Join Boston Ujima Project’s Fund & Business Alliance team for a live Q&A to learn about ethical (non-extractive) loans.
It’s hard to believe that teenagers are allowed (even encouraged!) to take out hundreds of thousands of dollars in student debt, but it’s nearly impossible for creatives to get ethical loans for their small businesses. In response, there are many working-class, queer, and BIPOC creatives following culturally-rooted economic practices to remake the ways we access money. What happens when this scales up beyond a neighborhood or a close group of friends? In their course on CreativeStudy, Boston Ujima Project team members discuss racist and often predatory lending practices in the United States and introduce non-extractive funds, an important piece of the Solidarity Economy movement because they place people and the planet over profit.
During this Q&A, Boston Ujima Project’s Fund & Business Alliance team will present a vivid description of Ujima and its Good Business Alliance, connection to creatives, and underlying motivation. They will be able to answer questions concerning why these funds are necessary, the challenges and triumphs of non-extractive lending, and how they made their intentions a reality. They will also answer questions on their vision for the future and how you might be able to get involved in your community.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
The Boston Ujima Project is a democratic, member-run organization building cooperative economic infrastructure in Boston, with a mission to return wealth to working-class communities of color. Ujima was born from a shared desire for real solutions to racial wealth inequality, poverty, unemployment, and displacement in our neighborhoods. The Ujima team includes: Nia K. Evans, Cierra Peters, JaNoah Daley, Andre Bennett, and Yusuf Alamutu
Nia Evans is the Executive Director of the Boston Ujima Project. Her educational background is in the areas of labor relations, education leadership, and policy. Her advocacy includes a focus on eliminating barriers between analysts and people with lived experiences as well as increasing acknowledgment of the value of diverse types of expertise in policy. She is a co-creator, along with artist Tomashi Jackson, of Frames Debate Project, a multimedia policy debate project that explores the intersection between drug policy, mental health services, and incarceration in the state of Massachusetts. Ms. Evans has a B.S. in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University and a Master of Arts in Education Leadership, with a course of study in Leadership, Policy, and Politics from Teachers College at Columbia University. She also studied abroad at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, where she focused on International Labor Relations.
Cierra Peters is an artist currently based in Boston, MA, and Brooklyn, NY. She is currently the Director of Communications, Culture, and Enfranchisement at the Boston Ujima Project. She has given talks at deCordova Sculpture Park, The Consortium for Graduate Studies in Gender, Culture, Women, and Sexuality (GCWS), Tufts Art Galleries, Rhode Island School of Design, and the University of California, Berkeley.
JaNoah Daley is the Fund Administrator for Boston Ujima Project. He studied Finance at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, where he received his B.S. degree from the Charlton College of Business. Previously, he was an Accountant at the Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation. He currently resides in Cambridge, MA, and enjoys working out in his free time.
Andre Bennett is the Business Alliance Coordinator for Ujima Boston. An active and passionate advocate for marginalized communities in his personal and professional life, Andre is a licensed and Board-Certified Psychoanalyst, who works primarily with immigrants and BIPOC families. He holds a Masters degree in Community and Social Psychology and a PhD in Applied Behavior Analysis from UMass Lowell & Endicott College as well as a Doctor of Theology in Christian Education and a Doctor Ministry in Pastoral Counseling and Leadership from Atlantic Coast Theological Seminary and Newburgh Theological Seminary.
Yusuf Alamutu is a graduate of Umass Lowell with a bachelor's degree in Finance and Marketing. Yusuf has always been a hard worker and will continue to be. He is a true believer that you can do anything you set your mind to with hard work and consistency.
It’s hard to believe that teenagers are allowed (even encouraged!) to take out hundreds of thousands of dollars in student debt, but it’s nearly impossible for creatives to get ethical loans for their small businesses. In response, there are many working-class, queer, and BIPOC creatives following culturally-rooted economic practices to remake the ways we access money. What happens when this scales up beyond a neighborhood or a close group of friends? In their course on CreativeStudy, Boston Ujima Project team members discuss racist and often predatory lending practices in the United States and introduce non-extractive funds, an important piece of the Solidarity Economy movement because they place people and the planet over profit.
