Background information about the speakers provided by the Courage Network ( http://www.couragenetwork.com/ ):
Maria Jose Ugalde Alcazar
Musician and Painter
Maria Jose Ugalde Alcazar (Marjiel Danse) is a musician and painter, www.myspace.com/lobalunaya. Maria Jose was born and raised in La Paz, Bolivia and has spent the last nine years of her life traveling. She spent six years of this mobile life in an upwardly spiraling path of recovery and the last eight months in complete dedication to healing. She was an exhibiting artist at the Empowered Women International (EWI) Art Gallery where she shared her music at events and her art was featured in the Alexandria Times. She has also exhibited in La Paz, Bolivia and her work is in private collections in various countries. She has shared her music in various places such as private and public cultural venues and her poetry has been featured in small local publications. Maria has worked through various art forms with vulnerable groups in Latin American society because she believes in the power of social and individual healing and empowerment through creativity. Maria created a series of songs focused on her healing process as a domestic and sexual violence survivor and her observations of herself and the world.
Karen Cellini
Founder, The Good Mother Project
Karen Cellini wears many hats. She is a poet, dramatist, singer, actress, producer, wife, mother and founder of The Good Mother Project. The Good Mother Project: Making the Invisible, Visible is a multi-disciplinary live performance project committed to giving a voice to the families and loved ones who have lost adolescent sons, daughters and friends through violence and drug and alcohol addiction. It includes a play, a tour and an art program that travels to inner cities where children and families can join together to acknowledge their experiences with violence, addiction and loss in expression and immersion in theatre. TheGoodMother.org is currently being created to provide a host of services such as information, education and access to experts in bereavement, victimization and addiction. It will include a confidential forum for discussion, supporting a sense of community and belonging for those affected by these issues.
Angelica Harris
Author, Excalibur Reclaims Her King
Angelica Harris, www.AngelicaHarris.com, is a fantasy author, writing coach and the producer/director of the Hall of Imagination at Frankie’s Playce in Glendale, N.Y. Her latest novel, Excalibur Reclaims Her King (Writers of the Round Table Press 2009) includes a Pagan language she created based on the Druid language she studied from Celtic mythology. Her two other novels, The Quest for Excalibur and Excalibur and the Holy Grail, were accepted in the Royal Library in North Kensington and Chelsea, London, England for their historic accuracy in King Arthur Folklore. Among many more accomplishments, Harris leads a weekly Excalibur Reading Program for all children, especially those of impoverished means, and for those who have children with special needs (families who are burdened with loss of income due to the economy, or with children who suffer from learning disorders). These families will benefit from donations of sponsors and funds raised for the sole purpose to enrich the education of these children, so that they will have a future and go on to higher education. Her work has been hailed by Midwest Books, and Renaissance Magazine and accredited in the media such as The Queens Ledger, The Queens Chronicle, Times Newsweekly and The New York Daily News. She is most proud of her studies and promises that this book will be an adventure to her readers both historically and magically. Angelica is married to John LoCascio and has two grown children, a daughter, Andrea and a son John.
Michelle Johnson Major
Founder, Be a Voice Arts
Michelle Major, www.beavoicearts.com, is an artist and a survivor of domestic violence. In August 2008, her husband tried to murder her in an act of domestic violence. Before beating her and strangling her to unconsciousness, he took a butcher knife and slashed ninety-four of her paintings. She has turned her second chance at life into advocating for victims of domestic violence. Major spreads her story by sharing her butchered artwork through gallery showings and speaking engagements. She has turned this passion for shining a light onto the ugliness of domestic violence into an organization called BAVA: Be a Voice Arts to provide healing through artistic expression. Be a Voice Arts is dedicated to shining a light on the ugly societal taboo of domestic violence by sharing a story of courage and hope through artistic expression resulting in strength, inspiration and healing.
