Episode 20
This episode of Creative Endeavors features photographer Imara Moore.
Imara received a DCA Premier grant this year to produce a photography exhibition called Connections. Connections explores the linked heritage of family members through photography by combining the portraits of a living person with their ancestor who is one or more generations away. As a result, creating a “new” image that simultaneously represents the past and present. In this case, every photograph represents a person currently living in Staten Island. Some belong to families that go back generations on the island or “before the bridge.” While others have recently made the island home.

Episode 19
This episode of Creative Endeavors, hosts Gena Mimozo and Jahtiek Long talk to Aileen Chumard Fuchs, the President and CEO of Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden. Snug Harbor has always played a role in varying ways to the creative community on Staten Island. In this episode we reminisce about Snug’s past, share our hopes for its future, and hear about some exciting updates/changes that are coming to the site soon.

Episode 18
Gena and Jah play some Staten sounds while discussing grant programs and upcoming events!

Episode 17
This episode of Creative Endeavors features comic book illustrator and grantee Shawn McArthur. Shawn received a 2019 DCA Premier grant from SI Arts for his upcoming comic book release Home and Worlds Beyond, which is about a gifted young woman named Leenah from Staten Island who discovers a place between space and time called “the vast”. Its a bridge to the multiverse where many beings from different regions of the cosmos reside in unison, similar to New York City. Leenah and a handful of the vast’s finest guardians known as the “Vast Regulators” embark on an adventure to defend the vast from dark forces unknown. Shawn is also the main organizer for District Con, a comic convention meant to be an interactive creative space for all artists, illustrators, paintings, etc to come together and share their knowledge with people who what to learn to how to do it.

Episode 16
As new co-host Jahtiek Long learns the radio ropes, he’ll be practicing the art of the interview by talking with Deputy Director of Staten Island Arts, Gena Mimozo! Tune in to learn about this art and culture custodian and how they balance helping others produce while making time for their own artmaking practice.

Episode 15
This episode of Creative Endeavors features curator, musician, artist, and producer Jahtiek Long. Jahtiek is also the Gallery Manager for SI Arts! We talk about how he juggles his many art forms, his past work, new projects, and new music he’s been listening to. Moving forward, Jahtiek will be helping to run Creative Endeavors by joining the team as a co-host!

Episode 14
This episode of Creative Endeavors features artist AJ Pantaleo, a session and touring musician, who has been performing and recording with various artists for over 15 years. He currently performs as part of APMD, the award-winning brain child of his collaboration with musician Mike DiBenedetto. Together they create immersive audio experiences through the use of drone, melody and rhythm. We’ll be talking to AJ about APMD’s grant funded project, Audio Stories, a site-specific audio installation inspired by Staten Island history and culture as expressed in the exhibits at the Staten Island Museum. The audio pieces created for this project have been placed along the traditional audio-guide path and can be accessed using the handheld devices provided to patrons of the SI Museum though the Spring.

Episode 13
This episode of Creative Endeavors will feature artist/producer of The Day of the Dead Festival – El Dia de los Muertos Irma Bohorquez-Geisler. Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead) is a Mexican holiday to honor the lives and memory of loved ones who have died. The Day of the Dead is a family-based festivity that does not treat death as scary or haunting, but rather emphasizes the joy of our past relations, rather than the grief at our loss. Also joining us in the studio will be actress/producer/educator Tamara Geisler who will be talking about her one woman show, TINA. Tamara and her team of collaborators bring legendary artist, activist, revolutionary Tina Modotti to life in a new piece with original music and text in collage with Modotti’s own words from Hollywood, post-revolution Mexican Renaissance, and the USSR under Stalin. SI Arts announces our new Cinema Connex program.

Episode 12
On this episode of Creative Endeavors grants administrator & host Gena Mimozo talks about our available grant programs and plays music that is connected to Staten Island in some way, shape, or form.

Episode 11 – Christine Cruz / Project Alice
This episode of Creative Endeavors features photographer Christine Cruz, producer of Project Alice, an immersive art experience opening in October. Project Alice is a photo/video series inspired by Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. A collective of Staten Island artists have come together to work on this project – drawing from their own experiences, with Alice’s story as the common lens, each artist crafts a rich visual narrative speaking to important social issues – Bullying/Self-image, Depression/Suicide, Racism/Black Lives Matter, Addiction/Drug Abuse, and Transgender Identity/Coming Out. The project hopes to shed light on these issues and to inspire conversations around these topics. This project is made possible (in part) by a DCA Premier Grant from Staten Island Arts, with public funding from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

Episode 10 – AfricanFest NYC
This episode of Creative Endeavors features the producers of AfricanFest-NYC! AfricanFest-NYC is partially funded by a NYSCA grant through Staten Island Arts. The mission of this festival is to promote peace, love, and unity among Africans and the community at large. The festival strives to do this through music, dance, food and array of fun and exciting cultural activities that unite the African diaspora and celebrate African culture. We’ll be playing music from some of the artists performing at the festival.

