Field Trip Guides
Joey Leroux (Co-Founder, Beyond the Bell Tours)
Joey Leroux is the co-founder of Beyond the Bell Tours, an inclusive historical tour company in Philadelphia that specializes in women's history and LGBTQ history. Beyond the Bell Tours is inspired by the stories that go untold in Philadelphia. The tours are designed to include and to share the incredible stories of women, people of color, LGBTQ+ individuals and indigenous peoples who have made Philadelphia the city that we know and love. The tours have always been and will always be a love letter to the city of Philadelphia. Founded in 2018, Beyond the Bell is now proudly a top ranking tour company in the Philadelphia area. Their work has been featured in the New York Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Billy Penn, Visit Philadelphia, Philadelphia Gay News, and others. Joey holds a degree in Economics from Haverford College and lives in Queen Village.
Ashley Lippolis (Communications Associate, Association for Public Art)
Ashley Lippolis is the Communications Associate at the Association for Public Art (aPA), a historic nonprofit where she has spent more than a decade getting to know Philadelphia's impressive collection of public art – researching, documenting, promoting, and leading tours. She creates aPA’s social media content and supports the organization’s marketing and communications efforts for projects that include temporary and permanent public art commissions. She also helped implement aPA’s Museum Without Walls: AUDIO program for the city’s outdoor sculpture. Ashley has a bachelor’s degree in dance and psychology from Franklin & Marshall College, and has danced for a number of choreographers in Philadelphia. She continues to play an active role in the city’s dance community.
Morgan Lloyd (Programming Coordinator, Lead Guide, African American Museum in Philadelphia)
Morgan Lloyd is the Programming Coordinator and Lead Guide at the African American Museum in Philadelphia. Lloyd has a special passion for events that holistically highlight intersectional experiences of Blackness and cross-cultural allyship.
Lloyd's celebration of the nuances and intersectionality within Black & Brown histories is at the heart of her work. This dedication has earned her recognition as an expert and contributor to local and national media, shedding light on local Black & American-Indigenous histories and art. She has curated and exhibited at El Museo del Barrio in New York and The Tyler School of Art. Her expertise has been acknowledged through receiving numerous professional and civic awards, including the Young Friends of the Preservation Alliance 2024 Award, Pennsylvania Abolition Society's 2024 Award, the Library Company’s 2023 Biennial Innovation Award, the 'Black Hero in Health Equity' Award from the University of Pennsylvania's Pair Center, and a Mellon Curatorial Fellowship based at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. She holds administrative and educator certificates from Harvard University, The Smithsonian Institution, and the National Museum of the American Indian.
Lloyd is a proud Afro-Indigenous descendant of the Nanticoke-Lenni-Lenape tribe who is currently working within the Southern Lenape (Unami) language revitalization movement in Pennsylvania.
Crishana Manigan (Learning and Engagement Manager, Association for Public Art)
Crishana Manigan is the Learning and Engagement Manager for the Association for Public Art (aPA). She organizes programs for diverse audiences, ranging from novice to expert; explores new program initiatives and collaborations with community partners; and advances aPA’s mission and long term goals.
Trapeta B. Mayson (Philadelphia Poet Laureate Emerita, Social Worker)
A native of Liberia who was raised in Philadelphia, Trapeta B. Mayson was the 2020-2021 Philadelphia Poet Laureate and is the founder of Healing Verse Philly and the Healing Verse Poetry Line, 1-855-PoemRx2. In 2021, she was named an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow. Mayson is also a Cave Canem and Pew Fellow. She earned her BA in Political Science and Master’s Degrees in Social Services and Business from Bryn Mawr Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research and Villanova University School of Business. Mayson is a published author, teaching artist, and curator of numerous artistic and civic projects. She is a licensed clinical social worker, community arts practitioner, and administrator at a community mental health agency. She resides in Philadelphia.
