reimagines them in a contemporary context to conjure radical liberation.  Her creative enterprise, EarthChild, is a collection of love-offerings comprised of performance, yoga classes, and body care products to celebrate, heal, and uplift those at the margins. www.iamearthchild.com
  • Monica Tyran
  • Lauren Unbekant / Show Bio
    LAUREN UNBEKANT (Hybrid Artist, Performer, and Movement Director)
    Is co-artistic director of Moveink a contemporary hybrid performance company that combines original live music with movement, film and other media to create a visceral theatrical experience. Along with Moveink she is a co-founder of the clown company Gams on the Lam, and has performed, directed and taught nationally and internationally at such festivals as the Humorologie Festival in Belgium, The International Festival of Clown in Barcelona, The International Movement Festival in London, The Edinburgh Fringe Festival , The International Buskers Festival in NYC, The Glasgow Festival of New Work, The Festival of International Art in Leon.
    Namiko is the Regional Network Coordinator for Burning Man Project; she supports a thriving network of Regional Contacts, events, and activities around the world. She holds a MA in Global Development and Gender from The University of Leeds, England, as well as a BS in Graphic Communication with minors in Psychology, Ethnic Studies, and Industrial Technology. Namiko has worked with various art and social justice nonprofits in Los Angeles, New York, and London, such as The Moth, ArtChangeUS, and MercyCorps Europe. She has an ever-expanding love of people, travel, bad puns, and hot cups of tea.
    Laurie Uprichard joined the CAC as Senior Curator of Performing Arts in September 2016. Previously, she worked with Stephen Petronio Company, Tere O’Connor Dance, and Quaternaire, an international production and tour management agency based in Paris. She also curated the Travelogues Series at Abrons Arts Center, worked with The Joyce Theater and with Jean Butler. Laurie served as Director of the Dublin Dance Festival from 2007-2011. From 1992-2007, she was Executive Director of Danspace Project in New York City and also worked with Urban Bush Women from 1991-96.  From 1984-1991, she was associated with Dance Theater Workshop. In addition, she toured briefly as Company Manager with Meredith Monk/The House and is a former dancer.
    Alice Elizabeth Valdez continues to lead MECA into its 40th year as a community-based non-profit organization committed to the healthy development of underserved youth and adults through arts and cultural programming, academic excellence, support services, and community building. MECA continues to provide arts education, support services, and multicultural artistic performances and events to over 3,000 students and their families each year, helping to build discipline, self-esteem, and cultural pride. MECA’s home is the historic Dow School at 104 years of age.
    Mark Valdez is an artist, organizer, and consultant based in Los Angeles. He has worked at theaters such as the Alliance Theatre, Trinity Rep, the Mark Taper Forum, Mixed Blood, the Ricardo Montalban Theater, Teatro Vision, East West Players, the Falcon Theatre, among others. Recent projects include DJ Latinidad’s Latino Dance Party, exploring latinidad in contemporary U.S. culture, through the lens of a dance party; and a commission from the Alliance Theater to create a new play with and for people living and working along the Buford Highway. Mark is also working with various health providers and the East African residents of the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood in Minneapolis to use personal narrative as a tool for building social cohesion and improving health care advocacy and services.
    Samuel Valdez graduated from San Diego State University in 1991 with a B.A. degree in theater arts. He is an actor, playwright, and director who has worked with several groups around San Diego such as Sledgehammer Theater, Chronos Theater, Los Amigos del Rep., and currently his own performing arts bi-national company CARPA San Diego. He is currently on the National Performance Network/Visual Arts Network (NPN/VAN) board and the Alternate Roots Executive Community (board). At the beginning of 2016 he was given the Ashley Walker Social Justice award by the City of San Diego for his community theater work.
