Dominic Cinnamon Bradley (The Johns Hopkins University BA | Columbia University MSW) is a Brooklyn-based Black, disabled, non-binary artist reared in the crunk-era “Dirty South.” Currently, Dominic is a co-editor for an upcoming book project on disability artistry. 

Beth Prevor is a co-founder and Executive Director of Hands On, an arts service organization that advocates for access to the cultural arts for the Deaf community and audiences with disabilities. For the last 30+ years, Hands On has been providing access for the Deaf and hard of hearing communities of NYC through sign language interpreted theater at some of NYC’s most prestigious theaters including The Roundabout Theater Company, The New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theater and The New Victory Theater.

As Executive Director, Beth works with arts organizations to ensure inclusion for all by providing marketing, community engagement and audience development strategies. As a disabled advocate, Beth is active as an advisory member to many groups including, The Shubert Accessibility Committee, The New Jersey Theatre Alliance, and the Museum, Arts and Culture Access Consortium (MAC).  She has led workshops on accessibility and the arts for organizations around the country including the Kennedy Center’s LEAD (Leadership Exchange in Arts and Disability) Conference, Americans for the Arts, The National Arts Marketing Project, the Alliance of Resident Theaters/New York (ART/NY) and Theater Communications Group (TCG). She currently works as a Disability Consultant with ART/NY.

She is the 2015 recipient of the John F. Kennedy Center’s Excellence in Accessibility Leadership Lifetime Achievement award.

Website: Handson.org

Twitter: @HandsOnSign  

Kayla Hamilton is a Texas born, Bronx based performance maker, dancer, educator, cultural consultant, and the artistic director of K. Hamilton projects. 

Kayla is a 2023-2025 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow. Her past performance work has been presented at the Whitney Museum, Gibney, Performance Space New York, New York Live Arts, Abrons Arts Center, and the Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (BAAD).  

Kayla has co developed ‘Crip Movement Lab’ with fellow Disabled Artist, Elisabeth Motley- a pedagogical framework centering cross-Disability accessible movement practices that are open to every-body. She has taught dance at Sarah Lawrence College, Amherst College, Virginia Commonwealth University, University of Utah, and Texas Improv Festivals. 

As a consultant,  Kayla has developed and implemented programming for Disabled artist for the Mellon Foundation, ArtSpeak, Dance USA, Movement Research and The Shed. 

As a dancer, Kayla was part of the Bessie award winning skeleton architecture, she has also danced for Maria Bauman,  Sydnie L. Mosley and Gesel Mason.

Kayla is currently in the process of creating a future organization centering the work of BIPOC Disabled creatives, while co-leading the 10th anniversary season of Angela’s Pulse/Dancing While Black, and developing a new evening length performance set to premier in NY at The Shed in 2024.

[Image Description: this is a headshot of Kayla Hamilton, who is a dark-skinned black woman. She has her medium length dreads down. She is wearing light makeup and has a soft gaze. She has her dark-rimmed glasses on and she is wearing a yellow blouse. Photo by: Travis Magee]

Lily Lipman (she/they) is a disabled freelance access consultant, educator, and actor. Lily is the Director of Accessibility for Emit Theatre where she makes their immersive productions for children more accessible for everyone participating. Lily also works at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts where she runs the Lincoln Center Moments program for folks with Dementia and their caregivers. She’s worked throughout NYC as an access consultant for cultural institutions including the Leslie Lohman Museum and New York City Children’s Theatre. Lily is an educator for the Museum Access Consortium where she teaches a course through CUNY to disabled students about careers in cultural institutions. She believes in creating spaces for disabled and d/Deaf people to find community and advocate for more accessible systems. They love talking with other disabled creatives and workers about advocating for change. If you’d like to chat with them feel free to reach out at LilyALipman@gmail.com or visit their website at www.LilyLipman.com

Vanessa Hernández Cruz (she, her, ella) is an interdependent Chicana Disabled dance artist, filmmaker, visual artist, poet & an Intersectional Disability Justice activist. She was born and raised in the unceded land of the Tongva & Kizh lands colonially known as Los Angeles, California. She received her Associates Degree in Dance from Santa Monica College. She recently graduated from California State University Long Beach with her Bachelor of Arts in Dance Science.  Vanessa recently premiered two solos: “Nycto-Eternity” & “Timeless Hourglass” at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles as a guest artist with the international dance company LuxBit Art Company based in Seoul, Korea. In the summer of 2022, she was commissioned through the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs to produce the dance film “Los Portales del Corazón” for the ‘Dance in the Districts’ program.