Julie Rainbow (Cultural Creator, Social Worker)
Julie Rainbow, a research-based cultural creator and social worker, uses oral histories, multi-media and research/archival materials to interpret and amplify the voices of the elders. Storytelling was a part of her upbringing in North Carolina. Her community data-driven story-telling project, Journey to Sanctuary: Stories of the Second Great Migration of African Americans from the South Living in Philadelphia creates spaces for elders to share their experiences and received grants from the National Endowment of the Humanities, the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts, Leeway Foundation and Historic Germantown. In 2022 she was selected as artist-in-residence at the University of Pennsylvania: School of Medicine to translate scientific research into artwork with the intent of transferring knowledge and fostering discussion with local communities. Rainbow explores ways of linking visual culture and underrepresented historical narratives to communities. Her commitment to community engagement is evident at the Village of Arts and Humanities where she creates programming to increase the ability of communities to thrive. She builds alliances among diverse communities allowing community members to be heard, respected, and affirmed. As a leader in the inaugural cohort of Faith Matters Network: Wisdom Learning Journey, she believes that being rooted in a faith filled spiritual practice supports both our individual and collective growth. As a fellow with the Kellogg Foundation, the Flaherty Seminar, and the Wyck Historic House, she uses her collective learning to pioneer initiatives that honor and uplift communities by bearing witness to stories, participating in collective activism, and imagining liberation for all, particularly those of African descent.
Christopher R. Rogers (Educator, Cultural Worker, Co-Coordinator, Friends of The Tanner House)
Christopher R. Rogers, Ph.D is an educator and cultural worker from Chester, PA with more than a decade of experience in supporting arts, culture, and community in the Greater Philadelphia area. He currently co-coordinates the Friends of The Tanner House, incubating a revitalized Henry Ossawa Tanner House at the intersection of Black heritage preservation and community cultural organizing. He has previously served in key roles with the Paul Robeson House & Museum / West Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, Philadelphia Student Union, Teacher Action Group Philadelphia, and more.
⭐️STARFIRE🔥(Curator of Energy & Creative Expression)
STARFIRE is a Curator of Energy & Creative Expression who uses personality, energy and unique style to bring authenticity, harmony and connection as a Master of Ceremonies Extraordinaire.
The ”Mic Queen of the Party Scene”
STARFIRE brings “Excitement” to Events
“Glitz” to Galas
“Fun” to Fundraisers & Festivals
“Unity & Connection ” to Community Gatherings & Conferences.
STARFIRE has energetically collaborated with Harriet’s Bookshop, Mural Arts Philadelphia, Kimmel Center, Monument Lab, The Barnes, Wawa Welcome America, Roc Nation, Laurel Hill Cemetery, Eastern State Penitentiary, Ida’s Bookshop, The Women's Film Festival, DivaGirl Philly, Ars Nova, Haddon Township Equity Initiative, Theatre In The X, Painted Bride Arts Center, Fringe Arts, Powerstreet Theatre Company, DG Jam, TLM Communications, ACLU Pa, Urban Creatives, Inspiring Life Together, Vinyl Tap 215, NKCDC, PACDC, CinéSpeak and many more.
An advocate for Performing Artists, STARFIRE uses Energy, Love, & Creativity to Inspire & Empower Artists of all mediums.
Workshop Leaders
Thomas J. Adams (Senior Research and Historical Advisor, Monument Lab)
Thomas Adams is an Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies and History and Senior Research Advisor at Monument Lab. His research focuses on the history of US political economy, labor, and cities as well as the relationship between public history and contentious politics.
