Yurby Aquino is a versatile teaching artist and singer-songwriter with over 13 years of experience creating customized curricula in arts and crafts, music, and movement for diverse age groups. A Dominican American vocalist, she blends Blues, Alternative Rock, Latin pop, and R&B into a distinctive, captivating sound featured on platforms like Spotify and WFUV NY Slice. With training in lyric writing, composition, and music production, she has performed at notable venues and festivals throughout New York City. Yurby is the founder of Bronx Noise, an initiative dedicated to empowering underserved communities—especially those without a voice—by providing platforms for self-expression through curated events and performances. She has facilitated over 1,000 classes, impacting more than 10,000 students worldwide. A recipient of multiple honors, including the John Lennon R&B Singer-Songwriter Award, she is committed to inspiring creativity, fostering connection, and uplifting communities through the arts.

Léwuga Benson is a multidisciplinary artist, filmmaker, and educator whose work explores themes of environment, memory, identity, and social change. Born in Nigeria and now based in Buffalo, New York, Benson creates installations, films, and multimedia performances that examine the relationship between people, place, and natural resources, often drawing from his experiences growing up in the Niger Delta. His work has been exhibited at venues including Buffalo Arts Studio, Fredonia University, and regional galleries throughout Western New York.

As a teaching artist, Benson is committed to fostering creativity, critical thinking, and storytelling through media arts. He has taught filmmaking, lighting, and digital media to students of diverse backgrounds, encouraging them to use visual media as a tool for self-expression and community dialogue. Benson holds an MFA in Media Arts Production from the University at Buffalo and believes that art education can empower individuals to see, question, and reshape the world around them.

Zahra Budhwani (they/them) is a teaching artist working in theatre, movement, clown, and puppetry. They’ve taught across all five boroughs of New York City to both adults and children, at organizations like The New Victory Theatre, CO/LAB Theater Group, Opening Act, Arts Ignite, Broadway Bound Kids, Child’s Play and more. In the classrooms and community spaces they work in, they center curiosity and play. They use principles of disability justice and trauma-informed practices to build a safe creative container where participants feel comfortable taking big risks and trying something new. 

Jordan W. Carter is a teaching artist, percussionist, and founder of Harlem Percussion Academy (HPA). Originally from Atlanta, he provides culturally responsive percussion instruction for young people across New York City, combining technical skill-building with confidence, creativity, and mentorship. Rooted in mutual respect, communication, and customized weekly curriculum, his teaching supports each student’s individual goals while building rhythm, discipline, and self-expression.

Roohi Choudhry is a writer, teaching artist, and researcher. Born in Pakistan and raised in southern Africa, she now calls Kensington in Brooklyn, NY home. She is the author of the novel, Outside Women (University Press of Kentucky, 2025), holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Michigan, and is the recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship as well as residencies at Hedgebrook and Djerassi. Her stories and essays have appeared in Ploughshares, Longreads, Poets & Writers, and the Kenyon Review, among others. She has worked in urban placemaking, criminal justice reform, public health, and international development, and has taught workshops at various schools, libraries, and community organizations. As a teaching artist, she works primarily within immigrant and BIPOC communities, focusing her generative writing workshops on excavating stories of migration, diaspora, generational memory, and on the intersection between art and activism.

Chris Cresswell is a composer and sound artist who builds his musical worlds out of sonic artifacts and cultural refuse. With a practice equally rooted in his classical compositional training, his experience as a singer/songwriter, and his use of the recording studio as a creative sandbox, Cresswell’s music has been described by PopMatters as, alternately, “truly immersive, dreamlike” and an “eloquent, barely controlled nightmare.” An active educator, Cresswell’s philosophy is to meet students where they are at and elevate them from there. In 2023 he started the One Mic Project, a songwriting and recording project that believes that “one mic can amplify a voice, a voice can tell a story, and a story can change the world.” When not doing musical things, he can be found running the streets and trails of Central New York, watching St. Louis Cardinals baseball, and spending time with his young family.

