Urban Islanders Episode 11 features a couple of very special guests whom Zakiyyah had the pleasure of interviewing: Mira Awad, singer, songwriter, and artivist, who recently played a concert in West Philadelphia, and Daniel Noah Moses, Director of Educator Programs at Seeds of Peace.

Mira Awad – Artivist, Musician, and Former Seeds of Peace Fellow
Website: https://www.miraawad.co 

Mira Awad is a 2016-2017 Seeds Of Peace GATHER fellow. The GATHER Fellowship is a program for social entrepreneurs that accelerates sustainably-designed and impact-oriented social ventures transforming conflict in their respective communities. Mira is also one of the advisors for Seeds Of Peace's Creative Retreat for Artists, that brings together artists from various mediums and walks of life to get acquainted with the different narratives in the region and explore collaborations.

Mira Awad works closely with “Combatants for Peace” movement which was established jointly by Palestinians and Israelis, who have taken an active part in the cycle of violence; Israelis as soldiers in the Israeli army (IDF) and Palestinians as part of the violent struggle for Palestinian freedom. After brandishing weapons for so many years, and having seen one another only through weapon sights, they decided to put down their guns, and to fight for peace.

Seeds of Peace: The mission of Seeds of Peace is to "inspire and cultivate new generations of global leaders in communities divided by conflict." The organization has active programs in the Middle East, South Asia and the United States. For more information, see: https://www.seedsofpeace.org/about/

Daniel Noah Moses - Director of Educator Programs at Seeds of Peace
As the Director of Educator Programs, Daniel's work focuses on the educators, community leaders and artists who are part of Seeds of Peace. 

Music: 

Lessazo “Soleil D’Hiver” – Music: http://altermusique.org/Lessazo/
Mira Awad “Acrobat” – Music: https://www.miraawad.co/music

Zakiyyah and Henry cover Maine Environmental Education Association’s Conference in mid-March. Featured panelists include

Olivia Griset – Executive Director of MEEA
MEEA Website: https://www.meeassociation.org 

My name is Olivia Griset and I am the Executive Director of the Maine Environmental Education Association (MEEA) and the co-founder of the Maine Environmental Changemakers Network, a statewide program of MEEA.  I am a 37 year old white women and also the mother of two young daughters.  I am passionate about building a more inclusive and equitable environment and conservation sector and challenging white supremacy culture.  In our Changemakers network we work across generations and difference to build the power of young people in Maine to lead forward environmental change in their community and we are committed to helping build the skills of young people so they can have the voice and power to lead differently.  There is so many things about us all in the network that are different but the thing that brings us together in this work is our connection to the environment and our passion for building more just and sustainable communities.

Tyler Kidder – Program Officer
Onion Foundation Website: https://www.onionfoundation.org 

Tyler is the Program Officer at the Onion Foundation and the Lead Trainer for Maine Climate Table’s Communication training workshops. She previously held positions at GrowSmart Maine, Efficiency Maine and the University of Southern Maine. Tyler holds a degree in Environmental Studies from Bucknell University, is a Senior Fellow of the Environmental Leadership Program, and a graduate of the Sustainable Food Systems Leadership Institute of Maine. She lives on a lake in Winthrop with her partner and gaggle of pets. She spends her spare time hibernating in the winter and boating in the summer.

Asli Sezen-Barrie – Assistant Professor of Curriculum, Assessment and Instruction at the University of Maine
Webpage: https://umaine.edu/edhd/facultystaff/asli-sezen-barrie/ 

Dr. Sezen-Barrie is an Assistant Professor of Science and Engineering Education at the University of Maine. Currently, her research interests have an overarching goal of improving science teacher education towards ambitious equitable classroom practices. The research program she developed during her early career years has two lines. The first line involves using the discourse analysis method to look at sociocultural dynamics of learning and teaching practice. Drawn from the fields of sociolinguistics, epistemology and climate change education research, Dr. Sezen-Barrie examines students’ and teachers’ construction of and learning from evidence-based explanations on climate change topics. The second line of research lies at the intersection of anthropology and learning progression studies. She uses the concept of “professional vision” while developing a sustainable support system to improve preservice and novice teachers’ teaching of climate science and effectively assess students’ learning in a meaningful progression. Previously, Dr. Sezen-Barrie was involved in projects to develop a framework for analyzing preservice teachers’ learning to teach science and an extensive international review of learning progression studies.

Zakiyyah finishes up covering Ras Ben’s book release of Great Mystery Philadelphia, and attends Dr. Anthony Monteiro’s conference entitled “W.E.B. Du Bois, Whither Now and Why, the Struggle for Peace and Freedom”. 