Miguel Antonio Horn (Artist, Founder of El Cubo, Monument Lab Artist Resident 2024)
Miguel Antonio Horn is a sculptor from Philadelphia with Colombian and Venezuelan roots. He received a certificate in 2006 from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and apprenticed for five years with Mexican artist Javier Marin. He creates large-format sculptures using digital and analog processes in a variety of media. His artworks have been exhibited at the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Tamaulipas, Brownsville Museum of Fine Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, University of the Arts, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and as part of the Vancouver Biennale. He has several permanent public installations in the Philadelphia region, Canada and Mexico. He has received grants for workshops and artworks locally and internationally. From 2011 to 2019 he contributed to exhibitions programming and public outreach for the West Philadelphia artist-run Traction Company. He founded El Cubo in the Parkside neighborhood of Philadelphia in 2019 as a space for experimental projects and programming. He is the father of two young children whom he raises with his wife and community in South Philadelphia.
Cathy Harris (Senior Program Manager, Mural Arts Philadelphia)
Cathy Harris is a native Philadelphian and longtime arts administrator. Cathy was Director of Community Murals for Mural Arts Philadelphia for eighteen years, and continues her work with the organization as a senior project manager for Community Murals while also contributing as an advisor to the Mural Arts Institute.
Taylor Holloway (Belonging Designer, Architect, Social Impact Strategist)
Taylor Holloway is a belonging designer, architect, educator, and design justice advocate. She served as Deputy Director at Prospect New Orleans for four years, during which she led teams expanding access to contemporary art in public space across Louisiana. Her interdisciplinary practice transforms personal and collective narratives into spaces, artifacts, and processes that cultivate healing and belonging. Additionally, Taylor founded Public Design Agency, an award-winning design studio and social impact consulting firm devoted to cross-cultural exchange, civic engagement, and creative self-expression.
Joseph Eduardo Iacona (Artist, Educator, Community Leader)
Joseph Eduardo Iacona (he/him), is a visual artist, educator, and community-centered thinker who has practiced their work in Philadelphia for over 15 years. Joseph strives to amplify community voices in the collaborative process and values participatory art-making experiences. He has activated creative exercises with intergenerational populations in schools, libraries, museums, prisons, shelters, behavioral health facilities, and other community service centers. Iacona has exhibited his paintings and public projects at museums, galleries, and cultural institutions throughout the East Coast.
Through the Mural Arts Institute, Joseph supports artists and community leaders in socially engaged participatory art practices, locally, nationally, and globally. As the lead organizer of the "Created, Together." symposium, he designed an emergent space for more than 200 national practitioners to come together and explore critical questions in the field of Socially Engaged Public Art, and has stewarded the production of various writings, videos, and other types of participant-led documentation. Joseph has held previous roles with Mural Arts Philadelphia, as both a muralist and as a teaching artist with special attention to work in restorative justice and art education programs. Outside of Mural Arts, Joseph served in a leadership role in the Philadelphia Museum of Art department of Education, stewarding more than 50 community-engaged artist residencies with teachers in public schools, has written for Art21 Magazine on integrating contemporary art into classrooms, and presented at conferences and colleges on creative placemaking practices.
Sue Mobley (Director of Research, Monument Lab)
Sue Mobley is a New Orleans based urbanist, organizer, and advocate. She is Director of Research at Monument Lab.
Sue was most recently a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Art and Space at the Stuart Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania, as well as a member of the New Orleans City Planning Commission.
Sue was Co-Director of Paper Monuments, a public art and public history project that invited residents to imagine new monuments for New Orleans. She served as the inaugural Visiting Fellow for Arts and Culture at the American Planning Association and formerly Public Programs Manager at the Small Center for Collaborative Design at Tulane School of Architecture.
Sue holds a BA in Anthropology from Loyola University New Orleans and an MA in Political Science from the American University in Cairo. She is the author of Human Rights, Human Wrongs, Observation of Human Rights Law and Norms in United Nations Peacekeeping Operations, a contributor to Remaking New Orleans: Beyond Exceptionalism and Authenticity, and a contributor to Teachable Monuments: Using Public Art to Spark Dialogue and Confront Controversies.
