SCHEDULE Details
Thursday, April 14th Opening Reception - 7-10pm
Saturday, April 16th, Beginning at 3 pm: Conversations on Sex
https://www.facebook.com/events/1109015585815964/
- Maggie and Jess // Story Circle + Yoga 3:00 PM // (workshop)
- Aida Curtis // Suspiria 3:45 // (performance+workshop)
- Haylee Anne // Religion and Sexuality 5:15 // (panel with Theodore McLee & Troy Zapp)
- Maggie Benoit // Movement Therapies and Healing 5:45 // (panel with Orion Crook & Elizabeth O'Brien)
- Haylee Anne // Baby Won't You Hold Me Like My Daddy Never Did 6:30 // (performance with Hannah Lenkey)
- Erin Michelle Vaiskauckus // My Oxygen Mask First 6:45 // (performance)
- Jessica Caldas // Carrying On 7:00 // (performance)
- Maggie Benoit // Übergang / transition[s] 7:20 // (performance with Mary-Jane Pennington, Jon Lowe, Eve Nettles, Max Beeching, Theodore McLee, Awilda Rivera, Jolynn Sockwell; light engineering by Matt Evans, musical composition by powerkompany)
- Tracy Hipp // Women's Resilience Project 7:45/8 // (presentation)
Saturday, April 30th, Beginning at 3 pm: Conversations on Love
https://www.facebook.com/events/844818408982746/
-Maggie and Dee // Story Circle + Yoga 3:00 PM
-// #3everyday 3:40
-Jan Christiensen of GCADV and Callahan McDonough // Dichotomy of Relationships 3:50
-// Relating to the Masculine Panel 4:30
-Soul Food Cypher // 5:00
-Jac Woo with Jo Peace and Tom Bell // As Told To... 6:00
-Audrey Gamez // 6:30
-Angela Bortone // Christian Relationship Magical Thinking 6:35
-Audrey Gamez with Nicholas Ward // 6:55
-Angela Davis Johnson // I is not a Song Alone 7:00
-Audrey Gamez with Nicholas Ward // 7:10
Saturday, May 7th, Beginning at 3 pm: Conversations on the Body
https://www.facebook.com/events/573538892824658/#
-Maggie // Story Circle + Yoga 3:00 PM
-Jennifer Tarrazi-Scully // Wallpapers 3:40
-Callahan Pope McDonough and Jennifer Swain // Art, Activism & Human Trafficking 3:45
-Jennifer Tarrazi-Scully // No Games No Fowl 4:25
-Stephanie Kong // Deconstructing Binaries 4:30
-Maria Alejandra Baetti // Period Party 5:00
-Georgia Women's Policy Institute // Women and policy and the Pursuing Justice For Rape Victims, Rape Kit Bill 5:25
-Danielle Deadwyler // Tracks 5:50
-Lauren Hind // Un-F*ck-Me 6:20
-Estela Semeco and Patty Lacrete // 6:55
Friday, May 20th - BECOMING hu-MAN: Voices to Help End Rape Culture - 5:30pm
Details:
Though this is a solution-oriented project, we will take an a frank look at rape culture and sexual assault, including survivor stories.
Friday, May 20th, 5:30-8 pm: Art Opening, open Mic & Launch Party
5:30 Open Mic Sign Up Begins (Relevant themes, 4 Min. Max.)
6:00-7:30, OPEN MIC
Free to the public. Exhibit hangs through May 31, 2nd Floor Gallery Silent auction ends May 31.
Saturday, May 21st, 2 pm performance (1st Fl.)
Sunday, May 22nd, 2:30 pm and 7 pm performances
CONVERSATIONS ON SEX - Images by Kelly Blackmon Photography
Love/d & Sex/ed is a meandering visual conversation touching on each issue within the broad spectrum of sex, gender, love, and intimacy. These issues range broadly in both negative and positive contexts, but connect to each other in a complicated and important web of influence, impact, and need, illustrating the challenges and triumphs our society faces when confronting these ideas. The work within the show will address these topics, create space for conversation and point towards action.
