Literature

Trace Howard DePass is the author of self-portrait as the space between us (PANK Books, 2018), which was a finalist for the 2019 Eric Hoffer Book Prize. He served as an editor for Scholastic and has been featured on screen and radio—including BET Next Level, Billboard, Poetry Foundation, Ours Poetica, NPR’s The Takeaway, Split This Rock, Bettering American Poetry (Volume 3), and the Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day series. DePass is a fellow with Poets House and Teachers & Writers.

Dance

Dawn DiPasquale (MA Dance Ed NYU) is a dancer, choreographer and teaching artist for 92NY CALL, NY City Center and Together in Dance. For 92NY Dance Education Laboratory, Dawn is a curriculum developer and facilitator for the NYC DOE Create Professional Learning series for 3K and Pre-K educators and is project manager and K-2 curriculum writer for DEL’s Tracing Footsteps: Honoring Diverse Voices Through Dance History in NYC. Choreography: Paper Mill Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre, North Shore Music Theatre, Music Theatre of Wichita, Santa Barbara CLO and others. Performance: DTW, PS 122, Riverside Church, Green Space, BAX, MMAC, NYC Fringe Festival. She is a grant recipient from The Kansas Cultural Trust and is a member of SDC (Stage Directors and Choreographers Society).

Music

Award-winning flutist, pianist and composer Dominique Gagné translates her fascination with cultures into sound. Trained classically but raised by a father who played jazz piano, Dominique loves exploring varied genres, including Brazilian and Latin jazz, Choro, Flamenco, Moroccan Gnawa, English Country and Contra dance. As a flutist, she plays in duo with 7-string guitarist Cesar Garabini, with bassist Santi Debriano’s nonet and with the all-female Lulada Club salsa band. She loves playing music for dance and performs on both flute and piano for Country Dance NY for English Country and Contra dances. She has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Village Vanguard and Zinc Bar, as well as venues in Canada, Europe, Japan and Indonesia. She is a teaching artist and dance accompanist with 92NY and Mark Morris Dance Group. Dominique hopes to inspire more musicians, especially girls, to play and improvise in every style they happen to fall in love with.

Music

Percussionist Gabriel Globus-Hoenich blends a multitude of musical influences in his work as a performer and educator. A Montreal native, Gabriel is now based in New York City where his career continues to reflect a deep love for the worlds of jazz, classical music, and world music. Gabriel has performed on drumset and percussion with a wide variety of artists including Morgan James, Jim James, Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, Yuja Wang, Omara Portuondo, Telmary Diaz, Roberto Fonseca, Tirso Duarte, Steve Hackman, Tessa Lark, the Philly Pops, Pittsburgh Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, among others. He collaborates frequently with Teddy Abrams and the Sixth Floor Trio, serving as principal percussionist and education director at the trio’s chamber music festival, GardenMusic, in South Miami.

An active composer and arranger, Gabriel has written orchestral arrangements for Grammy-award winners Sam Bush, Cory Henry, and Sara Jarosz, as well as Achilles Liarmakopolous of the Canadian Brass, Grammy-nominated Tiempo Libre, and the Louisville Orchestra. In 2018, Gabriel performed Julia Wolfe's percussion concerto riSE and fLY with Teddy Abrams and the Louisville Orchestra with the composer present. In 2019, Gabriel performed chamber music with Daniil Trifonov and Sergei Babayan to a sold out crowd at Stern Auditorium in Carnegie Hall.

In 2017 Gabriel founded People of Earth, a 15 person Latin fusion group filled with some of NYC’s best musicians representing a myriad of countries. People of Earth has performed at Disney Hall, New World Center for the Arts, Mann Center, and Kennedy Center, among others. For more information visit www.peopleofearthmusic.com.

In addition to his work in the orchestral and jazz music worlds, Gabriel has completed extensive world percussion studies having studied Afro-Brazilian percussion in Salvador, Bahia with Gabi Guedes and Mario Pam, as well as Cuban percussion with Girardo Piloto, Rociel Riveron, and Adonis Panter.

Gabriel works as a teaching artist for the 92NY and Marquis Studios. He was formerly a teaching artist with Play On Philly! as well as musician-in-residence at The Please Touch Museum. He is a 2008 graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Don Liuzzi and Robert van Sice.

