Hakim Bellamy (“It Started with an Answer”) is a freelance journalist, community organizer and social-justice advocate. He was a two-time National Poetry Slam Champion, a member of the 2005 National Poetry Slam Champs Team and a member of the 2006 College Unions Poetry Slam Champs Team. He cares less about winning poetry slams than cultivating creativity as a core artist with the Hip Hop collaborative, Urban Verbs.
Carlos Contreras (“It Started with an Answer”) is poet, educator, activist, journalist and artist. Currently working at Gordon Bernell Charter School, he hopes to one day run his own business as a full-time venture. He currently runs ImmaStar Productions, a writing-based, poetry performance venture, and is a core artist with the Hip Hop collaborative, Urban Verbs.
Laura Eberhardt (“Sharing the Same Space”) graduates from the University of New Mexico in the fall of 2011 with degrees in Music Education and Creative Writing and a minor in Peace Studies. She has taught music lessons at several Albuquerque schools, including underserved schools in the North and South Valleys. A student of Valerie Martínez and Molly Sturges, Laura plans to integrate methods of creative collaboration with liberatory education in her future career as a teacher.
Mindy Grossberg (“Breaking Down Barriers Through Art”) is the Coordinator for ArtStreet, a community open art studio and program of Albuquerque Health Care for the Homeless, where she has worked and found a home for over 10 years. In addition to working in community and creating art out of found objects, Mindy is a student and practitioner of Action Theater, a form of body-based improvisational theater.
Colin “Diles” Hazelbaker (“It Started with an Answer”) is a certified audio engineer, beat maker, emcee and producer from Albuquerque, N.M. He is a proud graduate of the Conservatory of Recording Arts and Sciences and Founder of Visceral View Entertainment, a professional and business-oriented arts collective focused on nourishing and expanding creative community, developing young artists, and supporting artists in pursuit of their artistic dreams. He is a core artist with the Hip Hop collaborative, Urban Verbs.
Erin Hudson (“Turn the Lens”) is a native New Mexican and an independent documentary film director, producer, editor and cinematographer. She’s taught college-level courses for over five years, managed an afterschool teen program for middle- and high-school-aged girls, and currently loves her work with New Mexico high-school students. Erin is a core artist at Littleglobe and film director of the “Turn the Lens” pilot project, "Centennial Class."
Chris Jonas (“Turn the Lens”) is a composer, filmmaker, video artist, composer, co-founder of Littleglobe, and the organization’s Director of Media and Music. He has received a wide range of large-scale commissions including works for the EU Festival of Culture, the Mexican Museum of Anthopology in Mexico City, SITE Santa Fe, the Santa Fe Opera and many others. His awards include the NM Film Office’s 2008 New Visions/New Mexico Contract Award and the 2009 United States Artist Fellowship.
Valerie Martínez (editor, author of “The Limits of My World”) is a poet, translator, teacher, playwright, librettist, collaborative artist and Executive Director of Littleglobe. Her award-winning books of poetry include Absence, Luminescent; World to World; And They Called It Horizon; and Each and Her (nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award). For over 15 years, she has worked with children, young adults, adults, teachers, and seniors in a wide range of community art, collaboration and performance projects including “Memorylines: Voces de Nuestras Jornadas,” “Lines & Circles,” “Common Ground TOC” and “Crosstown #4: A Santa Fe Bus Opera.” Web: www.littleglobe.org; www.valeriemartinez.net.
Elsa Menendez (“Open Spaces…”) is a member of Tricklock Theatre Company and is currently the Outreach Coordinator at the National Hispanic Cultural Center (NHCC). She has been writing, directing, producing and performing in theaters around the world for more than 30 years. Elsa teaches acting and original work creation in New Mexico prisons and is the director of the Circo Latino circus training program at NHCC.
Chrissie Orr (“On Belonging”) was born in Scotland, a descendant of the Picts (the painted ones). She is an artist, animateur and creative investigator focused on developing a relational aesthetic around community and site with issues relevant to both. Orr has created innovative, challenging community-based art projects in diverse areas of the world and is recognized internationally for her pioneering work.
Michelle Otero (“Give and Take”) is a writer, teacher and performer. She is the author of Malinche's Daughter (Momotombo Press, 2006), an essay collection based on her work as a Fulbright Fellow with women survivors of sexual assault in Oaxaca, Mexico. She is tenth-generation New Mexican and Creative Director of Valle Encantado, an organization promoting sustainable development initiatives in the Atrisco historic core in Albuquerque.
Molly Sturges (“Radiant Moments”) is a composer/artistic director/performer/co-founder and artistic director of Littleglobe best known for her restorative, collaborative works integrating interdisciplinary performance and social and environmental equity and healing. She is currently at work on a large-scale musical storytelling and community-engagement project about the paradox of our relationship with coal. Sturges is a United States Artist Fellow in Music and a Professor of Practice in Art and Ecology at The University of New Mexico. Web: www.littleglobe.org, www.coalmusical.com
Rulan Tangen (“Chasing the Dance”) is Choreographer and Director of Dancing Earth—Indigenous Contemporary Dance Creations. Her three decades of performance credits include ballet and modern dance companies in New York (Michael Mao Dance and Peridance), Vancouver (Karen Jamieson Dance), Santa Fe (Moving People, Dancing One Soul) and California (Marin Ballet and Redwood Empire Ballet), and appearances with the One Railroad Circus as well as extensive yoga training, and powwow trail experiences as a Northern Plains traditional women’s dancer.
Kialo Winters (“The IYOU Group…”) is a teacher, musician, visual artist and advocate for youth leadership. As a result of his experiences with Littleglobe internationally recognized artists, he joined a diverse group of individuals from rural New Mexico to establish the IYOU council, which promotes the arts in the service of building assets-based community. Winters lives on the Navajo Nation reservation with his wife and three daughters.
Terri Winters (“The IYOU Group…”) is a graphic artist, volunteer medical technician and advocate of for community sports programming. She actively participates with families and organizations promoting community sports in the region. Winters lives on the Navajo Nation reservation with her husband and three kids.