BAZ
Mia Andor Baz | Singer
Mia Andor Baz (they/them) is a member of the Barbershop Harmony Society (BHS), singing competitive barbershop-style a cappella music. They moved in with their quartet, Hot Second, in August. While barbershop conventions have been canceled this year, Hot Second is participating in a reality show and charity fundraiser called Barbershop Royale, raising funds for the Ali Forney Center (link to donate below). Hot Second will be livestreaming a concert from home (“The Hot Spot”) later this year — like them on Facebook for updates!
Baz is also a member of the BHS Hell’s Kitchen chapter choruses, Gotham (SATB) and Sirens of Gotham (SSAA). Both choruses are producing content to release this winter.
In October, Baz served as a panelist for the first installment of the BHS’s Inclusion Webinar Series, “Gender identity, LGBTQ+, and Barbershop” to speak about their experiences of inclusion and exclusion as a transgender nonbinary person in as-yet gendered singing organizations. You can watch the recorded webinar at the link below.
ADDITIONAL LINKS
Hot Second Quartet, “If I Had My Life To Live Over”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-mIR0gbqWs
Ali Forney Fundraiser: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/hotsecond
Sirens of Gotham, Harmony Classic Champions, 2018: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAIFTBFsaqQ
BHS Inclusion Webinar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qF57l9RNPE
BRIGITTE WILLIAMSON
Actor & Filmmaker
Thanks to the GP grant, I was able to produce my short film “Sweetie Pie”! I’m so thankful that the grant allowed me to bring on a great team and realize the world I’d envisioned. We’ve now locked picture and are in the process of submitting to film festivals across the country.
ADDITIONAL LINKS
Other Video: https://filmfreeway.com/SweetiePie020
GP ARTIST: ERIN ROBINSON
Textile and Graphic Designer
I design large scale tapestries collaged with a variety of textiles that I get from around the world. Typically the tapestries include mythical and powerful creatures combined with floral elements. The canvases are dyed with natural dyes (turmeric, beet, sandalwood) and the appliqués are hand-drawn and hand stitched onto the canvas. All artworks are for sale!
SAKI
Dancer, Actor & Yoga Instructor
I’m a dancer/actor, born and raised in Japan. I started dancing when I was 4 years old and haven’t really stopped dancing since. I came to NYC to pursue my dream. It was a big adventure for me to move to another country without speaking their language. Somehow I’m still here and I’m grateful for all my family, friends and teachers made me who I am today. And I just became a certified yoga instructor! It’s definitely helping me in this difficult time physically and mentally.
SOCIAL MEDIA
@sakinyc
GIULIANA MARIANI
Documentary Filmmaker
I made a short observational documentary of the daily life of a college dancer during this time of online learning.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Giuliana Mariani
@giules_08
MICHAEL DAVID
Michael Fisher | Songwriter
I’ve been in the process of writing, producing, mixing, and mastering an album of songs that tell stories of loss, redemption, longing, and love.
SOCIAL MEDIA
@miketothem_i_k_e
EUGENE
Meryle Ward | Sound Recording Artist
I have a degree in Recording Arts, which is essentially anything sound. Recording for Music/ Film, Editing, Mixing Mastering, Restoration, etc.
I would love to network with other people on their work.
SOCIAL MEDIA
@ujeanward
FORREST HEDDEN
Cookbook Author
This spring I published my first book. Full Circle, Memories and Magic from a Family Table.
It is a culinary memoir of the 1960’s 70’s and 80’s as seen through the eyes of a Gen X boy and his family.
It is about food and family and how we all can tell the story of of lives through food. How each of us has a personal food heritage.
At it’s core the book asks a question. if you ever wonder why you can’t get away from the fact that eating chocolate cake makes you think of your grandmother? Or why certain pizza toppings make you think about laughter-filled nights spent with best friends in high school? Or the way your mom’s spaghetti recipe tastes when YOU make it, and you suddenly feel like you’re ten years old again?
That is the power of food. It is fuel for the body… and medicine for the soul.
Full Circle is a story about how that happened in one family. But it is really the story that food creates in the muscle memory of everyone’s lives-even yours!
SOCIAL MEDIA
@Cookforrestcook
JOËL RENÉ SCOVILLE
Actress and Writer
I am a professional actress and writer. My work is women of color centric that dispels racial and gender stereotypes to present a realistic and inclusive narrative of the human experience.
My current project, Crazy with a K! is a web series exploring mental illness:
“After a stint in the psych ward Joey, a twice divorced, Black Mormon, juggles Broadway dreams and parenting amidst depression fueled shenanigans, in this coming of middle-age story about being happy…when you’re not.”
In addition to film/tv writing, I am also a playwright.
My musical, 2&1 will have a residency at New Musicals, Inc. in 2021.
Presently, I am in the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop in the Book Writing program.
I am also a member of Actors’ Equity Association, The Dramatists Guild of America and a fan of all things related to superheroes, Star Wars and Agatha Christie.
SOCIAL MEDIA
@CrazyWithaK1
ADDITIONAL LINKS
CAMERON BOYLE
Yoga Instructor
I am a yoga teacher. I normally teach in YMCAs and schools in New Jersey and New York, in Brazil and in Nigeria. With gyms and schools being closed, I had to get creative.
Since my students and I were not inspired by the Zoom alternative to live group practice, I started to post a different Vinyasa sequence each day which students could watch and repeat several times at their convenience. They loved that, and when NY and NJ started reopening, we met in small socially-distanced groups or in family clusters in parks in NJ, Harlem and Brooklyn. I normally teach in Brazil in August; this year I went to do emergency food delivery and COVID-protocol classes on the beach. I normally teach in Nigeria in January; instead I will go next March and teach in outdoor spaces. In my absence, my international students have appreciated my new online instructional presence. I have been grateful to be able to find opportunity and fulfillment in the face of epidemic restrictions.