    Clyde Valentin was born and raised in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. He is the Co-founder and former Executive Director of Hi-ARTS (formerly known as the Hip-Hop Theater Festival). He is the inaugural Director of Ignite/Arts Dallas: A Center for People, Purpose + Place at SMU Meadows School of the Arts. The mission of Ignite/Arts Dallas is to challenge the imagination of students and citizens to foster more just and vibrant communities through art and culture.
    Emmett Van Slyke (composer, musician, projection artist and producer) is co-artistic director of Moveink a contemporary hybrid performance company that combines original live music with movement, film and other media to create a visceral theatrical storytelling experience. Emmett is also owner of Van Slyke Productions, a post-modern audio production service. As a composer, Emmett has scored various feature length films and shorts.He has toured regionally and internationally as a multi-instrumentalist working with artists such as Jim Donovan of Rusted Root and The Kitchen Party. Recently Emmett was the composer and sound designer for Syracuse Stage touring production of Metamorphan, with co-collaborator Lauren Unbekant, as well as Rock, Paper, Sister with Gams on the Lam.
    Pramila Vasudevan is the artistic director of Aniccha Arts(2004), an interdisciplinary collaborative that constructs immersive performance environments from a movement and electronic media perspective and where each project questions individual agency inside of the systems we live in (www.aniccha.org). Pramila has a background in classical and contemporary Indian dance, visual media design, and political science, all which are reflected in her interdisciplinary voice as she pursues a socially engaged performance practice. Pramila is a 2017 Guggenheim Fellow and a 2016 McKnight Fellow for choreography. Major influences and teachers include Dr. Bala Nandakumar, Roshan Vajifdar Ghosh, Ranee Ramaswamy, Dr. Ananya Chatterjea, Dipankar Mukherjee, Piotr Szyhalski, and Steve Dietz.
  • Victor Vialpando Nunez
  • Shay Wafer / Show Bio
    Shay Wafer, Executive Director 651 ARTS since 2011; has demonstrated a stalwart dedication to the arts and community development through many years of service to the field. Her passionate vision is balanced with pragmatic experience, as she has held senior level positions at a number of non-profit arts organizations with a focus on African Diasporic programming, and community engagement. She has served as the Vice President of Programs for the August Wilson Center for African American Culture, as the managing director of Cornerstone Theater Company, LA Theatreworks and the St. Louis Black Repertory Company. She was a founding partner of Marla Gibb’s Crossroads Arts Academy and Theatre,and Colored Girl Productions. She has served on the Board of Directors of NPN, TCG, as a NEFA National Th
    Trella Walker is a Senior Associate in Advisory Services with Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF) in the Los Angeles office. Trella assists clients by providing data driven analysis that frames the information in a comprehensive, clear manner. Prior to joining NFF, Trella spent the majority of her professional career in the nonprofit sector, working in a variety of fields, including but not limited to arts and entertainment, youth, education, healthcare, Veteran affairs, and law. She has had the pleasure of working for impact driven organizations such as Health Net, Inc.; Debbie Allen Dance Academy; and United States Veterans Initiative. She holds a BA in English and secondary education as well as a Juris Doctor degree.
  • Eric Wallner
  • Joshua Walters / Show Bio
    Madhouse Rhythm creator Joshua Walters is a comedian coach and health educator who “explores language, creativity, beatboxing and madness” -TED.com. At the moment Joshua is on a quest to launch a global day without technology called UnPlug! With the help of the National Performance Network and in partnership with Reboot’s National Day of Unplugging, Joshua has set out to curate an interactive musical comedy experience, highlighting the benefits of disconnecting from our technological devices. He is a regular contributor to Snap Judgment, a weekly storytelling radio show on NPR with TV broadcasts on PBS. Walters is best known for his work on TED Talks, for his talk entitled On Being Crazy Enough, which explores the bipolar spectrum and is now at 1.5M views and counting.