Alongside a new, shifting body of work from Caldas, an assortment of other collaborators, which includes artists, organizers, researchers, and other community members will take part in Love/d & Sex/ed. This show will manifest through physical work, conversations, workshops, discussions, interactive experiences, and performances to create space for thoughtful dialogue and learning. The “conversations” will occur within the space of the gallery, will remain free and open to the public, and will encourage the thoughtful and sometimes physical participation of the audience.
Show info and timeline
Love/d & Sex/ed - Organized by Jessica Caldas with Maggie Benoit
Thursday, April 14th through Monday, May 31st
Mammal Gallery - http://mammalgallery.com/
91 Broad St SW, Atlanta, GA 30303
Thursday, April 14th, 7-10pm - Opening Reception
Saturday, April 16th, Beginning at 3pm - Conversations on Sex
Saturday, April 30th, Beginning at 3 pm - Conversations on Love
Saturday, May 7th, Beginning at 3 pm - Conversations on the Body
- Thursday, May 20th through Tuesday, May 31st - huMAN Up's Conversations on Becoming Human
Participating Artists and Presenters:
Danielle Deadwyler is an Atlanta based actor, performance artist and poet/writer. She has performed in productions with Kenny Leon's True Colors Theatre, Horizon Theatre, Synchronicity Theatre, Theatrical Outfit, Aurora Theatre and the Tony Award winning Alliance Theatre. She is the Creative Loafing Atlanta 2013 Critics Pick for Best Actress, a Suzi Bass award winning actor, and an award winning video/performance artist who has graced film & TV screens and galleries nationally and internationally. Locally, she has shown at Mammal, Mint, Eyedrum, and Whitespace galleries. She is a 2014 IDEA CAPITAL grantee. Her silent short film work will be on view at Hartsfield International Airport as a part of the Airport Shorts 3.0, Atlanta Film Festival. danielledeadwyler.com
Jaehn (pronounced "Jane”) Clare is a theatre artist with forty years of experience as an actor, director, producer, playwright, touring artist, teaching artist, access advocate/activist, and arts administrator. She has worked with a variety of professional theatre companies both in the U.S. and abroad, including two years on tour with Illusion Theater. Jaehn also wrote and produced two solo performances, Belle’s on Wheels and Tail Tell Tale. She has performed each work for international audiences, during her participation in three VSA International Arts Festivals (Brussels, Belgium, 1994; Los Angeles, California, 1999; Washington, DC, 2004). Jaehn is also a published author whose work has appeared in several issues ofMelpomene magazine. Her essay “I Wasn’t Born a Mermaid” is included in the anthology From There to Here, a selection of work by individuals who have survived traumatic injury (edited by Gary Karp and Stanley D. Klein, PhD; published by No Limits Communications, Inc., 2004). Her personal and professional mission is to support productive social change; share meaningful learning; foster the inclusion of all citizens in the arts community; and contribute to the creation of progressive public discourse concerning access and inclusion issues and policies. Jaehn is an energetic performer, a fierce advocate, a resourceful artist, a disciplined worker, a dedicated arts educator, a skilled arts administrator ~ and an enthusiastic participant in the banquet of Life. www.linkedin.com/in/jaehnclare
Estela Semeco is a first generation Venezuelan-American artist who lives and works in Atlanta, Georgia. She earned a Bachelor of Art degree in Studio Art at Georgia State University in 2009. Since then, she has exhibited her work across Atlanta and attended the LungA School Beta Program in the small town of Seyðisfjörður, Iceland. Later she exhibited her third solo exhibition entitled STREETFACE at The 9 Ace Gallery in Castleberry Hill. Last year she was a participating artist in Atlanta's first annual Ladyfest. Depending on her mood, the themes in Estela’s work can range from happy go lucky illustrations, to a more serious commentary on popular culture and its ties to social issues. You can find her walking around the city picking flowers, confronting street harassment, and petting stray cats. estelasemeco.com
Patricia Lacrete is a Haitian-American installation and performance artist based in Atlanta, GA. She received her BFA in Studio Art from Georgia State University in 2010. Largely influenced by the performance work of Marina Abramović, her performances explore the physical limits of the body while simultaneously creating a relationship between the audience and and her sculptural landscapes. Her unconventional use of ceramics and textiles are both subtly humorous and culturally relevant, creating an exploratory feminine environment that bridges conceptual imagination and tactile reality.
