Speakers and Performers
See the program lineup for July 10 | Event livestream archive | Individual speaker videos (a growing playlist)
Top row: Sarah Posner, Tory Schendel Cox (photo credit: Faith Connell), Scott Christopher Murray, Steve Stack, Merlijn Twaalfhoven (photo Adrie Mouthaan), Deb Lavoy, Susan Hazan, Erik Boekesteijn, Luis Bracamontes (photo Anya Semyonova)
Bottom row: Sherlonya Turner, Arne Victor Garvi, Leslie Spitz Edson, Nancy Wiltink, Phillip Walker, Netha Hussain (photo Adam Novak / Wikimedia Foundation), Chun-yien Chang, Chih-fang Chiang, Sheng-wen Liu
Erik Boekesteijn
The Netherlands
he/him
Erik Boekesteijn, Global Library Motivator: Senior Advisor at the National Library at the Netherlands (KB). Board member StoryHouse, Chester,UK. SLIS Fellow, USA. Consultant Public Libraries 2020, and founding father of Public Libraries 2030. Facilitator and consultant for IFLA. Owner of Shanachie Media and producer of This Week in Libraries and ShanachieTours, Global Library Motivator. Musician and Author. LJ’s Mover and Shaker of the Library world 2009 Best Librarian in the Netherlands 2015
Erik will present his poem — Crashing on the Edge
Luis Bracamontes
Rotterdam, The Netherland
she/him
Luis Bracamontes is an award-winning queer feminist poet based in Rotterdam. His work centers around topics such as mental health, the queer experience and safe spaces. Creator of Unwanted Words (@UnwantedWordsProject), a platform for up & coming queer voices in spoken word and poetry, host of the Queer Poetry Nights and member of the SEMICH (Society of Writers of Michoacán, Mexico) since 2014.
Luis will be performing The Power of the Word
Instagram: @unwanted @unwantedwordsproject
facebook.com/UnwantedWordsProject
www.unwantedwords.com
Chun-yien Chang
Taiwan
he/him
Chun-yien Chang (b. 1973), leading Taiwanese composer, pianist and interdisciplinary specialist. Born in Taichung City. Mr. Chang is an artist who was educated and nurtured completely in Taiwan. Renowned violinist Bin Huang described Mr. Chang’s compositions as "well-structured, colorful and deep, with a fresh feeling for every reading." His works have been performed in international festivals such as Seghizzi in Italy, Vivace in Hungary and Brahms in Germany. He also founded Mysterium Musicum.
He is an active cross-disciplinary (technical/humanistic) artist and educator. In addition to serving as a faculty member of the Design and Innovation Technology Program at National Chiao Tung University, he is often invited as a consultant to several important cultural infrastructures in Taiwan. His current research focuses on the use of artificial intelligence and natural computation methods to explore and model the creative behavior. This performance on What Matters Now is based on the outcome of computer creation of the two-part counterpoint.
Chih-fang Chiang
he/him
Mr. Chiang, born in Chang-Hua, Taiwan, holds his Master of Musical Arts degree in choral conducting from Soochow University ,and Bachelor of Music degree in voice fromTunghai University. He studied with Professor Szu-Chao Chen in Tunghai. He majored in choral conducting, studied with Dr. Serene Liang in Soochow University, and studied music interpretation and piano performance from composer Chun-yien Chang.
He started his conducting career in high school as a conductor of school band. By conducting various instrumentations, music genres with different groups, he gained lots of professional conducting experiences and won great recognition from audience.
He has devoted himself in choral music since he received his Master degree in choral conducting. He was the bass leader of the Taiwan National Choir, vocal coach of Academia Sinica Chorus, and Music director of Flying Dove Choir. At present, he is the assistant conductor of Mysterium Musicum.
Tory Schendel Cox
Evansville, Indiana USA
she/her
Tory Schendel Cox is the Virginia G. Schroeder Curator of Art at the Evansville Museum of Arts, History & Science. She oversees 15,000 sqft of exhibition space and is responsible for over 20,000 permanent collection objects ranging from prehistory to modernity. Tory works with the community on exhibitions and program development by seeking guidance on cultural heritage and sharing authorship when writing exhibitions.
