Dr. Ayelet Danielle Aldouby (EdD) is a professor of community arts at the Art & Art Education Program, Columbia University, Teachers College with a research focus on ethics of care in sustainable collaborative arts engagements. Aldouby is one of the few curators focusing on art projects at the intersection of art, education, and wellness to bring awareness to inequities while devising innovative ways to measure artistic impact on civic engagement and cultural data collection. Her collaborations with artists explore social entrepreneurship to create social change across platforms: Wellness, Advanced Manufacturing, eCommerce, and Education (STEM to STEAM). Projects implemented include: GE’s FirstBuild, Lousiville Metro Government, “Bold Moves” initiative with the Clinton Foundation and Humana in Natchez Mississippi, XlerateHealth incubator, Mayzeek middle school and NY’s MS136.

Ayelet served as the lead curator for IDEASxLab, cultivating artists as agents of change (National Endowment for the Arts lead Our Town grants, 2014 -2016); “Re: Construction” public art projects for Alliance for Downtown NY and the International Artists’ Museum at the 51st & 52nd Venice Biennales and Documenta. (1468) Her recently curated exhibit, Silent Fall, addressing endangered species was shown at the Art Museum of the Americas in Washington DC (2023).  She is the 2022-23 New York Public Humanities Fellow and a public and social practice curator and founder of the artists’ residency Voices of Multiplicity an environmental justice program. She also curated ARTmobile alongside the Brooklyn Public Library. Publications include: Silent Fall: Unveiling Hidden Voices in Environmental Justice Art – International Conference of Museums, Paraguay (2023); Silent Spring Catalogue; The Creative Listening Workshop: Exploring the Potential for Transformational Learning – ITLC publication (2022); Then and Now – a Harlem Renaissance Curriculum Guide – Institute of Urban Minority Education and Wallach Gallery at Columbia University (2021); Natchez: Inclusion & Soaps – The Journal of the Institute of Arts of the University of Rio (2020); Seeing the Unseen/Trends – Texas Art Education Journal (2019).

Katherine Davis’ life as a singer, songwriter, actress, and teacher is imbued with music. Whether she is portraying Bessie Smith or Ma Rainey on stage, appearing with piano accompaniment at a nightclub, fronting a large band, or singing for the Lord, Katherine steers her own course. Her command of various musical styles is saturated in blue. Katherine’s unique musical approach was nurtured by her circle of family and close friends.  

She was raised on the music of Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington, Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Mahalia Jackson, and Arethra Franklin. Inspired by the opera singers in her own family, she elected to study opera at the Sherwood Conservatory of Music under the direction of Maria D’ Albert. In studying opera, Katherine was laying the groundwork for her repertoire’s singular and all-encompassing musical style and diversity.

Raised in Chicago’s infamous Cabrini-Green housing project on Chicago’s North side, Katherine and her family moved to the Englewood on Chicago’s South side in 1967 exposing her to an array of jazz and blues clubs. Within the jazz scene, there was a subscene wherein singers and musicians would perform for stage productions. A friend suggested that she audition for an acting part in a play produced by Kuumba Theatre for which Katherine was cast. She went on to play Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith to critical acclaim in Kuumba Theatre’s production of In the Heart of the Blues. Acting at Kuumba helped her make a number of valuable contacts that helped launch Katherine’s professional career. She was soon singing in jazz and blues clubs, festivals and concerts throughout the U.S., Canada, Japan, Europe, the Caribbean and Venezuela. Her appearance with the Blues in the Schools children at the 1997 Chicago Blues Festival led to ongoing involvement as an instructor in the invaluable Blues in the Schools Program right alongside harmonica virtuoso, Billy Branch.

Within the course of an evening, Katherine’s voice, her remarkable instrument, can span the gamut from sweet and sultry to lowdown and dirty. Underlying it all, is her genuine feeling behind every song that is the cornerstone of the blues. Her first CD, Dream Shoes, (Chicago’s Southport Records) and her own label, Katy ‘D’ Records, have been met with rave reviews, helping Katherine to carve out a niche for herself on the competitive music scene.