    For more than 30 years Donna has worked in arts, executive administration, sales and marketing. She was a co-founder and board member for the Atlanta Street Theatre Inc., an improvisational theatre training summer program for youth, for 28 years. She served as Operations Manager at the National Headquarters for the Names Project/AIDS Memorial Quilt, as the Artistic Executive Assistant at the Alliance Theatre, and is currently a fundraiser and administrator for both the Gloria Watts-Cox Foundation, and the Zion Hill Community Development Center.  Donna is certain that the non-profit industry is essential in order for communities to thrive and believes that each non-profit agency represents an important social aspect that contributes to the heartbeat/pulse of our society.
    ill Weaver is a Detroit based lyricist, performer, cultural worker, and community organizer. They co-founded and coordinate Emergence Media, Complex Movements, and the Detroit Narrative Agency. They are a member of the Allied Media Conference community advisory board. Invincible/ill Weaver was a United States Artists 2015 Fellow, and a a Sundance Knight Fellow in 2016. Complex Movements is a Detroit-based artist collective supporting the transformation of communities by exploring the connections of complex science and social justice movements through multimedia interactive performance work.
    Afro-Creek queer scholar practitioner, teaching performance artist and activist Ramona “Mona” Webb serves as the Associate Artistic Director of The Queer Cultural Center. For nine years Mona served as Slammaster of San Francisco and as the host of San Francisco’s The City Poetry Slam. Mona is a facilitator for UCSF’s Young Women in Leadership program in UCSF National Center of Excellence. Mona is a conservatory trained artist who writes and performs in docu-ritual drama theater and graduated from California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco and Chichester University in Chichester, England with dual MFA degrees’s in Theater Performance Making. Her current one woman show “How to Catch a Rapist in 12 Parts”, chronicles her journey to seeking justice for a rape 20 years ago.
    MK Wegmann, with 40+ years of experience in presenting and producing for non-profit visual and performing arts organizations, is the recently retired President and CEO of the National Performance Network, which supports national and international touring and commissioning. As an independent consultant, she works with artist-focused organizations in the performing and visual arts. She is one of the founders of the Louisiana Presenters Network, a past Board Chair of Alternate ROOTS, was founding president of the National Association of Artists’ Organizations, and has served on panels and conducted site visits for the National Endowment for the Arts, the Louisiana Division of the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, Dance/USA, Mississippi Arts Commission, and others. Among her consulting client
    Tall Paul is an Anishinaabe and Oneida Hip-Hop artist enrolled on the Leech Lake reservation in Minnesota. Born and raised in Minneapolis, his music strongly reflects his inner-city upbringing. From personal expressions of self, to thought provoking commentary on issues affecting Indigenous and diverse communities as a whole, Tall Paul’s music evokes a wide variety of substance and soul.
    Brittany White (Production Manager) as a Bay Area native has approximate knowledge of many things, making living life in theatre feasible. A Prop Artisan in most instances, and occasionally a Production Manager, Scenic Carpenter, Director’s Assistant, Designer, Stage Manager, Set Dresser, Storyboard Artist or whatever else is needed; She has worked on various theatre, film and/or dance productions around the Bay Area with Campo Santo, CuttingBall Theater, TheatreFirst, Cal Shakes, Bay Area Children’s Theater, HEIST, DelinaDreamProductions, FaultLine Theater, African-American Shakespeare Co., Aurora Theatre, The Living Word Project, and K*STAR Productions. She also serves as Production Manager for Youth Speaks.
  • Adonis White-Price
  • Ruth Wikler-Luker / Show Bio
    Ruth Wikler-Luker is the founder, Curator, and Producer of Boom Arts, a nonprofit presenter based in Portland, Oregon with a focus on global, provocative, relevant contemporary work and a mission to “imagine new social and political possibilities through live performance.” Over five seasons, Boom Arts has introduced diverse Portland audiences to artists who experiment with form to address social issues, from Kristina Wong to Dahlak Brathwaite to Reverend Billy & the Stop Shopping Choir. Previously, Ruth worked as an artist and arts administrator in New York City for many years. She is a published writer and translator & speaks five languages.
