Writers
Diaris Alexander, Los Angeles, CA
Hip Hop Congress (UCLA)
www.hiphopcongress.com
Diaris, 21, originally from Oakland, CA, has a strong dedication to uplifting her community. She credits dance, hip hop, and writing lyrics, to providing an outlet for her expression while simultaneously maintaining her sanity and reducing stress. She is very passionate about youth and the performing arts. Diaris was drawn to become a part of the All-ages Movement Project because of her involvement with Youth Movement Records, a youth-run record label and development organization. The research project gives her the unprecedented opportunity to discover and participate in a nation-wide youth-driven effort to make a change in society. Diaris is extremely determined to make an impact on the world. Currently she is both a Jackie Robinson and Gates Millennium Scholar at the University of California, Los Angeles. Although presently she is undeclared, she hopes to obtain her B.A. in Communication Studies in 2009.
Britt Curtis, Reno, NV
The Holland Project
www.hollandreno.org
Britt Curtis is currently the director of The Holland Project, Reno's first all-ages arts and music nonprofit. She has worked with various arts and issue-based organizations, and music clubs including Seattle International Film Festival, Choice USA, Rock the Vote, and Pearl Jam among others.
Kevin Erickson, Anacortes, WA
Department of Safety
www.departmentofsafety.com
Kevin Erickson, 29, was studying religion and cultural politics at Whitman College in tiny Walla Walla, Washington, when he discovered the Pacific Northwest's vibrant underground music scene and fell stupidly in love with the radical potential of incubating DIY cultural resistance in small communities. Before AMP he spent 3 years as part of a team of artists, musicians, and friends running a unique arts infrastructure called the Department of Safety. The facility was housed in Anacortes, Washington's old fire & police station and contains an all-ages music venue, gallery, recording facilities, art studios, and zine library. He is active as a writer, recording engineer, and musician, with one recent collaboration touted as “intermittently tolerable" by Pitchfork, a National Independent Music Website.
Gavin Leonard, Cincinnati, OH
Elementz, The Hip Hop Youth Arts Center
www.natiyouthcenter.org
League of Young Voters
www.indyvoter.org
Gavin Leonard, 30, is Executive Director of Elementz: The Hip-Hop Youth Arts Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. He is a board member of the League of Young Voters and LYV Education Fund, and is on the advisory committees of Wiretap and the All-Ages Movement Project. He believes that building power to make change starts with strong community-based relationships.
Katy Otto, Washington DC
Positive Force
www.positiveforcedc.org
Katy Otto is the Executive Assistant to the CEO of the National Abortion Federation and the former Development Director at Men Can Stop Rape. Ms. Otto has ten years of experience in fundraising for violence prevention, women's issues, youth development, and arts organizations. She graduated from University of Maryland, College Park and later became certified through the University of Indiana School of Fundraising. She has a Master's in Nonprofit Management from Trinity University. She has done contract development work creating grassroots fundraising plans and authoring proposals for social justice organizations nationally. She runs her own independent record label Exotic Fever Records and has given workshops on such diverse topics as direct action around issues of violence against women, community response to sexual assault, animal abuse and partner violence, punk rock activism, and women and girls in music. Ms. Otto has toured the country several times playing drums in her former band Del Cielo. She is currently working on two new bands, Helsinki and Trophy Wife. She co-founded the national Visions in Feminism conference. She has been a member for over twelve years of the group Positive Force DC, a volunteer punk collective that organizes concerts and events for social change and plans community actions.
Lori Roddy, Ann Arbor, MI
Neutral Zone
www.neutral-zone.org
After graduating with a BA from John Carroll University in Political Science, Lori spent two years volunteering in the Federated States of Micronesia teaching at a local high school. Returning to the United States, she continued teaching social studies as a middle school teacher in Cleveland, Ohio. After four years as a teacher, Lori began her Masters in Social Work focused on youth and community organizing at the University of Michigan. Her studies focused primarily on community organizing with a special interest in youth participation. After receiving her Masters in Social Work in May, 2004, she worked as a consultant for the Youth and Community Project at the University of Michigan focusing on providing participatory evaluation trainings for the 72 Youth Advisory Councils of the Community Foundations of Southeast Michigan. Lori is currently the Program Director of the Neutral Zone, a youth-driven teen center providing after-school drop-space, programming in areas of education, literary arts, visual arts, music performance and technology and leadership, and weekend concerts.
Shannon Stewart, San Francisco, CA
All-ages Movement Project
www.allagesmovementproject.org
Shannon is the founding director of AMP. In 2001, she co-founded the Seattle-based Vera Project -- an all-ages music venue run by a mostly adult staff, with youth leadership through membership and board positions.
Chris Wiltsee, Oakland, CA
Youth Movement Records
www.youthmovementrecords.org
Chris has worked for more than 12 years developing innovative community-based projects and arts organizations for youth in the non-profit sector. Chris is the founder and Executive Director of Youth Movement Records (YMR), a non-profit youth-run recording company and youth development program in Oakland, California, and is a co-founder of the AMP Network (All-Ages Movement Project), which is developing a national resource for the rapidly emerging youth-media field. Prior to launching YMR, Chris served as the Program Director to the Neutral Zone, Ann Arbor’s Teen Center from 1998 to 2002. He sits on the San Francisco Recording Academy’s Education Committee and the San Francisco Carnival Entertainment Committee. Chris has recently helped develop an consultancy called The Blink Tank that is committed to helping mission-based organizations develop and thrive. Chris received his masters degree from the University of Michigan and undergraduate degree in Community Studies from UC Santa Cruz.
Karmeron Moore-Mitchell
Idlemindz Media and Entertainment
www.idlemindzmeg.com
A Bay Area native, Kameron Moore-Mitchell is an emcee, performing and recording artist, DJ, and hip hop educator. She has been contributing to the AMP Network since the first meeting in 2005. As a student at Xavier University in New Orleans, she has been featured on three compilation albums put together by Youth Movement Records in Oakland and works on solo projects under the name TheSeKondElement. In 2007, Kameron returned home to Oakland to work with YMR directors on a start-up summer hip hop program for New Orleans’s youth, and in 2008 launched Idlemindz Media and Entertainment Group. To hear more from Kameron, check out myspace.com/thesekondelement and idlemindzmeg.com.
Illustrators
Wade wadeliostro.deviantart.com
Kaela Graham www.kaelagraham.com
George Estrada www.citron68.com
Molly O'Connell www.mollycolleenoconnell.com
Andy Ristaino www.skronked.com
Kyle Field www.kyledraws.com
Ryan Jacob Smith www.ryanjacobsmith.com
Geneviève Castrée www.opaon.ca
Sumi Ink Club www.sumiinkclub.com