Membership

The producer of the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage calls Elise Witt “a performer to remember with international savvy & personal charm.”  Elise was born in Switzerland, raised in North Carolina, and since 1977 has made her home in Atlanta. She speaks five languages fluently, sings in over a dozen more, and has been a cultural ambassador to South Africa, Italy, Nicaragua, Switzerland, and China. A songwriter and composer, she tours the United States and the world with her Global, Local & Homemade Songs™. 2009 marked the release of Valise, Elise’s 11th recording for EMWorld Records, as well as the premiere of the Elise Witt Choral Series.

Melisa Cardona – The daughter of Latino immigrants, Melisa Cardona was raised between Atlanta, Georgia and her parents’ native land of Colombia.  After several years spent traveling the world and working in theater and film in Atlanta and on the West Coast, Melisa’s gaze turned organically towards the wetlands and New Orleans, LA.  She is currently the managing director of the New Orleans-based performance collective Mondo Bizarro. She is collaborating with various artists and theatre ensembles as a performer, visual artist (852 Art) and community organizer, including Alternate Roots, M.U.G.A.B.E.E., Artspot Productions, Rising Appalachia and many others.

Octavia is owner of SpoonWood Productions, an educational performing arts company offering storytelling, drama, music, writing, and substance abuse prevention programs.

I have been working with Gwylene Gallimard for the last couple of years. It started by editing a paper she wrote with the RSC workgroup. I was new to RSC and appreciated the chance to listen. We got to go to the MICA conference that year and the paper is  on the Community Arts Network site.

http://www.communityarts.net/readingroom/archivefiles/2008/09/principles_of_w.php

Then we joined together to make a proposal for the MICA Ongoing Dialogue Project and worked in 2009 on the Ongoing Dialogue of the processes of the RSC program and what the RSC principles mean. check out http://alternateroots.org/programs/rsc/ongoingdialoguesproject

As a choreographer I focus on the creative process and the exploration of new and unique inspirations for the creation of movement. In 1980 I founded CORE, an organization committed to innovation, collaboration and risk-taking through which we create, perform and present contemporary dance. I have choreographed more than 40 works for CORE, and have commissioned myriad artists to collaboratively create new works with the company. With support from ROOTS I have initiated the Moving Towards Health project in Conway, AR to raise awareness of the arts' ability to engender communication and facilitate change. Through various platforms we will address issues surrounding eating disorders, body image and healthy lifestyles.

Nick Slie lives and works on the disappearing wetlands of coastal Louisiana. He is Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of the New Orleans based performance collective Mondo Bizarro. He is an actor, director, writer, educator and community activist. Nick’s performance work ranges from physical theater to multi-disciplinary solo work, from digital storytelling to collaborative ensemble productions. He creates original works of performance that are rooted in a particular sense-of-place reflecting the needs, desires, memories and possibilities of the community from which it is born.

D. Patton White, based in Atlanta, Georgia, has worked for more than 25 years as a dancer/choreographer, arts administrator, free lance costume designer and educator. He is currently the Artistic Director of Beacon Dance, and is the Company Manager/Production Manager of CORE.

Rising Appalachia tears into sound with sensual prowess as stages ignite revolutions and words light up spirit fires.

Has benefited from the Virginia Fellowship for Individual Writers due to her highly recommended wor(d)-shops and literary works. A member of the 2007-8 Charlotte National Poetry Slam Championship Team, the reigning Red Bull Word Clash champion, and currently runs “Say What?!?” a national collegiate performance Word-Shop driven by Red Bull. NAACP Image Award Nominee for works in the Anthology Home Girls Make Some Noise, Published In: Essence, Old Dominion University’s 44th St. Poets Journal, S. Florida University Urban Griot, 1st Spoken Word artist cover story for Portfolio Magazine, The Syracuse University Women in Hip-Hop and National Featured Poet for Rolling Out and Creative Loafing, amongst thousands of online journals.

Sharon works in Multi and New media with emphasis in video and film to create work which investigates personal and social issues. Recently she has been interested in the pathology of racism in the United States as well as the circle of life. Her enduring primary interest lies in the exploration of the transformative nature of the arts and possible applications in addressing collective issues.

Margo is a cultural activist who believes art is a powerful tool for organizing communities, currently working as the Appalachian Community Fund Development Director. Margo is a founding director of Mason/Rhynes Productions, an arts service organization based in Washington, DC that is dedicated to providing quality work designed to challenge, enlighten and entertain diverse populations. She works as an administrator for the Carpetbag Theatre, a professional ensemble company whose mission is to give artistic voice to the issues and dreams of people who have been silenced by various forms of oppression. Margo is honing her photography and textile arts skills.

I am an artist that has performed in many different Genres of entertainment.