Vanessa has been implementing the Disability Justice framework (Sins Invalid) through her activism & dance work. She is currently working with DANC (Dance Artists’ National Collective) as their Communications & Social Media Co-Coordinator. She also serves as a consultant in their BIPOC & Disabled Circle. She is also working as an Accessibility Advisor for HomeLA. In the past, she guided Cal State Long Beach Department of Dance to adopt Disability Justice elements into their dance productions and curriculum with the support of CSULB Affinity AIDE (Advocates for Inclusion & Dancer Equity). She has developed two workshops: Dismantling Ableism in Dance & Accessibility at the Forefront of Dance Making Series. In addition she offers accessibility consulting to individuals & a variety of arts organizations.

 Vanessa is committed to generating substantial changes in the dance field and making the dance field an equitable  space for our multi-marginalized disabled communities.

Follow & Learn More:

https://www.galaxiesdance.info

https://www.instagram.com/galaxiesdance/

Headshot & Image Description:

[Image Description 1: a headshot of Vanessa in a long sleeve lace undershirt with a textured abstract skeleton black dress with a silver metallic corset. She is leaning against Pluto (her purple walker) she is spiraling her torso as one arm is reaching up. She is in front of a dark grey textured background. ]

Derrick Quevedo (he/him/isu/siya) is an Ilocano and Tagalog Filipino American, Disabled, Mad, and Neurodivergent artist and writer. His work includes observations of identity, community, social justice, and liberation. He is currently settled on Piscataway and Susquehanna lands (so-called Baltimore, MD.)

(Headshot Description: Brown Asian with beard, wearing hat, glasses, plaid shirt, and hooded jacket, is smiling while standing against a colorful brick wall.)

www.derrickquevedo.weebly.com

Francisco echo Eraso (he/él) is a disabled, trans, Colombian-American interdisciplinary craft artist, curator, educator, arts administrator and accessibility consultant. He is interested in grassroots approaches to disability justice, trans liberation, cooperative textiles and the creative redistribution of resources. He holds a dual degree in Critical Visual Studies and Fine Arts from Parsons, the New School. Francisco is a LEAD certified access consultant and has worked with various arts organizations including The Shed, Ford Foundation Gallery, Art and Disability Residency, and Kinetic Light. He has presented on the topics of access and disability artistry at the Ford Foundation, Art in America, Virginia Commonwealth University, Parsons, the New School, University of Illinois, Ford Foundation, Columbia University, amongst others. Francisco currently lives in New York City and works as the Associate Manager of Access and Inclusion at the Whitney Museum of American Art and Curatorial Coordinator at Proclaiming Disability Arts. 

(Headshot description: Headshot of Francisco, a white latinx trans man with long dark wavy hair and a short beard. He is standing in front of a white wall, smiling, wearing a black shirt, striped blazer and gold chain.)

Mark Roxey He/him/El, Founding Director of Roxey Ballet, has created a humanistic organization where accessibility, equity, diversity and inclusion are the core principles. His goal has always been to include people of all abilities with differing viewpoints, experiences, and resources in both the training, exhibition, staffing, artists’ and board of director aspects of the company. 

In his youth he began professionally as a b-bop, hip hop dancer in movies, commercials and with a group called Fresh Kids from Coney Island. From there he received a full scholarship from Joffrey Ballet and thus began his career at the Joffrey Ballet Company II under the direction of Gage Bush and Richard England, and The Joffrey Ballet under the direction of the late Robert Joffrey. He later joined American Repertory Ballet and Dayton Ballet as a principal dancer under the direction of Dermote Burke and Marjorie Mussman.