During this Q&A, Boston Ujima Project’s Fund & Business Alliance team will present a vivid description of Ujima and its Good Business Alliance, connection to creatives, and underlying motivation. They will be able to answer questions concerning why these funds are necessary, the challenges and triumphs of non-extractive lending, and how they made their intentions a reality. They will also answer questions on their vision for the future and how you might be able to get involved in your community.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
The Boston Ujima Project is a democratic, member-run organization building cooperative economic infrastructure in Boston, with a mission to return wealth to working-class communities of color. Ujima was born from a shared desire for real solutions to racial wealth inequality, poverty, unemployment, and displacement in our neighborhoods. The Ujima team includes: Nia K. Evans, Cierra Peters, JaNoah Daley, Andre Bennett, and Yusuf Alamutu
Nia Evans is the Executive Director of the Boston Ujima Project. Her educational background is in the areas of labor relations, education leadership, and policy. Her advocacy includes a focus on eliminating barriers between analysts and people with lived experiences as well as increasing acknowledgment of the value of diverse types of expertise in policy. She is a co-creator, along with artist Tomashi Jackson, of Frames Debate Project, a multimedia policy debate project that explores the intersection between drug policy, mental health services, and incarceration in the state of Massachusetts. Ms. Evans has a B.S. in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University and a Master of Arts in Education Leadership, with a course of study in Leadership, Policy, and Politics from Teachers College at Columbia University. She also studied abroad at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, where she focused on International Labor Relations.
Cierra Peters is an artist currently based in Boston, MA, and Brooklyn, NY. She is currently the Director of Communications, Culture, and Enfranchisement at the Boston Ujima Project. She has given talks at deCordova Sculpture Park, The Consortium for Graduate Studies in Gender, Culture, Women, and Sexuality (GCWS), Tufts Art Galleries, Rhode Island School of Design, and the University of California, Berkeley.
JaNoah Daley is the Fund Administrator for Boston Ujima Project. He studied Finance at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, where he received his B.S. degree from the Charlton College of Business. Previously, he was an Accountant at the Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation. He currently resides in Cambridge, MA, and enjoys working out in his free time.
Andre Bennett is the Business Alliance Coordinator for Ujima Boston. An active and passionate advocate for marginalized communities in his personal and professional life, Andre is a licensed and Board-Certified Psychoanalyst, who works primarily with immigrants and BIPOC families. He holds a Masters degree in Community and Social Psychology and a PhD in Applied Behavior Analysis from UMass Lowell & Endicott College as well as a Doctor of Theology in Christian Education and a Doctor Ministry in Pastoral Counseling and Leadership from Atlantic Coast Theological Seminary and Newburgh Theological Seminary.
Yusuf Alamutu is a graduate of Umass Lowell with a bachelor's degree in Finance and Marketing. Yusuf has always been a hard worker and will continue to be. He is a true believer that you can do anything you set your mind to with hard work and consistency.
Courses
Amy Whitaker
Author, Faculty Member at New York University
Holding an MFA and an MBA, Amy studies the friction between art and business and proposes new structures to support economic sustainability for artists. Her third book, Economics of Visual Arts, was published in the fall of 2021 with Cambridge University Press. Amy is also author of two other books, Museum Legs and Art Thinking. Serving on the arts administration faculty at NYU, Amy researches what would happen if artists retained equity in their work. Her work on fractional equity has appeared in Management Science (with Kraussl) in the "Fast Track" intended for "high-impact research that is of broad interest.”
Amy's work has been featured in The Guardian, Harpers, The Atlantic, the Financial Times, Artforum, and The Art Newspaper. Her early work with the artists' cooperative project Trade School was covered in the New York Times and The New Yorker. She speaks widely including at the Aspen Ideas Festival, Meaning Conference (Brighton, UK), and The Conference (Malmö, Sweden). She has taught at Williams College, the Rhode Island School of Design, the School of Visual Arts, and California College of the Arts, and is a past recipient of the Sarah Verdone Writing Award from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.
