Young Women's Drumming Empowerment Project

YWDEP works with professional local female artists who share their creative and artistic skills with our project participants. Since 2005, we have worked with the following artists. Staff bios are also available online, as well as the rosters for 2005 She Poets of the Rizing Moon and the 2006 Goddesses of Rhtyhm.

melissa "princess of controversy" best: www.princessofcontroversy.net

margaux delotte-bennett: Margaux started writing poetry when she was in high school and soon after her mother gave her a blank book to write all of her poetry in. Now she writes poetry, songs and monologues that use a mixture of creative elements. As an active performer and Board Member with Sol y Soul, a local arts and activism organization, Margaux has facilitated numerous writing and performance workshops, performed around the DC metro area and worked with others to create shows using her original works. In 2002 Spoken Resistance, a part of Sol y Soul, won the mayor's emerging artist award and Margaux performed with an ensamble at the awards show. In 1999 Margaux had the opportunity to live and work in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. While there, she was a volunteer art teacher at St. Christopher's Shelter that housed homeless boys. The Eastern Province Society of Arts and Crafts allowed Margaux to host an art exhibit of the boys' work. During her time in South Africa, Margaux was also a member of the Sakhana Theater Company that performed an HIV/AIDS awareness play around the city. Upon returning to DC, Margaux continued her involvement with the Washington Action Group, a puppet street theater group that performed at rallies and events. She started working at the Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League (SMYAL) in 2000 organizing & facilitating a weekly creative writing group and other events.

katy gaughan: Katy brings her love of the drum and joyful dance to enchant her audiences. As a drummer, dancer and drum circle facilitator, Katy uses her musical skills and facilitation training to bring people together to feel the connection of community, to learn about the drum and movement, and to have fun. Katy believes that the drum is an instrument that can be used for healing and encouranges health through drumming with her organization Music Heals Us. She is a hand percussionist for Tribal Trance Fusion (one of many!) and is most often heard playing the West African djembe drum or the Latin conga drums. Her love of drumming and dance led her to the 2003 East Coast Drum Circle Facilitator Playshop with Arthur Hull where she was certified as a drum circle facilitator. Over the past 5 years, Katy has performed with local jaxx trio Djesben, Rhythm Shamans, Haunted Bordello, Shmazi, Jaqui MacMillian's Hand Drum Orchestra and the Rhythm Workers Union. She has been blessed to learn and play hand drums with a variety of teachers in the greater Washington, DC area, including the Malcolm X Drummers, Laryea Addy of the Royal Ghanaian Drum Family and WAMMIE winner Jaqui MacMillian.

leah harris: Leah is currently pursuing a MFA in Creative Writing at American University. Her prose and poetry has been published in Off Our Backs: A Feminist Newsjournal, Mizna: Art, Prose, and Poetry Exploring Arab America, Chiaroscuro: A Journal of Peace and Conflict, and DC Poets Against the War: An Anthology. She has performed locally with the DC Guerilla Poetry Insurgency and the Word of Mouth Poetry Collective, and serves on the organizing committee of DC Poets Against the War. Her forthcoming memoir is entitled Generation Rx.

julie lipson: Julie interned at YWDEP as a senior Women's Studies and Ethnomusicology major at University of Maryland. Since graduating, she began working with Rachel's Women's Center through Avodah. She is also a singer-songwriter and sings and plays guitar and flute in Vasudeva, a DC-based jam/rock band. She is very excited about working with YWDEP and hopes it will further her planned career as a starving artist.

sheila mirza: Sheila is a youth organizer, spoken word artist, poet, and muralist who began organizing for social change at age 14 in Queens, NYC. She is a volunteer staff with the Youth Leadership Support Network in Washington, DC working to produce a variety of events including: Sisterfire INCITE - DC Women Against Violence Festival; National Education Association Peace and Justice Caucus "Education Not Incarceration" Conference; and Lands and Cultures "Trading Guns for Guitars" Festival. She coordinates projects in youth media, theater, movement history, open-mics and workshops at schools, colleges, and conferences. She is a frequent performer at local and national events and cast member of Sol & Soul: Art for Social Change, Barrio Street Theater/Teatro de los Trabajadores production of Sin Fronteras, and Suspect Street Theater. She taught graffiti arts for DC youth at the Higher Achievement Program through PANORAMA Community Arts Initiative, and served as the intern for the Young Women's Drumming Empowerment Project during the summer 2005.

jaqui macmillan: users.erols.com/jaqui/

candace mickens

deb randall: www.venustheatre.com

laila shereen sakr: Laila Shereen is a poet, performer, activist, and multimedia artist. She is Multimedia and Publications Editor at Georgetown U.’s CCAS. Shereen is a co-founder of the DC Guerrilla Poetry Insurgency. Publications include On Becoming Arab, Give, Human Skin, Awakening (Chapbook, 2001), and Word of Mouth (Chapbook, 2000). Two forthcoming essays are On Becoming Without Language and A Bunch of Feelings, Arab American Women Writers' Anthology (ed. Nathalie Handal).

anu yadav: Anu is a writer, performer and theater-based educator in Washington, DC. A graduate of Bryn Mawr College, Yadav was a 2000-2001 Thomas J. Watson Fellow, during which she studied theatre towards social change in Brazil, India and South Africa. She is a member of Friends and Residents of Arthur Capper/Carrollsburg, and the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign. She is the winner of the 2006 Mayor's Arts Award for Outstanding Emerging Artist for her work with 'Capers.