Episode 9 – Songs of Our Sea
This episode features a sneak preview of the Songs of Our Sea album. We played the not-yet-released compilation CD which features a range of musicians who have been brought to Staten Island by life’s currents. Each track on the album connects to the waterscapes of coastal, maritime, and island life. Listen in as we draw musical connections to water, rhythm, and life on Staten Island. This episode is brought to you by Staten Island Arts Folklife as part of the Working Waterfront Initiative.

Episode 8 – Court Yard Friday Listening Party Pt. 2
This episode features the internationally acclaimed lineup performing at COURT YARD FRIDAYS, our free outdoor concert series happening in June 2018 in the historic courtyard next to Borough Hall, right across from the ferry terminal.

Episode 7 – Sarah Yuster
This episode of Creative Endeavors features grantee Sarah Yuster speaking about her DCA funded grant project, Native Soil: Incidence and Homescapes, currently on view at Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Gardens. Native Soil is a retrospective of Yuster’s works, major and minor, spanning from the late 1980’s through the present exhibiting a prism of images that reference life on Staten Island. Sarah also received a NYSCA grant this cycle for her Small Truths Project, where she teaches 2nd grade students at PS 20 to use their personal, cultural, and family experiences to create art through illustration and journaling.

Episode 6 – #SIAGrantee Listening Party
This episode featured Staten Island musicians who have received grant funding to produce music projects that include concept albums, anthologies, and even trilogies that span across a variety of genres that include indie rock, hiphop, and folk music. Featuring projects produced by Bob Wright, Giga Herbs, Jose Ocasio, Linda Hickman, Nani FM, Projectivity Group, Tom Bones, and Volker Goetze.

Episode 5 – Teresa Caliari
This Presidents Day episode of Creative Endeavors featured music that celebrates and criticizes America. American patriotic music has been a part of the culture and history of the United States since its founding in the 18th century and has served to encourage feelings of honor for our country’s forefathers and for national unity. The tradition of protest songs in the United States is a long one that dates back to the 18th century and colonial period, the American Revolutionary War and its aftermath. Our guest is Teresa Caliari, a retired teacher and social activist, who has been awarded a 2018 DCA Premier Grant for her exhibition #ArtOfTheProtest, an interactive exhibit that takes on community movements that focus on helping immigrants, helping victims of Hurricane Sandy, and fighting racism.

Episode 4 – Christine Dixon
This episode of Creative Endeavors was dedicated to the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. – you’ll hear songs that inspired him, songs that were inspired by him and you’ll even hear from the man himself! Grantee Christine Dixon will joins us to talk about her play “Harriet Tubman Herself,” based on the life and times of Harriet Tubman. Harriet’s harrowing and dangerous life unfolds as she tells her moving story of how she brought thousands of slaves and her own family to freedom before and after The Civil War. The play is based on a series of interviews Harriet gave in 1868, to a New York Sunday school teacher, and writer, Sarah Bradford whom wrote the book Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman. When Dixon’s not performing, this civic minded leader, is an auxiliary police officer.

Episode 3 – Steve Goffin
On this special holiday episode of Creative Endeavors we played some Winter holiday favorites mixed with new holiday originals and some wintery-themed tunes mixed in for good measure.
All music brought to you by Staten Islanders! Featuring IATSE Local 1 Stagehand Steven Goffin – a professional sound engineer, carpenter, and stagehand – fresh off his run of The Christmas Show at The St. George Theater. Gena and Steve reminisced about how they met and started working together, how Steve was once elected to be the Mayor of the North Shore, and all the fun that’s happened in between.

Episode 2 – Court Yard Fridays Listening Party
This episode features the team behind Court Yard Fridays, a summer concert series coming to St. George in 2018. You’ll hear from the creators as they discuss how they got involved with our Future Culture project and what it’s like to be one of the two finalists chosen to have their project produced. Tune in to get a taste of some of the music that will be performed at the series.

Episode 1 – Melissa West
This episode features grantee Melissa West speaking about her NYSCA funded grant project, The Staten Island Dance Project, an oral history and community archive project that focuses on collecting the stories of dancers on Staten Island. The project gave space for dancers to reflect upon their life’s work in a communal way.