Image © Shieva Rezvani
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Courses
Luke Blackadar
Attorney, Deputy Director of Legal Services at the Arts & Business Council of Greater Boston (A&BC)
Luke Blackadar is an attorney and the Deputy Director of Legal Services at the Arts & Business Council of Greater Boston (A&BC). An artist himself, he helps artists, creative start-ups, and arts nonprofits manage legal issues involving copyright, trademark, contracts, entity formation, and corporate governance. Luke also enjoys talking to groups of law students and artists and has recently spoken on art legal issues to the Americans for the Arts, the City of Boston, and students at Brown University, RISD, MassArt, and Lesley University. In addition to managing the A&BC’s legal interns, he teaches at the Boston University Metropolitan College and the Roger Williams University School of Law, and mentors students through the Northeastern University and Northeast Regional Black Law Student Associations. Luke is a graduate of Clark University and Northeastern University School of Law. In his spare time, he enjoys drawing, running, reading, and playing video games.
Courses
Marci Blackman + Diana Y Greiner
Founders of Treehouse Taxes
Treehouse Taxes, run by Diana Y Greiner and Marci Blackman in Brooklyn, New York, caters specifically to self-employed individuals and small businesses. They built the Treehouse so you will have a safe, fun, and friendly place to get your taxes done.
Marci has been providing a combination of tax preparation, bookkeeping, and accounting services to a wide range of clientele, including individuals, partnerships, and small corporations for the past 20 years. As a longtime freelancer and award-winning novelist, Marci understands what it means to “hustle” for your dreams, particularly as it pertains to taxes. As a partner in Treehouse Taxes LLC, Marci believes transferring knowledge and helping artists and freelancers become savvy taxpayers is a form of social justice.
Diana Y Greiner knows about cobbling together an income, tracking expenses, and pursuing a dream. She has spent over 20 years juggling the life of a performing artist while developing and maintaining her left brain as the managing director of an arts organization, a waitress, an acrobatics instructor, an office manager, a massage therapist, a bookkeeper, and finally a full-fledged tax nerd by earning her EA. Through it all she maintains that connection is the point of everything.
Courses
Pamela Capalad + Dyalekt
Hosts of Brunch & Budget
Pamela Capalad is a Certified Financial Planner™ and Accredited Financial Counselor™ and has been in financial services since 2008. She founded Brunch & Budget to help people have a safe place to make real financial progress and get shameless about money!
While doing deep research into the racial wealth divide and how it directly affected her clients of color and cohosting the Get Shameless About Money Podcast (FKA Brunch & Budget Podcast) with her husband Dyalekt, they created the See Change program. See Change is a financial coaching and advocacy program specifically designed for People of Color to heal their relationship with money, navigate a predatory financial system, and build 2nd generation wealth.
Pam has been featured in the Washington Post, Teen Vogue, Huffington Post, Vice Magazine, and was named New York Magazine’s Best of New York 2019. She was named one of Investments News 40 Under 40 in 2016, Financial Advisor Magazine's Young Advisors to Watch in 2019, received Jump$tart's 2022 Innovation in Financial Literacy Award, and AFCPE's Financial Planning Center of the Year award in 2022. Pam is a Global Good Fund Fellow, class of 2022.
Brian "Dyalekt" Kushner has been a hip-hop MC, theater maker, and educator for nearly 20 years. He’s the director of pedagogy at Pockets Change, where he uses hip-hop pedagogy to demystify personal finance and help students take control of their relationship with money. He is the recipients of Jump$tart’s 2022 Innovation in Financial Literacy award. He’s rocked (performed/taught/keynoted) everywhere from conferences like AFCPE and Prosperity Now, to stages like SXSW and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, to classrooms that range from Yale to your cousin’s living room.
Pam, Dyalekt, and their friend Andrea Ferrero also co-founded Pockets Change, a hip hop and finance organization for youth with a mission to change the way we talk about finance.
Courses
Laura Levin-Dando
Former Staff Attorney at Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts of NY
Laura Levin-Dando, former Staff Attorney at Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts of NY, advised clients on a range of issues, including disputes, contracts, and intellectual property matters. Laura also taught and facilitated VLA’s educational programs. Laura received her J.D. from George Washington University Law School and graduated summa cum laude from Yeshiva University, where she studied history and music. A lifelong musical theatre nerd, Laura feels very fortunate to be able to help artists from all disciplines. She is currently in the career department of Cardozo School of Law.