Literature

Daniel Goulden is a non-binary writer, teacher, and climate organizer living in Brooklyn, NY, with their wife and insane cat. They’ve been a writer ever since they learned to read and are working on a novel based on the life of Zeppo Marx. They also enjoy writing short stories about climate change that envision a more hopeful future. They teach creative writing to public school students across NYC. They try to give their students maximum freedom to express themselves artistically. In their spare time, they volunteer as a climate organizer, pressuring elected officials to take action and organizing rallies and direct actions.

Dance

Kim Grier-Martinez is the Artistic Director of the Rod Rodgers Dance Company, founded in 1967. A native New Yorker, Kim received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance from the prestigious Philadelphia College of Performing Arts, now the University of the Arts. She is a dancer, performance artist, master teacher, educator, and choreographer.

Kim made her debut at the esteemed Metropolitan Opera House as the principal dancer in George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, choreographed by Carmen de Lavallade in 1990. As a dancer, she has worked with several modern dance companies and notable choreographers and had the privilege to perform solo theater with the award-winning novelist, playwright and director Bill Wright.

Kim served as Director of Dance Programs at the Harlem School of the Arts and Rehearsal Director and Choreographer for three of the school’s resident dance companies. She continues her work with ArtsConnection, where she incorporates poetry, music, and elements of media in her teaching practice. Kim has worked as a Program Advisor for Broadway Jr middle schools and has choreographed Broadway Jr shows. She has a special passion for teaching young people, using dance to mentor and guide them from childhood to young adulthood. In 2002, she founded the Rod Rodgers Youth Program and established the ensemble in 2005. As a teaching artist, facilitator and one of the developers, her work continues with GIVE.

Kim created the choreography for the Off-Broadway production, The Dark Star from Harlem, a tribute to Josephine Baker which premiered to rave reviews at La Mama Ellen Stewart Theater in 1990, and the Miss US Virgin Islands Caribbean Queen Pageant in St. Croix. In 2018, she choreographed for Middle Collegiate Church’s CBS Christmas special: A Bold New Love which aired on Christmas Eve.

Kim has served as a panelist for the New York State Council on the Arts, Middle Collegiate Church Arts Ministries of New York City, the Fourth Arts Block (FAB) and as a judge for the Hal Jackson Talented Teens Final Pageant in New York City, Connecticut, and St. Croix. She choreographed and volunteered at Good Shepherd Church Young Ministries as well as Middle Collegiate Church, whose mission is social action and interfaith dialog for the purpose of justice and reconciliation.

Among other recognitions, she is the recipient of the Lila Wallace Award, National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts Teacher’s Recognition in 2005-2006, 2004-2005 and 2009, ArtsConnection Linda Janklow Award, Downtown Arts Young Artists and Leaders 2011 Mentor Award and was honored by the Renaissance Movement Ensemble of the Harlem School of the Arts Alumni in 2012 and awarded several “Certificates of Appreciation” for the Breast Cancer Awareness Fundraiser For Birdie’s Nesting Place in 2013, 2014, 2016 & 2017, and most recently an AUDELCO Award Nominee in choreography for the Dark Star from Harlem.

Music

Everton Isidoro was born and raised in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. He began studying percussion in 1999, and he earned his Bachelor’s degree in Percussion at the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA) in 2012. Everton has built his career around his love for the rhythms native to his country, specifically those from Northeastern Brazil. Despite his young age, he is already well respected as both a master player and teacher by musicians worldwide. His work in Brazil consists of 10 years as a percussion teacher and musician at Neojibá project, touring Europe, the US, and South America. He was the main percussion teacher at Espaço Cultural Pierre Verger for six years, a musician with Orchestra Afro-Sinfônica, the Orchestra Soteropolifônica, Leitieres Leite & the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra. He has performed with such artists as Maria Bethânia, Ivete Sangalo, Caetano Veloso, Susana Baca, Carlinhos Brown, Mercedes Sosa, Cecília Todd, and Ramiro Musotto. He has performed in more than 75 cities in Brazil with the UFBA percussion ensemble. In the United States, Everton has taught workshops at Harlem Samba, Play on Philly, Dwana Smallwood’s dance school, and the Philadelphia Orchestra’s school partnership program.