Tory will be performing Collecting in the ‘Now’
Facebook: Tory Schendel Cox
Instagram: @toryschendelcox
Arne Garvi
he /his
Spoken word performance: “Making the World Bountiful and Beautiful”
Arne started to research perennial plants in a 225 mm rainfall zone in Niger 1986 developing his method called Wild Perennial Polyculture. It implies using these plants to obtain Wild Perennial Crops without destroying them when harvested. They form the basis of a sustainable economy, which provides income to the rural population whilst restoring the environment. Wild Perennial Polyculture means that native perennial species that have not been subject to plant breeding are established directly in the field by direct seeding, thus preserving their natural genetic variation, without the use of irrigation, fertilizers nor pesticides. A biodiversity of different species is thus established together in a given space and provides crops that do not destroy the plants when harvested which leads to a living seedbank. Arne is the CEO of Rewild.Earth in Zinder, Niger.
Facebook.com/rewildearth/ Facebook.com/WildPerennialCrops/ www.rewild.earth
Susan Hazan
Israel
She/her
“My professional career combines both my academic research on the digital object with my practice in the public cultural sector. I believe that digital resources not only sustain rich narratives but enable them to fold into cultural heritage – or unwrap from them to open up new pathways for self-directed learning and creative ways of thinking about self; past and present.”
Susan will be performing Silence Matters - It is Time to Speak up!
musesphere.com/black_lives_matter.html
musesphere.com
Twitter.com/susanhazan
Netha Hussain
Gothenburg, Sweden
she/her
Netha Hussain is a medical doctor and researcher. She is an active editor on Wikipedia, where she writes articles related to medicine and healthcare. These days, she is writing articles related to COVID-19 on Wikipedia to increase awareness about the disease and to combat misinformation.
Netha will be performing Wikipedia matters during COVID-19 pandemic
Deb Lavoy
McLean, Virginia. USA
She/her
Deb is a Marketing Strategist and executive who just couldn't ignore how the bad guys were subverting marketing and social media tools to spread lies. She's spend the last 4 years studying the technology, psychology and rhetoric of disinformation, and she's ready to fight back.
Deb will be performing Pushing back against disinformation by creating simple, memorable, competing ideas
Twitter: @deb_lavoy
Sheng-wen Liu
One of the most sought after cellists in Taiwan, Dr. Sheng-Wen Liu received her Doctor of Musical Arts from the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD, where she was under the tutorage of the renowned American cellist Stephen Kates, also studied the piano with Lillian Freundlich and Yoheved Kaplinsky. She has performed in concerts throughout the US and Taiwan, including the San Francisco Civic Symphony, and the NTUA Symphony Orchestra.
Dr. Liu is currently the assistant professor in cello in the Department of Music of National Taiwan University of Arts(NTUA), and has given numerous master classes in many schools, as well as being in the jury panel of many competitions such as the National Music Competition and the Macau Young Musicians Competition. She is also the principle cellist of the YinQi Orchestra, the cellist of Ensemble Connoisseur, as well as the Music Director of Mysterium Musicum.
Scott Christopher Murray
Shenandoah Valley of Virginia USA
he/him
I’m a singer/songwriter living in the Shenandoah Valley. I was raised in Virginia and settled back here after living a life of music in Nashville Tn and Los Angeles Ca. It took time to discover that I’m not much of a city dweller and found that I’m much better suited to a quieter and slower life in the country. That hasn’t diminished the way I look at, and try to understand the world. I’m a musician, artist and activist. The problems today, deeply rooted in inequality and division, are solvable. Connecting to the sea of people looking to be part of the solution is one of the keys to the world I want to live in.
Scott will be performing Wade in the water. A song of Strength
Annemarie Naylor
England
She/her
Annemarie has a background in public policy working with local, regional and central government in the UK. In a previous role, she established the Asset Transfer Unit, overseeing national programs to transfer publicly owned land and buildings to communities. Annemarie was awarded an MBE for services to community asset ownership in 2015. On secondment to the Cabinet Office, Annemarie joined the ICT Futures Team, supporting IT procurement by Government departments. More recently, she ran her own consultancy business and pursued a range of innovative projects, including a community-managed Wi-Fi pilot scheme in South Wales and the Common Libraries initiative – which received an international OuiShare Award. She is the author of numerous publications in the health and care space with an emphasis upon data-driven innovation and the deployment of new technologies.