Jenna Owens (Oral Historian, Getting Word African American Oral History Project at Monticello)
Jenna Owens is an Oral Historian of the Getting Word African American Oral History Project at the Thomas Jefferson Foundation (Monticello) in Charlottesville, Virginia. Getting Word is a collaborative oral history project that charts the histories of families once enslaved by Thomas Jefferson. Our goal is to record the memories, experiences, and personal histories of Monticello's descendant community as a means of recovering and preserving the lost voices of individuals so often excluded from public memory.
Jenna received her B.A. in African and African American Studies from the University of Virginia in 2021 and is currently pursuing her master's in Cultural Heritage Management from Johns Hopkins University. Owens began her career at Monticello in 2020 as an intern with the Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery before entering the public history field as a tour guide in Monticello's Education and Visitor Programs department in 2021. Owens became the Project Assistant with Getting Word in 2022, Project Manager in 2023, and entered her current role, Oral Historian, this year. Through her many roles at the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Owens has been able to understand the essential role Getting Word has played in the continual evolution of Monticello’s narrative to be more inclusive of the many people who have lived and labored there.
Netanel Portier (Senior Director of Learning and Practice, Mural Arts Institute)
Netanel Portier (she/her), Senior Director of Learning and Practice, started with Mural Arts in 2009 and joined the Executive Team in 2023. Portier launched the Mural Arts Institute in 2017, sharing Mural Arts’ learnings with other change-making leaders across the globe.
Netanel has 20 years of experience bringing diverse artists and communities together for transformative public projects and programs as a project manager, artist, teacher, curator, and médiatrice culturelle. She is devoted to promoting social engagement and meaningful action and has designed and managed diverse and complex public art projects rooted in social practice. As Director of the Project Management Office, a role she held before launching the Institute, Portier led the creation and implementation of project management processes and tools for the Mural Arts program and model while leading consulting opportunities. Netanel continues to lead and design learning initiatives and engagements with individual artists, administrators, institutions, and cultural and civic organizations with a focus on participatory public art projects and programs. A first generation American and mother of two multicultural children, Netanel is devoted to peer learning, cultural exchange, and community-centered cultural practices. She is a graduate of the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs de Paris, and serves on the board of PhilaFLAM.
Symone Salib (Artist, Educator, Monument Lab Artist Resident 2024)
Symone Salib is an muralist, illustrator, and trauma informed educator who creates art that focuses on the storytelling of community members through public art installations. Creating art that depicts the people you love and admire in the community helps to pay homage to the hard work that these people do everyday. She wants to give people their flowers while they're still on this earth. She wants people who dedicate their whole lives to building strong communities to feel the gratitude they deserve. She wants people to feel seen. She wants people to feel heard. She wants people to feel valued.
Yannick Trapman-O’Brien (Project Specialist, Monument Lab)
Yannick Trapman-O’Brien is a Performer, Theatermaker, and Creative Hand for Hire. He has a long history of helping institutions craft engagements and thoughtful processes and helping creative teams build capacity, and has done so for Monument Lab in many forms since 2017.
Outside of his work for the Lab, his practice centers on exploring the exchanges and spaces we are willing to make with strangers, and seeking unorthodox applications for performance. People pay him to act, which he has done in Shakespeare, devised work, performance actions and immersive works, as well as amphitheaters, basements, historical mansions, forests and one time on a bike.
Past credits include The Walnut Street Theater, Theater Mitu, Witness Relocation, the Interactive Playlab, The American Czech Theater, New Light Theater, and performances at the Franklin Institute, Morris Jumel and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museums. He is an alumni of NYU Abu Dhabi (Theater, BA) and an ongoing collaborator with Al-Bustan, Guerilla Science and NYU Open Arts.
He is also the creator of The Telelibrary, a critically acclaimed telephone performance for audiences of one.
Occasionally, he sleeps.
Tina Villadolid (Project Specialist, Monument Lab)
Tina Villadolid is a second-generation Filipina American New Yorker. She graduated from Amherst College in 1983 with a BA in Fine Arts, then moved to New England where she became a mom, was a small-scale pig farmer and fronted a rock band.