The title Dream Shoes was inspired by Katherine’s Mother, Ethel and the CD is dedicated to her. Katherine is accompanied throughout Dream Shoes by some of Chicago’s top jazz and blues musicians, such as piano players Erwin HeIfer and Joe Johnson, bassists Nate Stuart, Tatsu Aoki, John Whitfield and Cecile Savage, saxophonist Will Sims, and Isaac Redd Holt, Phil Thomas and Casey Jones on drums. John Barrett of Jazz USA wrote of the CD: “While apparently simple, this album speaks volumes – that’s true of the best music, and the best dreams.” Noted Chicago Tribune critic Dan Kening added, “If there’s any justice in this world, the delicious melange of vintage blues and jazz on Dream Shoes will raise the profile of veteran Chicago singer Katherine Davis as a recording artist.”

Katherine continues to perform at clubs and concert venues at home in Chicago, and around the world. In January 2000, she was chosen to accompany Mayor Richard J. Daley to help represent the city of Chicago at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. She performed there at the diplomatic reception. In the late 1980s her visage was immortalized on a 16-foot-tall billboard, that adorned the corner of Ohio and Orleans, advertising the renowned nightclub Blue Chicago.

Defying musical stereotypes, Katherine Davis has, with talent, enthusiasm and quiet intensity, reinvented an important era in American music, one emblazoned with grace and style uniquely her own.

David L. Goldberg is a native Chicagoan and an experienced psychotherapist, child psychiatrist, husband, and father of two teenagers. He provides care to pediatric and adult patients in his private practice in the Ravenswood neighborhood. He has a passion for community based mental health care and consults to organizations that serve children and families in Chicago. For the past 9 years, he has participated and volunteered in Victories, a men’s group dedicated to helping enhance men’s lives by providing safe space for emotional growth. He enjoys hiking, bicycling, swimming, reading, meditation, cooking, playing guitar and walking his dogs while exploring the city’s parks and lakefront.

Recipient of the 2008 Mumbai Mayor’s Award for Excellence in Journalism, Neeta has served as a celebrated journalist in India for over 27 years. Her experience across sectors includes: violence and conflict, economic and social policies, national and international politics, infrastructure, and especially, coverage of peripheral communities and groups.

She was founding member of a social advocacy organization, Samarthan, in 1993. Since then, with a commitment to peacebuilding through media, she has focused her work on connecting and empowering people. The need to portray in-depth realities through different forms of storytelling in an ever-changing world motivates her to lend a platform to those whose voices need to be heard. Well-renowned for featuring communities and people belonging to minority groups living on the margin, in 2010 she co-founded TheReportLive in order to showcase their individual and collective efforts to be brought into the mainstream. She has previously been part of the group that conceptualized and formed, Saathi, an NGO to impact the lives of street children in Mumbai. She consistently strives for equal opportunities for all to participate in the peacebuilding process leading to equitable and sustainable global growth. To that end, she has interviewed many powerful decision-making persons of national and international stature.

Neeta currently serves as the City Editor for The Free Press Journal, one of the oldest newspapers. In addition, she authors a column highlighting both the subtle gaps and more overt holes in current social and economic policies divisive to society. Along with eight other journalists, she won a “reported judgement” against the gag order passed by a lower court, which had prevented the journalists from publishing any reports on the Sohrabuddin encounter trial in Mumbai. Her recent TEDx talk addressed issues regarding owning one’s locality.

Neeta received her BA in Anthropology-Sociology from St Xavier’s College, Mumbai and her MSW in Developmental Communications at Nirmala Niketan College of Social Work, Mumbai. She was a 2009 Rotary International Peace and Conflict Studies Fellow at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand.

