Amanda Shea is a multidisciplinary artist residing in Boston. She has performed spoken word poetry at numerous venues throughout Boston, including the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Museum of Fine Arts and the Institute of Contemporary Art. She served as an official host for the 2018 and 2019 Boston Art & Music Soul Festival and the Arts Equity Summit. She has been featured on podcasts and television broadcasts such as ItsLitBoston, Boston Come Through, and Fahrenheit TV. She serves as a radio host on Live Free or Die Radio. Shea performed at UMASS Boston with The Poets' Theatre and independently for Phillis Wheatley Day. Shea performed at the Alvin Ailey Theatre with beheard.world with original pieces on racism and identity. Shea appeared in the cast of The Poets’ Theatre’s seventh revival of Boston Abolitionists, a program developed in partnership with the Boston Athenaeum. Shea returned to the Boston Athenaeum as a curator for a performance titled, "Other Voices in the Room" which speaks to identity politics and cultural appropriation. In February 2020, she will be going on tour for the third time traveling to Africa. The “Awake” tour seeks to explore the role of art as both a revolutionary and spiritual tool for social justice and spiritual awakening in humans. Its goal is to utilize the tool of poetry in telling unapologetic stories of Africa while also awakening the consciousness of people through healing and love. Shea is a mother of two, artist and polymath.
Ny’lasia Brown likes to think of herself as a visual spoken word poet, making the metaphorical imagery of her poetry explicit by pairing visual media with her work. Because of the love she has for singing, she also incorporates music into her poetry. A rising junior at Match Charter Public School, the work she does represents her and her surroundings. An alum of ACI’s first cohort of Youth United Artists, Ny’lasia tries her best to advocate for those who can’t advocate for themselves. Ny’lasia has taken this path of life seriously for some time, having joined Boston Pulse Youth Poets in the 8th grade, exemplifying her value of being true to one’s work. She has performed on college and university campuses and community events all around Boston, and in March of 2019 she was a closing keynote performer at ACI’s inaugural Arts Equity Summit.
Described as a “charismatic and captivating performer,” Ashleigh Gordon has recorded with Switzerland's Ensemble Proton and Germany's Ensemble Modern; performed with Grammy-nominated A Far Cry string ensemble; and appeared at the prestigious BBC Proms Festival with the Chineke! Orchestra.
Comfortable on an international stage, Ashleigh has performed in the Royal Albert and Royal Festival Halls (London), Konzerthaus Berlin and Oper Frankfurt (Germany), Gare du Nord and Dampfzentrale Bern (Switzerland), Centre Pompidou (Paris), the Lee Hysan Concert Hall (Hong Kong), and throughout Sofia, Bulgaria as part of the multi-disciplinary 180 Degrees Festival.
Ashleigh is co-founder, Artistic Director and violist of Castle of our Skins, a Boston-based concert and educational series devoted to celebrating Black Artistry through music. In recognition for her work, she has been featured in the International Musician Magazine, Boston Globe, awarded the Charles Walton Diversity Advocate award from the American Federation of Musicians, and was most recently voted as one of WBUR’s “ARTery 25”, twenty-five millennials of color impacting Boston’s arts and culture scene.
Michael A. Rosegrant (any pronouns said w/ respect) is a theatre artist and poet whose work centers stories of identity, family, and history as a way to combat oppression. He is a founding member of Asian American Theatre Artists of Boston (AATAB) and serves on the steering committee of the API Arts Network in Boston. His acting credits include shows at Arena Stage, NextStop Theatre Company, Boston University, and George Mason University; assistant directing credits include Sara Porkalob’s Dragon Cycle at the American Repertory Theater. Michael has performed her spoken word poetry at various events including A.R.T.’s New Year Celebration and Arts Connect International’s Arts Equity Summit. In addition to performing, they love writing plays, which can be found on New Play Exchange. They are currently pursuing a BFA in Theatre Arts (Performance) with a concentration in Sociology and African American Studies from Boston University. Twitter/Instagram: @michael_arose michaelrosegrant.com