Felicia Williams, Recording Secretary, Metroboard
Mother, student, community servant - those are the words that define, native Chicagoan, Felicia Williams. Felicia is an Organization Development Specialist for (Philadelphia-based) property preservation company, RDF Field Services, where she is charged with creating infrastructure and developing successful operating policies and procedures. The mother of two is also full time MBA student at the Morris Graduate School of Management at Robert Morris University (IL). While she is extremely dedicated to her family, professional and educational pursuits, volunteerism has always been Felicia’s true passion. She currently serving as a Membership Committeewoman for the National Urban League Young Professionals and Recording Secretary for the Metropolitan Board of the Chicago Urban League, where she was named 2013 Executive Board Member of the Year. Consistently seeking to engage the community and utilize her talents in organization, Felicia has founded her own nonprofit, S.P.A.C.E. (a college readiness program for single teenage parents) set to launch in August 2014.
Jahmal Cole, Founder, Role Model Movement
Jahmal Cole is an author, speaker and community leader. One of Cole's first inspirations toward public service came from his father, who ran for City Council. Today, Jahmal is using that inspiration to service and mentor inner city youth. As the founder of Role Model Movement Inc, a non-profit organization, Cole strives to make the community a better place to live as he inspires and helps teens and young adults to rise above their present circumstances and upbringing. Jahmal Cole is a Chicago Ideas award winning author and 2013 Scion Motivate Winner.
Kelly Fair, Founder & CEO, Polished Pebbles
Literacy advocate and mentor, Kelly Fair, founded Polished Pebbles Girls Mentoring Program in 2009. An active member in her community, Kelly’s passion for youth and female-specific enrichment programs inspired her to consult for several other non-profit organizations as an educational consultant and trainer in addition to Polished Pebbles. Kelly graduated from Howard University with a degree in Speech Pathology minoring in Psychology and completed her master’s degree in Speech Pathology and Audiology at the University of Iowa. She uses her educational background to instill effective communication skills via the Polished Pebbles S.H.I.N.E. : Smile, Hello, Introduce, Nod your head, End the conversation.
Rebecca Reynolds, Chicago Votes
Rebecca is the executive director of Chicago Votes where she is focused on educating, inspiring and training the next generation of civic leaders and citizen advocates. An experienced campaign manager who specializes in field work, volunteer organizing and youth engagement, she has run competitive electoral campaigns in Illinois known for their non-traditional young candidates and rigorous field programs supported by Millennial Generation volunteers. She served as the Director of Citizen Outreach with The Fund for the Public Interest Research Groups in Chicago and Washington, D.C., where she worked primarily with students advocating for issues ranging from gay and consumer rights to environmental protections. She is on the board of the Dill Pickle Food Cooperative and a recent fellow of the the New Leader Council Chicago chapter.
Wendell Mosby, Chair, Young & Powerful Group Chicago
In 2011, Wendell Mosby was the youngest ever to be elected to the Board of Trustees at Prairie State College. As one of seven Trustees, he is responsible for the hiring of the President’s and evaluation including the governance and financial oversight of a $50 million budget. Trustee Mosby serves as Chairman of the Public Relations Committee for the Illinois Community College Trustees Association (ICCTA). As Chair, the committee is tasked with generating ideas to promote Illinois' 39 college districts. Mosby holds a Bachelor of Science in apparel production management from Iowa State University. Currently, he is an Educational Consultant for Just WIMP. Just WIMP is a motivational company with a curriculum-based program and apparel line. As a motivational speaker, Mosby conducts workshops and presentations about leadership, bullying and entrepreneurship. In February Mosby was named a Semi-finalist for the Echoing Green Fellowship for Black Male Achievement. Mosby is the Illinois State Director for the Young Elected Officials (YEO) Network and Chair of the Chicago’s Young & Powerful Group. Since 2008, nationally The Young & Powerful Group has raised over $250,000 for President Barack Obama.
Her earliest professional acting roles were two made-for-television films while she was studying at Southern Methodist University: 1980's Nurse and 1981's Crisis at Central High. In the latter movie, she was praised by critic John O'Connor of The New York Times for her portrayal of Minnijean Brown, a member of the Little Rock Nine, a group of African-American students who braved violence and armed guards to integrate Little Rock Central High School in 1957.[3] Her first role to gain widespread attention was that of Mrs. Carter, the drug-addicted mother of a promising young female student, in the 1989 film Lean on Me. She became well-known to the television viewing public for her role as Lilly Harper on the early 1990s TV series I'll Fly Away. This role won her a Golden Globe award for Best Actress in a Television Drama and also an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series.