Moving to Santa Barbara, CA, the band had a hard landing. Tina transitioned into being the local art museum’s outreach teacher, bringing the museum into the neighborhoods guerrilla style. Twenty-three years later, she was teaching the children of former students. This generational work with the marginalized population of a wealthy community threw into question her own life's relationships to predominantly white spaces and institutions. Tina returned to school wanting to unlearn ideologies of systemic power hierarchies, knowing that real change must begin with her own practice.
She is a 2023 graduate of the Master of Fine Arts in Social Practice program at the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, George Washington University. Tina received the award for Outstanding MFA Work in Social Practice, and the Nashman Center Prize for her ongoing project, Tracing Manila House. She is in the inaugural cohort of the CARD Fellowship, a partnership of The Phillips Collection, the Nicholson Project, and the DC Public Library. In 2024, Tina will be an artist in residence at MASSMoCA.
Marisa Williamson (Artist)
Marisa Williamson is a project-based artist who works in video, image-making, installation and performance around themes of history, race, feminism, and technology. Her work has been featured in exhibitions throughout the US, as well as Rome, Berlin, Switzerland, and Buenos Aires. She was a participant in the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture in 2012 and the Whitney Museum’s Independent Study Program in 2014-2015. Williamson holds a BA from Harvard University and an MFA from CalArts. She is an Assistant Professor of Visual Art at the University of Virginia with a research focus on Blackness.
Auriana Woods (Public and Oral Historian, Genealogist, Preservationist)
Daughter of the Great Migration, public historian, genealogist, preservationist, and oral historian. I research Black American history from slavery to freedom, with an emphasis on family, memory, dispersal, identity, and belonging.
My work aims to reconstruct our collective understanding of American history and identity through filling historic silences, interrogating the consequences of a popular national history that fails to position the institution of slavery as its bedrock, and emphasizing the centrality of Black American history to our shared American story.
Rashid Zakat (Filmmaker, Musician, Photographer)
Rashid Zakat combines film, music, photography, and creative space-making in work that engages with Black social and spiritual life. His short films, documentaries, and music videos feature original content and archival material, including images of migration, worship, uprising, dance, and popular culture. Embracing collaborative filmmaking practices, Zakat says he is “committed to video as a mode of honoring people and histories and as form of accessing liberation.” His ongoing project Revival! draws from personal and community archives of Black popular culture, dance, and music; religious traditions; and a variety of folk practices. Zakat’s work has been shown in Philadelphia at the BlackStar Film Festival, The Fabric Workshop and Museum, and The Barnes Foundation, among others. He has received an Independence Public Media Foundation Filmmaker Grant, a Velocity Fund grant, and a Pennsylvania Humanities Council grant. He earned a BA in film and media arts from Temple University.
Accra Zuberi (Artist, Initiative Manager, Programming Administrator)
Accra Zuberi (they/them), Initiative Manager, is a surrealist artist and enthusiastic programming administrator. It is Accra’s mission to empower and enrich communities through the exploration of the arts. They have accomplished these goals through accessible program design, festivals, artist collaborations, and maintaining sustainable partnerships. Accra received their BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2006. They hold certificates in Arts and Healthcare from Temple University (2009), Design for Print and Web from Moore College of Art and Design (2012), and Trauma Informed Practices for Art Administrators from the Bartol Foundation (2020). Accra has completed artist residencies for numerous organizations including Mural Arts Philadelphia, The Clay Studio, and the Philadelphia Department of Recreation. They take pride in transforming individuals' perceptions of how art can change one's life.