Literature

Cea (Constantine Jones) is an interdisciplinary Greek-American poet and thingmaker. Their visual art is housed in the Artist Registry at Visual AIDS, where they also work as the Oral History Project Liaison. They are the author of a novella, In Still Rooms (The Operating System, 2020) and a collaborative chabook, Baleen: A Poem In Twelve Days (Ursus Americanus, 2022). They lead creative writing workshops at The City College of New York, Brooklyn Poets, Liminal Lab, Housing Works and elsewhere. Their work has been performed or exhibited across NYC and Tennessee.

Dance

Eli Kababa’s dance career began in Bayonne, New Jersey, where he learned how to break-dance from local crews. A graduate of the Dance Education Laboratory (DEL), Eli has taught hip-hop for 92NY’s Harkness Dance Center and in NYC public school classrooms through 92NY’s Center for Arts Learning & Leadership. You can read about Eli’s hip-hop dance education work in Dance Teacher Magazine. Eli is pursuing an MFA in Choreography at Wilson College, where he is studying with master hip-hop choreographer Rennie Harris.

Dance

Angelina Ponzio Labate (she/her, snowflake.productions, BKNY) is a teaching and performing artist, choreographer, poet, storyteller and documentarian. She works in Afrodiasporic dance traditions - learning, honoring and passing forward the lineages of Hip Hop, Street and Club Dance.

Angelina is a Street Dance Teaching Certificate Candidate with Rennie Harris University and an MFA in Choreography candidate with Wilson College, where she is mentored by Rennie Harris. She holds a Certificate of Continuation from the Moptop Universal Professional Program; a B.A. from the World Arts and Cultures/Dance program with a Minor in Visual and Performing Arts Education from UCLA; an A.A. with a Certificate in African Heritage Dance Production from City College of San Francisco, and she continues to study, document and work across the U.S. and abroad.

Angelina began her teaching career with The Growing Peace Project youth, where she developed her teaching philosophy - coming from the belief that we thrive when we are seen, heard, challenged and loved. She has taught in schools, dance studios, college and community spaces and her classroom is rooted in respect, history, technique, growth, expression and exchange.

Angelina archives Hip Hop, Street and Club dance for Rennie Harris Puremovement; researches and documents House Dance; and creates work for the stage, film and theater. Her work has been shown from Los Angeles to the Bay Area to New York, with generous support from organizations such as Artist Relief Project, Intersection for the Arts, San Francisco Opera, Small Business Administration, Theater Bay Area, The Growing Peace Project, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and York College of Pennsylvania.

Angelina gives many thanks e grazie mille to Rennie Harris, her many teachers, her family and community, and the students, spirits and ancestors.

Music

Daniel Levy is a composer and musician based in New York City whose work includes scores for plays, musicals, opera, and film. His full-length music-theater works include The Singing (Richard Rodgers Award), Laughing Pictures (Fordham Lincoln Center), Jungle Book (Imagination Stage), Cinderella (off-Broadway), and an operatic version of Ray Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles (Ars Nova, Miami University, New York Theater Workshop). A leader in urban teaching artistry and arts program design, he has partnered with numerous arts-in-education institutions, including 92NY, The Little Orchestra Society, Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Opera Guild, Lincoln Center Education, and Project Music Heals Us, working with a variety of communities in public schools, homeless shelters, and state and federal correctional facilities (Sing Sing, Rikers Island, Danbury). Daniel is the author of A Teaching Artist’s Companion: How To Define and Develop Your Practice (Oxford University Press, 2019).

