Speakers / Live Music 2016

Brewster is the MC and Speaker Coordinator for Catharsis on the Mall 2016. He has worked in disability and civil rights advocacy, including at AARP and the National Organization on Disability. He has focused on livable community efforts and is co-founder of the Makepeace Manor intentional community in Alexandria, VA.

Elly Jean has been traveling the East Coast for the past two years guiding meditations at various Music and Arts festivals. With her Bachelor’s Degree in Biological Sciences and over 200 registered Teaching hours in Dharma Yoga, she believes in healing the mind with the body and healing the body with the mind though intention and attention. Please join us for a guided meditation in Unconditional Love Towards Self.

Tamara Lyn, aka, Knightengale is an Incest, Rape, Sexual Assault Survivor, and Producer of Voices Carry, a new and upcoming Documentary Film Series – a series taking head-on the real raw, uncensored survivor stories about injustice, and untested rape kits across the USA. Voices Carry addresses the need to end the Rape Culture in society, and give a Voice to those who can’t speak for themselves. Her mission is to help end the backlog on rape-kits, raise awareness about PTSD for survivors of incest, rape, and trauma. She is determined to spread the word that sexual violence will no longer be excepted or tolerated, and promote a Common Sense Bill of Rights for Sexual Assault Survivors to protect all victims of sexual violence.

Angie Whitehurst is a Street Sense Vendor, poet, performer, writer and producer.

Broke Royals never intended to fuel a political revolution with their music. For Philip Basnight and Colin Cross, The Luxury of Time EP Series, embodies the realization of early adulthood that time is a precious commodity. But halfway across the world, as a military coup overcame Thailand’s people in May of 2014, its citizens heard Broke Royals’ debut single, “About Time”, through different, more political ears. When the song went viral in the midst of Thailand’s political coup, Basnight and Cross realized that what had begun as a personal musical undertaking between two friends was now something closer to universal.

Basnight and Cross have been playing music together since early 2014, elevating each other’s talents from every angle. As the owner of Unkempt & Overcaffeinated Studios, Colin has been able to help transform Basnight’s prolific songwriting into richly layered, energetic, and stirring tracks. Based in DC, they tour the East Coast extensively – having shared the stage with Lynyrd Skynyrd, Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness, Car Seat Headrest, Real Estate and Life in Film.

Peter Dennis, Esq. is an attorney-at-law and public policy advocate from Potomac, MD. Educated at Boston College and the Catholic University of America, Peter began his legal career interning at the American Bar Association’s Commission on Domestic Violence, since which time he has worked for various progressive political organizations, and recently lobbied hundreds of Congressional offices on the Sexual Assault Survivors’ Rights Act, which recently passed with overwhelming support in both houses of Congress.

Jessica has completed over 500 hours of study in yoga therapy, with a background in Ayurveda. She is certified in VaihAyasa Aerial Yoga, and uses the support of aerial silks in private and group sessions to bring deeper alignment and support, on both emotional and physical levels. Jessica has been studying Polarity Therapy since 2010, and is finishing a three-year program that culminates in an international board certification. She has been studying herbalism, and wildcrafting medicines since early 2014.
Since stepping into the field of alternative medicines, Jessica has devoted all of her free time and resources to building social change and making healing arts available to the public. Jessica has organized free community yoga flash mobs, educational retreats for community at low or no cost, and volunteered countless hours as a healing artist within the DC metro area. Jessica sat on the Board of Directors of The Harvest Collective, a national grassroots environmental non-profit from the suburbs of DC, and was the organizer, executor, and accountant for The Compassionate Earth Walk– their 2013 campaign along the route of the Keystone XL Pipeline, bringing awareness to the struggle between landowners and corporate oil, and offering healing along the way. Currently, Jessica works as an organizer with the Burning Man organization. Passions include plants, photography, naked women, churches across all denomination, traveling to the west, eating vegan food, the mountains, the ocean, and long rides on public transportation.

Inviting all attendees to a candlelit walk around the  monument. This is in memoir of  PTSD, Veteran Suicide, Trauma, Trafficking Victims, Violence in all forms Please bring your led lights and come early to add white war paint.

