Douglas Allen (b.1954) has worked as a studio artist at the progressive art studios of Tierra del Sol since 2009. Allen works in a variety of media to build intimate cityscapes using a psychedelic pallet. The prominent feature of these compositions are detailed diesel trucks, which he creates from memory. “I want to be a truck driver someday, but I know that’s impossible so I draw them instead,” says Allen. When he’s not making art he enjoys spending time with his dogs.

Janelle is 18 years old and she is a double-major in Theatre and Creative Writing at The University of Redlands. Janelle currently aspires to be a film director and to hopefully create more roles for people with disabilities. Janelle is very excited to be a part of this reading today and she hopes this helps spread some awareness!

(The actor is a young Latinx woman with long black hair and black framed glasses. She  is wearing a black long-sleeved shirt and is smiling).

CHRIS BEACH is a Professor of Theatre Arts at the University of Redlands. Beach has directed over sixty productions in professional and academic theatre, and has received the American College Theatre Festival Award for Excellence in Theatre Education. His professional directing credits include Assistant Director, world premiere of Widows, by Ariel Dorfman and Tony Kushner (Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles); a premiere production of Nickel and Dime, by Mark Jordan Legan (Best of the Weekend, LA Times, Hudson Theatre, Hollywood); The Firebugs, produced by Buffalo Nights Theatre Company, (four Los Angeles Dramalogue Awards). His original productions, premiered at Los Angeles Theatre Center, include Little Pictures, by Andrew Ramer, and Home Project: an Eco-Cabaret, both received Pick of the Week (LA Weekly). Beach was the founding Artistic Director of White Noise Theatre,Inc. (NYC/LA) and The Performance Loft (Redlands). In 2017, Beach was invited to stage his adaptation, Big Brother Hamlet: A Surveillance Adaptation, at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Beach is also a theatrical consultant for corporate events and seminars

www.beachworkscoaching.com

The actor is a middle-age white man, bald with a small gray goatee, and a small hoop earring in his left ear; he is wearing a baby blue button up shirt with small white dots and white buttons

Laura Hernandez(she/ella/they/them) is an Indigenous Xicana stand-up comedian, public speaker, actress, writer, poet/spoken word artist, and an Indigenous Rights and Disability Justice advocate from San Bernardino, CA. Born with Marfan Syndrome, Laura lives with multiple disabilities including complete blindness. She has acquired several academic degrees and certificates including a B.A. in Sociology, B.A. in History with an emphasis on Ethnic Studies, and a Certificate in Gerontology. As well as has much experience in community organizing and advocacy work. In 2018, Laura made her TV debut featured on the first-ever televised native stand-up comedy series; First Nations Comedy Experience. She has also been featured on several podcasts and continues to perform and speak on various platforms. You can follow them across social media as Laura Hernandez @badassblindcomic or email at: badassblindcomic@gmail.com.

(The comedian and speaker is an Indigenous Xicana woman with long black hair; she is wearing a white blouse with blue embroidery along the neck and down the front; she is wearing long beaded turquoise earrings)

Devin Hicks is originally from San Francisco California, and is currently a Senior at the University of Redlands. Devin is obtaining his bachelors in Theatre business and Masters in Education. Devin is a trained dancer and teaches locally within the Inland Empire. After graduation Devin hopes to continue working in the performing arts and furthering his artistic career.

(The actor is young African American man, smiling at the camera, wearing a charcoal gray quarter-zip sweater, reddish-orange shirt underneath and blue jeans)

Jonathan Jackson, a master collageist and painter, has worked with Tierra del Sol Studios since 2010. Jonathan’s paintings are often based on his collaged compositions.  Here he is at “Summary Appeal”, a show installed at the Good Luck Gallery and curated by Doug Harvey. Jonathan’s pieces are above him and on the right side of the image.

The image is a photograph of a man standing in front of 11 artworks. He is wearing a colorful patterned shirt with a black collar. (provided by Tierra and the artist)

Jennifer Kane is an artist, arts organizer, and teacher from Los Angeles, CA and currently resides in Joshua Tree. She serves as the Executive Director of Arts Connection, the Arts Council of San Bernardino County. Jennifer received her BA in Fine Arts from Mount St. Mary’s College and her MFA in Public Practice from Otis College of Art and Design. She is a recent graduate of Arts for LA’s ACTIVATE Cultural Policy Fellowship program.

Jennifer’s multidisciplinary practice approaches community engagement as a dynamic form of art: creating space and opportunities for people to gather in unexpected environments through diverse methods and mediums to promote broader understanding and connection to self, others, and place. Organizing community outreach events in Peace Corps Thailand from 2006-2008 helped generate her passion for this deeply relational work. Jennifer further developed her skills as a teacher of geology, human history, and ecology as a guide for over a decade in the Sierra Nevada range of California. It is her work here that roots her attention to our deep connections to the land and each other.

Jennifer’s writing has been featured in KCET Artbound and as part of the Mojave Project. Her paintings are held in private collections across the world. Jennifer is a proud board member of Californians for the Arts, the California Arts Advocates, and the Board of Advocates for the Robert and Frances Fullerton Museum of Art (RAFFMA).

(This speaker is a young white woman with dirty blonde hair below her shoulders, wearing a beige sweater with a diagonal stripe of fabric offset across the stomach.)