Jo Peace wore holes in the floor with her passion for dance before she began formal training in her early teens. After high school, her affinity for dance and theater evolved as she continued to study performing arts in Tallahassee and performed lead roles with Off-Street Players and Theatre Types. Ultimately finding her way to Atlanta, she enthusiastically explored the diverse local modern dance scene until injuries to her neck and shoulder caused her to stop dancing. After a six-year hiatus, Jo returned to her passion with renewed determination, training intensively to overcome physical and neurological setbacks.
Since then, Jo Peace has been performing, teaching and choreographing primarily in the Atlanta area, and is now Artistic Director for a diverse group of movers and trained dancers she's assembled who perform under the guise of me.you.us.we.them. She was recently a featured contemporary choreographer for internationally renowned Summer Dance Company and Summer Partnering Workshop, and presented me.you.us.we.them in the elaborate site-specific works: ‘dirTea’ (2014) and ‘Interstices’ (2015) for Art on the Atlanta BeltLine performance series. Photo Credit (attached): Patricia Mastrovito www.meyouuswethem.com
Grace Thornton is an Atlanta artist using her body as a site of interrogation, incorporating the characteristics of performance art, dance, pornography, and physical comedy into her work. She often performs in character as Whitesnake Girl. In 2014 she cofounded Callosum Collective, an Atlanta-based creative collective that applies collaborative methods across media to explore the intersections between art, technology, and the senses.
Jennifer Tarrazi-Scully has meandered her way in and out of the Dance, Movement and Arts world her whole life. She has traveled the world in Off-Broadway shows, taught in higher education and found her voice again as "Dancer With An Attitude" writing theater reviews for The Backstage Beat. Her TBB reviews caught the attention of the Dance Critics Association and their 2011 Emerging Writer Award. She has brought her movement expertise to the world of animation and film with Grasshorse Studios. Today she is honored to bring a lifetime of experience into making dance happen with CORE, and is "over the moon" to be amidst a reinvention and renaissance as a filmmaker and video installation artist.
Lauren Hind is an image maker and performing artist whose work explores trauma, healing, and transformation. She hails from Washington, D.C. and lives and loves between the rivers and bayous of New Orleans. www.laurenhind.com She is also a certified therapeutic/restorative yoga instructor and a certified children's yoga teacher. She has been known to have consensual sex with fruit for educational purposes only.
I, Haylee Anne, am an artist engaged in a swirling, healthy love affair with Atlanta. Swooning over lush National Geographic landscapes for years inspired me at an early age, alerting my subconscious that I was to create. A BFA Graduate from Montclair State University, my work has shown in venues such as the Smithsonian, the Carriage House Gabarron Foundation, the Fernbank, and across the planet in places such as New York, Savannah, Chicago, Newark, Washington D.C., Madrid, and France. In 2013 I was awarded the prestigious honor of the Excellence of Artistry Award, presented by the Kennedy Center, the VSA, and Volkswagen of America. Accolades such as this fuel my desire to constantly focus on thought provoking images and ideas. www.hayleeanne.com
Hannah Lenkey is like a really weird movie. She’s a 20 year old college sophomore living on the edge of a fragile moment. Taking pride in every guitar string she’s ever broken, Hannah enjoys all opportunities to express her passions. You and her will get along great if you like punk rock, nice pens, and cats.
Angela Bortone, currently residing in Atlanta, GA, works as a painter and video artist. Bortone was born in 1988 in the Dominican Republic and spent her early years abroad in Germany. Language was a critical element in her formative years in Europe, where she was surrounded by Spanish, English, Italian and German through family and travel. Ability or lack thereof to communicate has influenced her work profoundly. Mediating the feeling of muteness fuels the work. She received a BFA in Drawing, Painting, and Printmaking from Georgia State University in 2010. www.angelabortone.com
Angela Davis Johnson is an Atlanta based award winning visual artist who is best known for her vibrant narrative paintings. She has extended her practice to performance, installation, and public art to uplift the forgotten and to amplify untold stories. Her work can be seen at the Mississippi Museum of Art in Jackson, MS, Mosaic Templars Cultural Center in Little Rock, AR and participated in the 2015 Elevate public art project in Atlanta, GA. www.angeladavisjohnson.com
Tracy Hipp is an Atlanta-based researcher, advocate, and evaluator. Her primary interest, both personally and professionally, is to improve the quality of life for sexual minority women, particularly those impacted by trauma and violence.
