Posts tagged Speaker
Chef Nowel

Chef Nowel is a vegan culinary artist and author from Compton, California. After being diagnosed with Lupus in 2010, she adjusted to a plant-based lifestyle and, after two years, received the MOST ideal results!

She is the author of “Throw Some Greens on that Sh*t” and “So You’re Interested in Giving Up Meat.” She is also certified to provide holistic nutrition to others. Her mission is two-fold: to educate others on how to self-care through both food shopping and preparation and to show that plant-based eating can be cool, tasty, and fun! The avid vocalist enjoys singing in her spare time (and all times in between).

The Compton native received her Bachelor of Science from Central State University. She is also the winner of two Vegan Foodie Choice Awards in both Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio.

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Onika - Black Dream Escape

Onika is a musician, songwriter, historically poor Black, Native Queer licensed therapist, with a Horticulture diploma, concentrating in healing gardens. She identified the need for Black Dream Escape as a labor and abolition activist, organizing in support of basic human rights and connecting those rights to quality of sleep.

Her clinical social work focuses on how trauma affects marginalized communities, and throughout the seven years that she has been a therapist, she recognized that therapy models are not culturally relevant and that oppression has left people mentally exhausted.

She has served as a rest doula in Pittsburgh for five years, educating communities, organizations, and individuals on the importance of Black and Indigenous rest and sleep.
She has also served as an artist-in-residence for Sanctuary Pittsburgh and the There are Black People In The Future artist residency.

Windafire is a Caribbean, Black Latine, Queer, Gender-Unified individual. As a healing artist and initiated priest in the Lucumi Tradition, he uses his art and music for health and healing. He views his role in the movements for social justice as a model and instructor for wellness, boundaries, and commitment to personal joy.

At 17, he has had ample time to observe the way in which his friends are exhausted by endless assaults on their humanity. He has watched peers become ill from tireless social justice work. In the course of his education, Windafire has done an intensive study of medicinal plants and foraging. He currently makes his own salves, lotions, tinctures and sprays which he has made available to activists. He is currently developing products for Black Dream Escape.

As a home educated person, he has been given the freedom to study marketing, product development and business planning. He feels very fortunate to be empowered to commit to his life works when, and as, he is called.

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Vonnie Mack

Vontrece McNeil, commonly known by her sobriquet "Vonnie Mack" is a Brooklyn based dj, and multidisciplinary creative. Vonnie is recognized by her vast, eclectic music selections inspired globally by her travels, and passion for culture and is often intertwined with her love for throwback nostalgic gems from the 90s, 2000s and beyond. She’s played alongside prominent artists, and worked with notable brands, and venues in the US and globally. In addition, to founding and curating events and parties for ‘The Yes, Honey Collective’, a global dj collective centered on the advancement of Black & Brown women, and non-binary djs of color, she recently went into partnership with Serato to offer “Studio Sessions”, educational workshops for the working dj. Working with Serato, she was able to offer monthly free classes, through the collective focused on production and tech. In 2019, her curation continued as she joined Jwompa, (the first ever music streaming app made for the global African diaspora), where she curates diverse and culturally immersing playlists focusing exclusively on African music for listeners all over the globe.

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Dr. Kristen

Dr. Kristen is a performance artist, scholar, educator, fitness instructor and coach, entrepreneur, and mother. Dr. Kristen has been an explorer of the arts and movement since childhood. She has a background in visual arts, dance, gymnastics, and cheerleading. It was not until high school that Dr. Kristen discovered her natural affinity to psychology. Dr. Kristen is a south Florida native and graduate of The University of Central Florida (B.S. in Psychology) and The University of Miami (M.S.Ed in Community and Social Change). Dr. Kristen also has a PhD in Applied Social and Community Psychology from North Carolina State University.

Along her doctoral journey, Dr. Kristen experienced high levels of stress related to feeling isolated, disconnected from Spirit, as well as racial and gender-based oppressions. Dr. Kristen needed an escape and she found that in the pole community. She reflected on her childhood passions of art and movement and longed for an activity that would allow her to revive these parts of herself. Pole fitness and dance offered a space for Dr. Kristen to reconnect with her full self again. Additionally, her doctoral training in community psychology allowed her to see that pole is a tool for coping with adversity and creating self.

Dr. Kristen integrates her expertise in psychology with her training as an ACE and XPERT certified pole fitness instructor to guide her clients and students along a journey of self exploration and liberation through pole fitness and dance. Dr. Kristen has coined her work Polecology®.

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Deniseea Taylor

I'm a Love Angeles native with a background in design. LA raised me and New York made me. In New York City my love for entertaining & spirits sparked. Soon after I made the move to New Orleans. I found my niche in Nola and incorporated my culture through every cocktail I create. I pair cocktails with cultural influence including Hip Hop, Black history and iconic black films. I use my liquid art to tell a story of black excellence, a Negrostorian with a cocktail.

As seen in: Essence, Marie Claire, Food & Wine, Gambit, Imbibe, and Travel & Leisure

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Elizabeth Summers

I am an Art Evangelist, a zealous advocate of art and writing for healing. Who I am is a Crusader on a Mission: To Build Connection and Community through the arts. I’ve taught K-12. Creative writing and drama in public and private schools all over the San Francisco Bay Area. I’ve been a lecturer at Stanford University, UC Berkeley and SF City College. I have taught Expressive Arts, creative writing, created and directed Page to Stage theatre productions to incarcerated, unhoused families and mentally ill populations for more years than 30 years. I created the Write for Your Life program at SF General for people with HIV/AIDS. I took a group of young people on a tour of the Eastern United States, to do a production on being incarcerated. I’ve done lecture demonstrations with Probation and Parole Officers, Judges, and Law Enforcement across the country on the importance of art for incarcerated people, sponsored by the Justice Department.

Currently I lead a Healing Circle for Black women in the community, many of whom have lost their children to Police and or gun violence. I also teach a storytelling, Radical Self-Care class for Elders. The main purpose has been to break isolation during Covid and to continue to increasing the feeling of being valued members of the community.

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