Closing Keynote
Poem: Trapeta B. Mayson (Philadelphia Poet Laureate Emerita)
A native of Liberia who was raised in Philadelphia, Trapeta B. Mayson was the 2020-2021 Philadelphia Poet Laureate and is the founder of Healing Verse Philly and the Healing Verse Poetry Line, 1-855-PoemRx2. In 2021, she was named an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow. Mayson is also a Cave Canem and Pew Fellow. She earned her BA in Political Science and Master’s Degrees in Social Services and Business from Bryn Mawr Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research and Villanova University School of Business. Mayson is a published author, teaching artist, and curator of numerous artistic and civic projects. She is a licensed clinical social worker, community arts practitioner, and administrator at a community mental health agency. She resides in Philadelphia.
Welcome: Paul Farber (Director, Monument Lab)
As Director and Co-Founder of Monument Lab, Paul Farber is among the nation's thought leaders on monuments, memory, and public space. Farber is author and co-editor of several publications including A Wall of Our Own: An American History of the Berlin Wall (2020), Monument Lab: Creative Speculations on Philadelphia (2020), and the National Monument Audit (2021). His forthcoming book, After Permanence: The Future of Monuments, will be published with the University of North Carolina Press. Farber’s curatorial and collaborative work includes Beyond Granite: Pulling Together with Salamishah Tillet, the first curated multi-artist public art exhibition on the National Mall in Washington D.C. (2023), and Declaration House in Philadelphia’s Independence National Historical Park (2024) with Anna Arabindan-Kesson and Yolanda Wisher. Farber is the host and creator of The Statue, a podcast series from WHYY/NPR. Farber is Senior Research Scholar at the Center for Public Art & Space at the University of Pennsylvania and holds a PhD from the University of Michigan in American Culture. He currently serves on the Board of Trustees of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Board of Directors of A Long Walk Home.
Keynote Speaker: Elizabeth Alexander (President, Mellon Foundation)
An acclaimed poet, scholar, and cultural advocate, Elizabeth Alexander is a nationally recognized thought leader on race, justice, the arts, and American society. As president of the Mellon Foundation, she leads a multi-billion-dollar philanthropy and the nation’s largest funder of the arts and humanities, supporting educational institutions and cultural organizations while envisioning and guiding new initiatives to build just communities across the United States.
Prior to joining the Foundation, Dr. Alexander served as the director of Creativity and Free
Expression at the Ford Foundation, shaping Ford’s grantmaking vision in arts and culture, journalism, and documentary film. During that time, she co-designed the Art for Justice Fund, an initiative that uses art and advocacy to address the crisis of mass incarceration.
Dr. Alexander has held distinguished professorships at Smith College, Yale University — where she taught for over 15 years and helped rebuild and chaired the African American Studies Department — and Columbia University. An author or co-author of fifteen books, Dr. Alexander was twice a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize: for poetry with American Sublime and for biography with her 2015 memoir, the New York Times best-seller The Light of the World. In 2009, she composed and delivered the poem "Praise Song for the Day" for President Barack Obama's inauguration. Her latest book, released in 2022, is The Trayvon Generation.
Dr. Alexander holds a BA from Yale University, an MA from Boston University, and a PhD in English from the University of Pennsylvania. She serves on the boards of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York-Presbyterian Hospital, and the Pulitzer Prize, and is Chancellor Emeritus of the Academy of American Poets. In 2019, she received the W. E. B. Du Bois Medal from Harvard University. Among her many other honors, she has been recognized as Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture and as one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People.