    Will K. Wilkins is the director of Real Art Ways. Cinema, Visual Arts, Live Arts and community are central to the organization’s mission.
    Sharon Nyree Williams is a storyteller and arts administrator. She is the Executive Director for the Central District Forum for Arts and Ideas. They present, produce and develop multidisciplinary work by Black artists and provide access for courageous conversations to diverse audiences. She founded The Mahogany Project (Seattle) a theatre arts collaborative that focuses on allowing Black artists an opportunity to share their voice. Sharon also serves on the Seattle Arts Commission, Board of Trustee for Cornish College of the Arts, LANGSTON Board of Directors, FEED Worldwide Advisory Board and Adult Advisory Committee for Creative Justice. She has a MFA in Arts Leadership (Seattle University), MBA and a BA in Television Productions (Delaware State University).
    Tara Aisha Willis recently became Associate Curator of Performance at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, after coordinating programming and diversity initiatives at Movement Research. She dances in a collaboration between Will Rawls and Claudia Rankine, works by Kim Brandt, Megan Byrne, and Yanira Castro, and was in the first The Skeleton Architecture performance, an improvisational collective of black women and gender non-conforming dancers. A PhD candidate in Performance Studies (NYU), Tara has been an editor for Women & Performance, TDR/The Drama Review, and co-edited, with Thomas F. DeFrantz, an issue of The Black Scholar on black dance studies (2016).
    JANET WONG (Associate Artistic Director) was born in Hong Kong and trained in Hong Kong and London. Upon graduation she joined the Berlin Ballet where she first met Bill when he was invited to choreograph on the company. In 1993, she moved to New York to pursue other interests. Ms. Wong then became Rehearsal Director of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company in 1996, Associate Artistic Director in August 2006, and Associate Artistic Director of New York Live Arts in 2016 where she leads the performance and humanities programming with Bill T. Jones. Ms. Wong is also a projection designer, having designed all of the Company’s multimedia works since 2006, and collaborates with other artists such as Aaron Landsman, Daniel Bernard Roumain, and Heidi Latsky.
    Kristina Wong was featured in the New York Times’ Off Color series “highlighting artists of color who use humor to make smart social statements about the sometimes subtle, sometimes obvious ways that race plays out in America today.” She is a performance artist, comedian and writer who has been presented across North America, the UK and Hong Kong. Her work has been awarded with grants from Creative Capital, The MAP Fund, Center for Cultural Innovation, the Durfee Foundation, National Performance Network, six Artist-in-Residence grants and a COLA Master Artist Fellowship from the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.  In 2017, she was named as one of the “YBCA 100″ celebrating the innovators, provocateurs, and thought leaders who are using their platform to create cultural movement.
    Andrew is the founder of the SF International Arts Festival, which takes place at the Fort Mason Center. The program features over 100 performances by artists from the Bay Area and more than a dozen countries-effectively making it the largest annual public gathering of professional international performing artists in the western United States.Prior to SFIAF Andrew was the Director of ODC Theater where he changed the theatre’s tax status. In just three years he transformed the venue from being primarily a rental facility with an annual income of $150K into a multi-disciplinary presenting organization with a budget of nearly half a million dollars.Other experience as an arts administrator includes Life on the Water, the SF Ethnic Dance Festival and the San Francisco Mime Troupe.
    Serving artists and arts organizations through real estate development, Tyese Wortham runs a technical and financial assistance initiative in Oakland as the Program Manager at Community Arts Stabilization Trust. Prior to CAST, Tyese honed her social justice lens as a grantmaker in Cultural Equity Grants at the San Francisco Arts Commission, and as a presenter and producer of culture-specific artist populations with the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival. A 2014 Emerging Arts Professionals MADE award recipient, Tyese has been recognized for her expertise as a panelist, consultant, facilitator, and advisor for various Bay Area arts organizations, including Silicon Valley Creates, Alliance for California Traditional Arts, Black Choreographers Festival, and the Isadora Duncan Dance Awards.