Annemarie will be presenting Honesty in Uncertain Times
Sarah Posner
Washington, DC
she/hers
Sarah Posner is the author of the new book, Unholy: Why White Evangelicals Worship at the Altar of Donald Trump. She is a reporting fellow at Type Investigations and her work has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, The Nation, The New Republic, HuffPost, and many other publications.
Sarah will be performing Investigative journalism during rising authoritarianism
Steve Slack
Manchester, UK
he/his
Steve Slack is a heritage interpreter - helping museums, galleries, historic sites, libraries and any other visitor attraction to make their history and meaning as relevant to people as possible. He has been a freelance interpretation consultant since 2009. If he's not in a museum, he'll be in the bar. Or even a museum with a bar.
Steve will be performing Should we take down controversial statues? Should we reinterpret them? Or in some cases both?
Twitter: @steveslack
Instagram: @museumofsteve
Leslie Spitz-Edson
Falls Church, Virginia USA
she/hers
I’m a parent, teacher, writer, and musician. I studied at Wesleyan University in Connecticut and at the University of Michigan. Notable positions held: cook at the legendary Del Rio Bar in Ann Arbor, Michigan; general and editorial assistant at Smithsonian Folkways Records; and production associate for the Folk Masters Concert and Radio Series. My first novel, “Seeking the Center,” is about (some of) the multiple meanings of ice hockey; my second, still in progress, is set on the west coast of Sweden during viking times. I’m a folklorist wanna-be and an archaeologist wanna-be. I’m interested in tradition, identity, and cultural expression of all kinds. Yes, that includes ice hockey. I love textiles and oral histories, rocks, wildflowers, the ocean, and heading north. Oh, and given a good groove, I will dance.
Leslie will be performing The Dead: A Stream of Consciousness
lesliespitzedson.com spindlewhorl.blogspot.com
twitter: @kattvantar
Merlijn Twaalfhoven
Netherlands
he/him
Merlijn Twaalfhoven is a Dutch composer and founder of The Turn Club, a lab for arts in society. He received a UNESCO award and collaborated with the Kronos Quartet and the New York Philharmonic. He worked in refugee camps and across dividing lines in Cyprus, Palestine and Syria, involving children, the local communities and professional musicians.
Merlijn will present The urgent need of your Artist Mindset
www.twaalfhoven.netTwitter.com/Merlijn12H Facebook.com/merlijn.twaalfhoven
Sherlonya Turner
Ypsilanti, Michigan USA
she/hers
Sherlonya has worked in public libraries for nearly 18 years, and is currently an Associate Director at the Ann Arbor District Library. She enjoys taking on large projects both professionally and personally.
Sherlonya will be performing Closed Doors-Open Opportunities, Public Events and AADL.TV
Philip Walker
He / his
Philip has worked in the cultural sector in Bristol for over 25yrs, initially as an artist working in video / performance / installation I now am Head of Cultural Services in Gloucester for the city council working closely with Gloucester Culture Trust and other partners. I have curated numerous exhibitions and creative programmes, including Banksy vs Bristol Museum - which attracted over 300,000 visitors and I was part of the project team to develop the award-winning M Shed museum in Bristol. I am constantly navigating extremes and trying to make a difference by connecting people with meaningful cultural experiences.
Philip will present Extremes - and how to survive the 2020s
Nancy Wiltink
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
She/hers
Nancy (1961) is an Urban Farmer in the heart of Amsterdam. After years of communication work in theater and working as a writer and storyteller she is now one of the many trying to change the food system to a more sustainable and plant-based diet. With her own two hands. Amsterdam is the perfect city, because in a way it is a food-paradise: more than enough variety growing in the direct surroundings. Quite a few organic shops and markets. She followed her education at 'Warmonderhof' the past two years, together with neighbor and now colleague Michel Olden. Starting years before Covid, she feels now is the time to engage others. She lives and works in 'Amsterdam Noord' with her husband, her two adult daughters are both studying to become technical engineer in Delft and loves to eat spinach.
More info about their current project in Dutch: www.soepuitnoord.nl
Nancy will be speaking about Soep uit Noord, a one-year vegetable garden on top of the metro experimenting with Urban Farming.
soepuitnoord.nl (in Dutch), also on facebook and Instagram and youtube https://www.soepuitnoord.nl/