Moderator: Salamishah Tillet (Scholar, Writer, Activist)
A scholar, writer, and activist, Salamishah Tillet was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 2022 for her work as a contributing critic at large for The New York Times where she has been writing since 2015. She is the author of In Search of the Color Purple: The Story of an American Masterpiece (Abrams, 2021), and Sites of Slavery: Citizenship and Racial Democracy in the Post-Civil Rights Imagination (Duke University Press, 2012). She was the co-host and co-producer of “Because of Anita” podcast with Cindi Leive of The Meteor. In 2022, “Because of Anita” won Webby and Gracie awards. She was awarded the 2020 Whiting Foundation Creative Nonfiction fellowship for her cultural memoir, All The Rage: Mississippi Goddam and The World Nina Simone Made and was named a 2021 Andrew Carnegie Fellow by the Carnegie Corporation of New York for her project, In Lieu of the Law: “Me Too” and The Politics of Justice, a cultural history of the world’s largest social media movement. She is the Henry Rutgers Professor of Creative Writing and African American and African Studies and the executive director of Express Newark, a center for socially engaged art and design at Rutgers University - Newark. Upon arriving at Rutgers, she founded New Arts Justice, an initiative for feminist approaches to public art in the City of Newark.
Art Installation
Phillis’ Librarie
Take a walk down to the waterfront to see Phillis’ Librarie, a new art installation by Jeannine A. Cook, created as part of her Creative Residency for Monument Lab’s Declaration House public art and history exhibition. Phillis’ Librarie is a Afrosurrealist sankofa space where participants can use new, used and rare books to commune with their ancestors, their progeny, and/or themselves. In this “librarie” (French for “bookshop”), individuals can choose to look back and/or look forward in a public private space designed for reflection, reading, writing, rest, rejuvenation, and repair. The space is named for Phillis Wheatley, who defied expectations becoming the first enslaved person to publish a book of poetry. Inside Phillis’ Librarie, individuals engage with the creative spirit of Wheatley through her poetry, exploring themes of faith and resilience.
Jeannine A. Cook is the visionary founder of Our Sister Bookshops including Harriett’s in Philadelphia, Ida’s in Collingswood, Josephine’s in Paris, and several literary installations and libraries including Toni’s, Marian’s, Zora’s, et. al where she curates cultural spaces that celebrate women authors, artists, and activists under the guiding light of historic heroines.
DJs
Samala (Head of Community & Culture, Unshackled Ventures)
Samala is a creative leader whose mediums run the gamut from venture capital to vinyl records. She is currently Head of Community & Culture at Unshackled Ventures, an early-stage venture capital fund for immigrant-founded startups. Samala has also consulted with companies, family offices, foundations, funds, professional sports teams, governments, and nonprofits to achieve their impact and asset goals. In her spare time, she continues to collaborate with high integrity powerhouse teams to create and manage game-changing strategies. Past clients include the Los Angeles Sparks, Angel City FC, Mozilla, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Her personal investments reflect the breadth and depth of her curiosity, creativity and communities—a Costco model for wholesale priced cannabis delivery, the "Bloomberg" for blockchain exchanges, a medical device and therapy for ALS/PSP/Alzheimer's, the "Uber" for motorbikes slash e-wallet in South America, and an end-to-end AI platform for real estate management, and blockchain-enabled AML/KYC for financial services.
Samala embodies multitudes—a believer and weaver of strong and diverse social fabric, a Wharton business school grad, a native New Yorker, a Division 1 athlete, a daughter of immigrants and a DJ that's played all over the world. She’s a Founding DJ & Convener-in-Chief of the world famous DJ collective Rebel Joy. Inexorably unique and grounded in her experiences as a serial creator/founder/entrepreneur. Samala's accomplishments transcend the confines of any one industry, medium or continent. But is always grounded in community, includes a dose of friendly competition, and teeming with rebellious joy.
She built and co-founded America’s first digital nonprofit to serve young Asian Pacific American communities online, 18MR.org. Through new media, digital campaigns, and groundbreaking online vehicles for civic engagement, her team reached and organized Asian Pacific Americans during an election cycle that saw the highest voter registration—and turnout—for the country’s fastest growing demographic. She was on the Story of Stuff Project's founding team as Director of Strategy & Media, creating capacity to entertain, educate and engage over 40 million people globally for climate justice. Her work and writing in technology, culture, society and civics has been featured at the Obama Administration’s White House LGBTQ Technology & Innovation Summit and in publications like The New York Times, Forbes, The New Yorker, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, TechCrunch, Al-Jazeera and Refinery29.
