ABOUT THE PROJECT
Mission:
Use art to affect tangible change in the lives of our Haitian brothers and sisters.
Goal:
Take a 10 person team to Haiti, partnered with seasoned missionary Brian Ferguson. The goal is two fold: 1) Lend a physical hand in rebuilding churches, schools, orphanages, houses, as well as, aid in the fight to bring clean water to the rest of the Haitian population. 2) Shoot a documentary of poems, sculptures, songs, and other works-of-art with particular relevance that speaks to the heart of our brothers and sisters in Haiti. We plan to do all of this while simultaneously creating an end product to promote awareness and refocus public persona to the current state of Haiti.
Meaning:
"Duende" Spanish - While originally used to describe a mythical, spritelike entity that possesses humans and creates the feeling of awe of one's surroundings in nature, its meaning has transitioned into referring to "the mysterious power that a work of art has to deeply move a person."
WHO IS GOING
Justin Reilly is an award winning Spoken Word artist, activist, and writer from Atlanta, Ga. A recent graduate from Penn's prestigious Wharton Business School. He was recently invited to the GLAAD Media Awards for his poem "Shooting Straight". Also an accomplished entrepreneur, he was recently nominated for a "Power 30 under 30" award and has co-founded two successful start-ups at the young age of 24.
Carlos Andrés Gomez: is an award-winning poet, actor, and playwright from New York City. He is a Russell Simmons HBO Def Poet and two-time International Poetry Slam Champion (2006, 2010). He co-stars in Spike Lee's #1 movie "INSIDE MAN" with Denzel Washington, Jodie Foster, and Clive Owen.
Lisa Russell: is an Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker who uses the power of film to explore and challenge social injustices that affect our collective humanity. In May 2009, she won a Boston/New England Emmy Award in the "Outstanding Advanced Media Interactivity" category for her short film, "Bi-Racial Hair."
Joshua Bennett is a Rhodes scholarship finalist, a Marshall Scholar and a Ford Foundation Predoctoral Scholar. Chosen as part of NBC's "The Grio 100," a list of the top 100 African-American history makers in the making. Invited by HBO to perform "Tamara's Opus," an original poem about Deaf culture at the White House for President Barack Obama.
Abdi Farah: Winner of Bravo's Work of Art and named the next great American artist. A recent graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, he was one of four students in the nation to be awarded the Scholastics Art and Writing Gold Portfolio and was named a Presidential Scholar in the Arts, granting him an audience with the President of the United States.
Carvens Lissiant: is a Haitian American award winning performance artist. He is currently the 2011 Nuyorican Poets Cafe Grand Slam Champion. He also debuted his one-man show entitled "Walk" at Dance Theater Workshop and off Broadway at the 2009 Hip Hop Theater Festival He has just been named one of the Top 30 Black Performance poets by TheRoot.com.
Gregory Corbin: is an award-winning international poet, motivational speaker, activist, teacher, and Founder/Executive Director of the Philadelphia Youth Poetry Movement. Corbin is a prominent community leader that has extensive experience working with and mentoring youth. Corbin is a recipient of the 2011 Focus on Prevention Awards from Drexel University's Center for Prevention of School-Aged Violence. He has been featured on HBO, CNN, CSPAN, BET and other networks.
Chaz Howard: is the University Chaplain at the University of Pennsylvania. A writer and dreamer, his work has been featured in such publications as Black Arts Quarterly, Black Theology: An International Journal, DailyGood.com, Urban Cusp and The Huffington Post. He is the editor of The Souls of Poor Folk (2007), an essay collection and multimedia project raising awareness about poverty. Dr. Howard has spoken and preached in Houses of Worship and schools around the country on topics such as interfaith dialogue, spirituality, poverty, Hip Hop, and Black History.
Wildersee Harris: is a D.C. based multimedia artist specializing in video editing, music production and motion graphics. A graduate the University of Pennsylvania's Film and Video department he's made his mark in the D.C. area as both a music producer and freelance music video director. His work with local community organizations, most recently UPO (Uniting People with Opportunity) has help promote community awareness of government programs aimed at putting thousands of residents back to work in a time of economic uncertainty. He is the Director of Video Production Services at DeanMark Inc., an up and coming Philadelphia-based multimedia corporation.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
We are still in the process of setting up our fundraising campaign.
Please enter your email for updates on how you can help with this monumental service project.
Thank you!