As a Case Manager, Hipp worked with homeless LGBTQI youth in Los Angeles. The pervasiveness of trauma and violence in these youth’s lives led her to pursue a PhD in Community Psychology in hopes of learning ways to prevent violence in future generations. She discovered ways to use research to improve policies, strengthen programs, and support communities. In addition, Hipp is also interested in understanding the unique strengths that we each possess. This strengths-based approach lead her to the topic of resilience.
Today, Hipp runs the Women’s Resilience Project, conducts research with the Violence Against Women Prevention Team, and serves as a Presidential Fellow in the Transcultural Conflict and Violence Initiative at Georgia State University. She has received a number of grants and acknowledgements for her work and has partnered with numerous organizations to provide research and evaluation services.
In the future, she looks forward to integrating a creative approach to her advocacy and research. Prior to her academic career, Hipp was a dancer and artist. She recognizes that the intersection of art, storytelling, research, and teaching holds immense power. By combining these interests, she finds the unique ability to celebrate transformation, empower communities, and validate our individual experiences.
Aida Curtis is an Iranian-American interdisciplinary artist from Atlanta, GA. She draws inspiration from the living body, tangible and intangible aspects of inheritance, narratives of horror, and ritual practice. Her explorations of improvisational movement, spatial relationships and trace-making practices are the foundation of her work. Aida is interested in unveiling aspects of the collective unconscious by articulating the movement choices that are established and perpetuated through media. She received her BA in Anthropology from the University of Georgia, and recently certified as a Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analyst through the Integrated Movement Studies program. Aida instructs Yoga Asana and Pranayama at Balance Yoga Atlanta.
Audrey Gamez
Jacqueline Woo creates and shares stories that form shared communities through the experience of performance. To this end, she uses the personal experiences of those involved in her work, allowing them to shape the work together with her during the journey of creation. She believes that work becomes richer when dancers are encouraged to bring their ideas and thoughts into the process in a substantial manner so that true collaboration arises. This necessitates a looser grip on the process and outcome of dance-making, which she finds extremely rewarding.
Part of telling stories is communicating them well. Jacqueline is interested in the interaction of text and movement, particularly in the ways text can provide direction to movement and guide interpretation of the work. Speaking is just as important a means of communication as movement and body language. Jacqueline explores methods to bring the two together in a way that results in clear, detailed communication without diminished or superfluous movement.
Maggie Benoit's long term objective is to produce enriching experiences while exposing others to cultural content through the vehicle of arts & entrepreneurship. Her focus is to strengthen a community driven network, a conversation, a connection to resources, a place for beings to express constructively. This way the individual & community grow. Maggie believes that art engagement is the biggest advocate for being human. This being human means staying curious, asking questions, creating solutions, as well as learning constructs of both personal & social space. The question arises, “how does one define this space of connecting the intimately personal to another tangibly?” Such an expression means finding love for self, love for another another, love for something that holds meaning. Sharing said experience defines a landscape of varied media through intentional integration of work and life. Maggie’s current project, Scoot Media Yoga, is a developing yoga series in niche environments using movement & mIxed media to engage growing Atlanta neighborhoods through art modalities. These interactive yoga events in “out of the box” settings highlight urban growth initiatives in Atlanta. These aim to punctuate the direct value that art & culture has on the urban environment with respect to its sustainable development. Installations & interactive media define curated classes that blend yoga with live projection, music, film, performance art, 2D & sculptural work, panel discussions, experimental events, therapeutic resources, conservation & community building.
Nicholas Ward grew up in Grant Park playing studying classical and jazz piano. He performs in a Caldas show for the second time today.