Courses
Miata Edoga
Actor, President and Founder of Abundance Bound
Miata Edoga is an actor and the President and Founder of Abundance Bound, the premiere financial education company for creative entrepreneurs. She created The Artist’s Prosperity System™, which has provided thousands of artists with a step-by-step process to significantly improve their financial situations, giving them more time and freedom to focus on their creative careers. Miata and other Abundance Bound facilitators, all working artists themselves, lead workshops and seminars on financial empowerment for organizations including: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, The Television Academy, WGA, DGA, SAG-AFTRA, The Actors Fund, The Motion Picture & Television Fund and The Center for Cultural Innovation.
Yanely Espinal
Director of Education Outreach at Next Gen Personal Finance
Yanely Espinal is the Director of Education Outreach at Next Gen Personal Finance and the Creator of the MissBeHelpful YouTube channel, where she posts weekly videos about money. Born and raised by Dominican, immigrant parents in Brooklyn, New York, Yanely is a proud product of NYC public schools. She majored in Art at Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School before going on to receive her bachelor's degree in History of Art/Architecture and Visual Art at Brown University. She later earned her master's degree in teaching and after struggling with credit card debt, became passionate about personal finance education. When she isn't working, she sews, paints, listens to podcasts, and babysits her 8 nieces and nephews.
Ana Fiore
Director of Artist Services at Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC)
As Director of Artist Services at LMCC, Ana Fiore oversees re-grant programs in support of community-based arts programming in Manhattan; artist residencies providing work space for creative development; the SU-CASA program, connecting artists with senior centers; and other artist service initiatives within the organization. The core of these programs is to increase the range of resources available to artists. Prior to LMCC, Ana aided fiscally sponsored artists at the New York Foundation for the Arts with a focus on demystifying the fundraising process. She has also served the Center for Performance Research, The Joyce, and Danspace Project.
Courses
Ian Fuller
Co-founder and Partner of Westfuller
Ian Fuller is a co-founder and partner of Westfuller, a financial and wealth management firm that provides advice, strategy, and investment management for values-aligned global individuals, families, and institutions.
A specialist in evidence-driven, global wealth advisory and planning, strategic investment management, and philanthropic giving, he works closely with people and institutions to empower wealth with purpose. Ian is also the board chair of Common Justice, a restorative and criminal justice reform organization, and serves as the treasurer/finance chair for many social justice organizations, including: civil rights organization Color of Change, economic justice impact fund The Workers Lab, the private foundation Proteus Action League, and Amalgamated bank’s Charitable Foundation.
He holds a B.S. in Economics from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and an M.S. in International Affairs and Global Finance from New York University. He also holds a Chartered Financial Consultant designation for the Series 7, 66, 24 securities licenses. He lives on the Lower East Side of New York City with his family.
Joel Kwabi
Math Educator, Personal Finance Advocate
Joel Kwabi was born in Ghana and moved to the United States for college. After receiving a bachelor's degree in mathematics and working in finance, he obtained a masters degree in mathematics education in pursuit of his passion for teaching. For over a decade, he has taught math in the classrooms of Brooklyn. He is passionate about personal finance and helped lead a Financial Peace University course in his church community after an eye-opening experience paying off student debt and saving to buy a home. He currently lives on Long Island with his wife and two kids.
Courses
Jessica Lee
Partner in the Advanced Media & Technology Practice at Loeb & Loeb
Jessica Lee is a Partner in the Advanced Media & Technology practice at Loeb & Loeb, where she counsels clients on the privacy and intellectual property issues that arise when launching, marketing, and monetizing digital products and content. Named one of New York’s Notable Women in Law by Crain’s, Jessica has helped a variety of media and technology companies negotiate the agreements that support their digital media initiatives. She is a member of MoMA’s Friends of Education and sits on the board of directors for The Laundromat Project.
Anibal A. Luque
Founder and Managing Attorney of Luque PLLC
Anibal A. Luque provides legal advice and practical counsel to creatives and entrepreneurs across the globe. Following today's progressive merging of industries, Anibal caters to the needs of companies and individuals who create products and provide services utilizing technology in the areas of music, art, and fashion. His clients consist of companies that provide services and innovative products in the technology, media, apparel, and beverage industries, as well as those with an eye toward social enterprise. As an enthusiastic young entrepreneur himself, Anibal strives to help like-minded people achieve success with the right legal planning.
