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Dr.Sheila Siobhan
Dr. Sheila Siobhan, DMA, MM, BM, BA, Co-Director, Board Member, has devoted her life to the field of arts education, working with students from middle-school to graduate school. In 1995, she co-founded the Austrian American Mozart Academy in Salzburg, Austria, where she served as Director of Curriculum, Executive Director, voice instructor, acting and repertory coach for ten years. In 2003, she co-founded the Austin City-Wide Youth Poetry Slam, and in 2007 established the Texas Youth Word Collective (TYWC), a non-profit youth literacy program.
She has taught master classes on acting, singing, interpretation, and musicianship in the United States and Europe. In 2007, she joined the faculty of Texas A & M UniversityKingsville (TAMUK) as Assistant Professor of Voice and Opera where she teaches private voice, as well as courses in music appreciation, diction, opera workshop and vocal pedagogy. She is a frequent volunteer for community projects including Austin Community Colleges Hip Hop Into College, Texas Coalition Advocating Justice for Juveniles, and several Hurricane Katrina relief projects. She is a member of the National Youth Spoken Word Coalition, National Association of Teachers of Singing, South Texas National Association of Teachers of Singing, and the Texas Music Educators Association.
Ronald Horne
Ronald Horne, Co-Director, Board Member
Mr. Horne has organized and promoted the Under 21 Slam Finals competition, increasing poet participation by fifty percent and audience attendance by almost seventy percent. He coached the Austin Under 21 Slam team to 5th place showing at Brave New Voices National Youth Poetry Festival in 2004. He has performed in numerous spoken word demonstrations and workshops in the Austin area public schools as well as in local community colleges.
Other activities include serving as a member of the executive committee of the Texas Coalition Advocating Justice for Juveniles, a juvenile justice reform organization, which worked to expose and change the treatment of youth in Texas Youth Commission facilities. Recent performances include Performances include: Pro Arts Collective Salute to African American Writers, Prize Pen Award (2008), Raising the Roof Cambodian Relief Fundraiser: Calgary, Canada (2006), University of Wisconsins Teacher Institute and First Wave Program, Madison, Wisconsin (2006). Mr. Horne currently works as a paralegal for Shipley & Associates, Inc.
Tova Charles
Project Coordinator
Tova Javonne Charles, Poet and Spoken Word Artist, has been writing and performing poetry for 2 years. She presently performs with the 2009 Neo Soul Poetry Slam Team of Austin, TX. Tova, a native of New Orleans, LA (by way of Lafayette, LA) is a member of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc., the Eastside church of Christ in Austin, TX and plans to complete her undergraduate degree in History by the Fall of 2010.
Tova has been working with Texas Youth Word Collective since 2008 and plans on taking the program to the Next level with the development of They Speak Yout poetry slam and writiing workshops.
Ignatius Mwela
Public Relations/Marketing
Ignatius (Iggy) Mwela is a professional performance poet, gifted with an ability to entertain the masses. After graduating from Western Illinois University in Macomb, Ill., he has kept his name in the media with his exhilarating performances on stage. From the time he first performed on Western’s very own campus to his recent migration to Chicago, Iggy has “Hit the stage almost everywhere and anywhere he can.” Demanding your attention through the power of his words and presence, Iggy’s poems strike an array of topics, including current, personal and universal issues.
Mentored by Gwendolyn Brooks Cultural Center of Western Illinois University, Iggy’s poetry will inspire and challenge you; his way with words will make you laugh, then cry. His poetic style has bounced off the backs of many venues and reverberated in countless eardrums across the country. Iggy performs all original pieces that capture a strong dynamic and dramatic style that is truly unique.
With pulse-pounding poetry, his extraordinarily vivid display will uniquely portray life’s problems and solutions through the cutthroat language of the spoken word. Iggy is as soulful as one can be, most humble to all he encounters. His charismatic personality fits any environment he walks into. A stage presence like no other; watch him make you cry in one moment, think the next and laugh in the end. He is truly a person you would want to get to know. Iggy loves to talk to and about himself and learn about others.
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