Maria Alejandra Baetti is an Argentine-American designer raised in Atlanta and living in Vienna, Austria since 2008. Her interest in visual storytelling, multiculturalism and feminism inform much of her work. After earning her BA in Advertising and BS in Psychology at the University of Georgia, she moved to Austria with a Fulbright grant and earned a Masters in International Studies at the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna. She is now completing her BA in Graphic Design at the Vienna campus of Staffordshire University.
Iman Person is a visual artist and sculptor based in the Atlanta area. Her use of natural materials and ritual consciousness, create a hybrid reality between physical space and ethereal realms. Coupled with the concept of authentic nature, she embeds qualities of the feminine, primordial memory, natural cycles and anthropological customs to illustrate lineage and identity within the new, synthetic landscape.
In 2010 she received her B.F.A from Georgia State University and in 2012, she was named one of the 30 most influential artists in Atlanta by Barbara Archer Gallery. She is a member of the Atlanta based collective, Dashboard Co-Op, is a 2011 Hambidge fellow and is 2013-2014 Walthall fellow. You can view her work at: www.imanperson.com
Thomas Bell is partner in and co-founder of Chronicle, a brand narrative firm (www.thisischronicle.com) and the owner of MineCart, a performing arts incubator (www.minecart.biz). He is also the co-founder of the AJC Decatur Book Festival (www.decaturbookfestival.com). For several years, he was the book editor and dance critic for Creative Loafing. Bell sits on the board of Emory Friends of Dance (dance.emory.edu/audience/friends/) and is the former board chair of CORE (www.coredance.org). He studies dance and performs with me.you.us.we.them and Crossover Movement Arts (www.crossovermovementarts.com). He also studies aerial dance with The D’Air Project (www.thedairproject.org).
Stephanie Kong is the Programs Director at WonderRoot. Different versions of herself have been in educational pedagogy, TESL, social work, art therapy, research on hate crimes, and coffee. Outside of her nonprofit work, she alongside her longtime partner and friends use their collective resources to facilitate a personal initiative to empower at-risk and homeless youth to explore positive and creative avenues of life. She lives in the Five Points area and considers herself a novice photographer. She is a heterosexual cisgender female.
Jan Christiansen is the Executive Director of the Georgia Coalition Against Domestic Violence (GCADV), and has been with the organization since 2009. She has worked in the domestic violence movement for more than twenty years. Previous to coming to GCADV, Jan was the Executive Director of Women Helping Battered Women, the largest domestic violence program in Vermont, and worked for many years in Florida including serving as Executive Director for Micah’s Place, the certified domestic violence center serving Nassau County, Florida. Jan has spoken at the local and state levels as well as internationally having traveled to Slovakia in November 2007 where she gave input and technical assistance for the first domestic violence crisis center in the country, lectured at universities and spoke to the Slovakian Platform on Nongovernmental Agencies about the impact of violence against women and girls.
Ray Manlove has worked in virtually every aspect of Broadcasting for 35 years, including 24 years with PBS. As his awareness of male privilege and sexism grew, he realized that being a good guy is not enough to eradicate it. Ray co-founded hu-MAN Up, a Planet Project initiative in 2013, employing the use of billboards and transit signs, monologues, spoken word, art, movement, workshops and public art to engage men and boys. As co-director, Ray has produced, directed and performed in annual performances of BECOMING hu-MAN: Voices to Help End Rape Culture in Pennsylvania. He works as a performer/facilitator in schools fraternities and the community. He is passionate about intersectional feminism and engaging men and boys to end rape culture. Ray has trained with Men Can Stop Rape, Men Stopping Violence and A Call to Men.
Callahan is an artist and serial entrepreneur who has created and directed several businesses. She has designed and developed largecommunity art projects as well as manage her own art studio. She is the proudmom of a er grow son, Zachary. She is happy to be the loving life partner to her husband Bill Pope. Callahan and Bill reside in their wonderful ome and studio located in the Old Fourth Ward, intown Atlanta,Ga. Statement: The departure point for my work comes from myself, my relationships, and my surroundings. The layers of meaning that come through my work, the sense of a source other than I can name, are always a bit of a surprise to me. Increasingly, I have a desire to make marks in time, to leave a record, that which I cannot put in words. I fantasize of cave paintings and how they were a part of daily life, how they recorded, mourned, and celebrated a tribes’ days and experiences. I look for that balance of elegance and crudeness in my work and the daily reference in the ‘doing’ of the work. My desire is for my work to be experienced out in the world, to make a difference that touches people’s lives.
