Kennedy Center Sets 2016 Citizen Artist Fellows

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts today announced the first class of its new Citizen Artist Fellows program, which recognizes artists across the country who utilize their art form for positive impact on communities small and large. These Citizen Artist Fellows will be a signature component of the annual Kennedy Center Arts Summit, to be held on Monday, April 25, 2016 in the Kennedy Center Theater Lab. The Summit, co-hosted by Rene?e Fleming and Yo-Yo Ma, is a national platform for shining a spotlight on stories of Citizen Artists who live up to President John F. Kennedy's ideals of service, justice, freedom, courage, and gratitude through exploration, innovation, and creativity. Fellows will participate in and lead events over the course of the Summit, including a breakout session in which each Citizen Artist Fellow will spotlight their work and explore solutions for challenges they face in their individual fields. For their contributions to the arts and their commitment to the principles of President Kennedy's legacy, the Fellows will receive national recognition and opportunities to showcase their voice and work in order to further their trajectory and impact. As part of their role throughout the year, Citizen Artist Fellows will additionally receive support to work as a cohort on a shared community impact project.

The inaugural class of Fellows include visionary musician and educator Aquil Charlton (Chicago, IL); Performer, educator, and founder of B-FLY ENTERTAINMENT, Paige Hernandez (Washington, D.C.); Conceptual artist, writer, curator, and community builder Davida Ingram (Seattle, WA); Electronic musician, producer, engineer, vocalist and healthcare sound designer Yoko K. Sen (Washington, D.C.); Gregg Mozgala, actor and Artistic Director of The Apothetae theater company (New York, NY); CJay Philip, Artistic Director of multidisciplinary ensemble Dance & Bmore (Baltimore, MD); Co-Founder of Power House Productions, artist, and architect Gina Reichert (Detroit, MI); Monica Yunus, soprano and Co-Founder/Co-Executive Director of Sing for Hope (New York, NY); and Camille Zamora, soprano and Co-Founder/Co- Executive Director of Sing for Hope (New York, NY).

The Kennedy Center Arts Summit will be held on Monday, April 25, 2016 in the Kennedy Center Theater Lab and will be live-streamed on the Kennedy Center website. The event will be co-hosted by world-renowned soprano and arts advocate Rene?e Fleming and legendary cellist and humanitarian Yo-Yo Ma, and is presented in collaboration with The Aspen Institute Arts Program and Citizen University.

THE 2016 CITIZEN ARTIST FELLOWS

Aquil Charlton, visionary musician and educator, focuses his entrepreneurialism, artistry, and vision towards a more just society by combining imaginative spaces with educational tools. Charlton is the founding director of ALT-City, the first contemporary ensemble of Chicago Public Schools All City Arts program. He is also a 2015-2016 Artist-In-Residence at the University of Chicago's Arts Incubator. Charlton is currently developing Mobile Music Box, a traveling music education program scheduled to launch June 2016.

Paige Hernandez is a performer, director, choreographer, and playwright who has collaborated with Lincoln Center, National New Play Network, the Kennedy Center, and the Glimmerglass Festival. She recently received an Individual Artist Award from the Maryland State Arts Council and two Helen Hayes nominations for choreography and performance. With her company B- FLY Entertainment, Hernandez continues to develop original work including Paige in Full, Havana Hop, and Liner Notes. Hernandez returns to the Kennedy Center for the Theater for Young Audiences 2016-2017 season with All the Way Live!, in which the Hip Hop performers from her company B-Fly Entertainment collaborate on the spot to "remix" everything from folk tales to classical art.

Davida Ingram is a conceptual artist whose work creates counter-narratives about race and gender via social practice projects, performances, and installations. Her art explores desire, space, time, and memory using blackness as its prism. Ingram's readings of gender, sexuality, economic class, and vernaculars re-conceive what 21st-century, black female bodies might be and become. Ingram focuses on the idea of subject and object, social justice and social practice, habit and memory, psyche, and soul. Her work is revealed through a range of mediums-from autobiography and documentary to fairy tale and fiction.

Yoko K. Sen is an electronic musician, composer, producer, engineer, vocalist, and sound designer. She is also a founder of Sen Sound Space, a social enterprise aimed at reimagining the soundscape in hospitals. She is a fellow at Halcyon Incubator and has served as an Artist-In- Residence at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, IDEO Cambridge, and Strathmore Music Center. She has received multiple awards including the Washington Music Association Award for "Best Electronica Artist" (2011, 2012) and "Best Album in Electronica" by the 6th Independent Awards (2006).

Gregg Mozgala is the Artistic Director of The Apothetae, a theater company dedicated to the production of works that explore and illuminate the "Disabled Experience." He has served as a mentor for the Kennedy Center's VSA Playwright Discovery Award Program, an annual, national competition that invites students to examine how disability affects their lives and the lives of others through the art of scriptwriting. Mozgala is a principal character and Executive Producer of the documentary, Enter The Faun. He has been invited to speak about the effects of cerebral palsy at artistic and medical institutions both nationally and internationally.

CJay Philip is the Artistic Director of Dance & Bmore which fuses movement, original music, and spoken word in its performances and community programs. Before making Baltimore her home, Philip appeared on Broadway in Big the Musical, Street Corner Symphony, and Hairspray. She also directs the Story Tree Gang, a theater for young audiences and a place for community dialogue around such challenges as gang violence, substance abuse, race relations, and disaster preparedness. Philip is the recipient of a Mary Sawyers Baker b-grant and the Baltimore Social Innovators Award.

Gina Reichert, architect and Co-Founder of Power House Productions, has established a network of nonprofit, artist-run houses throughout Detroit. Preferring the satisfaction of transforming spaces and structures through direct and limited means, Reichert especially enjoys developing new strategies and ideas for interventions or self-initiated projects, defining opportunity in overlooked spaces, and using the resources at hand. Her work has been published in the New York Times, Detroit News, Detroit Free Press, and Domus magazine.

Monica Yunus is Co-Founder of Sing for Hope and Sing for Hope Pianos. As an operatic soprano, she has performed with the world's leading opera companies and in recitals in Spain, France, Central America, and in her native Bangladesh. She has been honored with a 21st Century Leaders Award and has been named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. Yunus is a graduate of The Juilliard School.

Camille Zamora is Co-Founder of Sing for Hope, a leading nonprofit that brings arts outreach programs to communities in need and presents initiatives, such as the Sing for Hope Pianos. Zamora has performed with the London Symphony Orchestra and American Symphony Orchestra, and with collaborators ranging from Pla?cido Domingo to Sting. A champion of Hispanic repertoire, she has received a Congressional Hispanic Caucus Citation and been named one of CNN's Most Intriguing People. A regular contributor to The Huffington Post, Zamora is a graduate of The Juilliard School.

TICKET INFORMATION

The event is currently sold out. To check on last minute availability, patrons can call (202) 416-8420 or send an email to artssummit@kennedy-center.org.