Courses
Renata Marinaro
Managing Director of Health Services for Entertainment Community Fund (Formerly The Actors Fund)
Renata Marinaro is an experienced social worker and current Managing Director of Health Services for ECF, a human services organization that helps all professionals in performing arts and entertainment. Her accomplishments include starting the Friedman Health Center for Performing Arts, a primary and specialty care center in partnership with Mount Sinai Doctors in New York City; training and managing a national team of health insurance navigators and agents; and developing creative health literacy products. Her overarching goal is to create educated healthcare consumers with increased access to affordable care.
Courses
Kay Takeda
Executive Director of the Foundation for Contemporary Arts (FCA)
Kay Takeda has worked for over 25 years to support the advancement of artists and the arts sector. Currently, she is Executive Director of the Foundation for Contemporary Arts (FCA), which recognizes artists making innovative work through unrestricted grants and responsive project support. Previously, she developed strategy and oversaw artist-focused initiatives at Joan Mitchell Foundation, including the launch of the multi-year Joan Mitchell Fellowship. In prior roles, Kay expanded local grantmaking community partnerships and professional development at Lower Manhattan Cultural Council; led national grantmaking programs at Arts International, and managed exhibitions and programming at the Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art, Snug Harbor. She serves on the board of Movement Research, frequently sits on funding panels, and lectures widely on professional issues affecting artists.
Courses
Aaliya Zaveri
Immigration Attorney
Aaliya Zaveri is an immigration attorney whose practice focuses on extraordinary ability petitions. She represents individual and institutional clients from a diverse range of professions, including architectural design, classical music, and visual art. A graduate of Wesleyan University and Fordham Law, she worked in corporate securities litigation before practicing immigration law. Born in India and raised in Hong Kong, she now makes her home in Brooklyn, NY.
Rad Pereira
Artist, Cultural Worker
Rad Pereira (they/them) is a queer (im)migrant artist and cultural worker building consciousness between healing justice, system change, reindigenization and queer futures based in Lenapehoking (Brooklyn) and Haudenosaunee territory (northern Hudson Valley). Their work in performance, education, and social practice has been experienced on stages, screens, stoops, and sidewalks all over Turtle Island through the support of many communities, institutions, and groups. Their book, Meeting the Moment: Socially Engaged Performance, 1965-2020, By Those Who Lived It, is available through New Village Press. They are building a Native led food sovereignty project called Iron Path Farms.
Ebony Gustave
Community Architect, Cooperative Journal Podcast Host
Ebony Gustave (she/her) is a web weaver, community architect, and storyteller. She is the host of Cooperative Journal podcast, an archive of interviews highlighting international examples of the solidarity economy. As a co-steward of its multimedia umbrella, she is bridging the gaps between political education, imagination, co-creation, and actualization. The common thread between all of her work is bringing awareness to, and activating, collective autonomy, care, and trust.
Amani Olu
Founder of Olu & Company
Dubbed the “King of multi-tasking” by Anthony Haden-Guest in The Art Newspaper, Amani Olu is a serial entrepreneur with a strong background in exhibition making and art writing. He is the co-founder of Humble Arts Foundation, a 501c3 that began to support and promote new art photography in 2005. From 2008 to 2012, he curated numerous exhibitions of contemporary photography, and spearheaded the four-part series Young Curators, New Ideas. In 2011 he joined Nadine Johnson & Associates as an art publicist for clients such as the Brant Foundation Art Study Center, Marlborough Chelsea, and the Dallas Art Fair. Eighteen months later, he was named managing editor of Whitewall, having previously contributed articles on artists William Eggleston, Zoe Crosher, Elad Lassry, and Rashaad Newsome. He left to establish Olu & Company, a marketing and business consultancy for individuals, businesses and organizations in the arts. Amani makes art under the name "Scott Avery,” and is currently developing IMG SRVR, a visual cloud storage service for creative industries.
Image © James Adams
Image © James Adams
Courses
Mike Strode
Founding Coordinator of The Kola Nut Collaborative
Mike Strode is a writer, cyclist, IT consultant, facilitator, and solidarity economy organizer residing in southeast Chicago whose community engagement work has included ride leadership with the Chicago chapter of Red, Bike & Green; editorial and archival oversight for Fultonia; and co-facilitation of Cooperation for Liberation Study & Working Group. He is founding coordinator of the Kola Nut Collaborative, a time-based service and skills trading platform which promotes timebanking throughout Chicago. He also serves as a current board member for Dill Pickle Food Co-op.