Mother
Acting/Stage Coach
Children Dinner Theaters Centered around Healthy Food and Living Choices
Women's Empowerment and Adult Workshop - Empowerment through Theater
Acting and Voiceover Artist/ Teacher
Adult Entertainment/Playing With Your Food

i primarily work with the visual arts. i am a builder.
i am part of azule : to provide a place where artists and community meet, learn and work through the arts in their many forms.
i work for inclusion : disability, class, race, gender, beliefs...

Nia Wilson is a poet, performer, and storyteller. As the current executive director of SpiritHouse, a local grassroots cultural organizing collective committed to community accountability and (w)holistic healing. Nia works with fellow artists, organizers, and community members to assess, express, and address their own needs.
SpiritHouse works to support the empowerment and transformation of communities most affected by racism, poverty, gender discrimination, and the school to prison pipeline, through innovative grassroots programs, cultural arts and community collaboration.

By day I'm the Deputy Director of the Southern Arts Federation working with our staff, board and regional partners to build a better South through the arts. I'm particularly interested in arts participation, strategic planning and action, organizational learning and working with a great creative team. I also create glass art and jewelry as Southern Flameworks; I'm a consultant and facilitator in critical response, audio description, participation building and other arts areas; and I see and hear as much work as I can in Atlanta and beyond.

Improviational Theatre. Movement Theatre. Poetry. Dance

A multifaceted effort aimed at illuminating the beauty and poignancy of African life and culture, inclusive of focus on African retention in the diaspora.

Art allows a voice for support and for protest, and like a hammer can help build movements and help tear down what stands between us. The central theme of my work is the absolute imperative that human creatures recognize their symbiotic relationship with the rest of the planet. We cannot fix anything alone without recognizing what these connections offer us: peace, empowerment, rationality, deep roots. Bugs, bats, vines, eggs, seeds and bones mix and intertwine in my work. They loop into lungs and out of mouths. They tie everything together: the workers, the ants, the despots, the tree roots.

Caron Atlas works to support and stimulate arts and culture as an integral part of social justice. She directs the Arts & Democracy Project and codirects the New York Naturally Occurring Cultural District Working Group. Caron consults with foundations and teaches at New York University and Pratt Institute. She directed Place + Displaced, a project of Fractured Atlas; worked at Appalshop, the Appalachian media center; and was the founding director of the American Festival Project, a national coalition of activist artists. She also has worked with National Voice, Urban Institute, and Animating Democracy, and is co-editor of Bridge Conversations, People Who Live and Work in Multiple Worlds and Critical Perspectives: Writings on Art and Civic Dialogue.

Ana is an information technologist who specializes in creating and integrating websites, databases and software flows for small businesses and non-profits. She has a degree from the Rhode Island School of Design in Industrial Design, and has been working with non-profits around technology for the last 10 years.

As well as contracting for Alternate ROOTS, Ana owns and operates jellobrain (http://jellobrain.com) which aids non-profits in tightening and integrating their information flows and systems. Among other organizations, Ana has worked with: Bioneers, the Institute of American Indian Arts, the southern Center for Human Rights, the United States Social Forum, and the Metro Atlanta Taskforce for the Homeless.

I am a stage director, arts and community cultural development organizer, and teacher. I work in conventional theater spaces and in "found" , indoors and out. I direct written scripts and I develop new work through collaborative processes. I am interested in plays that engage in direct audience interaction and that offer contributions to relevant public dialogues in the communities of the play's production. I am on the CAPP/RSC WorkGroup and am an RSC trainer. I am director of the MFA in Theatre at Virginia Tech, where I teach the MFA programs in Stage Management, and in Directing and Public Dialogue.

Tambone is a writer with a versatile style and many years of experience communicating with a wide range of audiences. She's a performer at heart, whether as a singer, dancer, actor, storyteller, impersonator, public speaker, and an all-around “ham" (thus the nickname "Tambone"). She's also a dedicated activist on behalf of social and environmental justice and sustainable development in Appalachia, and for years she has produced graphic art in the form of posters for non-profit organizations, activist and educational events, and cultural festivals.

Diana (Morningstar) Ault is a community artist, activist, producer, performer and fulltime grandmother of three now! She's been on the boards and staff of over a dozen non-profit organizations locally, statewide, nationally and internationally. She loves creating cultures of peace by bringing people together to play across lines of race, class, and culture, recognizing the oneness and interdependency of all beings.

-Community-based public art
-Environmental sculpture
-Site art
-Arts Education: Teaching Artist
-Collaboration coach
-RSC facilitator and 2X C/APP recipient

Poet, playwright, musician and performance artist, Lenelle Moïse, creates jazz-infused, hip-hop bred, performance texts about Haitian-American identity, creative resistance and the intersection of race, class, gender, sexuality and spirit.
More info at http://www.lenellemoise.com

Guerrilla Girls On Tour is a New York City based touring theatre company that creates fresh and original comedies celebrating women’s history -- past, present and future. All of our work is presented using masks and draws from a variety of classic theatre techniques such as physical theatre, vaudeville and parody resulting in our own unique style that allow us to imaginatively portray a wide range of characters and scenarios with minimal technical elements.