Website: www.daniellevymusic.com
Youtube Channel

Music

Daniel Linden (M.M. from the New England Conservatory in Trombone Performance) has toured the U.S., Europe and Asia with orchestras, opera companies and rock bands. He regularly plays in Broadway and Off-Broadway productions and has made many recordings in classical, jazz and pop/world genres. He has performed on Fox News, CBS, MSNBC and the Artie Lange Show. Festivals Daniel has played include the Montreal Jazz Festival, Lincoln Center Out of Doors and Bang on a Can Marathon. Active in world music and jazz, Daniel has worked with David Byrne, Silk Road Ensemble, Slavic Soul Party, Asphalt Orchestra, The Ed Palermo Big Band, The Gregorio Uribe Big Band, Fleur Seule Latin Big Band and Frank London’s Klezmer Brass All Stars. He has subbed with the Radio City Music Hall Orchestra for the past four seasons. From 2018-2020 he held the trombone chair of Fiddler On the Roof in Yiddish Off Broadway at Stage 42. Daniel has taught trombone at Brandeis University and is a teaching artist for 92NY and Carnegie Hall. Daniel also writes and records songs under the name Hoosac.

Dance

Mariangela Lopez is a Brooklyn-based dancer and educator born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela. Since 1999 she has taught dance to different communities across the US and abroad, including to students at public schools (Pre-K-12), individuals affected by domestic violence, and at-risk youth.

From 2002-2009, Mariangela was the Associate Director of Community Programs for Gina Gibney Dance, where she designed a program that brings dance to children living in shelters for survivors of domestic violence. From 2010-2013, Mariangela was the Coordinator of the Adventures in Dance Program at Ballet Hispánico School of Dance.

Mariangela is a faculty member at 92NY CALL, as well as 92NY Dance Education Laboratory, where she facilitates workshops and mentors NYC Pre-K teachers. She is a Somatic Movement Educator, a Certified Laban Movement Analyst and a Certified Yoga Teacher. She holds a BFA from the Boston Conservatory (1999), and a Certification in Foundations of Dance Education from Dance Education Laboratory (92NY DEL). She is currently pursuing her certification in Infant Developmental Movement Education (IDME) at the School of Body-Mind Centering®.

In her teaching, Mariangela applies her knowledge of Modern Dance, Composition, Improvisation, Yoga, Creative Movement, Laban Movement Analysis, Bartenieff Fundamentals, Motif Writing (Language of Dance) and Somatic Movement. She strives to provide students an in-class experience in which each participant feels validated as a unique individual with the ability to make choices and celebrate the joy and power of movement.

Literature

Meher Manda is a poet, writer, journalist, editor, and educator originally from Mumbai, India, currently based in Providence, Rhode Island. After receiving an undergraduate degree in advertising and journalism from the University of Mumbai, she earned her MFA in Fiction at the College of New Rochelle, where she was the founding editor-in-chief of The Canopy Review. As a journalist, she writes about the intersection of culture and politics, with a focus on South Asian works of art. Her work can be found at The Juggernaut, The Guardian, Bustle, Scroll, and elsewhere.

She is the author of the poetry chapbook Busted Models (No, Dear / Small Anchor Press, 2019). Her writing has appeared in The Margins, Catapult, Epiphany, Cosmonauts Avenue, Los Angeles Review, Barren Magazine, Peach, and elsewhere. A Best New Poets and Best of the Net nominee, she has received fellowships and grants from The Polis Project, DreamYard, Teachers & Writers Collaborative, among others. She has been featured and interviewed at Brooklyn Poets, Catharsis Magazine, Hyperallergic, Asia Art Tours, The Polis Project, The Hindu. She co-creates the political web-comic Jamun Ka Ped, edits work for indie publisher Radix Media, and teaches at the Rhode Island School of Design.

Literature

Nkosi Nkululeko’s work is published, featured, or forthcoming in Chess Life Online, Ploughshares, Poem-A-Day, Poet Lore, The Offing, Oxford Poetry, The Slowdown, and more. He is the winner of Michigan Quarterly Review’s Page Davidson Clayton Prize for Emerging Poets 2018 and a recipient of fellowships from Callaloo, Poets House, Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts, and The Watering Hole. Nkosi’s work explores the exciting field of multi-directional poetry, an extension of pattern or visual poetry. His main obsession involves the Square Poem, a rare form to be read both horizontally and vertically, bearing geometric intricacies and a variety of origins throughout the world. You can find his own Square Poems in journals like ANMLY, Hayden’s Ferry Review, and The Nation. Featured in Poetry Northwest, Nkosi’s essay “Arranging Grammar,” written as a contrapuntal, highlights the method, history, and practitioners of this poetic form. He is anthologized in The Best American Poetry Anthology, Bettering American Vol. 3, and Furious Flower: Seeding the Future of African American Poetry. Nkosi is a chess, music, and poetry teacher from Harlem!