Courses
Marina Lopez
Artist, Somatic Educator, Cultural Organizer
Marina Lopez (she/her) is a Mexican American performing and social practice artist, massage therapist/somatic educator, and cultural organizer. Her experience as a bodyworker is essential to her practice as an artist because we can’t separate the art from the body that makes it. Care work is culture work. As an artist, her work is an interdisciplinary weaving of many voices that links to history, social movements, and tradition. She is a co-organizer and creative collaborator with Art.coop. Marina seeks to create work that articulates and provides an embodied cognition of the ways in which art, culture, and care are foundational within a thriving society. Her work challenges the status quo of who we as a society uplift as expert voices, and inspires curiosity, collaboration, and solidarity.
Caroline Woolard
Artist, Educator, Chief Culture Officer at Open Collective
Caroline Woolard (she/her) is an artist, educator, and the Chief Culture Officer at Open Collective, a technology platform that supports 15,000 groups to raise and spend $35 million a year in full transparency. Caroline is a founding co-organizer of Art.coop which exists to grow the Solidarity Economy movement by centering systems change work led by artists, and is the co-author of three books: Making and Being (Pioneer Works, 2019), a book for educators about interdisciplinary collaboration, co-authored with Susan Jahoda; Art, Engagement, Economy (onomatopee, 2020) a book about managing socially-engaged and public art projects; and TRADE SCHOOL: 2009-2019, a book about peer learning that Caroline catalyzed in thirty cities internationally over a decade. Caroline’s artwork has been featured twice on New York Close Up (2014, 2016), a digital film series produced by Art21 and broadcast on PBS.
Caroline was integral to the writing, making, and funding of all the courses in the Solidarity Economy section of the site.
Courses
NO BOSSES! Worker-Owned Cooperatives
Daniel Park
Artist, Worker-Owner of Obvious Agency
Daniel Park (he/him) is a queer, bi-racial, theatre and performance artist, movement facilitator, and organizer for racial and labor justice in the cultural sector. Through all of the above, his work brings people together to understand and experiment with their individual and mutual roles in bringing about the liberation of all people. Since moving to Philadelphia in 2014, Daniel has become a leader for radical thought in the local creative ecosystem and a trusted national source for guidance on the intersection between cooperatives and the arts. Daniel has self-produced multiple major works, co-founded the worker cooperative Obvious Agency, created commissions for institutions such as the Barnes Foundation and Moore College of Art and Design, and taught anti-oppressive creation methodology at the University of the Arts. He was a recipient of the 2022 Art Works Grant from the Philadelphia Foundation and Forman Arts Initiative. Daniel has provided his services as a facilitator and consultant nationally with organizations such as Creatives Rebuild New York, The PA Governor’s Commission on Asian American Affairs, ArtPlace America, and many others. Daniel was also instrumental as an organizer and recruiter for Philadelphia Asian Performing Artists, a community group that brings together folks of pan-Asian descent involved in the performing arts.
Courses
NO BOSSES! Worker-Owned Cooperatives
Joseph Ahmed
Artist, Worker-Owner of Obvious Agency
Joseph Ahmed (he/they) is a mixed race Asian, genderfluid, Philadelphia-based theater artist and arts administrator whose work swirls together the disciplines of theater, dance, circus, and interactive performance. They are a founding worker-owner of the interactive performance cooperative Obvious Agency, and a former company member of the Barrymore Award-winning physical theater/circus companies Tribe of Fools and Almanac Dance Circus Theatre. He co-directed ikantkoan’s Chaos Theory, which won Immersive Nation’s Best Social Immersion award in 2019. As an actor and director he has worked throughout Philadelphia with companies such as the Arden Theatre Company, Theater Exile, Philadelphia Artists’ Collective, Asian Arts Initiative, the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival, First Person Arts, and Team Sunshine Performance Corporation. They hold a BFA in Theater Arts from Boston University.