His career enabled him to perform in works by legendarychoreographers: George Balanchine, Gerald Arpino, Robert Joffrey, PaulTaylor, Jose Limon, Alvin Ailey, Twyla Tharp, William Forsythe, JohnCranko, John Butler, Maurice Petipa, and August Bournonville, appearing as aPrincipal Artist in companies around the world with his partner and wife,Melissa Roxey. 

Roxey Ballet was founded by exploring the humanities as,initially, Mark used break dance as a means of expression and education againstracism and social inequality, then concert dance to communicate and exploreideas for greater understanding and to create transformational of ways ofthinking about humanities subjects. His quest is to continually look for thehuman element, how to best exchange ideas or make a significant difference inthe community, and articulate our humanity through our art form. For 30 yearsMark Roxey has been transforming communities through interactive programs thatcommunicate human, civil, disability rights, women's health initiatives,bullying and the cultural condition.

Mark has served on the faculty of Princeton Ballet, DaytonBallet, Wright State University, Trotwood Madison City Schools, NortheastYouth Ballet and Raritan Valley Community College. He has also worked asthe dance program coordinator for the Hunterdon County Teen Arts DanceFestival,  YMCA and adjudicator for the State Teen Arts Festival.

Mark was voted the Voted # 1 Move & Shaker in HunterdonCounty, New Jersey and is the former President of Dance NJ. He is also anactive member of Dance USA, IPAY, APAP, Arts Presenters, and the national ArtsAccess Task Force. In 2006 Mr. Roxey was honored by VSA New Jersey withthe New Jersey Governor's Award, the highest honor in New Jersey thatrecognizes the outstanding creative achievement of art educators and leaders.

As a person with a disability, Mark (and Melissa) founded anddirected the dance and choreography Arts Access Program at Metheny MedicalCenter in Peapack, New Jersey designing, staffing, and fulfilling a unique artstraining program for persons with severe disabilities, working alongsidedisabled artists creating an avenue for them to actively participate in thecreative process for more than a decade. 

With his wife, Melissa, Mark created youth ballet company that becamea world-class professional dance organization with a major east coast impact.He is the proud father of his two beautiful children, Mirabel and BenjaminRoxey.

(Headshot description: headshot of Mark Roxey, a man with darkhair, a mustache and goatee, wearing rectangular glasses in front of a darkgrey background)

Sarah Lewitus (she/her) is a Baltimore-based arts workerinterested in performance, space, and turning imagination into action. As theProgram Director, Performing Arts at Mid Atlantic Arts, Sarah coordinatesregional performing arts touring programs including ArtsCONNECT, Mid AtlanticTours, and Special Presenter Initiatives. Sarah also serves as theAccessibility Coordinator at Mid Atlantic Arts, managing access initiatives forthe organization and the region that aim to move beyond compliance and towardsdisability justice.

midatlanticarts.org

Judith Smith, Founding Member and Artistic Director Emerita of AXIS Dance Company, is one of the world’s driving forces in physically integrated dance. She was born and raised in the mountains of Colorado. Prior to becoming disabled in a car accident at age 17 in 1977, Judith was a champion equestrian. She transferred her passion for riding to dance after discovering contact improvisation in 1983. Judith helped launch AXIS in 1987 and she grew the Company to be the nation’s leading physically integrated dance ensemble. She has left an amazing legacy and vision for the future of AXIS and integrated dance.

Her advocacy and equity work led to the first-ever National Convening on the Future of Physically Integrated Dance in the USA, followed by six regional town halls throughout the country in 2016. This project, supported by the prestigious Doris Duke Charitable Foundation National Project Program, culminated in an extensive report and the launch of the AXIS Artistic Advancement Platform to Advance Artistry, Opportunity and Equity for Dancers with Disabilities. She has been instrumental in the creation of the Dance/USA Disability and Dance Affinity Group and co-chairs the group.

