Meet the 2017 - 2018 ILI Fellows Cohort

The Intercultural Leadership Instituted is a rigorous, year-long personal and leadership development program created out of our shared commitment to pursue cultural equity and to support artists, culture bearers and other arts professionals as change-makers in their communities.

Adam Horowitz

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Adam Horowitz
​(Santa Fe, NM)

Adam Horowitz is Chief Instigator of the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture (USDAC), a grassroots action network inciting creativity and social imagination to shape a culture of empathy, equity, and belonging. An artist, organizer, and "projectician," Adam has worked with numerous organizations at the intersection of arts, education, and social change—Ashoka, Bowery Poetry Club, The Future Project, among others—and traveled the world as a performer, musician, and researcher of intercultural barter. Adam was a Fulbright Scholar in Colombia and a 2015 Artist in Residence with the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics at NYU.

Alayna Eagle Shield

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Alayna Eagle Shield
​(Mandan, North Dakota)​

​Alayna is from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and is currently the Language Specialist for a program called the Language and Culture Institute. She has previously taught in the Lakota Language Immersion Nest located at Sitting Bull College. Alayna earned her Bachelor of Science from the University of Mary in 2014. She received certification to teach the Lakota language from Sitting Bull College through the Lakota Language Education Action Program. Alayna is working on her Masters of Public Health at the North Dakota State University distance program. She is married and has two children.

Angie Durrell

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Angie Durrell
​(Stamford, Connecticut) ​

Angie has led a privileged career of music education and community engagement. An accomplished violinist and social entrepreneur, upon graduating with a full scholarship from the University of Connecticut, Angie has gone on to perform with Grammy award-winning composer Gabriela Lena Frank and the National Symphony of Ecuador. She has studied under MacArthur Fellow Aaron Dworkin since 2007 and has extensive experience with music from Latin America. She founded and leads the INTAKE Music organization since 2011. Durrell’s recent accolades include an invitation to perform for Pope Francis in 2015 and being named an Artist Ambassador for Spread Music Now. 

Arturo Herrera

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Arturo Herrera
​(Beverly Hills, Michigan)

Arturo Herrera is an artist living in Detroit, Michigan. His current body of work speaks to issues of personal identity and character, social acceptance and the effects of immigration. To convey these subjects, he creates and facilitates literary concepts, workshops and spaces that suggest normative ideas. Herrera has been the recipient of several grants including the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Ontario Arts Council, the Arts Culture Heritage Fund, and the EPI-Centre while he lived in Canada. His most recent workshop was held at the Detroit Institute of Arts, where participants, using Latin America inspired materials, created and modeled props that were then photographed.

Betty Yu

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Betty Yu
​(Brooklyn, New York) ​

Betty Yu is an interdisciplinary artist, filmmaker, educator and activist. She is a co-founder of the Chinatown Art Brigade, a cultural collective telling stories of Chinatown tenants fighting gentrification through public projections. Yu’s multi-media installation, “The Garment Worker” was featured at Tribeca Film Institute’s Interactive. She co-created “Monument to Anti-Displacement Organizing” in the Agitprop! show at Brooklyn Museum. Betty received the 2016 SOAPBOX Artist Award from the Laundromat Project. She holds a BFA from NYU’s TSOA and a MFA in Integrated Media Arts from Hunter College. Betty is a 2016 A Blade of Grass Fellow for Socially Engaged Art. 

Bobby LeFebre

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Bobby LeFebre
​(Denver, Colorado) 

Bobby LeFebre is an award-winning writer, performer, and cultural worker. He is a two-time Grand Slam Champion, a National Poetry Slam Finalist, an Individual World Poetry Slam Finalist, and a twotime TEDx speaker. LeFebre has performed poetry at hundreds of cultural events, conferences, and colleges and universities across the United States and abroad. He co-founded Cafe Cultura, a nonprofit that utilizes the literary arts as tools for youth development and has been named one of Colorado’s Top 100 Creatives. LeFebre has been appointed by the Mayor of Denver to serve as the Co-Chair of the Denver Commissioner on Cultural Affairs. 