Courses
NO BOSSES! Worker-Owned Cooperatives
Cat Ramirez
Director, Producer, Worker-Owner of Obvious Agency
Cat Ramirez (they/he/she) is an award-winning Philly-based performance director and producer who loves giant logistical puzzles, community meals, and bisexual lighting. Recent directing collaborators include Villanova University, Temple University, Philly Young Playwrights, PlayPenn, Lxs Primxs, Theatre Exile, Hedgerow Theatre Company, and Mel Hsu. They are the Creative Director for Philadelphia Asian Performing Artists (PAPA), the Staff Producer for the Bearded Ladies Cabaret, and the Cooperative Operations Manager for Obvious Agency. Cat is a board member for the Stockton Rush Bartol Foundation and an alumni of the National New Play Network’s Producer-In-Residence Program. Cat has been recognized by Governor Tom Wolf and Pennsylvania Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs for their contributions to Asian American Theatre in the state of Pennsylvania.
Courses
NO BOSSES! Worker-Owned Cooperatives
NO DEBT! Non-Extractive Loans
NO DEBT! Non-Extractive Loans
Chris Myers
Actor, Writer, Producer, Cultural Worker
Chris Myers is an actor, writer, producer, and cultural worker, born and based in New York City. His performance work has been featured at leading cultural institutions, networks, and streaming platforms. As an organizer and popular educator, he teaches class politics to artists as a founding member of Anticapitalism for Artists. He is the recipient of two Obie Awards—one for acting and one for his organizing work—as well as a CUNY Segal Center Award for Civic Engagement in the Arts. Education: Juilliard.
chrismyersinc.com / anticapitalismforartists.com
@chrismyersinc (IG) / @lilmaterialist (Twitter)
@chrismyersinc (IG) / @lilmaterialist (Twitter)
Courses
NO DEBT! Non-Extractive Loans
Cierra Peters
Artist, Writer, Communications Director of Boston Ujima Project
Cierra Peters is an artist and writer based in Brooklyn, NY. Her work spans video, installation, writing, and experimental publishing, and she is the Director of Communications, Culture & Enfranchisement at the Boston Ujima Project, a cooperative business and investment ecosystem supporting communities of color. Cierra has given talks at deCordova Sculpture Park, Harvard Law School, and other institutions. She recently curated Combahee’s Radical Call, a year-long exhibition celebrating Black feminist organizing in Boston, and in 2021 built a residency at MassMOCA called Converging Liberations for artists of color.
Courses
Guaranteed Income (coming soon!)
Naja Gordon
Arts Administrator, Facilitator, Dancer
Naja Gordon is an arts administrator, facilitator, and dancer based in New York City. Currently, she is the Program Manager for the Guaranteed Income for Artists program at Creatives Rebuild New York. Previously, she was the Associate Producer of the Mar Vista Music and Art Walk, and the Company Manager of Okwui Okpokwasili & Peter Born’s Poor People’s TV Room National Tour. As a facilitator, Naja has led movement-based classes at BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange, The Dalton School, and public schools across New York City. Naja holds a B.A. in Dance and Performance from Bard College.
Courses
Guaranteed Income (coming soon!)
Eshe Shukura
Narrative & Cultural Strategist, Performance Artist
Eshe Shukura (they/them) is the Narrative & Cultural Strategist with the Georgia Resilience & Opportunity Fund, where they co-architect the story of the movement through narrative building, storytelling, art activations, community centered events, and building authentic relationships. Eshe spent five years working in the field of Reproductive Justice, furthering the vision of its Black Feminist foremothers.
In Eshe's personal life, they are a performance artist and non-linear poet/storyteller/playwright. They went to Hampshire College for theater, where they wrote, starred in, and co-directed their original play, Fat.Black.& Ugly. They are currently rediscovering performance and make work on their Instagram page, producing a series of captioned stories during the pandemic called, #welcomefromthefuture, telling stories that captured a new world after lockdown.
In Eshe's personal life, they are a performance artist and non-linear poet/storyteller/playwright. They went to Hampshire College for theater, where they wrote, starred in, and co-directed their original play, Fat.Black.& Ugly. They are currently rediscovering performance and make work on their Instagram page, producing a series of captioned stories during the pandemic called, #welcomefromthefuture, telling stories that captured a new world after lockdown.