The Peace & Body Roll Duo: BOOMscat, Washington, DC based, consists of Asha Santee & Patience Rowe. Together, they create a sound that ignites vulnerability, elevation and self-reflection. Since their conception in the fall of 2012, BOOMscat has released three projects- The Trilogy Mixtape, The West Wing Project, and and most recently No Life Jacket EP which reached #18 on the iTunes RnB chart. Just this year, BOOMscat has performed at several places including Washington DC’s official SXSW stage, The Kennedy Center, The National Cathedral and Ain’t I A Woman organized by the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Kim participates, collaborates, and converses on the role that aesthetics and kinetics play in human experience, through creative interventions in space, interdisciplinary performance, and connected communities. Kim has a history of being at the center of change and the forefront of innovation. With an M.A. in Arts & Consciousness, a B.A. in Performing Arts, and as a Kennedy Center Fellow, Kim has worked in strategic collaboration, cross-sector partnerships, and creative placemaking/economies. She has produced and directed many original performance works and is a well regarded speaker. Before coming to Burning Man Kim served as the President of the Arts Council of New Orleans, prior to that she was the Associate Director for the Western Region of the Nonprofit Finance Fund. As Burning Mans Director of Art & Civic Engagement Kim manages the Playa Arts, Civic Arts, Burners Without Borders, Grants, and Community Events programs.

Wytold plays an electric cello with two extra strings that capture the depth and power of a stand-up bass, the rich tonal timbre of the acoustic cello, and the bright crispness of violin solos and harmonies. He has performed his live-looping blend of classical inspiration, contemporary rhythms and jazz improvisation with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center, on stage with nationally touring contemporary dance company Christopher K. Morgan & Artists, as a featured presenter at TEDx Foggy Bottom, and in the score of the Sundance award-winning film Blood Brother.  In addition, Wytold regularly performs at Walter Reed Military Hospital and Fort Belvoir, co-leading workshops that help Veterans and their families heal through creating art in the hospital and at USOs.  For more information, see Wytold.com.

Join us on the opening evening for stories of catharsis and transformation. Storytellers to be announced.

Eleanor is a creative activist, poet, singer and writer.
She is the founder and host of the creative and grassroots activism show, Act Out! which airs on Free Speech TV on Dish Network, ROKU, Amazon Fire and others. She blends activist news from the front lines with short spoken word pieces about socio-political issues. She is the co-founder and singer of Rooftop Revolutionaries, a political rock band born from the fight against income inequality and all the evils that stem from it.
Having performed both music and poetry around the world, she blends visual projections and politically charged poetry to create an immersive and interactive live experience. Besides speaking and performing, she assists in local action organizing and activist training. She is currently based in Washington, DC.

BUDDHA was born and internationally raised, West Africa, North America, and East Asia. Buddha has used his cultural experience as a tool to push the conceptual creative boundaries of urban art and music. He is a writer, an emcee, producer, consultant, content developer, and a universal man. Hip Hop is the soundtrack to his journey, however he listens to all genres and types, constantly digging for new sounds, vibes, and messages within music.

Aaron Abernathy, professionally known as Ab, is a multi-talented musician — singer, songwriter, producer, and entertainer.  Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Ab joined the ranks of artists like Donny Hathaway and Roberta Flack as a graduate from the prestigious music program at Howard University, where he sharpened his vocal abilities and musicianship.  With outstanding talents as both a pianist and a vocalist, he has acted as musical director for global touring acts Black Milk and Slum Village and collaborated with Grammy-nominated artists including Jack White, The Foreign Exchange, and Eric Roberson.

IPS Fellow Sanho Tree is director of the Drug Policy Project, which works to end the domestic and international “War on Drugs” and replace it with policies that promote public health and safety, as well as economic alternatives to the prohibition drug economy. The intersection of race and poverty in the drug war is at the heart of the project’s work. In recent years the project has focused on the attendant “collateral damage” caused by the United States exporting its drug war to Colombia and Afghanistan. Establishing humane and sustainable alternatives to the drug war fits into the IPS mandate as one of the major contemporary social justice issues at home and abroad. He was featured in the ABC/John Stossel documentary on the drug war and has also appeared on Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher. Currently, he serves on the boards of Witness for Peace and the Andean Information Network.

Camila Thorndike is Director at Our Climate, a national organization led and managed by young people, dedicated to fair and effective climate policy. She has been an environmental advocate and social entrepreneur for 10 years. At Whitman College she led the largest campus club and founded a tri-college leadership network. After graduating with honors in 2010, Camila directed outreach for a regional urban planning project in Arizona; advanced green jobs for the mayor of D.C.; worked at the U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution; and co-founded COAL, a nationwide musical theater project about fossil fuels. She is a Udall Scholar, Fellow of the Center for Diversity and the Environment, Sitka Fellow, Mic50 Awardee, and member of the 2016 class of the Young Climate Leaders Network.