Cassius Spears

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Cassius Spears
​(Ashaway, Rhode Island) 

Cassius Spears (Narragansett/Niantic), founder and director of the Narragansett Food Sovereignty Initiative that strives to maintain and restore indigenous agricultural knowledge and practices. Cassius also works with the USDA to facilitate supportive Tribal-USDA projects keeping with tribal values and priorities. A respected member of his community, Cassius is known for his traditional knowledge, he continues to live off the land, and shares these practices with our youth. Cassius can also be found sharing these skills and traditions on film, (Askiboyz), onset, (Crooked Arrows) and as cultural advisor (We Shall Remain, After the Mayflower).

Chadwick Pang

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Chadwick Pang
​(Kahului, Hawaii) 

With training and experience in both western choral and Native Hawaiian music traditions, Chadwick Pang teaches and cultivates a holistic approach to culture and the arts in Hawai’i. He received an MA in Ethnomusicology (2008) from the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa and obtained teacher-license and a graduate certificate in International Cultural Studies (2016). Chadwick has delivered lecture-demos in a variety of venues ranging from international academic conferences to local cultural workshops in his home community. Chadwick endeavors to balance his artistic talents with his pedagogical experience and academic training to best serve the needs of his community.

ChE Ware

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ChE Ware
​(New Orleans, Louisiana) 

ChE is an award winning artivist, transformational educator, and equity consultant. ChE uses the power of embodied storytelling, arts-based community engagement, and multi-generational ancestral healing to build sustainable models of living. As a proud Queer Mixed/Black/Native American artivist, ChE applies their unique framework of Afro-Indigenous Liberatory Practice to race and gender justice trainings, Black Lives Matter organizing, and multi-disciplinary art activism. As a director/choreographer, ChE’s work is robust with gospel sounds and soulful movement of the African Diaspora—fusing Black Modern Dance* with multi-generational storytelling, ritual, and interactive installation.

Cristal Chanelle Truscott

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Cristal Chanelle Truscott
​(Houston, Texas) 

Cristal Chanelle Truscott creates Neo-Spirituals — a’capella musicals — using “Soulwork,” the theatremaking methodology she developed from African American performance traditions. She is a Doris Duke Impact Artist and has received NPN Creation Fund, MAP Fund and NEFA National Theatre Project grants. As founder of Progress Theatre, her plays include: PEACHES, ‘MEMBUH, The Burnin’ and Plantation Remix, a site-specific performance to rehabilitate plantation tourism as an intercultural exploration of U.S. shared histories. As an educator, Cristal’s teaching and research includes African American Theatre, Muslim American Performance and “Enter Faith,” a service project engaging spiritual diversity through workshops, dialogues, and community arts events.  

daniel johnson

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daniel johnson
​(Jackson, Mississippi) 

Initially the Artist-in-Residence at the Mississippi Museum of Art, daniel johnson became the Director of Engagement and Learning in 2013. As a Socially Engaged Artist, johnson’s work focuses on problemsolving and capacity building with communities. daniel’s art takes a variety of forms such as writing a NEA Our Town grant with residents of the Midtown neighborhood, conducting a statewide work bringing together 2,222 symbols submitted by Mississippians into a 12’x18’ windchime of handmade clay bells, and most recently working with the Jackson Mayor’s Youth Initiative and Jackson Public Schools to employ students in his work “The Art of Governance.”  

Eli Lakes

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Eli Lakes
​(Atlanta, Georgia) 

Eli Lakes is a musician, producer, and art activist. Raised and rooted in culture and purpose, he has pursued his passion from an early age. Eli began experimenting with his voice and several instruments and due his self driven work ethic got on the road as his mother Liza Garza’s official guitarist and back-up vocalist at the age of 15. He has joined her at The Happy Feelings Concert at the Flint Institute of Arts, The Clear Creek Festival (Berea, KY), Taking it to the Streets Festival (Chicago) and numerous universities. His experience and inherent wisdom radiates far and wide. 

Gabriela Muñoz

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Gabriela Muñoz
​(Phoenix, Arizona) 

ñGabriela Muñoz is an interdisciplinary artist, educator, and arts administrator. An active contributor to Arizona’s arts communities, she engages in artist residencies, serves as a juror and panelist, leads workshops, and presents lectures for local and national audiences. Her studio practice is rooted in her experiences as a woman living in the Southwest addressing movements of social justice and equity. Her installations function as an ever-growing archive that documents alternate stories and histories. She served as Curatorial Associate in Contemporary and Latin American Art at Phoenix Art Museum and is currently Artist Programs Manager at the Arizona Commission on the Arts.  