Delainy Fana is a visual artist, teaching artist, and community facilitator who uses creativity as a tool for healing and self-expression rooted in love. With a background in early childhood education and a concentration in art, she creates nurturing, inclusive spaces where individuals of all ages feel empowered to explore their voice through artistic practice. Her work centers painting, interactive workshops, and community-based experiences that invite reflection, emotional awareness, and imagination. Since 2020, Delainy has cultivated a growing art practice that includes curating art shows for Black and Brown artists and hosting intentional creative gatherings that blend art, culture, and wellness.

As a teaching artist, she approaches facilitation with care, patience, and purpose, encouraging participants to engage with art as both a personal and collective experience. Through her work, Delainy aims to inspire confidence, deepen connection, and remind others that creativity is a powerful and accessible form of expression.

Yannick Florest is an award-winning educator, artist and mentor from Brooklyn, NY who has empowered underrepresented youth for 19 years across New York City with music and education having always been the foundation of his work. From creating one of the first-ever student podcasts with The Genesis Project, organizing family-friendly showcases through We Are Boss Level, facilitating writing workshops in juvenile detention facilities, building community through art has been a passion that has rewarded Yannick time and time over. As the Music Instructor at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, he partners with organizations such as the Columbia University Computer Music Center and PUMA to produce music projects and videos that middle and high school students from across the Tri-State fully create their own music including The Brownies Book Soundtrack as a means of building self-confidence and creative expression. 

Robin Lee Jordan is a teacher + poet + collage artist + zinemaker + community arts organizer who values youth empowerment; activating artists in service of their communities; artistic spontaneity & collaboration; and creating encouraging spaces. With 20 years of experience, she has taught writing, collage, pedagogy, and creative civic engagement to learners of all ages at schools/universities, and in a vast array of community settings. For 10 years, she ran an afterschool, creative writing program for teens in Buffalo, NY.

Current projects include: heARTburn (a civic arts meet-up), Arts for Something (a civic arts program for teens), and Words of Care (a program for senior artists). Robin teaches with Arts for Learning and is Program Manager at WNY Book Arts Center, where she is a co-organizer of an annual ZineFest. With an MFA in Poetry from Oregon State University, Robin has published 3 chapbooks and produced many individual/collective zines.

Ashe Martin is a Cortland, New York–based artist, teaching artist, and creative entrepreneur. She is the founder of Forged from Ashe Studios, a multi-medium art studio known for hands-on workshops in mosaics, stained glass, and mixed-media art. With more than 20 years of experience, Ashe is passionate about making creativity accessible to everyone, regardless of skill level or background. Her work often incorporates reclaimed and unexpected materials, reflecting her love of texture, color, and transformation. In addition to creating her own artwork, Ashe dedicates much of her time to teaching and community-building through art education, helping people reconnect with the confidence that comes from making something with their hands. Ashe is also co-owner of Crown City Curiosities, a shop that supports local artists and makers. Through her teaching, collaborations, and public art projects, she continues to contribute to the growing creative culture of Cortland County.

Carlos Martinez Ramos is a Mexican American visual artist and educator, who has been a NYC resident since 2006 when I moved here for college from Texas. I am passionate about education, human development, community, ethics and aesthetics. My mother as a social worker and teacher, she taught me the value of the aforementioned values, and for the past 15 years I’ve been developing them; through my personal art practice, dealing with relational aesthetics and philosophy, and also through my teaching jobs. I teach mostly 16-18 year olds, 2d mixed media visual art, including drawing, painting and collage, while also teaching them about the creative process, art history and philosophy. I also teach adults drawing, geometric abstraction and the creative process. Last but not least, I also teach neurodivergent teenagers art, while being neurodivergent myself. They say that money makes the world go ‘round but education is the driving force of progress.