Art

Stina Puotinen is an artist, educator and occasional curator from New York City. Earning her BFA at Vassar College in 2004 in Studio Art and Art History, she went on to teach at major arts institutions including MoMA, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim, among many others. She lived in Manchester, UK, while earning an MFA in Collaborative Practice from Manchester School of Art from 2015 - 2017, and has since returned from her studies to live and work in Brooklyn.

Music

Melanie Scholtz is a South African born, multi award-winning jazz singer and composer. An early lover of music, she started playing the piano at the age of five. She studied Opera at The University of Cape Town Opera School, where she graduated Cum Laude with a Performer’s Diploma in Opera 2000.

In 2010, Melanie was named the Standard Bank Young Artist for Jazz. In 2012, she won all three prizes at the prestigious Jazz Revelations competition as part of the Jazz a Juan Festival in Nice, France. Melanie was chosen to be a featured artist in The Great South African Songbook Tour (September 2019 to February 2020) with Wynton Marsalis and Jazz at Lincoln Center. She has been featured at venues around the world and has performed alongside such celebrated artists as Kurt Elling (Joy of Jazz festival in Johannesburg in 2012), the late Hugh Masekela (with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra in 2015), and jammed alongside Bobby McFerrin at the 2011 AnJazz Festival in Norway.

In February 2022, she released a new bass and voice record — Kindred — with Norwegian double bassist Jo Fougner Skaansar. In June 2022, she released an album of originals as a co-writer for the German band Small Kingdom. Melanie is a vocal teacher at 92NY’s CALL and School of Music and frequently presents workshops and presentations at Jazz at Lincoln Center. She lives in Brooklyn.

Dance

Macy Sullivan is a New York City-based dancer, collaborator, and teaching artist. She recently worked on the creative team of SW!NG OUT, a Lindy Hop program bringing live swing dance and music to audiences nationwide, and she continues to perform annually as Peter in Works & Process’ Peter & the Wolf with Isaac Mizrahi. Informed by seventeen years of experience, Macy’s teaching practice reaches a wide range of ages, abilities, genres, and communities. She joined the faculty of 92NY CALL in 2021 and has additionally contributed as a curriculum writer and through professional development workshops. Macy is also on faculty with Together in Dance, teaching creative movement residencies in public schools, and Dance for PD®, teaching dance classes to people with Parkinson’s Disease. Her alma mater, The Juilliard School, frequently hosts her as a guest speaker and mentor. Past teaching engagements with New York City Center, Lincoln Center, and NYC’s DOE have all supported her development in this field. Macy is a two-time recipient of the Goldman Arts Enrichment Teaching Fellowship in partnership with Harlem School of the Arts and is grateful to many other organizations for eye-opening perspectives on how art can initiate change.

Dance

Aaron Charles Thomas (Harlem, New York) is a professional dancer from New York City. He is currently a New York City teaching artist for Ailey’s Arts in Education Program and has trained at The Ailey School for almost 10 years. Mr. Thomas is currently a psychology major at Hostos Community College and has worked with youth for over 15 years in various schools and dance programs. Mr. Thomas is trained in various styles of dance such as: Hip-Hop, Jazz, Modern, West African and Heels. A believer in giving back what he has learned over the years, Mr. Thomas is passionate about teaching dance to members of his community. He has experience working with school aged children (K-12), children with special needs, active adults, active seniors, & seniors with disabilities & dementia. Mr. Thomas currently performs with the Masterz at Work Dance Company and showcases his work in a variety of industry shows. He has an extensive dance background and can be seen dancing with various music artist such as Remy Ma, Ashanti, Todrick Hall, Tiffany Haddish and Lil Nas X. Mr. Thomas has performed for Fenty Savage, BET, MTV, and VH1 and just recently performed at the VMAs. Mr. Thomas enjoys teaching and seeks new ways to create spaces of positive expression.

