ARTIST'S ROUNDTABLE

Catherine Courtlandt-McElvane
A multi-media artist and a native of New York City, her interests include Filmmaking, Exhibition Design and Mural Painting, which have inspired her to develop projects that link the arts and history. Short films, performance pieces and installation art earned her two consecutive Graduate Equity Fellowships at San Francisco State University’s Inter-Arts Center. She has participated in residencies at schools and community based organizations in addition to curating exhibits. In 1999, she was accepted as one of the featured artists in the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation’s Artists in Communities: America Creates for the New Millennium competition. Her career work includes Artists in Education Coordinator at Southern Exposure Gallery and Associate Director of Arts Partnerships for Educational Excellence at the East Bay Community Foundation. She spent nine years living and working in Oakland, CA before relocating to Charlotte.

Sunya Folayan
A native of Topeka Kansas, she is a licensed marital and family therapist and a member of the Academy of Certified Social Workers. Her work has evolved into a consulting and training practice addressing the issues of gender, race, class, and culture. Sunya is also a performing artist who utilizes dance, percussion and visual art as a means of organizing community and building relationships. She is a member of Kambankafo West African Dance and Drum Ensemble and a founding member of Garvey Sisay, a chamber music ensemble. An emerging visual fiber artist, her work is starting to appear in galleries in North Carolina and can be found on the cover of the book ‘A Familiar Renaissance: A Collage of Writings of a Re-Awakening Woman’ by Radhia Jaaber.

Nichole Potts Gause
A South Carolina Academy of Authors Poetry Fellow, Nichole has won numerous awards for her creative non-fiction writing including a Rock Hill Arts Council Small Grant in 2002. She has conducted fiction writing workshops for adults and poetry workshops for children. Her poetry has appeared in a variety of publications including the Carolinian Fiction Project. Her plays "They" and "Some Good Love" have been performed at Theatre Charlotte’s 9x9@9:00. She is a member of playwrights in Progress and the Highway 160 Fiction Group. Nichole earned a Master of Social Work from the University of South Carolina and works as a trainer for Youth and Family Services

Tracy A. Greene
Her focus is using the arts as a conduit for healing on many levels with all age groups. Skilled in Painting, Batik, Tie-dying, Soft sculpture, Jewelry, Theatre, Dance and Basket Making, Tracy’s artwork reflects a Caribbean influence inspired by living in Dominica, West Indies for ten years. In addition to providing workshops for Children’s Theater of Charlotte’s Community Outreach Program, she performs with For the Pleasure of Your Company, a group of local artists who provide Cancer Awareness forums through movement, poetry, essays and music. She continues to explore ways to expand her folk art forms through workshops, classes and residencies including a recent scholarship to the Penland School. In 2002 she won the prestigious Best of Show Art Award – 3-Dimensional, at Charlotte’s Festival in the Park for her soft sculpture Spirit Dolls. Tracy is one of a select few North Carolina Artist/Educators who train teachers via the Kennedy Center Educational Initiative.

Maureen Johnson
A student/instructor of quilt making, her fascination with quilts and the stories they tell grows more and more as time goes by. She specializes in traditional quilt construction and uses her experiences as a Travel Agent to design quilts that reflect her travels. As a person of African and Native American ancestry, she is passionate about learning and telling stories through quilts that are not given much attention in mainstream education. Maureen has taught quilting classes in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg After-School Enrichment Program, Parks and Recreation in Charlotte and surrounding areas, private workshops, and summer camps. In addition, her programs offer community service opportunities for adoption agencies, the homeless, and other worthy causes.

Cheryl Jones
President of Edu-Serv, Inc. Cheryl uses creativity, inspiration, motivation and intelligence to integrate technology and the arts into academic instruction. A gifted Inventor & graphic artist, she has created E-Z-MathTM, a collection of interactive activities, tools, games and computer courseware that uses unique memory methods for learning facts and techniques for solving mathematical problems – elementary through algebraic. She earned a Bachelor of Science from the University of Maryland - College Park in Computer Science with a minor in Education and has worked as a programmer analyst for IBM.

Darlene Parker Black
An actor, director, stage manager, scenic artist and costumer, she earned her degree in Theater from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Darlene’s extensive theater background includes productions for many of the theatrical venues in and around Charlotte. She is active with Children’s Theater of Charlotte’s Tarradiddle Players and has served in theatrical technical capacities with Charlotte Reperatory Theatre and the Afro American Cultural Center’s Drama Camp. She also facilitates training for youth in local public and private schools as director of Lilypad Theater.