Sharon Miller is an interdisciplinary visual artist, photographer, musician, and teaching artist based in New York City. She is the Founder and Program Director of The Creative Youth Society, where she develops arts and entrepreneurship programming for community and justice-impacted youth ages 16–24. Her teaching practice centers on empowerment-based learning that prioritizes curiosity, experimentation, and creative agency, using visual arts and digital photography as pathways for personal development and career exploration. Sharon has taught and managed programs with organizations including NeOn Arts, BRIC Arts Media, Groundswell Mural Project, and Artistic Noise, reaching hundreds of NYC public school students and young adults. With a background in Entertainment Technology, her work increasingly integrates STEAM approaches such as projection mapping, augmented reality, and interactive media. Her artistic practice, which includes exhibitions and public installations across New York City, directly informs her dynamic and socially engaged teaching.

Jessica Peery is a teaching artist, creative curriculum designer, and founder of RainbowBrain Kids Creativity Club. Her work blends visual arts, social-emotional learning, and mindful play to help children, families, and educators strengthen connection through creativity. Jessica designs accessible “coloring craftivity” projects and programs that encourage curiosity, communication, and compassionate community building. She has led creative programs in schools, afterschool clubs, and community organizations throughout the Ithaca area and collaborates with educators and youth organizations to bring arts-integrated learning experiences to diverse groups of children. Through her Playful Mind Parenting framework and RainbowBrain programs, Jessica explores how creativity can support emotional intelligence, resilience, and positive relationships. Her work focuses on empowering young people to express themselves, think imaginatively, and contribute to kinder, more connected communities.

María Luisa Portuondo Vila is a Chilean multidisciplinary artist and teaching artist based in New York. Her work engages memory, archive, and forms of care through artist books, installation, painting, and participatory projects. She has over three years of experience working with young artists in NYC, primarily at Casita Maria Center for Arts and Education in the Bronx.

Her teaching practice focuses on migrant and multilingual communities, creating spaces where young artists explore language and personal history through visual art and collective processes.

She is currently developing a long term project at Casita Maria that will culminate in a public exhibition in October 2026. Over the course of a year, participants have revisited their personal histories to build a collective narrative.

Kelindah bee Schuster (aka KELINDAH BEE) is an educator, producer, writer, trans-inclusion consultant and drag performance artist under the name “Theydy Bedbug.” Kelindah has been artist fellow with Queer | Art, EmergeNYC, a resident artist with Siren Arts: TRANSFORMER and Musical Theatre Factory, and a NYSCA grantee. As the founder of the Drag Performance Program at BAX, they have been profiled by The NY Times and Rolling Stone. Kelindah performs on tour with NY Times bestselling author and podcast host, Amanda Montell, on the “Big Magical Cult Show,” and is a guest director at New England Youth Theater in Brattleboro, Vermont. In Brooklyn they facilitate public school residencies focused on using performing arts to interrupt instances of identity-based harm and build empathy across differences. Dubbed “MAGA Right’s Worst Nightmare” by trans trailblazer Kate Bornstein in an article for THEM, Kelindah brings the blessings of gender expansive performance to people of all genders and generations. 

For the past 20+ years, Claudia Sohrens, has taught in various graduate and undergraduate programs in New York, including at Pratt Institute, Tisch/NYU, Parsons School of Design at The New School, ICP, SVA, and as a guest lecturer at Barnard College, Cooper Union, and ACT/MIT. I have contributed to various Youth Media Programs, including Artists Space and BRIC Arts & Media, the Pre-College Summer Programs at The School of The New York Times and the Sotheby’s Institute of Art, as well as the K-12 and HEOP Summer Programs at Pratt. And I have served as a mentor for the Immigrant Artist Program at NYFA and as a juror for visual arts and photography panels at organizations such as ICP, NYFA, Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC), and the Vermont Studio Center (VSC).