Since then she has had some critical success for various supporting roles in films, such as the Spike Lee film Clockers, Courage Under Fire, A Family Thing, The Negotiator, and for the telefilms Losing Isaiah and Strange Justice — a Showtime original film in which she portrayed Anita Hill — and as the lead in the PBS telefilm Cora Unashamed, based on a Langston Hughes short story. She was a cast member for all four seasons of the CBS dramaThe Unit as Molly Blane, the tough-minded housewife who holds the women of "the Unit" together when their husbands are on covert assignments.[citation needed]
Taylor is also an accomplished stage actress, and was the first black woman to play Juliet in Romeo and Juliet on Broadway. Her other Broadway credits include Macbeth and As You Like It. She appeared in off-Broadway and regional productions of such plays as Jar The Floor, Machinal, The Illusion, A Map of the World, and The Tempest, for which she received a Drama League Award.
PlaywritingTaylor is currently the writer-in-residence at the Signature Theatre, where she is developing a new play "stop.reset." set to debut in New York on September 8th 2013. [4]
Taylor is a Distinguished Artistic Associate of Chicago's Goodman Theatre. Among her accomplishments, she has collaborated on and appeared in the play Millennium Mambo; has written A Night in Tunisia, which premiered during the 2000 Alabama Shakespeare Festival; curated Urban Zulu Mambo (an evening of plays by Adrienne Kennedy, Ntozake Shange, Suzan-Lori Parks and Kia Corthron); has won a best new play award from the American Critics' Association for Oo-Bla-Dee (a work about 1940s female jazz musicians).[citation needed]
She has written and directed the award-winning Crowns, which was first produced at the McCarter Theatre and at Second Stage Theatre in New York. Her play, Crowns, was produced in various locations, including the Meroney Theater in Salisbury, North Carolina with The Piedmont Players in May 2009; the Zach Theatre in Austin, Texas in September 2004, the Pasadena Playhouse in co-production with Ebony Repertory Theatre in July 2009; Syracuse Stage in Syracuse, New York; at theConnecticut Repertory Theatre in Storrs, Connecticut in May 2009 and at the Electric City Playhouse in Anderson, SC in May 2011.
She wrote and directed an adaptation of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull called Drowning Crow. She wrote and directed The Dreams of Sarah Breedlove, a dramatic rendering of the financial gains and emotional losses of African-American businesswoman Madam C.J. Walker, which received its world premiere production in 2004/05 at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. Her other plays include Escape From Paradise, Watermelon Rinds, Inside the Belly of the Beast, Mudtracks Love Poem #97 and Love Poem #98.
Taylor's play "Magnolia" set during the beginning of desegregation in Atlanta in 1961 premiered at Chicago's Goodman Theatre in March 2009 directed by Anne Shapiro.[citation needed] It had its world premiere at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago in March, 2009[5] after going through a workshop in 2008 at the National Playwrights' Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut.[6] Taylor returned to the Goodman Theatre in January and February 2011 for the world premiere of her new play entitled The Trinity River Plays, a co-production with Dallas Theater Center, directed by Ethan McSweeny. The production is a trilogy composed of Jar Fly, Rain, and Ghoststory.[7]
Source: Wikipedia
…This modern sports-focused lounge fancies itself one step above your standard sports bar. Comfy barstools and chairs are fit for extended game-watching, and the a casual menu of American and Mexican eats has a touch of barbecue by way of pulled pork and ribs. Draft beers run the range from Blue Moon to Delirium Tremens, and the wine list is small but mighty. In the mood for a fruity cocktail? Try the Blossom (gin, peach schnapps, grapefruit juice and grenadine) or the Fuzzy, a peach-tinged take on a mojito. Looking to party with oh, 12 to 20 of your closest friends? Reserve the home theater-like private dining den decked out with three screens.
“Extended Life” (11 minutes)
“Tu Es Parfait-e!” (4 minutes)
You're perfect goes the opposite way of mainstream discussions that rely on desire, guilt and dreams in order to sell to young people an ideal portrait of what they should look like.