Graciela Sánchez

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Graciela Sánchez
​(San Antonio, Texas) 

Graciela Sánchez follows in the footsteps of her mother and abuelitas, strong neighborhood mestiza cultural workers. As director of the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center, Graciela works with community members to develop programs that culturally ground people of color, queer people and other marginalized people/individuals who are survivors of cultural genocide. She challenges notions of the arts and politics as separate work environments. Graciela implements the vision and operations of the Esperanza as a community center, art/performance space, policy-change hub, and network facilitator for community-based arts/social justice organizations.  

Hillary Kempenich

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Hillary Kempenich
​(Grand Forks, North Dakota) 

Award-winning artist Hillary Kempenich, a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, currently resides in Grand Forks, ND. Kempenich comes from a family of strong artistic abilities. The studio artist is an advocate for the arts, education, social justice, and Indigenous issues. The artist has immersed herself working with youth as an Artist in the Classroom in Public Schools, as well as volunteering throughout her community. Raised on the Turtle Mountain reservation, Kempenich continues to advocate for better educational and cultural standards for our Native Indigenous people, and for all people, through her artwork in urban communities.  

Jonathan Clark

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Jonathan Clark
​(Knoxville, Tennessee) 

Jonathan Clark was born and raised in Knoxville, TN. He was cast in The Carpetbag Theatre’s T.R.Y. Ensemble at the age of 13 and additionally began writing and performing spoken word poetry in and around Knoxville. Winning his first poetry slam at the age of 14, competing against poets much his elder, earned him the stage name, “Courageous.” Jonathan has continued his legacy with The Carpetbag Theatre having recently become the Executive Support Manager, transitioning from Artist to Arts Executive, and is currently touring college circuits across the country, performing and teaching spoken-word poetry. 

Jumana Salamey

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Jumana Salamey
​(Dearborn, Michigan) 

Jumana Salamey, AuD, is the Deputy Director, Manager of Operations at the Arab American National Museum. Dr. Salamey holds a BA in Psychology and Women’s Studies from the University of Michigan-Dearborn and an AuD in Audiology from Wayne State University. Jumana manages the day-to-day business operations of the museum and ensures program goals are completed. Jumana is an activist, community leader and sits on several advisory boards and committees. 

Kaʻiu lani Takamori

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Kaʻiu lani Takamori

​(Aiea, Hawaii) 

Kaʻiu lani Takamori is a native Hawaiian artist who has also been studying hula for the past 12 years under kumuhula Vicky Holt Takamine, and is currently undergoing training and is planning on graduating through the rituals of hula (Hawaiian dance) as an lapa (master dancer) and hoʻopaʻa (master chanter and drummer) in 2017. Kaʻiu is also the Folk Arts Coordinator for PAʻI Foundation. She is in charge of the implementation of MAMo: Maoli Arts Movement. Kaʻiu is also a Colorguard Tech with the Maui High School Marching Band and Colorguard.

Kaisha S. Johnson

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Kaisha S. Johnson
​(New York, New York) 

Kaisha S. Johnson is the Co-Founder/Founding Director of Women of Color in the Arts, a national organization dedicated to creating equity in the performing arts. Kaisha co-founded WOCA with the intent of cultivating a field varied in voice and perspective. Recently, Kaisha served as Director of Artist Management at Center for Traditional Music and Dance, a non-profit dedicated to building crosscultural awareness by nurturing and presenting traditions found in NYC’s immigrant communities. As a staunch advocate for diversity on and off the stage, Kaisha helps to affirm the value of cultural diversity as an essential component of our national identity. 

Kanoelani Davis

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Kanoelani Davis
​(Kaunakakai, Hawaii) 

Kanoelani Davis is a young, dedicated, Native Hawaiian woman who practices hula, chant, woodwork, kapa and ho’oni’o. She was raised on the small island of Molokai by her grandparents who are the foundation of who she is. For about ten years, she has raised four daughters on her own, and amidst the struggles of life, she managed to find her center by creating. Kanoe has freely dedicated her time to open a hula school and teach ho’oni’o to her community at no cost. She has also opened up a small clothing business, continuing her art and education through wearable designs. 