Adele Taylor Ulrich is the playwright of Chain Reaction, with contributions by Sandy Asher and the Fulton Youththeatre ensemble, based Kevin Bales’ book on modern slavery, Disposable People. In 2008, the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities honored The Fulton Youtheatre (which she co-directed) with a Coming Up Taller Award. Adele choreographed and performed the multimedia cultural criticism on environmental causes of breast cancer and mass culture socialization We’re Still Soaking in It at the 2004 Philadelphia Fringe Festival. She was awarded American Alliance for Theater in Education’s Youth Theater Co-Director of the Year in 2011. She currently co-directs hu-MAN Up, an initiative of the 501(c)(3) The Planet Project, to engage men and boys as allies in helping to end Rape Culture. She incorporates PSAs on billboards and transit signs, monologues, spoken word, art, movement, workshop and public art. She produces the art exhibit and performance: BECOMING hu-MAN: Voices to Help End Rape Culture, annually. Her recent presentations include #sexismisnotsexy workshops and trainings at Millersville University’s Gender and Sexuality Institute’s sEXPO, Lambda Chi Fraternity, and Sigma Upsilon Sorority. Adele coordinates college programming and trains peer educators through hu-Man Up Local College Coalitions (HULCC).
Orion Crook has a Master of Arts degree in Psychology from the University of West Georgia, and a Humanistic Praxis Certificate.
The practice of psychotherapy is an art form that is an engagement in the science of psychology. My training covers a wide range of theory and techniques, with emphasis on the Humanistic approach to therapy and living. Some particulars that stood out in my studies are the Gestalt, Existential and Experiential approaches in the therapeutic relationship. In my opinion, these all take a focus on what is present in the room and the experience of expression of the client. I find that expression in all of its form is an access point that can help us explore who you are and what you are trying to create in life.
What I find critical to the work we will engage in is the relationship between us. Who you are, what you bring, and the way you see the world will inform how I approach you in the therapeutic relationship. I trust that you know what you need, you might just need a place to hold space for you to discover it and move towards action. Whether this work is around trauma, identity, anxiety, and/or gender; these are a few area I commonly work in. I find myself often encouraging my clients to identify their patterns, how they relate to their past, and try something different; that way they can learn something new.
Jennifer Swain presently works as the Deputy Director for youthSpark, Inc.(formerly the Juvenile Justice Fund) where she oversees the strategic development of current programs and community education initiatives as well as manages other internal activities of the organization. Prior to the current position, Jennifer served as the Program Director where her influential vision aided in the development of youthSpark Voices, the unique early intervention program to reach girls deemed high-risk for trafficking involvement or who do not self-identify as victims of commercial sexual exploitation. She speaks and trains various groups on the trafficking issue, as well as presenting at various local and national conferences on victim identification and early intervention. She has worked as a consultant with groups working to build community collaborations and strategies to address this problem. She is a part of the Georgia Statewide Trafficking Task Force and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children Family Advocacy & Outreach Network, a network of providers and agencies who help to link trafficking victims and their families to services and support when needed in Georgia. Additionally, Swain served as a trainer for Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens’ Georgia’s Not Buying It Campaign and has been declared an expert testimony witness by DeKalb County Superior Court. Prior to her work in the non-profit world, Swain worked in programming and communications for FOX5/WZDX in Alabama and has experience working with youth through mentorship and her longtime volunteer work with Big Brothers Big Sisters. She is a graduate of Alabama A&M University with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Communications with countless hours of specialized trafficking training & education from various federal and local agencies.
Elizabeth O'brien has been working in the field of mental health for over 20 years, with the majority of her experience up north in Fairbanks, Alaska. She is a seasoned clinician who has worked in traditional settings such as domestic violence shelters, non-profit agencies, school systems, psychiatric wards, and correctional facilities and in non-traditional settings like rural Native Alaskan villages on the tundra accessible only by plane. Elizabeth has had the opportunity to explore many populations across the lifespan, but many of her clients, regardless of age, have suffered from complex trauma and chronic mental illness.