Ras Ben
Website: http://rasben.com

Self described as a Humble Servant of Humanity, Student of History, Mystery and Prophecy, Source of Healing Treasures, Scribe of Rocks of Ages, Ra Sekhi Energy Healer, Reflexologist, Astrologer, Mediator/Peace Keeper

Dr. Anthony Monteiro – DuBois Scholar
Website: http://www.saturdayfreeschool.org
Link to Conference: https://www.yearofdubois.org 

Anthony (Tony) Monteiro at the Saturday Free School. He is a scholar/activist. He writes in areas having to do with W.E.B. DuBois Studies, Marxism and race. He lives in Philadelphia where he is active in social, economic and politcal struggles.

Music:
Philadelphia Jazz Project “Price | Diehl | Sunkett” - http://www.philajazzproject.org/index.php?id=pjp-mixtapes
Lessazo “Soleil D’Hiver” –  http://altermusique.org/Lessazo/

Crystal Healer Ras Ben presents his new book Great Mystery Philadelphia at CultureWorks, and Zakiyyah interviews him.

Ras Ben
Website: http://rasben.com

Self described as a Humble Servant of Humanity, Student of History, Mystery and Prophecy, Source of Healing Treasures, Scribe of Rocks of Ages, Ra Sekhi Energy Healer, Reflexologist, Astrologer, Mediator/Peace Keeper

Music:
Lessazo “Soleil D’Hiver” –  http://altermusique.org/Lessazo/  

Zakiyyah attends “Ghandi, the Struggle Against White Domination”, a conference held by Dr. Tony Monteiro of the Saturday Free School at Church of the Advocate. This episode features:

Dr. Anthony Monteiro – DuBois Scholar
Website: http://www.saturdayfreeschool.org
Link to Conference: https://www.yearofdubois.org 

Anthony (Tony) Monteiro at the Saturday Free School. He is a scholar/activist. He writes in areas having to do with W.E.B. DuBois Studies, Marxism and race. He lives in Philadelphia where he is active in social, economic and politcal struggles.

P.K. Somarajan - Community Leader at Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam 
 
Panel Presentations by Archishman Raju, Meghna Chandra, and Divya Nair, followed by open discussion

Music: 

Philadelphia Jazz Project “Price | Diehl | Sunkett” - http://www.philajazzproject.org/index.php?id=pjp-mixtapes

Featured Guests:

Owen Taylor – Founder of TrueLove Seeds
Website: https://trueloveseeds.com 

Owen Taylor recently launched Truelove Seeds, a seed company offering rare, open pollinated, and culturally important vegetable, herb, and flower seeds grown by urban and rural farmers committed to community food sovereignty and sustainable agriculture. He also grows open-pollinated seeds, herbs, and flowers at Mill Hollow Farm in Edgemont, Pennsylvania. 

Alkebu-lan Marcus – Farm Director of Mill Creek Urban Farms
Website: https://www.millcreekurbanfarm.org 

I’m 25 years old, and I got into urban agriculture to empower my community to find solutions and to provide an alternative to the current structure. Personally I truly believe our connection to the soil is our main asset towards black liberation. 

Jess Renninger – Head Farmer at Novick Urban Farm
Website: https://novickbrothers.com/urban-farm.html 

Novick Urban Farm was founded in 2012 by co-owner Gary Novick. Seeds of what Gary planted -- both literal and figurative -- grew into an organization that each year feeds thousands of people in need while teaching just as many area children about the value of nutrition.

Nate Kleinmann – Experimental Farm Network
Website: https://www.experimentalfarmnetwork.org 

Nate Kleinman is one of the co-founders of the Experimental Farm Network. He is an activist, organizer, plant breeder, and farmer, based in Elmer, New Jersey. His background as an organizer includes work with Occupy Sandy, Service Employees International Union, the Sudan Freedom Walk Campaign, and various political campaigns.

Jeannie – Hops Farmer in East Mount Airy 

Kenton Cobb
Website: https://phytoamorous.com 

Kenton is a clinical herbalist, educator and activist. They work one-on-one with people looking to modify their state of health by using herbal medicine, food and lifestyle changes. They also teaches classes and workshops about the same, and with these skills strives to support local and national movements and revolutionary work by providing medicine, direct care and first aid.

Keith Monahan – Co-Founder of South Jersey Seed Library
Website: https://www.facebook.com/SJSeedCircleLibrary/ 

Keith Monahan has served many roles in the South Jersey region, contributing momentously to sustainability efforts across several municipalities. He serves as an Education and Outreach Manager for GMO Free NJ and Seed Librarian for South Jersey Seed Circle Library.