Kim Pevia

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Kim Pevia
​(Red Springs, North Carolina) 

Founder and CEO K.A.P., Inner Prizes; Knowledge. Application. Practice of the human dynamic; President of the Board, Southeastern Family Violence Center; Co Founder Artist Market-Pembroke; Member, Lumbee Tribe; Immediate Past President, Pembroke Area Chamber of Commerce; Board Member, Robeson County Arts Council; Executive Committee, Innovate NC- Pembroke Team; State Board Member, Women AdvaNCe; Executive Committee, Alternate ROOTS; Planning Board, Town of Red Springs; Co Founder Robeson Chapter Women AdvaNCe; Community Advocate for Creative Economy through Arts, Local Food and Tourism; Graduate of the Landmark Forum, standing for connection of all mankind, one conversation at a time. 

Kiyoko McCrae

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Kiyoko McCrae
​(New Orleans, Louisiana) 

Kiyoko McCrae, a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School, is a cultural organizer who directs theater/film productions aimed at creating social change. She is Managing Director of Junebug Productions, currently producing the documentary film “Free Southern Theater: Beginnings” and theater production “Gomela.” She has directed the theater production Lockdown (2013) and co-taught From Community to Stage at Tulane University (2008-2011) with founder John O’Neal as well as Urban Bush Women’s Summer Leadership Institute (2012-2015). She was an organizer with United for Peace and Justice and received a fellowship at Kopkind Colony for her organizing work after visiting Iraq in 2004. 

Lula Saleh

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Lula Saleh
​(St. Paul, Minnesota) 

Lula Saleh (@lulathelily) is an Eritrean-Ethiopian American, Muslim artist, writer, organizer, creative entrepreneur and founder of the East African Diaspora Artists Initiative (EADAI): a global social platform for creatives of that diaspora. Born and raised between Saudi Arabia, England and Ethiopia, Lula identifies as a third culture kid. Her cultural advocacy has been published in Al Jazeera English, Colorlines, The Nation, Voice of America, and Minnesota Public Radio. She is an alum of the Givens Black Writers Fellowship and the Institute of Political Journalism (Georgetown University). Her poetry and electronic-soul music have received recognition from: National Endowment for the Arts, Button Poetry, Springboard for the Arts, Loft Literary Center and more. Lula works in creative placemaking, using the arts to enhance Little Africa’s visibility: Minnesota’s only African business-and-arts corridor. 

Nijeul X Porter

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Nijeul X Porter
(Los Angeles, California) 

An organizer, educator, and producer with the wholehearted belief that art is at the tipping point for social change—Nijeul Porter is always excited about opportunities to facilitate the intersections of art, education, and community. Nijeul serves as Program Manager for artEquity, a national initiative that provides training and resources for arts practitioners interested in facilitating at the intersections of art and activism. Additionally, Nijeul has worked in partnership with arts and cultural organizations between Los Angeles, Chicago, and the District of Columbia. He serves full time as Director of Student Programs for Greenway Arts Alliance, serving 2,000 students in Los Angeles. 

Priya Bhayana

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Priya Bhayana
​(Baltimore, Maryland) 

Priya Bhayana is the Program Development Manager for Community Conferencing Center, a conflict transformation organization. Priya organizes with East Coast Solidarity Summer (ECSS) for South Asian youth, is a radical organizing coordinator for Baltimore Asian Resistance in Solidarity, and co-founder of the art/music series Bollymore that explores collaboration and exchange among South Asians and across cultures. Priya previously organized community-based cultural initiatives at Bromo Arts District, Maryland Institute College of Art, and in Baltimore's Greenmount West neighborhood. In 2014, Priya was named a Young Cultural Innovator by international social change organization, Salzburg Global Forum.