Over the years, Elizabeth has used a variety of modalities to connect with clients, like equine therapy, Dance Movement Therapy groups, recreational therapy – but the common denominator has been healing through movement. In 2004, Elizabeth opened her own private practice and focused on working with children and adults who had suffered from child abuse. This led to her interest into early childhood mental health, where she thrived as a mental health consultant and was a founding member for Alaska’s Early Childhood Mental Health Board.
In, 2011 Elizabeth and her family relocated to Atlanta, Georgia where she quickly gained recognition among her peers as an expert in perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, which afforded her the opportunity to establish herself in group practice.
Max Beeching is Based in Atlanta. Martial artist. Studio artist: photography/ painting/ sculpture/ installations.
Max works to portrays a landscape of material that elicits the fight within. This is an exploration of finding balance between one's inner monster and the power to recognize / overcome. Through repetition we communicate the good vs. bad nature of habit, polarizing the tension that must be identified, unmasked. With an ability to "face one's monster," we signify humanity & ultimately restores once displaced energy on the path to becoming "sifu" / a master.
Jon Lowe acts as Laboratory & Business Manager for the Biomarkers Core at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center of Emory University. The lab focuses on utilizing multiple techniques to run preclinical trial analysis for hormones, small peptides, proteins, and cytokines in humans, NHP, and other mammalian models.
In Jan of 2015, Jon joined Health Connect South as an analyst and project manager. The mission of Health Connect South (HCS) is to serve the health community as a sustainable platform for regional health collaborations. HCS seeks to broadly define & advance the Southeast’s role in the future of health. Serving as a gateway between health industry silos, HCS aims to provide unique & meaningful partnership opportunities in health. This focus brings top-tier health leaders & innovators together across disciplines to engage each other in collaborative conversations that meet identified health needs, while leveraging the ideas & resources of varied institutions. At the heart of all of Jon’s hard work is a fervor for exploration & a thirst for finding the wonder in humanity. He is happiest when climbing, juggling or woodworking & loves to be outdoors.
Theodore McLee is an art and political organizer in Atlanta, who unapologetically situates their work in the frame of radical, intersectional politics. Since graduating from Georgia State University in 2014, having studied Psychology and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, they have focused the bulk of their organizing efforts on projects that aim to empower oppressed peoples through the arts. Throughout the past few years in which they served as the Program Director and Co-Founder of The Low Museum, they have organized film screenings, panel discussions, and art exhibits, all for the larger goal of creating accessible spaces of critical discourse and communal engagement. Other creative/political projects that they've been proud to be a collaborator on have included Ladyfest Atlanta and Murmur Media Inc.
Eve Nettles is an artist living in Atlanta, Georgia. She studied sculpture at the Lamar Dodd School of Art in Athens. In university she researched plant biology and anthropology that would later inform her art. In 2012 she studied with the University of Pau in the South of France. Her work aspires to embody place, the decay of matter, nature's abilities to restore organisms structures. Outside of university, she now creates installations alongside abandoned sites, sources forgotten history and collaborates within community.
Awilda Rivera is a Coach. Yogi. Spiritual Advisor.Awilda’s life's work is about about helping, healing and empowering others. Descendant from a lineage of Spiritualist Healers and Mediums, she has been on a journey with Spirit her whole life. After her divergent teenage years she reawakened to her ancient connection with Energies & Divinities. This reawakening opened her eyes to the broader spectrum of humanity, thus realizing that spiritual advisement is needed by many & has the power to bring great healing. Awilda has spent the last few years becoming a Certified Yoga Teacher and Certified Success Coach. Both Yoga and Coaching offer another path to self-empowerment, self-actualization and personal abundance. Each presumes that you already have all the answers within - the goal is to unlock that inner treasure and manifest the life you want now.