For a decade, Pierre Lockett has served as Forward Momentum Chicago’s Founder and Executive Director. Prior to its founding, he served as Director of Community Engagement with The Joffrey Ballet where he grew its programming from ten schools in1996 to over 55 schools by 2014. After twenty years as a professional dancer, Pierre combined his passion and expertise for dance with his desire to inspire youth through invigorating dance programs to create a uniquely inclusive arts education organization, Forward Momentum Chicago. Under Pierre’s direction, FMC has provided programming to 38,500 students through weekly in/out-of-school instruction, free Saturday Dance Classes, and three Summer Dance Camps to any child who is interested. Pierre works extensively with youth from Chicago Public Schools, Chicago Park District, After School Matters and various schools and studios throughout the city. As a result of his enduring commitment, he was recognized by Mayor Rahm Emanuel for fostering the talent of young dancers and bringing dance to Chicago’s many diverse communities, declaring June 30th Pierre Lockett Day.

Pierre utilizes dance as a catalyst to help students build life skills for career and college readiness, and individual success. He believes strongly in the benefits of arts learning and that its implementation can yield great success. Pierre strives to remove the barriers that limit or prevent youth and adults in communities of color from pursuing dance as a professional trade. He actively seeks opportunities to introduce professional black dancers and dance educators to his students. His vision is for students who are underrepresented in some dance genres to gain appreciation for and mastery of that genre, while gaining the confidence to accomplish their dreams artistically, academically, and professionally.

Pierre Lockett began his ballet training with Major Burchfield in his hometown of Mobile and trained at the Joffrey Ballet School and Dance Theatre of Harlem. Pierre was a member of Dance Theatre of Harlem, Princeton Ballet and the Joffrey Ballet. While at Dance Theatre of Harlem, Pierre performed ballets by world renowned choreographers such as George Balanchine, Agnes DeMille, Arthur Mitchell, Geoffrey Holder and John Butler. He also made several television appearances with the company, including the PBS “Dance in America” series featuring Dance Theatre of Harlem’s Creole Giselle and A Streetcar Named Desire. He was also featured in Robert Altman’s film The Company. Pierre joined The Joffrey Ballet in 1989 where he was featured in a variety of roles including personal favorites: Touch Me, Light Rain and Valentine all choreographed by Gerald Arpino and Billboards. In 2002, he became Director of Joffrey’s Education & Community Engagement programs which he led for ten years.

He is the recipient of the 1999 Black Theatre Alliance/Ira Aldridge Award for Best Performance in a Music or Dance Program, the Princess Grace Award for Dance, and received numerous dance awards. He has also served as a panelist for The National Endowment for the Arts.

Currently a student of Economics at the Central University of Venezuela, Diego has dedicated himself to defending human rights and promoting a culture of peace in Caracas’ diverse communities by leveraging the power of both the arts and education.

He currently serves as a youth leader in the Federation of Human Rights for Venezuela. In the capacity of volunteer, Diego has been involved with several different NGO’s in Venezuela. In 2018, for Friends of the Child Foundation that Deserve Protection (FUNDANA), he taught child victims of abandonment, neglect and abuse, including sexual abuse. in 2019, with the NGO Opportunity (Oportunidad A.C.), he was part of multiple theatrical productions primarily targeting the low-income Venezuelan “barrios” population to help raise their awareness of the processes of reconciliation and forgiveness.

Since the beginning of his university studies, Diego has participated in several extra-curricular activities which advocate for the defense of student rights, motivating students to go beyond their comfort zone and achieve personal growth. His own varied roles have included: Delegate to the Model United Nations UCVWorldMUN, Social Media Secretary for GeneraciónUCVista, and Active Member of Gestión Economía UCV, the latter two being the most important student associations at the Central University of Venezuela. Additionally, he tutors youth in bilingual education (Spanish-English).