Shey Rivera

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Shey Rivera
​(Providence, Rhode Island) 

Shey Rivera is the Artistic Director of AS220 and is a multi-genre artist. Rivera focuses on community engagement, cultivating partnerships, and strategic planning. Rivera was part of the founding team of Festival de la Palabra in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 2010 (the largest literature festival in Puerto Rico, still ongoing), and reactivated the historic Museum House Concha Melendezin San Juan with literary arts programming. Rivera serves in Congressman Jim Langevin’s Art & Culture Advisory Committee, Mayor Elorza’s Art & Culture Transition Team, Downtown Providence’s Parks Conservancy Advisory Committee, Sophia Academy’s Board of Directors, and Providence Cultural Equity Initiative. 

Tara Gumapac

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Tara Gumapac
​(Kaneohe, Hawaii) 

I am a Kanaka Maoli Artist and Art Teacher in the Department of Education in Hawaii. I graduated with a BA in Studio Art and with my MedT in Teaching in the Ho`okulaiwi program at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. I participated in the Hawaiian Ohana for Education in the Arts program in Waimea on the Big Island and learned multi-disciplines of traditional art and contemporary arts from indigenous artists from around the Pacific and the US. As an artist and teacher, my goal is to inspire and share with others to create and express themselves. 

Tish Jones

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Tish Jones
​(Saint Paul, Minnesota) 

Founder & Executive Director of TruArtSpeaks, Tish Jones is a poet, performer, educator and organizer. Jones has performed at CBGB in New York, Kaplan Theater in Houston, The Walker Art Center, Intermedia Arts, The Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis and more. Her work can be found in the Minnesota Humanities Center’s anthology entitled, Blues Vision: African American Writing from Minnesota (Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2015), the 2011 and 2013 Saint Paul Almanac, and the Loft Literary Center’s Nation of Immigrants audio CD. Graduate of Hope Communities’ SPEAC program and Intermedia Arts’ Cultural Community Leadership Institute, Jones has always had a passion for bridging arts, activism and youth development. Her most recent appointment as the inaugural Brave New Voices Leadership fellow culminated in serving as the Festival Director of the 19th annual Brave New Voices youth poetry slam festival held at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. When you think of Tish Jones, know that she is somewhere dismantling age old systems of oppression, putting on for Hip Hop culture and creating new art to move the conversations forward. 

Vicki Meek

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Vicki Meek
​(Dallas, Texas) 

Vicki Meek is an independent curator and writes cultural criticism for Dallas Weekly with her blog Art & Racenotes and is a guest columnist with her monthly column ARTiculate for TheaterJones, an online performing arts magazine. She has curated over 100 exhibitions and has over 40 years of arts administrative experience. Currently, Meek, a widely exhibited artist, is working as a fulltime artist who splits her time between Dallasand Costa Rica where she is Chief Operating Officer of USEKRA: Center for Creative Investigation, a non-profit retreat for creatives in a wide range of disciplines.

Wesley May

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Wesley May
​(Red Lake, Minnesota) 

I am a Native American from the Red Lake Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota and a First Peoples Fund artist. I believe that an artist’s role in the community is to bring awareness of the voices that are rarely heard, not to lead the charge of any cause, but to unleash the potential of others through art. I travel to art shows, pow wows, and other community events and empower others through Live Exhibition paintings. I am spiritually grounded, I walk my talk, and I lead by example. Using Creator given talents to serve others, I demonstrate the simplicity of life through paint.

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Demographic Overview

From nearly 326 applicants, 30 fellows were chosen for the inaugural ILI cohort. Applications were reviewed by 12 independent panelists and final selections were made by the ILI Leadership Team. The team based their decisions on panelists’ top ratings as well as qualitative considerations to arrive at the rich interculturality that ILI seeks to foster.

The 30 Fellows come from the following towns and cities:

Phoenix, Arizona
Los Angeles, California
Denver , Colorado
Stanford, Connecticut
​Atlanta, Georgia
​‘Aiea, Hawai’i
Kahului, Hawai’i
Kaneohe, Hawai’i
Kaunakakai, Hawai’i
New Orleans, Louisiana
Baltimore, Maryland
Beverly Hills, Michigan
Dearborn, Michigan
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Red Lake, Minnesota
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Jackson, Mississippi
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Brooklyn, New York
New York, New York
Red Springs, North Carolina
Grand Forks, North Dakota
Mandan, North Dakota
Ashaway, Rhode Island
Providence, Rhode Island
Knoxville, Tennessee
Dallas, Texas