Jolynn Sockwell is a Wrangler (profession) at Stockwell Sanctuary & Platform Organizer with gloATL. Swerving from a business consulting career path, shifting out of healthcare financial analytics, Jolynn has settled into motherhood. These current roles of nurture & movement arts advocacy have done much to improve Jolynn’s life expectancy & well-being. Born & raised in & around Atlanta’s enclaves, Jolynn holds a BA in Economics & Business from Agnes Scott College. After serving on the board of gloATL for the past 3 years, she has recently moved into the realm of daily activities of glo operations. Always honing her existing skills & innate abilities, glo provides an immersive experience furthering Jolynn’s personal goal to be a continuously curious, growing, striving part of community.
Matt Evans currently lives in Atlanta, working with the International Cinematographer's Guild. He is also an independent photographer with a focus on documentary storytelling. His most recent body of work follows "bike life," a movement of dirt bikers who throttle through the cityscape and adapt the terrain to their vehicles. He is a member of the LA based indie production group, Shrine, led by Jason Miller. Matt is a bouldering fanatic. He often uses snake emojis to emote affirmations & has a growing collection of Dump Trump apparel.
Powerkompany In an effort to express a complex topic in a sonic manner, Powerkompany has shifted (if only briefly) from their usual dramatic cinematic pop to have a conversation. Fresh off the release of their two-part album Fever and Chills, Powerkompany is dipping into new experiences with the sparse 20 minute composition entitled "Tetra." The song touches on different musical themes throughout, from haunting discordance to almost pop lightness-- a symbolic meandering sonic expression regarding the challenges and triumphs that come with the topics of sex, love, gender and intimacy.
Soul Food Cypher utilizes the power of speech to transform the lives of individuals and their communities. We are an organization that showcases the positive aspects of rap through our cypher events, membership program, and community outreach. Our aim is to provide Atlanta’s lyricist (rappers) community with a safe and nurturing environment where their voice and artistry can grow. In addition, we look to solidify the art of freestyling as a genuine aesthetic to the wider artistic community and carry this rich tradition to the next generation.
My name is Troy Zapp and I am 26 years old. I started my transition in October of 2014. I dated women my whole life, but never called myself a lesbian as the “label” did not seem fitting for some reason. After meeting a transgender man in early 2014, I was able to finally understand my life in context to my thoughts and feelings. This led me to a massive decision with both my faith and family. I had no idea what GOD would think of this, let alone my family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers.
My family struggled deeply with me dating girls, and the struggle was worse when it came to finding my place at church and in GOD’s heart. I was lucky enough to meet up with clay Scroggins and Elaine Scott of NPCC, to finally find some clarity on what my life would look life in GOD’s eyes if I went through with becoming a man. What did this have on my faith, my personal relationship, and belonging in a church? I needed answers, and peace.
After meeting with them, I left that day with the weight of the world off my shoulders and this uncontrollable feeling come across me. They helped me understand that GOD loves us all, in any shape or form, because if he didn’t, he wouldn’t have sent his son down to die for ALL of our sins. If they only knew how long I had been waiting on that comfort; and those simple words. My faith from that day on exploded with joy and persistence.
It is ironic that the one place that all LGBTQ’s fear the most to be involved with (church), was the same place that brought my transition upon me. I use to hate and fear the church including all the people in it. Now, I am involved and loved, and know I belong.
Dee Wagner, MS, BC-DMT, LPC, has worked as a counselor and dance/movement therapist at the Link Counseling Center in Atlanta for 22 years. She has worked as a professional choreographer and dance/drama teacher for over 35 years including 10 years of teaching moms and two year-olds. She has presented workshops for seven American Dance Therapy Association conferences as well as for the Georgia Marriage and Family Therapy Association, South Fulton Medical Center, Georgia Regional Hospital, and the Eating Disorders Information Network. She is co-author of the book/workbook Naked Online: a DoZen Ways to Grow from Internet Dating.
Atlanta native hailing from Boston MA, Mark Montgomery (Markmont.) is a Senior Art Director at Huge Inc., an interactive design agency. Outside of the job, Markmont. is the Creative Director of freestyle rap community outreach non-profit Soul Food Cypher.
"One major focus that has helped me in my career is definitely not being easily satisfied with any accomplishments nor abilities. No matter my title, the company I'm at nor any seemingly financial stable state, I always operate as if I have no money and need to grind for more. This notion keeps me grounded and keeps me from getting too comfortable."