"Bounce Back: The Story of Ronnie Fields" (59 minutes)
At age 17, Ronnie Fields was one of the top basketball prospects in the world, until a near fatal car crash changed his life forever. This is the story of one man's journey to the edge of darkness, and how he emerged on the other side a legend. Check out the trailer here at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCOlSMzhoTA.
"Lunch With Yoshi" (5 minutes)
Yoshi is blind but lives a life of grace, self-sufficiency and hope, helping sighted people and spreading a spirit of positivism. This movie documents a day in her life when she goes vegetable shopping and then cooks lunch for a friend. This simple storyline is interwoven with an interview in which Yoshi reflects on dependence, freedom, need, and generosity.
"Variations" (24 minutes)
Variations, is a documentary about three artists with disabilities. The film seeks to convey varied human experiences and promote the belief that disability is a natural part of human diversity and can take pride in its heritage and culture.
“Transbeing” (27 minutes)
Kael, Danica and Emily share their struggles about coming out, passing, hormone therapy and gender reassignment surgery. Searching for understanding, they mirror the challenges and dreams of contemporary trans communities. Check out the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsaMpfcU54w.
For the past decade, Chicago has been enduring a violence epidemic, with a death toll in the thousands and casualties mirroring the losses experienced by the US army in Iraq war over the same period. Allowing its subjects to take centre stage and tell their stories in their own words, Robson-Scottʼs film is unflinchingly honest in its depiction of life on the streets of one of the most dangerous cities in America. Check out the trailer at http://vimeo.com/71803428.
"Shellshocked" (54 minutes)
Wherever a disagreement is escalating into violence, an execution is being planned, or a victim is taking his last breath, it is more than likely a youth is witnessing or carrying out these actions. New Orleans government, law enforcement, community leaders, and well-intentioned citizens cannot agree on a prognosis or a solution to the violence ravaging their streets. SHELL SHOCKED attempts to bridge the gap of this disconnect by hearing the ideas, opinions, and testimonies from activists, community leaders, police, city officials, youth program directors, family and friends of victims, and the children who live in these violent circumstances. We are looking for positive solutions to an extremely negative situation. See the trailer at http://vimeo.com/ondemand/shellshocked/62160173.
“Change Made Around The World: Un Techo Para Meyling” (17 minutes)
Nicaraguan slum dwellers live in homes made of tarps and rotting wood – all that selling baked goods, clothing, and newspapers in the city affords them. There is a solution.
“Hearts in the Himalayas” (22 minutes)
Hearts In The Himalayas chronicles the extraordinary efforts of NGO Himalayan HealthCare, which overcame a civil war and political chaos to bring social change to a remote region of Nepal. Take moment to check out this magnificen film's trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GIdmhPUpJYQ.
"Casa de Los Angeles" (29 minutes)
Filmed in central Mexico, CASA DE LOS ANGELES brings us into the lives of struggling single mothers and the individuals that are working to help them succeed. Centered around a free daycare center that provides a home for children while their mothers work, we observe a group of people giving the poor the resources necessary for them to help themselves. Check out the film's trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n41ykJF7Gec.
"Imizamo Yethu" (14 minutes)
In Mdanstane South Africa, Thandeka is a single mother raising two children while still in high school. Her life has changed since she met Ruth, one of four extraordinary women united by their passionate work and enduring hope for change within their communities.
“Real Change” (9 minutes)
REAL CHANGE follows four homeless individuals who sell REAL CHANGE News, a street newspaper in Seattle. As they navigate life in Washington State, each subject considers what homelessness in America means today. Watch the trailer to get a glimpse into the journey of these homeless individuals www.vimeo.com/beckervisuals/realchange.
“Standing Up To Misgovernment: Unsolid Ground” (12 minutes)
The residents and small business owners of a small exurban town in New York State fight an incoming commercial giant in order to preserve their way of life.
"Project Chariot" (74 minutes)
In 1958, at the height of the Cold War, the US Atomic Energy Commission planned to detonate a series of nuclear bombs, the equivalent of 160 Hiroshima blasts, next to a small Inuit village of 300 people in Alaska.
Project Chariot is the story of how the Inupiaq people of Point Hope and a handful of scientific allies stopped the most powerful government agency of its time and played a significant role in ending nuclear testing in that era.
The shocking legacy of the Project Chariot test site is still felt in Point Hope Alaska but the strength of the people endures in this powerful feature documentary from Inupiaq History Series director Rachel Naninaaq Edwardson. Check out the trailer for the awe-inspiring film at http://vimeo.com/51190766.