Cynthia Raiford
A poet, teacher and motivator, she is the owner of Cynthia Originals and a well-known member of the human services community in Charlotte. An honest, caring, professional, she is currently employed as a Human Resource Development Instructor for Central Piedmont Community College at the Charlotte Correction Center. Cynthia approaches every situation with a measure of love, a sense of humor and undying hope. Born and raised in Charlotte, NC, she is a graduate of Gardner-Webb University who is interested in preserving the history of and paying homage to the African-American neighborhoods that have fallen victim to "urban destruction" particularly the former Brooklyn neighborhood of downtown Charlotte. A loving mother and grandmother, she resides in Charlotte with her furry family member, Prince.

Kyle Garrison Shawell
A former Dancer with Philadanco II, the Philadelphia Dance Company and West Virginia Dance Theater, Kyle was educated at the University of the Arts, Theater West Virginia and the Philadelphia School of Dance Arts, his training includes the techniques of Lester Horton, Martha Graham, Paul Taylor and Luigi. He has appeared in musical theatre productions of West Side Story, Bubbling Brown Sugar, Anything Goes and Bye Bye Birdie. Mentored by Milton Myers, Pat Thomas, Ruth Adrien and Ronen Koresh, Kyle is currently an Artist in Residence at Delta State University’s Summer Arts Institute and is the founding Artistic Director of KAOS Dance Company in Charlotte, NC.

Karen Steele
An Artist Educator in Dance, Creative Thought, Theatre and Song for nearly a decade, she is a native of Charlotte and co-founder of Portraits in Color, a local provider of cultural arts education programs. She has performed in a variety of dance and theater productions at the Afro-American Cultural Center and has taught dance and theatre workshops for schools, churches and community groups via Children’s Theatre of Charlotte’s outreach program in addition to Mecklenburg County Parks and Recreationand K..I.D.S. ‘n Play.

Lee E. Stewart
Educated at the Philadelphia College of Art and Philadelphia Community College, Lee is Painter and an Emmy Award winning Videographer and Photographer who has worked in the field of Television News for over a decade. In 2001 he won a Phi Beta Kappa "Excellence in Education" award for production of "School Lunches" and is a board member at the Light Factory Photographic Art Center. His other accomplishments include an Emmy nomination for "Motherland: Sister Cities" a mini documentary filmed in Ghana, West Africa and a 1995 Emerging Artist award from the Arts and Science Council – Charlotte-Mecklenburg.

Saundra Porter Thomas
Founder and leader of the Be Whole . . . in Mind, Body and Spirit Soul’s Journey Series, Saundra provides a guided, spiritual, empowerment process for children, adults, corporations and social service groups in a safe and sacred environment. A gifted vocalist and candle crafter she helps others use and expand upon their innate gifts. In addition to facilitating the Love of Learning Parent Retreat, Freshman Orientation and Youth Summer Experience at Davidson College in Davidson, NC, she performs as a vocalist with For the Pleasure of Your Company a group of local artists who provide Cancer Awareness forums through movement, poetry, essays and music. She has performed in Il Travotore, Samson and Delilah and Willie Starks with the Charlotte Opera and was a cast member in Central Piedmont Community College’s Carousel, the Chamber Choir and Ensemble and the Rogers and Hammerstein Musical Revue.

Betty Valladares
A native of Venezuela, she earned her Master of Arts degree from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where she taught English Composition. She has also worked as a Foreign Language and Spanish instructor at Central Piedmont Community College and Eastway Middle School. An Associate writer and reader for Writers of the Americas - a celebration of Latino American writers and readers - Betty has been a Poet-in-Residence at Piedmont Open Middle School, Dramatist-in-Residence at First Ward and Thomasboro Elementary Schools and a Writer-in-Residence at Eastway Middle School.

Mekole Wells
A vocal and theatre artist, her goal is not to be great – but to learn from the greatness of others through the arts. Mekole, a vocal coach and children’s choir director at a Charlotte church, was the primary studio background singer for various recording artists at Funky Slice Studio in Brooklyn, NY and has released three albums. She earned a BFA in Theater with a minor in voice at the University of Southern California and was a cast member of the Southern California touring company of Ain't Misbehavin'. Mekole has taught theater and voice for school-based programs in Charlotte, New York and Los Angeles.

Ramona Moore Big Eagle - Native American Storyteller, Jewelry Artist

T’Afo Feimster - Wood Crafter, Painter, Playwright

Candace A. Jennings - Choreographer, Vocalist, Bodycasting Artist

For more information contact: Vikkii Beckwith Graham, Cultural and Education Outreach Manager at 704.374.1565 Ext. 27 Fax 704.374.9273 email:vikkii@aacc-charlotte.org