Aryeh Shell Betsey Bryant Blackstar Ching-In Chen

Aryeh Shell
Aryeh Shell is a woman committed to revolutionary values and creating a world based on justice,
diversity, sustainability and reverence for life. She conceived of this project, inspired to give voice to
the untold stories of woman freedom fighters through time. She is a performance artist and
community organizer using art, education and theater for social change. She has been a core member
of Art and Revolution (San Francisco Bay Area, CA) for years, teaching street theater and giant
puppetry internationally. She also leads workshops in Theater of the Oppressed, Deep Ecology and
Confronting Racism. Aryeh just became a new member of the Living Arts Playback Theatre
Ensemble in Berkeley. She is currently getting her Master’s degree in Education: Equity and Social
Justice at San Francisco State University. She is a performer, co-Producer and director of The
Herstories Project. Aryeh dedicates this work to the healing of our ancestors.
Betsey Bryant
Grandmother, artist and writer/poet, a lover!of!the arts,!whose work has been shown
throughout the Bay area, Betsey is passionate about her grandboys,!using!the creative process!for
healing, and helping others to find and express their!true, artistic self.
Blackstar
Born and raised in San Francisco, 47 years old, an urban Native, Blackstar is a self-taught musician who plays
from the heart. There are times when a wiser voice comes and she becomes a storyteller as well. She feels very
privileged and blessed to be a part of The Herstories process with these other strong women.
Ching-In Chen
ching-in. poemsender. a loudmouth organizer hoping for liberation. sometimes bridge,
sometimes islanderdweller. daughter. lover. sister. karaoke singer. budding filmmaker. a
sunrise. lover of the thrift store. keeper of secrets, scraps and misplaced beauty.
Elenna Rubin Goodman
Elenna Rubin Goodman began secretly dancing at age 5 and since then (which was a while ago!) her work as a
soloist and ensemble dancer, choreographer and director has been shown in Oakland, San Francisco, Washington,
Mexico, Brazil and South India. As a writer, performance artist, and facilitator of peacemaking projects, she gets to
practice of devotion to the ancestors, justice, beauty and community building.
Emily Burkes-Nossiter
Emily Burkes-Nossiter is delighted to be joining The Herstories Project as theatrical director. She will take her M.A. in Counseling
Psychology, concentrating in Drama Therapy, from the California Institute for Integral Studies in August 2004. She has trained in theatre
and creative arts therapies at Columbia University, the New School University, and the New York Open Center, written, directed, and
performed with numerous theatre companies. She pursues her life-long passion for the arts in healing and social change through several
roles, including drama director for Marin Country Day School's Beyond Borders program, drama therapy intern with adolescents at
YWCA's Come Into the Sun and at the McAuley Intstitute, St. Mary's Hospital, and as student representative to the National Association
for Drama Therapy. She salutes the cast of The Herstories Project for their courage, vision and commitment to community healing
through voicing the untold stories of our mothers, sisters, and selves.
Isoke Femi
Isoke has been singing since she was seven years old. From blues to gospel to Italian arias. For
Isoke, singing is prayer. She is a doctoral student, an elder and a foundation, and a voice of infinite
and, sometimes, trickster wisdom for the women in The Herstories Project.
Jennifer Fox Bennett
Jennifer, engineer-by-day/poet-by-night, is an Ojibway/Odawa Band member of the
Wikwemikong Unceded Indian Reserve on the ethereal Manitoulin Island in Ontario,
Canada. She has lived in many places between two oceans: a suburban wasteland in
Florida, the menacing halls of Cornell University (where she received her B.S.), and the
roads and boréal forests of her Reserve. She now finds herself in Oakland. Left To
Jennifer’s first book, a collection of poems and short stories, will be available from
Monkey Book Press (San Francisco, CA) in February 2004.
dirt
Shatter,
Karla Brundage
Karla Brundage was born in Berkeley, California.! Her poetry and essays have been published in
Bamboo Ridge, Ishmael Reed's Konch Magazine, Hip Mama, Oahu Review, Kaimana and La'iLa'i.!
Other essays and poems have appeared in Multi-America: Essays on Cultural Wars and Cultural Peace
(Viking 1997); Adam of Ife: Black Women in Praise of Black Men (Lotus Press, 1992); Intersecting
Circles: Voices of Hapa Women in Poetry and Prose (Bamboo Ridge Press 1999).! She has performed
her written work with Rhodessa Jones in “The Medea Project” (SF Yerba Buena Center, 1994)
and with Joyce Lu in “Carving Circles” (Earl Ernst Lab Theater, 1997).
Karla Robinson
Karla Robinson is a crafty 26 year-old youth advocate and writer/storyteller from the
Bronx. In the words of our ancestor Audre Lorde "What are the words you do not yet
What do you need to say? What are the tyrannies you swallow day by day and attempt to
your own, until you will one day sicken and die of them still in silence? My silence has not
protected me. Your silence will not protect you."
have?
make
Nícola Wagenberg
Nícola is an artist and educator. She loves to create, explore and express through painting, video,
voice, music and movement. For the past 13 years Nícola has facilitated groups of diverse ages and
backgrounds in using the arts for personal and community exploration, healing and transformation.
Nícola is the filmmaker for The Herstories Project. She’s been filming the making of the project with the purpose of creating the
Herstories documentary.
Shanique Scott-
A distinguished comedienne, Shanique has been seen at
Comedy Club, The Punchline (San Francisco, CA), Kimbles
(Santa Rosa, CA), LGBT (San Francisco, CA), and
"Sisters doing comedy, Shades of Laughter, Inc.” Shanique
theatrical performances the latest being “In Search of a
Story” A JonAl Production (San Francisco, CA). She is also
currently working on her first novel, Francine Anafiene and
women play about her life as an inner city youth, written and
Sparlha Swa
Tyehimba
Stand-up NY Comedy club, NY
East (Oakland, CA), Sidelines
performances with names like
also holds to her credit several
Legend, The Josephine Baker
a very talented writer. She is
touring “Reflextions” a oneperformed by Shanique.
Sparlha, 23 years old, is a powerful upcoming Bay Area singer and songwriter. Born in
Kingston, Jamaica, and raised in the States, she graduated from Stanford University, and, for the
past 3 years has been honing her craft. Her first CD, Uprising, is available at shows and online.
An irresistible blend of soul and folk, with simple yet powerful guitar accompaniment and
profoundly moving lyrics, her voice carries you into the deepest within yourself, and there offers
insights that heal, inspire, and uplift. Under the auspices of CASAMENA (Oakland, CA), she is
currently recording her second album. For Sparlha, The Herstories Project has been a profound
blessing and an opportunity to deepen her connection with the amazing women building the
project, to bring her love of the stage into a multimedia setting, to open the door to an
awakened communication with her ancestors, and for healing. Check out her website at
<www.sparlhaswa.com>.
Vika Teicher
Vika Teicher is a co-producer of the Herstories Project. She will be performing in the March
productions and producing Herstories workshops in the spring. She is a dancer, teacher, and
Thai Massage practitioner. She studied spirituality and creative arts at the Omega Institute for
Holistic Studies in New York where she later joined the Holistic Studies Program faculty to teach
self-esteem and body image workshops for women and lead dance rituals for Omega staff. She
has taught and served diverse communities in Europe, Asia, and Central and South America.
She performed in “Being Beautiful,” a local dance theater production about body image, from
Spring 2002 through Spring 2003.