    Anu Yadav is a writer and performer dedicated to deep laughter, connection and social justice. She tours her solo plays ‘Capers and Meena’s Dream, and created Classlines, a storytelling project on wealth and poverty. As an actress she has performed with the Shakespeare Theatre Company, Studio Safdar in Delhi, and Beijing’s National Academy of Dramatic Arts.  She has taught students ages 3-83 at universities and schools nationwide. Her work was featured in the documentaries Walk with Me and Chocolate City, and multiple media outlets. She holds an MFA from University of Maryland, College Park.
    Ben Yalom is Founder and Co-Artistic Director of foolsFURY, a San Francisco based theater ensemble. He has created many productions with foolsFURY and elsewhere, and helms the biennial FURY Factory Festival of Ensemble and Devised Theater.Ben recently designed a new theater program at the United Nations International School in New York, and currently teaches at CSU Fresno. He holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. His translations of Fabrice Melquiot’s The Devil on all Sides and Albatross were recently published by Exit Press.He proudly serves on the board of the Network of Ensemble Theaters.
    Choreographer Nejla Yatkin creates dances around the world in expected and unexpected spaces with professionals and non-professional dancers.
    As a member of the Regional Network Committee, Iris facilitates connections between Burners across the world and supports over 280 Regional Contacts, who are volunteering to nurture Burning Man culture year-round in their local communities. Living and traveling in over 15 countries has ignited Iris’ appreciation for communities’ diverse and ingenious ways of collaboration and creative self-expression. Trained as a sociologist with over ten years of experience working in marketing, communications, and event production for organizations in film, Internet, and civil rights, she brings those skills and experiences to the Burning Man team.
    Kyoko Yoshida, Consultant to NPN/VAN’s U.S.-Japan Connection is the founder and Executive Director of the U.S./Japan Cultural Trade Network, Inc. (CTN). CTN provides leadership, vision, information and technical support to enhance artistic and cultural exchange between the two countries.  Kyoko has served the field as a presenter, producer, and consultant for 30 years in Tokyo, New York City, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and in San Francisco where she is currently based.  In addition to her work with NPN /VAN and CTN, she is also a Consultant to Theatre of Yugen and Senior Program Advisor for San Francisco International Arts Festival.
    Laura Zabel is the Executive Director of Springboard for the Arts, which operates Creative Exchange, a national platform for sharing free toolkits, resources, and profiles to help artists and citizens collaborate on replicating successful and engaging community projects. An economic and community development agency run by and for artists, Springboard provides programs that help artists make a living and a life, and programs that help communities connect to the creative power of artists.
    (b.1981, Chicago, United States) is a Brooklyn, NY based interdisciplinary artist. He holds a BFA from the Ailey/Fordham University program and a MFA in Performance & Interactive Media Arts from Brooklyn College. His artistic practice is grounded in devising choreographic, performative and multimedia projects exploring contemporary Black cultural aesthetics and practices.​He is the artistic director of Renegade Performance Group and a founding member of the collective Wildcat!
    AC San Francisco marks the 16th NPN annual gathering with which Mimi has been involved. As Senior Program Specialist for Convenings, she organizes Mid-Year Meetings, Board Meetings, and of course, Annual Meetings. Previous work gigs have included: NAMAC, MANCC, San Francisco Foundation, San Francisco International Film Festival, and A Studio in the Woods. Mimi is also a potter–specializing in hand-built, functional work–a photographer, an excellent cook and an all-around fun gal. She is the proud “mother” of 2 sweet dogs, Trixie and Katie, as well as the proud partner of Mat Schwarzman.
  • Carol Zou

 

CONFERENCE HOTEL
Parc 55 San Francisco
55 Cyril Magnin St
San Francisco, CA

LIVE & ON STAGE VENUE
Yerba Buena Center
for the Arts
701 Mission St
San Francisco, CA