Together, Creative Generation and the International Teaching Artists Collaborative (ITAC) are pleased to welcome the 2022-2023 cohort of the Young & Emerging Leaders Forum.
The Young & Emerging Leaders Forum (YELF) is a 9-month program designed to establish a peer-to-peer network of young and emerging professionals within the fields of culture, education, and social change. Jointly hosted by Creative Generation and ITAC, YELF builds from a 2020-21 pilot program. The program will recognize young practitioners from across the fields and be responsive to the needs of the cohort, fostering a collaborative learning environment based in critical reflection intended to interrogate, mutually share and learn, and radically reimagaine future possibilities of one’s work.
YELF's 2022-2023 cohort is comprised of young change makers from around the globe. This year's kickoff meeting will take place on June 22nd and allow the members an opportunity to begin forming relationships and lift up their passions shared for changing and disrupting systems; inclusive and influential communication; community engagement, mobilization and activism- specifically in rural communities; self awareness and care; aligning the arts to human rights and justice; and values driven leadership.
Meet the Cohort:
Chrysa Kovach (she/her)
Chrysa is a community music facilitator who loves helping others start or continue their musical journeys. Whether it is through teaching or through grant writing, she is always looking for ways to make music education accessible for everyone.
Chrysa currently serves as the Principal Guest Conductor of the Music City Brass Ensemble. She is also the founder and past music director of the W.O. Smith Community Orchestra, a volunteer ensemble dedicated to presenting educational concerts and collaborating with local composers in Nashville, TN.
Chrysa has performed as a flutist with the CALLA Quintet, Santa Monica Symphony, and the Vicente Chamber Orchestra and is a former member of the Orchesterverein in Vienna, Austria. She holds a master's degree in Community Music and graduate certificate in Arts Leadership from the University of Southern California and a bachelor's degree in Musical Arts (Flute) and Spanish from Vanderbilt University.
Location: Los Angeles, USA
Thea Martin (she/they)
Thea is a teaching artist and violinist living on Kaurna land (Adelaide), seeking to invite their community into artistic experiences through a creativity and participatory-centered pedagogical practice. They hold a Bachelor of Music (Advanced) Majoring in Music Education and Pedagogy from the Elder Conservatorium of Music, teach music in local schools and created the collaborative composition workshop series A Room of Her Own Workshops, which invite young people to explore what it means to develop mental and physical spaces for creativity, through the work of living femme artists and composers.
As a violinist, Thea has collaborated on improvised music projects with dancers, theatre artists and musicians across genres of contemporary classical/art music, experimental, jazz and post-rock as well as curated a workshop/performance on text scores through community organization MUD. Thea is interested in exploring listening as activism and self-care as well as providing accessible entry points for the community into art-making experiences.
Location: Adelaide, Australia
Sarah Gordin (she/her)
Sarah Gordin is the artistic director and founder of Philly Children's Theatre, as well as a theatre/dance/music teaching artist and director. Sarah received her BA in Theatre from Muhlenberg College. She also studied at the National Theatre Institute Advanced Directing Program at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center and The Theatre Academy of London.
Sarah fell in love with storytelling through reading and now focuses on telling stories in creative and imaginative ways with and for young people, with a focus on accessibility.
Sarah has taught all over the world, both in person and virtually, at an East Kensington and North Philadelphia Elementary School with ArtistYear AmeriCorps, Friendship Circle Philly, OutSchool, The Rose Theater in Omaha, NE, and the Creative Arts Academy in India, among others.
Location: Philadelphia, USA
Binji Seidu Zakaria (he/him)
Binji Seidu Zakaria is a Theatre for Development facilitator/community theatre artist from and based in the Northern region of Ghana. He is an advocate and activist for minority groups in Ghana.
He is the Founder/CEO of Nasanba Community Theatre and holds a Master of Philosophy in Arts and Culture and Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Arts from the University of Education, Winneba, and specialized in Theatre for Development in each program.
Location: Winneba, Ghana
Razcel Jan Salvarita (he/him)
Razcel Jan Salvarita is a TEDx Talk speaker on the topic “Effecting Environmental Consciousness through Art” where he encapsulated his environmental art actions for more than two decades as a creative artivist and community-based arts organizer.
During this pandemic year, he pursued a strong commitment to creative recovery programmes including a transformative healing art experience for women farm workers who were awakened to their artistic skills; he also worked on a public art installation project focused on climate change and the impacts in the local farm community through his grant from ITAC Impact: Climate.
He is a multi-disciplinary artist with primary practice on visual and performance art; and identifies his role as an “activator, facilitator, and educator”. He believes in the transformative power of the arts as a centering place for healing, recovery, and renewal of courage.
Location: Caninguan, Philippines
Nawahine Lanzilotti (oia/she/her)
Nawahineokalaʻi (Nawahine) Lanzilotti is a multi-ethnic kanaka maoli (Native Hawaiian) artist and JEDI consultant from Mānoa valley on O’ahu. Her training in hula and Hindustani (North Indian) classical music on cello, as well as her academic training in ethnomusicology, Western classical music, and decolonial sound studies, shape her unique approach to performance and equity work. Nawahine currently serves as the Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Coordinator for East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawai’i.
Location: Honolulu, USA
Lydia Paulett (she/her)
Lydia is a Creative Facilitator and Producer born and raised in London. Since 2017, she has been running creative arts projects with young people in various community settings and arts organisations across the city.
Her artistic practice explores how everyday creativity can raise self-esteem, develop a strong sense of personal power and identity, and re-imagine what it means to be ‘creative’.
Lydia is currently the Creative Lead at Element, a youth charity that works with children and young people in care where she shapes the creative content of the art projects that they deliver with local councils. Before this, she was the Creative Communities Manager at Battersea Arts Centre, and has worked with The Kiln Theatre, The Agency, Good Chance Theatre, Football Beyond Borders, Shado Magazine, EY Foundation, The Baytree Centre, and The Single Homelessness Project.
Location: London, UK
Ivy Ogott (she/her)
Ivy is a creative, teacher, and human rights lawyer. She founded a nonprofit organization known as Obulamu in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic hoping to provide a safe space where children could grow and thrive emotionally, spiritually, physically, socially and mentally.
As of now, the nonprofit has established a children’s center in the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya where it hosts classes/events for children, an art gallery, a play area, and grounds for physical activities. They have set up an online learning platform on YouTube where children can access free lessons and teach each other.
She hopes to build a library and hub that would serve her community, as well as establish centers at the coast of Kenya and in Uganda.
Location: Machakos County, Kenya
Chloe Tower (she/her)
Chloe Tower is a teaching artist, director, performer, and dancer currently based in Honolulu, Hawai’i. Originally from Orlando, Florida, she graduated with her BFA in Theatre for Youth from Samford University in 2021 and is about to enter her second year as an MFA candidate in Theatre for Young Audiences at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa.
Chloe has worked professionally as a teaching artist with Seattle Children’s Theatre and Garden Theatre, and co-created an applied theatre program in Taitung, Taiwan and Galette-Chambon, Haiti. Most recently, she assisted in devising and performing in The JoyMobile, a nonverbal clowning show, that toured through the island of O’ahu this past year.
She believes in the power of play, collaboration, and social emotional learning through theatre education to empower the next generation of creative and empathetic artists.
Location: Honolulu, USA