Prior to launching 18MR.org and seven movies with The Story of Stuff Project, Samala created START Mobile, one of the earliest digital media distribution networks for mobile. The global platform helped more than 500 artists—including Shepard Fairey, Justin Bua, David Choe, and Apex—reach new markets via mobile devices. At peak popularity, START had users and art installations across the United States, Central & South America, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, India, China, and Russia. As a consultant she worked with brands like Chanel, Clif Bar, Boyd Gaming, and Cirque du Soleil.
Her work at the intersections of technology, culture and civics has been recognized by NBC, Congress, and California Legislature. She has been Senior Advisor for Social Innovation for Mozilla, contributor to the Aspen Institute’s Latinos and Society Program, and member of New Media Ventures’ Investment Committee. Samala served on the World Food Programme’s Innovation Accelerator Advisory Council, and currently is a Board of Director with the Monument Lab and the Women’s Foundation of California and is Advisor to the New School's The Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy.
When she isn’t working out of SHACK15 or her home office in the Castro, you can catch her being Founder & Resident DJ of the longest running 90s dance party on the West Coast on 4th Fridays at Madrone. You can find her tweeting on increasingly rare occasions @samala or, more likely, cycling around the Bay Area.
Rashid Zakat (Filmmaker, Musician, Photographer)
Rashid Zakat combines film, music, photography, and creative space-making in work that engages with Black social and spiritual life. His short films, documentaries, and music videos feature original content and archival material, including images of migration, worship, uprising, dance, and popular culture. Embracing collaborative filmmaking practices, Zakat says he is “committed to video as a mode of honoring people and histories and as form of accessing liberation.” His ongoing project Revival! draws from personal and community archives of Black popular culture, dance, and music; religious traditions; and a variety of folk practices. Zakat’s work has been shown in Philadelphia at the BlackStar Film Festival, The Fabric Workshop and Museum, and The Barnes Foundation, among others. He has received an Independence Public Media Foundation Filmmaker Grant, a Velocity Fund grant, and a Pennsylvania Humanities Council grant. He earned a BA in film and media arts from Temple University.
Expo Presenters
Art Star Craft Bazaar
Thursday, July 18 and Friday, July 19, 9am-6pm
Art Star Craft Bazaar represents working studio artists and crafters from the Philadelphia area and beyond. All items are handcrafted within the US by individual artists or small production studios.
BlackStar
Friday, July 19 ONLY, 10am-2pm
BlackStar creates the spaces and resources needed to uplift the work of Black, Brown and Indigenous artists working outside of the confines of genre.
Dream Poet for Hire
Thursday, July 18 and Friday, July 19, 10am-6pm
Equipped with a Smith-Corona typewriter, poet Marshall James Kavanaugh will create on-the-spot poems based on the theme “Past Is Presence” and invite visitors to add their own verse to a monumental community poem on a public typewriter.
Getting Word African American Oral History Project
Thursday, July 18 ONLY, 10am-2pm
The Getting Word African American Oral History Project preserves the histories of Monticello’s enslaved families and their descendants.
Love Now Media
Thursday, July 18 and Friday, July 19, 9am-6pm
Love Now Media is on a mission to help create a more just, well, and equitable future by amplifying acts of love at the intersection of social justice, wellness, and equity.
The Majestic Photobooth
Thursday, July 18 and Friday, July 19, 9am-6pm
The Classic Majestic Photobooth is modeled after the original vintage photo booth.
Monument Lab
Thursday, July 18 and Friday, July 19, 9am-6pm
Monument Lab is a nonprofit public art, history, and design studio that is a leading voice in how monuments live with us in public spaces.
Mural Arts Philadelphia
Thursday, July 18 and Friday, July 19, 9am-6pm
Mural Arts Philadelphia is the nation’s largest public art program, dedicated to the belief that art ignites change.