Robina Niaz, M.S., MSW
Founder & Executive Director, Turning Point
Robina Niaz was born and raised in Pakistan and migrated to the United States in 1990. In December 2004, Robina founded Turning Point for Women and Families, www.turningpoint-ny.org, and serves as its Executive Director. For over 17 years Robina has advocated against domestic violence both in her professional and community work. She has served on the boards of Sakhi, Queens Women’s Network, Interfaith Council of New York and the Coalition for Battered Women’s Advocates and has been a consultant to the Domestic Harmony Foundation L.I and ICNARelief. In September 2009, Robina was named a CNN Hero and in November 2009 she was featured as one of the 500 Most Influential Muslims by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center and Georgetown University. She speaks four South Asian languages.
Angela Rose
Founder and Executive Director, PAVE
Angela Rose is the founder and Exec Director of the international nonprofit organization, PAVE (Promoting Awareness, Victim Empowerment), www.pavingtheway.net, that works to create community art projects, educational outreach and grassroots action surrounding the issue of shattering the silence of sexual violence. Angela is a nationally recognized grassroots activist who has orchestrated simultaneous action in over 50 cities across the country. Her work has been covered by CNN, The Today Show and TIME. Angela believes strongly in the ability of art to awaken social consciousness by using artistic endeavors as a catalyst to create positive social change. She is on the Board of Directors for Green Star Movement which provides schools and community centers with mural projects that celebrate diversity, urban life and the natural environment. Angela’s decade of work on self-empowerment and community building has taken her across the country and abroad to speak on continuous improvement for the mind, body and soul including cultivating creativity.
Gabrielle Senza
Founder, The Red Collaborative
Creative activist and social entrepreneur, Gabrielle Senza has devoted much of her career to raising awareness about environmental and corporate abuse as well as breaking the silence around domestic violence, sexual assault, incest and bullying. A widely recognized artist, her work is included in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum, Lifetime Entertainment, Paine Webber, and in private collections around the world. She has taught at Mass MoCA, Cooper Union and Bard College at Simons Rock. Known for her transformative workshops and public art collaborations, Gabrielle has been empowering students, survivors and families to create change since 2001. She is a single mother; exhibiting artist and the founder of the Red Collaborative, theredcollaborative.org, a non-profit arts organization that offers “Creative Initiatives on Tough Issues”. She sits on the Advisory Board of the Storefront Artist Project; runs the Berkshire Art Kitchen, a gallery in Great Barrington, MA and is now fulfilling a longtime dream, launching her new mission-based company, Walk Unafraid Worldwide, Inc.
Lyn Twyman
Founder, Courage Network
Lyn Twyman is a survivor of domestic violence and child abuse. She is also a 4 year domestic violence advocate and Founder of Courage Network, www.couragenetwork.com, an online community for domestic violence survivors, families, advocates and organizations, whose motto is Building Courage By Working Together. Lyn saw the need to create a community open to all people affected by domestic violence that offers resources and tackles various facets of the issue. Courage Network provides resources and feature interviews with survivors and experts. She became an advocate after seeing the cycle and its affects repeat itself in her family due to silence and denial. Committed to making a difference and bring awareness, Lyn advocates for youth prevention programs, immigrant rights and helping victims find proper resources and support. One of her articles was featured on the National Domestic Violence Hotline blog called Share Your Voice.
Nasrin Ruby Zoghbia
Founder, International Domestic Violence Memorial
Nasrin is the founder of the International Domestic Violence Memorial, www.dvmemorial.com. The Memorial is developing a Lantern of Hope monument dedicated to victims and survivors of domestic abuse which would be the basis of a nationwide tour. The lantern will be comprised from the artwork of 240 survivors across the globe. The tour will include violence education and an awareness campaign that will be used to raise funds, providing an alternative method of developing violence prevention and intervention grants for local non-profits, supporting the implementation of innovative community programs nationwide. Nasrin has been involved in domestic violence advocacy since leaving a four year physically and emotionally abusive relationship. She firmly believes in order to change our society’s core beliefs and increase moral values each child must be better equipped with the right knowledge to recognize, assimilate and properly identify the various forms of abuse. By educating children and teaching them alternative methods to handling conflict and conflict resolution, children can have a stronger chance of recognizing and strengthening healthy relationships.
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