Juanli Carrión is an artist, researcher and activist whose work over the past decade has unfolded in the research, development and education of community engaged artistic practices with an emphasis on social and environmental justice. He is currently expanding his practice beyond the art realm to work that becomes policies, non-profit organizations, associations, groups, or other sustainable social or political structures with the aim of translating the results into artistic, pedagogical and community strategies.

In 2017 he founded OSS Project Inc. a non-profit organization whose mission is to connect communities with artists to create gardens as places to empower, celebrate and reclaim identity and knowledge, while addressing systemic and structural issues of social inequity.

His work has been exhibited in venues such as the Art Institute of Chicago, Art in General, Abrons Arts Center, BRIC, Y Gallery or BAM in the US; ARTIUM, La Casa Encendida, La Panera Art Center, MUSAC, or CentroCentro in Spain; Ex-Teresa Museum and MUPO in Mexico; Museum of Contemporary Art in Peru and National Gallery of Modern Art in India among others.

Carrión is a faculty member at Parsons, The New School, where he teaches Sustainable Design, and his work and research has been presented publicly in the form of lectures, panels and workshops at Columbia University, Open Engagement at Carnegie Mellon University, SVA, Pratt Institute, SUNY, NYU, AIA New York, Fordham Graduate School for Social Service, National Academy of Sciences, Wavehill and Apexart.

What inspires him:

- OSS Project

- BOMB Magazine Interview

- ISSUES Magazine

- VoCA

Nicki Pombier is deeply involved in nurturing a community of artists who create work on, in, and with water, as Founding Editor of Underwater New York and organizing member of Works on Water. She is passionate about teaching, and in addition to her work with undergraduates at CoPA, in the Drama and the CoPA Core programs, she teaches in the Oral History Master of Arts Program at Columbia University. In all that she does, she works oral historically—deeply invested in co-creation, grounded in listening, with a rigorous ethic around stewarding stories into the world, in the labor of belief that doing this work might create better conditions for justice, repair, restoration, and restitution. She lives on Munsee Lenape and Canarsie land, in present-day Brooklyn, overlooking an expressway built in the 1950s displacing more than 1200 families.

Spotlight: The Walking the Edge Project, a collaboration between Works on Water, Culture Push and the Department of City Planning, designed to center artists' work with communities to bring citizens' input into the 2030 visioning plan for the NYC waterfront.

Amanda’s work has been featured as part of the Betty Carter Jazz Ahead Residency at the Kennedy Center, Portland Jazz Festival, Amalfi Coast Music Festival, Panama Jazz Festival, and in Downbeat Magazine. Amanda has been awarded support from New Music USA, Chamber Music America, St. Botolph Club Foundation, and the Jazz Education Network. Her latest research “Exclusion and Pushout: Females in Jazz Education” will be published in 2021 as part of the Routledge Companion to Women in Music Leadership.

Amanda holds a Master of Music in Jazz Performance from the New England Conservatory and a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Studies from the University of North Texas. She is the Assistant Director of Academic Affairs for the New School of Jazz and Contemporary Music, a teaching artist for the Metropolitan Opera Guild, the education coordinator at Jazz at Lincoln Center, and a regular at the Cortelyou Library in Brooklyn. Learn more at http://www.amandaekery.com/.

Amanda's Projects:

El Paso Jazz Girls – A non-profit organization for female identifying students to create a support system, leadership opportunities, and directly and practically address gender equity in El Paso. Community supported endeavor - we partner with local auto salvages, bakeries, music stores/studios, and female-owned businesses to provide cost-free education, meals, transportation, and access for participants.

Árabe – An investigation of the history, stories, and evolution of Syrian and Mexican culture in the El Paso region. Collaborative project with El Paso Syrian Ladies Club, local food anthropologist, and El Paso Museum of History.

The Lomax Folk Project – A reimagining works from the Lomax Collection informed by research. Performances and education initiatives in backyards, parks, porches, and historical societies in locations where the Lomaxes originally recorded. Collaboration with musicologist/organologist Hannah Grantham.

Inspiration:

Books:

The revolution will not be funded by INCITE!
Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs
Emergent Strategies by adrienne maree brown
Build Communities not Audiences by Doug Borwick
Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools by Monique Morris
Invitation to the Party by Donna Walker-Kuhne

Movies:

The Magic Beneath Us
Cesar's Last Fast
Mr. Soul (Ellis Haizlip)

Projects:

Shaw Pong Liu's Code listen in Boston
Cafe Mayapan in El Paso
Digital Placemaking - Park Walking Projects Gelsey Bell and Ellen Reid, Starling Crossing, Soul!
Tar Sands songbook Tanya Kalmanovitch