Andrea Assaf is a performer, writer, director, educator and activist. MA in Performance Studies, BFA in Acting, NYU. Performance work ranges from spoken word to original, community-based, interdisciplinary or cross-cultural theater. Original works include: Eleven Reflections on September; Outside the Circle with Samuel Valdez; Fronteras Desviadas / Deviant Borders with Mujeres en Ritual Danza-Teatro; and solo performance Globalicities. Directing includes: breaking letter(s) by Suheir Hammad; Shekadii Walaalo / Sister-Story by the Walaalo! Somali Sisters Collective; and Parang Sabil by Kinding Sindaw. Awards: 2010 Princess Grace Award, 2010 NPN Creation Fund commission, 2007 Hedgebrook residency, and 2004 Contacto Cultural grant.

Dan Brawley is the director of the Cucalorus Film Festival and an artist working in a wide range of disciplines. Dan's artistic practice is defined by a collaborative approach to the artmaking process. Recent installations included musicians, performers and a host of visual artists.

Carlton Turner is the artistic director and co-founder, along with his brother Maurice Turner, of the performing group M.U.G.A.B.E.E. (Men Under Guidance Acting Before Early Extinction) a group composed of two brothers performing a theatrical blend of jazz, hip-hop, spoken word poetry and soul music. M.U.G.A.B.E.E. has released two albums, "Earth Tones" (2002) and "World Domination" (2006). They are currently touring a new play "Batteries in the Killing Machine" across the country. Carlton studied English and history at the University of Mississippi from 1992-1996. M.U.G.A.B.E.E.

A New Kind of Listening is a 58 minute documentary film: the story of a visionary director, a one-of-a-kind theater group, and a young man who couldn't speak, yet found the voice he had been searching for all his life.

Sarah Powers is an artist based in Raleigh, North Carolina whose mixed media work focuses on industrial and rural landscapes and landscape details. Her work has been featured in galleries across the U.S. including Rhode Island’s risd l works, The Sarah Doyle Gallery at Brown University and The Mahler Gallery, The Collectors Gallery, Long View Gallery, Rebus Works, Vision Gallery and Artspace in North Carolina. Powers is a graduate of Rhode Island School of Design and maintains a studio at antfarm in the Boylan Heights Neighborhood of Raleigh. Sarah is currently the executive director of Visual Art Exchange, a nonprofit art organization that supports emerging artists and produces SPARKcon, an annual interdisciplinary art festival.

“YOU. WILL. NOT. STOP. DANCING.

The best part about living in the ‘2000’s is the different genres of music that smash like atoms, creating a brilliant flash of energy. Such is the genesis of the Inner City All Stars, who slams together old-school funk, New Orleans jazz, D.C. GO-GO, rap from back in the day and blaxploitation wah-wah rock into one big booty-shakin’ jam.” - JONANNA WIDNER, DALLAS OBSERVER

Sheila Kerrigan, The Juggler Who Drops! The Mime Who Talks!, performs and teaches mime, communication, conflict resolution, collaborative creative process, juggling, and theater. In her performance for adults, Mime Explains String Theory, she starts before birth, ends after death, and in the middle she discovers the meaning of life and valiantly struggles to communicate it. 

Rachel grew up in Oakland, CA and is currently living in New Orleans. She is very lucky to work with Rethink, an organization that helps youth formulate a vision for change in their schools. This past summer she co-facilitated a series of Boal-based drama workshops with the Rethinkers. Rachel has a BA in Drama from Vassar College, but isn't much interested in putting on plays. She would like to learn more about Boal/Theater of the Oppressed and how to use art as a tool for conflict resolution.

I am a teacher educator who has some experience in various art forms but is primarily a "patron of the arts" and a researcher who uses "arts-informed" inquiry in exploring the experiences of schools and teachers. I use arts-based projects in my classes when possible but try to use my classroom and research as a venue for the work of working artists. My primary interest is in aesthetic education (as opposed to arts education) and have studied at Lincoln Center and with Maxine Greene. I want to increase my efforts to promote that approach in public education.

My work is generally issue driven. No subject is off limits. Gender, sexuality, politics, race, bigotry, abuse, religion, suicide, mysticism and consumerism are all fair game. I avoid any attempt to make “pretty” dances. I am more than a little obsessed with American pop culture, so I often choose to explore current headlines. The process is very collaborative; usually taking on a life of its own. Although the performance product may or may not contain the elements of its origin, I find that if the genesis of the work is highly charged the product has a better chance of success. I work with dancers that are also trained in various theatre and performance arts. Regardless of the disciplines, the product is always highly integrated.