Eric Devine – Friend of the Seed Swap

Eammon Tweedy – Math Professor and Friend of the Seed Swap

Chris – Local Farmer

Nyksiha Madison – Farm Manager at Urbantree Connection
Website: http://urbantreeconnection.org 

The Urban Tree Connection (UTC) is a 501(c)(3) community-based organization, and our mission is to work with residents in Philadelphia’s historically marginalized urban communities to transform abandoned open spaces into safe and functional places that inspire and promote positive human interaction.

Annie Preston – Farmer at Horticultural Center

Nick Tornambe – Mushroom Grower

Music: 

Philadelphia Jazz Project “Price | Diehl | Sunkett” - http://www.philajazzproject.org/index.php?id=pjp-mixtapes
Lessazo “Soleil D’Hiver” – 

Long-lived dance group KuluMele is featured at Taller Puertoriqueño, a community center in North Philly. Here are our featured guests:

Debora Kodish – Founder and Director of Philadelphia Folklore Project

Established in 1987, the Philadelphia Folklore Project is an independent public folklife agency that documents, supports, and presents Philadelphia-area folk arts and culture - including the arts of people who have been here generations and those who have just arrived. We work to preserve and strengthen the folk cultural life of our communities because we believe that the quality of urban life is directly related to the persistence, diversity and vitality of our vernacular folk cultures.

Ira Bond – Drummer for KuluMele

Dorothy Wilkie – KuluMele Artistic Director

Dorothy Wilkie began to study African dance as a child in 1955, first as an art form and later as an aspect of her spiritual practice as an orisha devotee and initiate. She joined Kulu Mele as a dancer in 1974 and later became the company’s dance captain. She has served as artistic director for more than 25 years. She has studied dance with Les Ballets Africains in Guinea, the National Dance Company of Senegal, and in Cuba and the United States. 

John Wilkie – KuluMele Musi Director

John Wilkie began to study African and African Cuban dance traditions in the 1950s, first under the renowned percussionists William Powell and Charles Brown and later with Robert Crowder, Garvin Masseaux and Darryl Burgee. His drum studies have taken him to Guinea, Senegal and Cuba. He joined Kulu Mele in the 1970s. He has performed for the Jaasu Ballet and was an artist in residence at the Philadelphia Folklore Project. Currently he is a member of the Spoken Hand Percussion Orchestra.  In 2015, he and his wife, Dorothy Wilkie, received lifetime achievement awards from the Philadelphia Folklore Project for their contributions to arts and culture. 

KuluMele Webiste: www.kulumele.org  
Mission: Inspired by the voices of its ancestors, Kulu Mele African Dance & Drum Ensemble preserves, presents and perpetuates the traditional dance and music of West Africa and the African Diaspora.

Tom Lowery – Master Drummer

Percussionist Thomas Lowery has performed and recorded with a wide variety of groups. Some of his credits include R&B bands Imperial Knights and the Realistics, jazz groups Peridime and DeNova, and world percussion groups Spoken Hand and Zakir Hussain and Friends. Lowery also serves as a percussionist/drummer at the Newark Samba School and FreshVisions Children’s Theater. 

Wendy Elder – Legal Professional and Wife of Master Drummer Skip Burton

Wendy and Zakiyyah have been close for years through dance, music, and interactions through the Philadelphia Folklore Project.

Music:
Many Thanks to KuluMele for snippets of their performance
Lessazo “Soleil D’Hiver” –  http://altermusique.org/Lessazo/

Zakiyyah visits NextFab Makerspace in North Philly to check out the Leeway Foundation, featuring the following interview guests:

Tahnee Jackson – Communications and Community Engagement Assistant at Leeway Foundation 

Tahnee is an organizer, educator, published writer, and performance artist who exists at the intersections of multiple identities. A first generation Jamaican American and native Philadelphian, they use their lens as a fat, queer, pagan, neurodivergent, chronically ill, non-binary femme of immigrant descent and woman experience as context for their art and expression, and is most known for their work in alternative sexuality education and activism, as well as transgender specific interfaith action.

Denise Brown – Executive Director of Leeway Foundation

Artist, cultural organizer and strategist, and facilitator, Denise M Brown is passionate about using her skills and energies on creating, supporting and illuminating work at the intersections of art, culture and social justice. Prior to serving as Executive Director of Leeway Foundation, she was Associate Director of Bread and Roses Community Fund, a film programmer for the Neighborhood Film/Video Project and Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema (PFWC), and a consultant with Leeway and other organizations in the Philadelphia area. For over 25 years, Denise has consulted with cultural and social justice organizations, individual donors and foundations on program development and grantmaking strategies regionally and nationally. 