Flutist and educator Leo Sussman grew up playing chamber music in living rooms and gigging with a salsa band in San Francisco. Now based in Ithaca, NY, he delights in designing and leading collaborative workshops, residencies, and interactive performances that celebrate individual creativity while building community across differences. Leo teaches flute, coaches chamber music, and leads creative musicianship classes for teens at Opus Ithaca School of Music. Previously he taught at DePauw University, where he co-directed the faculty chamber ensemble and Electronic Experimentation Lab. Leo has also been a teaching artist with The Little Orchestra Society and Bash the Trash Environmental Arts. He is an alum of Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect, a two-year chamber music fellowship through which he served as teaching artist-in-residence with P.S. 200K and PS 63Q.

Lynda Starr (born Youdlyn Moreau) is a soul-driven vocalist, songwriter, and Teaching Artist from Brooklyn, NY, dedicated to helping students access their most empowered forms through music and movement. As the 2022 ESSENCE Fest New & Next winner and a top finalist at the legendary Apollo Theater, she brings over a decade of professional performance and composition expertise to the classroom. Currently a Teaching Artist with YAFFA Cultural Arts, Lynda specializes in developing adaptive curricula that integrate voice and movement for students with special needs. Her pedagogy focuses on fostering self-expression and creative confidence through inclusive workshops and high-impact culminating showcases. Whether performing at the Caesars Superdome or leading specialized residencies, Lynda remains committed to her mission of empowering underserved communities. By blending rigorous music theory with storytelling, she provides a platform for artistic equity, ensuring that every student, regardless of ability, can experience the healing and inspirational potential of their own unique voice.

Jeannine Swallow is a New York based interdisciplinary artist working across photography, print, and film, focused on experimental, analogue processes. Emphasizing hands-on exploration, materiality, and the role of chance and failure, her work has shown locally and internationally, including the thesis exhibition Porous Worlds at MASS MoCA, which she co-curated. She has completed residencies at Vashon Art Residency, Upstate New York Arts Camp, and Art in Motion, and holds an MFA from Clark University and a BFA from the University at Buffalo. Founder of FilmXposed, a traveling wet plate studio, Swallow has taught through organizations such as CEPA Gallery. A traveler to 22+ countries, she draws inspiration from diverse cultures and landscapes. Passionate about the connection between mental wellness and art-making, she believes creative practice can be transformative. As a neurodivergent artist, she uses process and experimentation as metaphor- reframing fragility as strength and inviting viewers into space of collective healing.

Tiezst “Tie” Taylor is a 2025 Pushcart Nominee and a radical educator, artist-activist, poet, and storyteller, and the self-proclaimed “Queen of the Duplex Form.”  They have earned degrees in education (B.A. in the individualized major of Teaching for Social Justice, New York University & M.S.Ed in Elementary Education, University of Pennsylvania), and are a proponent of disability justice and abolitionist frameworks. Their work explores their experiences in surviving: Disability and severe mental illness; intergenerational trauma and poverty; and intersecting forms of oppression. They use their art and research to educate, heal, nurture, radicalize, and catalyze change for all marginalized peoples. Tie’s work appears or is upcoming in Midway Journal, Shō Poetry Journal, Torch Literary Magazine, and ANMLY. 

Deon Thedford (aka. Y.N.X.716)  is a hip-hop lyricist, teaching artist, and cancer survivor whose music is rooted in truth, resilience, and purpose. What began as a personal outlet to channel emotions during life’s toughest moments evolved into a powerful platform for realistic storytelling. Through his lyrics, Y.N.X.716 shares unfiltered experiences that reflect struggle, growth, and transformation. As his artistry developed, so did his mission. His storytelling naturally transitioned into teaching, where he now empowers youth to find their voice and embrace their journey. Drawing from his own path, he shows others how to turn adversity into strength and creativity into healing. A survivor who embodies perseverance, Y.N.X.716 represents the power of transforming pain into purpose. Whether on stage, in the classroom, or in the community, he continues to inspire by teaching the lessons he’s learned and guiding others toward the path they are destined to follow.

Camille Simone Thomas works as a teaching artist for Partnership With Children, Dreamyard, Manhattan Theatre Club, and The Apollo. She also teaches and facilitates independently through her company Narrative Well designing and implementing devised theatre for social justice curriculum.