Judith is currently working as an independent consultant in dance and disability. She is an activist for the environment, animals and people with disabilities. She gardens for pollinators, birdwatches, raises butterflies and is involved in thoroughbred racehorse rescue and adaptive carriage driving.

Website: http://www.axisdance.org/advocacy

Rhoda Bernard is the Managing Director of the Berklee Institute for Arts Education and Special Needs, a catalyst for the inclusion of individuals with disabilities in all aspects of visual and performing arts education. She holds a Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, in government from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Music with academic honors in jazz voice from New England Conservatory. She earned both her Master of Education and Doctor of Education degrees from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Bernard regularly presents research at conferences throughout the United States and abroad, and she provides professional development workshops for educators in local, national, and international forums. Her work has been published in several book chapters and in numerous journals, including Music Educators Journal; Music Education Research; Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education; Mountain Lake Reader; and Arts and Learning Research Journal. Bernard has been honored with the Berklee Urban Service Award (2017), the Boston Conservatory Community Service Award (2011), the Boston Conservatory Faculty/Staff Spirit Award (2007), and the Outstanding Dissertation Award, Honorable Mention (Second Place) from the Arts and Learning Special Interest Group of the American Educational Research Association. A vocalist and pianist who specializes in jazz music and Jewish Music in Yiddish and Hebrew, she performs regularly with a number of klezmer bands and has recorded two CDs with the band Klezamir. 

Website: www.berklee.edu/biaesn

Judith Smith, Founding Member and Artistic Director Emerita of AXIS Dance Company, is one of the world’s driving forces in physically integrated dance. She was born and raised in the mountains of Colorado. Prior to becoming disabled in a car accident at age 17 in 1977, Judith was a champion equestrian. She transferred her passion for riding to dance after discovering contact improvisation in 1983. Judith helped launch AXIS in 1987 and she grew the Company to be the nation’s leading physically integrated dance ensemble. She has left an amazing legacy and vision for the future of AXIS and integrated dance.

Her advocacy and equity work led to the first-ever National Convening on the Future of Physically Integrated Dance in the USA, followed by six regional town halls throughout the country in 2016. This project, supported by the prestigious Doris Duke Charitable Foundation National Project Program, culminated in an extensive report and the launch of the AXIS Artistic Advancement Platform to Advance Artistry, Opportunity and Equity for Dancers with Disabilities. She has been instrumental in the creation of the Dance/USA Disability and Dance Affinity Group and co-chairs the group.

Judith is currently working as an independent consultant in dance and disability. She is an activist for the environment, animals and people with disabilities. She gardens for pollinators, birdwatches, raises butterflies and is involved in thoroughbred racehorse rescue and adaptive carriage driving.

Website: http://www.axisdance.org/advocacy

Jessica L. Hunt is the Attorney Advisor for the DC Office of Disability Rights, and is a licensed attorney in DC, KY, and VA. In her current position, Ms. Hunt processes complaints of disability discrimination and provides guidance and training to District of Columbia employees and residents on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Rehabilitation Act, the Fair Housing Act (FHA), the Architectural Barriers Act (ABA), and disability sensitivity and etiquette. She serves as part of the Mid-Atlantic ADA Leadership Network’s cadre of trainers, and her areas of expertise include service animals, housing and shelter situations, and reasonable accommodation. Additionally, Ms. Hunt acts as an Accessibility Officer during special events and state and local emergencies to provide technical assistance and training in the District’s Emergency Operations Command Center.

Prior to her employment with ODR, she spent four years at the U.S. Department of the Army Headquarters, Office of Civil Rights, as an Equal Employment Opportunity Specialist. She holds a JD from the University of Kentucky and a Masters in Secondary Special Education and Transition from The George Washington University.