Li Sumpter – Artist in Residence at Leeway Foundation

Li Sumpter, Ph.D. is an eco-activist and multidisciplinary artist based in Philly. She employs strategies of worldbuilding, D.I.Y media and gameplay to cultivate eco-awareness and community action around the “art of survival”. Li’s social practice and collaborative design initiatives address existential issues of diverse ecologies through speculative tools and sustainability projects that illuminate patterns and power of change. In 2017, Li was the inaugural Artist-in-Residence for the Urban Ecology Arts Exchange at Haverford College and recently completed the Leeway x NextFab Art and Technology artist residency in March 2019.

Muthi Reed – Artist and Photographer

Muthi Reed is an ethnographic media maker living and working in Philadelphia, PA and New Orleans, LA. Their work consists of embodied and digital sketches in various forms, which perform race, time space, embodiment, sound, odyssey and style. Reed’s digital media archive krewe coumbite traces Indigenous ceremony, public appearance, private ritual, trans local navigations, ancestry, and oral history. Their document and remix creative process is interested in the intimacies of blackness and the art of everyday life practices.

Leeway Foundation Website: leeway.org 

Music:
Lessazo “Soleil D’Hiver” –  http://altermusique.org/Lessazo/ 

Zakiyyah finishes up covering the Root Skills Conference with an emphasis on Maine’s Hurricane Island Foundation. Here are our interviewees:

Dee Azubuike Johnson 

Dee Wells – Co-Founder of Future Focus Media Cooperative
Website: https://futurefocusmedia.org 

In 2011, Dee co-founded Future Focus Media Co-op & Youth Training Institute, a photography and film production company that works with clients such as UMASS, Main South CDC, and the Environmental Justice League of Rhode Island, to name a few, while teaching youth video production skills.

Camelle Scott Mujahid – Training Director at CTCORE-OrganizeNow
Website: http://www.ctcore-organizenow.org/staff

Camelle Scott-Mujahid, has been organizing in New Haven for the past ten years. She moved to New Haven from El Paso, Texas in 2003 to attend Yale University. 

During her time at Yale, Camelle found community and a political home in New Haven’s activist and organizing community engaging in direct action, grassroots organizing, and coalition building. Camelle has organized around a range of issues, including Immigrants Rights, Police Accountability, and Education Equity.

Robin Chernow – Science Education Manager at Hurricane Island
Website: http://www.hurricaneisland.net/

Robin is originally from Chester, NJ. Before coming to Maine, she worked at Philadelphia’s FirstHand Lab, facilitating hands-on science labs for middle school students at the University City Science Center. Robin earned a B.S. in Geology from Haverford College, where she was a student leader of Haverford’s Public Observing Astronomy program and a teaching assistant. Teaching marine science outdoors is "the coolest job she can imagine," and after working as a seasonal employee in 2016, she is thrilled to join Hurricane's year-round staff.

Phoebe Jekielek
Website: http://www.hurricaneisland.net/ 

Phoebe originally hails from Punxsutawney, PA, Home of the Groundhog! She received a BA in Biology from Boston University in 2003. She lived her love for the ocean and education for 5 years as a marine science instructor, aquarist and Assistant Program Director for the Catalina Island Marine Institute in southern California. She then returned to Maine to pursue her love of science and complete her Dual Masters in Marine Science and Marine Policy at the University of Maine in 2012. 

Anna Somo

Music:
Lessazo “Soleil D’Hiver” –  http://altermusique.org/Lessazo/
Imperial Tiger Orchestra "Ethic Event #1" – http://imperialtigerorchestra.blogspot.com
Jesse Spillane “Art of Presentation – https://jessespillane.bandcamp.com    
Kevin MacLeod "Quasi Motion"

Urban Islanders Episode 3 features a very special guest whom Zakiyyah had the pleasure of interviewing: Daniel Noah Moses, Director of Educator Programs at Seeds of Peace, an amazing resource for young changemakers all around the world.

Seeds of Peace: The mission of Seeds of Peace is to "inspire and cultivate new generations of global leaders in communities divided by conflict." The organization has active programs in the Middle East, South Asia and the United States. For more information, see: https://www.seedsofpeace.org/about/

Daniel Noah Moses - Director of Educator Programs at Seeds of Peace
As the Director of Educator Programs, Daniel's work focuses on the educators, community leaders and artists who are part of Seeds of Peace. 

Many Thanks to Dan and Hannah from the USDA for their Asian Longhorn Beetle Information!

Music: 

Lessazo “Soleil D’Hiver” – Music: http://altermusique.org/Lessazo/