His participation in the 2018 Genesis Academy Summer Institute was one of the most meaningful experiences of his life. Even though his dedication to make the world a better place began when he was just a young child, the Summer Institute gave him agency and helped him clarify his particular focus areas: namely human rights and peacebuilding. During the Summer Institute, Diego was featured on 91.5 FM WBEZ, Chicago’s NPR station to discuss his role in Genesis’ program. His collaborative peace journalism blog from the Genesis Academy Summer Institute examining the issues affecting Chicago’s homeless was published on the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting’s website to the world. In addition, Diego’s confidence grew exponentially from the program, such that he found the courage and inspiration needed to begin working and become more involved in his home communities. He came to profoundly understand that his age did not have to be an impediment to his global contributions as a youth activist. Wherever he is and whatever he does, Diego always hears and responds to Mahatma Gandhi’s imperative: Be the change you want to see in the world.

Arno Michaelis is a speaker, filmmaker, author of My Life After Hate, and co-author of The Gift of Our Wounds. His storytelling stems from an intention to inspire people to see themselves in others and see others in themselves. Arno draws from his lived experience as a former Neo-Nazi to work as an interventionist at Parents 4 Peace, helping to lead people away from all violent extremist ideologies, and to support their families. Refuge, his latest film project, is now available on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Google Play, and Vudu. Arno has been a professional public speaker since 2010 and has captivated audiences around the world. His keynotes and workshops leverage noble qualities of compassion, curiosity, and kindness to engage all human beings, building foundations for happiness and success. Uniquely positioned to facilitate healing for people who have been targets of hate, he has dedicated the past 14 years to bringing about a society where all people are valued and included. 

Yoko Noge, a transplant from Osaka, Japan melds an incredible mix of Chicago blues, jazz, Japanese music, and her very own compositions. For well over 15 years her band, composed of Yoko and five legendary Chicago musicians played every Monday at Chicago’s famed HotHouse; they also were frequent talent at Andy’s Jazz Clubs and The Green Mill.

Yoko has performed at the Chicago Blues Festival, the Chicago Jazz Festival, the Asian American Jazz Festival and many special events throughout the United States, Japan, China, and Europe. Among her many accolades, she was named Chicagoan of the Year by the Chicago Tribune.  Chicago author and historian Studs Terkel called her “wonderful Yoko—a jazz for joy Artiste.”  Howard Reich, The Chicago Tribune’s music critic wrote of her: “Yoko Noge offers a fascinating synthesis of cunning jazz improvisation, bona fide blues exhortation, and the cultural rituals of her Japanese origins.” 

In 2014 she was the Recipient of the Foreign Minister’s Commendations in Japan. Additionally, Newsweek Japan did a cover story entitled 100 Japanese the World Respects which featured Yoko as a revered Chicago blues singer/ band leader and newspaper correspondent.

Monica Lewis-Patrick (aka The Water Warrior)is a mother, educator, entrepreneur, and human rights activist/advocate. She is co-founder of We The People of Detroitand has served as their Director of Community Outreach & Engagement since 2009.  She was unanimously elected by the Board to become their President & CEO in 2014.

As one of the leaders at the forefront of the water rights struggle in Detroit and beyond, she presented before the United Nations Secretary-General’s Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation-DESA alongside several other national and international leaders in the global water crisis. She is the visionary, co-designer and co-author of the current We The People of Detroit: Community Research Collective that published and released “Mapping the Water Crisis: The Dismantling of African-American Neighborhoods in Detroit” (August 2016)as volume one of a three-part series documenting the effects of austerity and its relationship to race in Detroit. We The People of Detroit co-hosted the United Nations Rapporteurs on Water/Sanitation and Housing in Detroit in October 2014 to challenge the Human Right to Clean, Safe and Affordable Water which was being denied to Detroit residents.

Lewis-Patrick and her organization have won numerous awards including: River Heroes 2019 (River Network), Freshwater Future Hero 2018 (Freshwater Futures), United Nations/ Detroit Chapter- Humanitarian Award 2018, Michigan League of Conservation Voters- Advocates of the Year 2018.  They have been featured on several radio and television programs; such as, “Wake Up Detroit”, “The Roland Martin Show – TV One”, MSNBC News.  Newspapers and magazine articles range from EBONY to The Washington Post, Guardian Magazine, and The Hindustan Times, among others.