David Wood, the senior military correspondent for The Huffington Post, has more than 35 years of experience covering wars and the US military. He won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting for a series on American troops severely wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He recently authored What Have We Done: The Moral Injury of Our Longest Wars

Dennet Oregon, 34, is a 12 year U.S. Army veteran and a combat-wounded two-time purple heart recipient. He advocates for wounded veterans benefits, and mentors recent traumatic loer extremity amputees. He is a lower extremity prosthetic foot engineering designer and a former upright paracyclist.

Cynthia Evans is a woman who intimately understands the effects of trauma. Born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, her home life was filled with abuse, neglect, addiction, and mental illness. She was signed into foster care at age 13 and spent the rest of her adolescence bouncing from one facility to another. As an adult who copes with mental health and recovery challenges, she has found ways to use her experiences to help others who have traveled similar paths. Listen as she shares how trauma shaped – and continues to shape – her life and self-image and what tools have given her the strength and faith to press on.

The Duskwhales are a three-piece indie rock band formed in Manassas, Virginia in 2010. With influences ranging from The Beatles and The Doors to Vampire Weekend and Of Montreal, the young trio melds a retro 60’s feel with a modern twist of intricate rhythms and upbeat melodies that permeates onstage and in recordings. They have shared the stage with national acts Diane Coffee, Car Seat Headrest, Jesse McCartney, and Frankie Cosmos, as well as performed to packed audiences across the Mid-Atlantic region. In 2014, the band released a self-titled LP to praise from music blogs and listeners alike. Their follow-up album is set for release in winter 2016. With a unique sound and captivating stage presence, The Duskwhales are prepared to make a splash in the independent music scene.

Sara received her Master’s degree in Transpersonal Counseling Psychology at Naropa University. She began working with MAPS in 2012, coordinating psychedelic harm reduction services at festivals and events worldwide with the Zendo Project. Sara was an Intern Therapist for the recently completed MAPS Phase 2 clinical trial of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD in Boulder, CO. She maintains a private practice as a psychotherapist specializing in trauma and non-ordinary states of consciousness. Sara believes that developing a comprehensive understanding of psychedelic medicines through research and education is essential for the health and well being of individuals, communities, and the planet.

Social engagement, beauty, and discovery guide Michael’s artwork. Fine Art was not his original focus at George Mason University, but a passion quickly arose for a variety of materials and mediums. He declared Sculpture his concentration when he was accepted to the School of Art in 2011.

A desire for social justice led his academic studies into systems research, conflict transformation, forgiveness processes, and peace-building. These influences are woven into his work.

Ideas of community and interactivity are critical to his art practice. This often leads to large-scale public installations and site-specific sculptures.

Dr. Al Fuertes was a recipient of the 2015 Spirit of King Award, the 2014 Oscar Mentoring Excellence Award, the 2008 GMU Teaching Excellence Award and the 2001 AT&T Asia-Pacific Leadership Award. Al is a field practitioner and consultant who specializes in community-based trauma healing as an integral component in peacebuilding and conflict transformation. He travels extensively around the world, particularly in places affected by war, armed conflict, and natural disaster. Al works with government, religious, military, and community leaders, as well as NGO development workers, school administrators, teachers, youth, refugees and internally displaced persons. He is the faculty director of the global education program in the Philippines, a 6-credit summer course in Human Trafficking, Environmental Issues, and Grassroots Peacebuilding through Mason’s Center for Global Education (CGE), and in Cambodia, a 3-credit winter course in Post Genocide, Community Development, and Spirituality through the Social Action and Integrative Learning (SAIL). Al is an ordained minister with the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP). He currently works as a covenant minister of UCC Wellspring in Centreville, VA.

When bandmates move 4,000 miles apart, things end. Brittany and Will instead used three years at that distance to step back and discover their true sound together—combining Brittany’s raw, soulful songwriting and Will’s lush, electronic atmospheres—and gave their sound the time it needed to organically blossom into a meticulously crafted, forceful statement: Heliograph, the debut album from Washington, DC’s Wall of Trophies. Riding the album release in early 2016, alongside Will’s permanent move home, the band is now taking their atmospheric rock live–alongside their integrated visuals. Learn more and listen at walloftrophies.com

about be
Be Steadwell is a singer songwriter from Washington DC. With roots in jazz, acapella and folk-Be composes a soulful blend of genres into what she calls queer pop.

In her live performances, she utilizes loop pedal vocal layering and beat boxing to compose her songs on stage. Be’s self-produced albums feature her earnest lyricism, proud LGBTQ content, unapologetic silliness, and the art of the simple love song.

Look for the Meso Mack Truck north of Abraxas! More info here.

Located between the Sound Igloo and the Temple of Rebirth