Literature

Daniella Toosie-Watson (she/they) is a poet, visual artist and educator from New York. They have received fellowships and awards from the Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop, VONA, the InsideOut Detroit Literary Arts Project and the University of Michigan Hopwood Program. A winner of the 2020 92NY Discovery Poetry Contest, Daniella has been published in The Atlantic, The Paris Review, Callaloo, Virginia Quarterly Review, Poet Lore, the Cincinnati Review and elsewhere. They were the profile writer for The Kennedy Center’s Next 50 initiative and are currently a Visiting Professor at Pratt Institute. Daniella received their MFA from the University of Michigan Helen Zell Writers’ Program.

Dance

Elinam Joe Tsogbe’s journey into dance began at a tender age of three in Togo, where his innate talent found its rhythm. By 12, he had already immersed himself in the vibrant world of hip-hop, becoming an integral part of a local group and captivating audiences at prestigious venues, including the American Consulate.

Venturing across continents to Middlesex County College in New Jersey, Elinam’s passion for dance blossomed further. His creative energy flowed through choreographed masterpieces that spanned an eclectic mix of hip-hop, modern, and contemporary styles, marking him as an emerging force in the dance arena.

The inception of PARANOR3MIX Dance Company marked a pivotal chapter in his career. Beyond triumphs in various dance competitions, this venture became a beacon of hope for underprivileged youth in Perth Amboy, NJ, offering them not just dance education but a pathway to empowerment and self-discovery.

Amidst these achievements, Elinam seamlessly integrated into Souljerz Crew Ent., a revered dance company in New Jersey, leaving an indelible mark through his versatile choreography. His talent transcended conventional boundaries when he lent his creative vision to an off-Broadway production in NYC, showcasing his ability to blend innovation with artistry.

Assuming the role of Director at Bachrach School of Dance and Fitness, Elinam Joe Tsogbe’s impact extended far beyond the stage. His commitment to nurturing talent and fostering a love for dance among students marked a defining era in the school’s legacy.

However, Elinam’s influence wasn’t confined solely to performances and directorial roles. He dedicated himself to training aspiring dancers to become professional motivators, imparting not just the technicalities but also the essence of dance as a form of expression and celebration.

Dance

Elena Valencia is a performer, dancer, and a proud New Yorker. Inspired by community building through movement, Elena loves focusing on social and club dance styles, such as Lindy Hop and floorwork. Her passion for social dances led her to receive the Rosen Fellowship through Brooklyn College, which gave her the opportunity to study and teach swing dance in Barcelona while attending and competing at major festivals throughout Europe. After completing her year abroad, Elena trained at Steps on Broadway, completed the Professional Semester at Broadway Dance Center, and taught at Broadway Dance Center Children & Teens. She has furthered her training at Herrang Dance Camp and Dance Italia as a scholarship recipient. In NYC she performs with Wild Rhythm Dance Company and is a teaching artist with 92NY and Together in Dance.

Music

Hailed by the New York Times for her “magnificently sweet tone,” oboist Keve Wilson most recently played on Broadway in the revival of Company. She inspires high school band and orchestra students from around the country with her original show Believe NYC — from the Band Room to Broadway and has played in the orchestras for 13 Broadway shows. A past winner of Concert Artists Guild competition and a recipient of the Clifford-Levy Creativity Grant, she performs with the Grammy-nominated Absolute Ensemble, touring everywhere from Argentina to Dubai to South Korea. She recently recorded oboe for Bruce Springsteen on his upcoming 2022 album. A graduate of Eastman School of Music, Keve lives in Manhattan with husband Kerry and Portuguese water dog Bugsy.

Musical Theater

Lynne Wilson is an educator, performer and director with 30+ years of experience teaching music and theater in NYC schools. Through her work with such organizations as 92NY, Midori & Friends, and City Lights Youth Theater, she has developed and directed dozens of children’s musicals for K-12 students across the boroughs. Her theater credits include White Woman, Black Boy (Juanita, 2021, Broadway Bound Festival), Mr. Doom (Elvira, Off-Broadway), Charlies’ Aunt (Kitty, Springer Theatre, directed by Joshua Logan), and The Master Builder (Hilda, Springer Theatre, directed by Glesca Marshall).