She is an active member of the People’s Water Board Coalition, US Human Rights Network, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), HOW (Healing Our Waters)/ Equity Advisory Action WeCouncil, PolicyLink-WERC, Flint Strong Stones (Co-founder), Freshwater Futures/All About Water (Advisory Committee), Lead and Copper Rule Advisory Group at University of Michigan/ Ann Arbor- Water Center, The Nature Conservancy and Michigan State University Water Fellow 2019, Michigan Water Table: PFAS Workshop, Michigan Water Unity Table, Water Affordability- Flint/ Mayor Karen Weaver, Detroit Equity Action Lab (Fellow 2016), Michigan Lifestage Environmental Exposures and Disease Center- StakeholderAdvisory Group.  Acknowledging her expansive leadership, in 2015 she was named to the World Water Justice Council.

Patrick-Lewis is actively engaged in every struggle on behalf of Detroit residents.  As a former Lead Legislative Policy Analyst for Detroit City Council under the mentorship of former City Councilwoman, the Honorable JoAnn Watson, Monica authored legislation, conducted research and delivered constituency services to tens of thousands of Detroit residents.

Lewis-Patrick attended the historic Bennett College and is a graduate of East Tennessee State University where she earned a Bachelors of General Studies degree in Social Work and Sociology as well as a Masters of Arts of Liberal Studies degree with a concentration in Criminal Justice/Sociology and Public Management.  She was a Ron McNair Scholar.

Deemed one of the greatest Taekwondo athletes of the 20th century, Arlene Limas made history on September 17, 1988, when she became the first American, and the first female to win a Gold Medal at the 24th Olympic Games in Seoul, Korea. Among her numerous titles, Limas won nine National and World Championships and has been inducted into seven Halls of Fame including the Taekwondo Hall of Fame in 2007.

Ms. Limas continued her involvement in the Olympic Movement from Olympic Day activities to Executive Committee bid process responsibilities, serving on two Olympic bid city executive boards for the cities of Washington, DC (2012) and Chicago, IL (2016). Her work within the Olympic Movement started to reflect more of her focus on giving people safe and equal opportunities.

More than that, she has gone on to use her knowledge, skills, and accomplishments to enrich the lives of many, many others through the development of violence prevention and healing programs. Bringing her passion for safe sport to the workplace violence field, Ms. Limas utilized her gold medal approach and tenacity to expand the advocacy, education, and implementation of workplace violence prevention on a large scale by founding PAVE Prevention, Inc. 

PAVE partners with organizations, corporations, and institutions to develop evidence-based and trauma-informed programs on violence prevention and healing programs while providing invaluable guidance and trainings on human safety skills, organizational policy and leadership development, threat assessment, conflict resolution and crisis management from a moral imagination perspective.  Arlene Limas’s work aims at creating a fair and equal society in which each individual matters, their rights are recognized, and their physical and mental health is protected at work, in order to ensure that everyone’s freedoms, opportunities and well-being are improving as a whole.

A development practitioner with an extensive track record spanning over 10 years, he has spearheaded innovative development programs and developed and utilized Umunthu participatory action research methodology within the social sector in Malawi and the SADC region. Skilled in Research, Programme Design and Development, Facilitation, Advocacy and Strategic Planning. Dedicated to advancing UNSDGs, Inclusive Health Policies and Practices, Human Rights, Youth Leadership and Empowerment, Climate Justice, and Ending Violence Against Women, Girls, and Children.

His dedication to the profound concept of Umunthu, the African ethos of interconnectedness and shared humanity, drives him forward. Rodger is a staunch believer in the transformative power of participatory arts.