DC Office of Disability Rights: https://odr.dc.gov/

Kali has been proud to encourage inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility at the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities initiatives in the cultural community of Washington, DC through building relationships and implementing creative ways to engage current and potential grantees. She spearheaded the creation of the District’s first audio-tactile rendering of a photograph from District’s fine art collection, coordinates monthly workshops aimed at improving business practices, and managed the agency’s Marion S. Barry Summer Youth Employment program, which was recognized as the most outstanding government host site.

In previous positions, Ms. Wasenko developed an international leadership and public-speaking training program for Best Buddies International. Additionally, she championed the creation of a Disability Sensitivity Training video for the DC Office of Disability Rights that is shown throughout DC training materials and has been utilized internationally.  She has been a guest lecturer at DRD Vietnam, Sri Lanka Fulbright Commission, and University of Kelaniya in Sri Lanka in areas of physical accessibility and advocacy.

Kali serves the District of Columbia as a member of the Mid-Atlantic ADA Leadership Network, DC Advocacy Partners, and the Mayoral-appointed DC Developmental Disabilities Council.  She holds a bachelor’s degree in art history from the University of Michigan and master’s degree in clinical social work from Barry University. 

DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities: https://dcarts.dc.gov/

Twitter: @KaliWasenko 

John McEwen serves as the Executive Director of the New Jersey Theatre Alliance, a service organization for the state’s 33 professional theatres. 

Prior to the Alliance, John served as Vice President for Development of the New Jersey Network Foundation where he was responsible for a $7 million annual fund.  Prior to joining NJN, John served as the Director of Development for Paper Mill Playhouse where he implemented the theatre’s award-winning access services and the Adopt-A-School Project, and was responsible for raising $3.5 million for the annul fund, strategic planning and board development.

John is the founder and Chairman of the Cultural Access Network Project, a program of New Jersey Theatre Alliance and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts that assists the state’s cultural organizations as they make their programs and services accessible to individuals with disabilities. John serves as a trustee for ArtPRIDE New Jersey, Center for NonProfits, Montclair State University’s College of the Arts, and the Fund for the New Jersey Blind.   

John’s awards and achievements include the first Excellence in Accessibility Leadership Award from the Christopher Reeves Paralysis Foundation and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, The Robert Smyth Outstanding Professional Fundraiser Award from AFP/NJ Chapter,  Ann Klein Advocate Award from the Community Health Law Project, Award of Excellence from Passage Theatre, the Governor Kean and Byrne Advocacy Award from Paper Mill Playhouse,  a Citation of Excellence from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, and the Community Service Award from the New Jersey Department of Recreation. 

John is a graduate of Leadership/New Jersey and the Executive Program for Nonprofit Leaders in the Arts at Stanford University, a partnership between the Stanford Graduate School of Business and National Arts Strategies.   John received his Bachelor’s of Arts from Montclair State University and his Master’s of Arts from New York University

Website: https://njtheatrealliance.org/ 

Twitter: @NJTheatre

Beth Prevor is a co-founder and Executive Director of Hands On, an arts service organization that advocates for access to the cultural arts for the Deaf community and audiences with disabilities. For the last 30+ years, Hands On has been providing access for the Deaf and hard of hearing communities of NYC through sign language interpreted theater at some of NYC’s most prestigious theaters including The Roundabout Theater Company, The New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theater and The New Victory Theater.

As Executive Director, Beth works with arts organizations to ensure inclusion for all by providing marketing, community engagement and audience development strategies. As a disabled advocate, Beth is active as an advisory member to many groups including, The Shubert Accessibility Committee, The New Jersey Theatre Alliance, and the Museum, Arts and Culture Access Consortium (MAC).  She has led workshops on accessibility and the arts for organizations around the country including the Kennedy Center’s LEAD (Leadership Exchange in Arts and Disability) Conference, Americans for the Arts, The National Arts Marketing Project, the Alliance of Resident Theaters/New York (ART/NY) and Theater Communications Group (TCG). She currently works as a Disability Consultant with ART/NY.

She is the 2015 recipient of the John F. Kennedy Center’s Excellence in Accessibility Leadership Lifetime Achievement award.

Website: Handson.org

Twitter: @HandsOnSign