Victoria Lewis. Founding Director Other Voices Mark Taper Forum. Professor Theatre Arts, University of Redlands.

Victoria  is a pioneer in theatre and disability, working since the 1980s in a variety of theatrical models—grassroots, community-based, regional not-for-profit, and television and film. In 1982, with the support of an Artist in Residence in the Communities grant from the California Arts Council (CAC), Victoria founded the Other Voices Project at Los Angeles’s Mark Taper Forum, dedicated to providing theatre training for people with disabilities and creating texts to challenge the depiction of disability in drama and the mass media. For the next 20 years, as a member of the Artistic Staff at the Taper, Victoria developed strategies for cultural enfranchisement of marginalized communities. In 2000 she received a PhD in Theatre from UCLA and joined the Theatre Arts faculty at the University of Redlands. 

Victoria is the editor of Beyond Victims and Villains: Contemporary Plays by Disabled Playwrights, Theatre Communications Group, 2006, the first anthology of American plays by writers with disabilities. Her current project is a verbatim documentary play, One Day on the Road to the ADA: September 27, 1988, developed from the congressional record and Disability Civil Rights archives. Recent publications include: “A Great and Complicated Thing: Reimagining Disability,” in Casting a Movement: The Welcome Table Initiative, Routledge, 2019; “Hands like starfish/ Feet like moons’: Disabled Women Theatre Collectives,” in Women and Collective Creation, Palgrave, 2016. She is included in the Disability Civil Rights Oral History Project at UC Berkeley.

The actor and speaker is a white woman with short, light brown hair held lightly back by a pair of brown glasses. She is wearing a beige suit jacket and a black shirt underneath.

Katie has a deep interest in the world around her and she thoughtfully shares with others her insights on a wide variety of subjects. She is an explorer and inspires those around her with a positive inquisitiveness. Katie seeks daily to to expand her skills and is a naturally talented artist and teacher. Everyday she has something brilliant to share. 

Katie creates and designs characters and stories for movies. She recently designed and made a set of tarot cards and does readings. Her paintings, drawings and sculpture generally have a surprise element to draw the viewer in.

(The artist is a young Latinx woman wearing metal framed glasses and leather strung necklaces of various lengths. She is wearing ski goggles on the top of her head, a red knit beanie and a camo jacket)

Jackie Marsh is a prolific artist. She enjoys working at Tierra’s studios and continuously inspires those around her. She has an extraordinary gift for art making and teaching and she continually works to master new techniques. Jackie loves to connect with others, is always supportive and easily shares her knowledge with others.  She respects the critique of her mentor and peers, and in turn, Jackie gives thoughtful insights and advice.  She is very kind and motivates all of those around her. 

Jackie’s subject matter for her art works include flowers, animals and self-portraits. In her paintings and drawings she builds dynamic compositions with vibrant colors and expressive shapes. Her highly stylized ceramic sculptures of whimsical animals uniquely express her personal vision and care for the natural world.

(The artist is seated working on a painting on the table in front of her. She is a young white woman with short light brown hair and bangs; she is wearing a gray t-shirt and a red apron.)

Alan Toy is an innovator, a community organizer, a dedicated civil rights activist and an accomplished actor, appearing in more than fifty television shows and motion pictures, including The Aviator, In the Line of Fire, Kansas, Beverly Hills 90210 and Matlock.

He has been an elected and appointed member of many state and local boards and commissions. He has been a consultant on many disability-related projects and is a frequent keynote speaker and panelist.  Alan was the associate director of a research center in the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, and also the executive director of one of the oldest Independent Living Centers in the U.S.

Alan has worked tirelessly in the disability and senior communities to increase individual and community-based self-sufficiency. His advocacy in mass media entertainment and the Screen Actors Guild has not only paved the way for many other disabled performers to have successful careers, but has also given viewers around the world a new way of seeing people with disabilities portrayed on television and in films.

His union organizing work for SEIU helped create a new paradigm of in-home care for many thousands of healthcare workers and their clients. His innovative projects in web-based accessibility mapping were twice finalists for the Harvard University Ash Institute’s Innovations in American Government Award.

Alan serves on the board of directors of the ACLU of Southern California, where he has held several offices, including affiliate president. He was also a member of the national ACLU board for nine years.

(The actor is an older white man with blue eyes and grayish brown hair, wearing a black sweater over a light blue, collared shirt.)

Kate Zankowicz (she/her/hers) is a museum education practitioner who has created community-driven, inclusive programming in museums in Canada and the US for the past 15 years. Her practice has centered around creating collaborative programming with, not for, communities. 

Kate holds a PhD in Education, with a focus on museum-based education and the history of accessibility in museums, from the University of Toronto (OISE). She currently serves as the Manager of Youth, Family and Community Engagement at The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens. 

During her current tenure at the Huntington, Kate introduced the first occupational therapy doctoral student residency, as well as garden-based and arts-based programming with families of all abilities. She also implemented free preschool arts programming, free drop-in multilingual family programs, and  multisensory tours with blind and partially sighted community members.

Kate designs, develops and implements inclusive curricula and museum experiences, and speaks regularly about inclusive museum education at local and international conferences. She also serves on the DEI Committee at The Huntington and is involved with various cross-institutional DEI initiatives in Los Angeles.

(A smiling white woman with long brown hair wearing a floral patterned top with black sleeves)