Artists, Speakers, and Ensembles
Stephen Newby is a professor of music and director of the Center for Worship at Seattle Pacific University. He is a composer, conductor, gospel/jazz vocalist, and pianist. He is a native of Detroit, Michigan.
Bob Darden is a professor at Baylor University in the Department of Journalism, Public Relations and New Media. He is the author of over two dozen books and hundreds of magazine articles, and is the director of Baylor's Black Gospel Music Restoration Project.
Monica Rojas-Stewart (Lima, Peru) has a doctorate in cultural anthropology and is the founder and director of DE CAJóN Project and Movimiento Afrolatino Seattle (MÁS), two community arts organizations dedicated to raising awareness of the cultural contributions of people of African descent in Peru and Latin America, respectively. She currently holds two positions as the assistant director of the African Studies and of the Latin American and Caribbean Studies programs at the University of Washington.
Milvia Pacheco is an Afro-Latina artist born in Caracas-Venezuela where she began her career as a dancer combining dance and theater training. MÁS (Movimiento Afrolatino Seattle) has become the platform where she continues serving as a conduit for empowerment for herself and others.
Iris Viveros (Veracruz, Mexico) is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Washington. She focuses in the study of community music and the embodiment of rhythms in the Fandango tradition from Veracruz, Mexico, as elements of resistance and healing from individual and collective trauma.
Jabali Stewart has been active in community movements in Seattle and throughout the Pacific Northwest for several years. He earned a doctorate in ethnomusicology from the University of Washington, and has worked broadly in the area of intercultural communication and conflict resolution.
Yoelin Connor (Santa Rosa de Aguan, Honduras) is a Seattle-based Garifuna community leader. He is a founding member of the Movimiento Afrolatino Seattle (MAS) and Garinagu Houngua, two organizations devoted to the empowerment of African descent communities through arts and education.
DE CAJóN Project is a Seattle-based performance group dedicated to educating populations about the cultural contributions by people of African descent in Peru, and has been performing throughout the Pacific Northwest for the last nine years.
Seattle Fandango Project is a collective of artists, activists, educators, and students of the fandango tradition, practiced in the region of Veracruz, Mexico. Their purpose is to build a fandango community in Seattle and connect it to the larger movement in other parts of the United States and Mexico.
Hagucha Garinagu (Garifuna roots) is a Garifuna ensemble that features the music, dance and culture of the Garinagu, or Garifuna, people. The Garinagu are original from the Caribbean coast of Central America, including Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, and are the descendants of West African, Central American, Carib, and Arawak people.