Biography to come

As the founder and creative engine behind Genesis at the Crossroads, Wendy designed all programs to date and continues to oversee production and implementation of performance/artistic programs, education and humanitarian initiatives worldwide. She forged national/international partnerships with over 45 institutions and founded Saffron Caravan, Genesis’ professional world music ensemble uniting artists from Iran, Afghanistan, Cuba, Morocco, Israel, India, Brazil, Venezuela and the US for cross-cultural collaborative performance and educational programs.  Since 2011, Sternberg has created and produced a body of inquiry-based salon programs on the intersection of human rights, human development and the role of the arts to help shape and inform a humanistic society and transform conflict. One annual salon series focuses on women’s leadership. She masterminds the creative development/management of the current Genesis Academy Summer Institutes for international youth leaders from areas of conflict as well as the future Genesis Peace Hub. (Due to the pandemic, the Peace Hub began virtually in 2020 with Sounds of Healing; its physical campus place-making on Chicago’s South side is in the process of coming to fruition for a slated 2023 opening.) 

Affectionately called a Doctor without a Border, her prior 20+ year career as a primary care internal medicine physician informs the healing aspects at the heart of Genesis at the Crossroads. Under her leadership, Genesis boasts over 150 award-winning programs, internationally acclaimed by the UN, The Kennedy Center, Rotary, The King of Morocco, the British Council, the US Institute of Peace and the US Department of State. A Rotary Peace Fellow and a Salzburg Global Seminar Fellow, Today’s Chicago Woman Magazine featured her as a Woman to Watch. She was named one of the 10 Jewish Chicagoans of the Year and was a 2011 Charles Bronfman Prize Nominee. Sternberg is a member of the Chicago Chapter of the Woods Fund – Kellogg Foundation’s Truth, Racial Healing, Transformation Task Force. On the celebratory occasion of the 150^th anniversary of Gandhi’s birth, Sternberg was deeply honored to be chosen as the closing speaker, following the remarks of Gandhi’s Granddaughter, Nelson Mandela’s Daughter and Cesar Chavez’s Grandson at the Gandhi 150: A Legacy of Peace 2019 program in Chicago. She keynoted the Gandhi King Foundation’s 2020 virtual peace program in India at the University of Hyderabad.

In the face of the pandemic, she retooled Genesis’ 2006 Art of Healing initiative into a cross-cultural collaborative health and wellness program with a focus on arts, trauma and healing. It features multiple virtual and in-person programs over the next few years (Sounds of Healing). Among other written work, publications include: For the Sake of Humanity; Research on Cross-Cultural Collaborative Arts for Public Health, Chapter in The Oxford Handbook of Methods for Public Scholarship, Oxford Press (2018).

Sternberg graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania with a BA in French Literature. She received her Doctor of Medicine from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine with field work in public health in Chennai, India. She completed her Internal Medicine Residency Program at the University of Chicago.

Carli joined Lawndale Christian Legal Center (“LCLC”), a non-profit law firm providing holistic defense services to Lawndale residents 24 years old and younger in juvenile or criminal court, in January 2018 as a Community Case Manager and transitioned to work on housing insecurity more recently. She earned her graduate degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at Concordia University, Chicago in 2015 and her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff in 2009. Carli brings almost 10 years of dedication and commitment to serving both families and young adults.

Prior to joining LCLC, she worked as a Program Manager at Chicago Commons in the Financial Opportunity Center. There, Carli and her team sought to strengthen families through financial literacy, resource linkage, and educational opportunities. After many years of working with young adults from various communities, Carli’s passion for young adults deepened. She understands they may not “get it” the first time around, but with the proper support and education, they may better navigate what life presents. She currently works with emerging adults ages 18-24 residing in Lawndale in the Restorative Justice Community Court who have housing issues. She enjoys working with emerging adults as they grow and discover the best versions of themselves, encouraging them to keep moving forward despite their pasts because it is never too late to start over. Carli enjoys spending time with family, traveling, and outdoors.