Interview 3: Ebony Payne-English
Interview 2: Ebony Payne-English
Why does she create? TEDxFSCJ panelist Ebony Payne-English believes bringing ideas into the world involves so much more than just words.
Interview 2: Christina Parrish Stone
Art, says TEDxFSCJ panelist Christina Parrish, helps people find common ground. She’s seen it with her own eyes and in her own neighborhood.
Interview 3: Roosevelt Watson III
Interview 1: Mal Jones
Learn how Mal Jones uses Hip-Hop to educate the community and how the genre was introduced to him early in life.
Interview 2: Tiffany Melanson
Interview 3: Tiffany Melanson
Tiffany describes poetry as, "being concerned with the common human emotional narrative."
Interview 1: Christina Parrish Stone
See how Art (Re)Defines Us panelist Christina Parrish Stone uses art to attract people to neighborhoods they may not have previously visited.
Interview 1: Ebony Payne-English
Interview 1: Roosevelt Watson III
Bio: Christina Parrish Stone
CHRISTINA WILL BE A PANELIST AT THE TEDXFSCJ SALON:
ART (RE)DEFINES US
Christina is a long-time advocate for Jacksonville’s urban neighborhoods, with significant experience in historic preservation and the use of arts and culture as tools for community development. A resident of Historic Springfield, she recently retired from a twenty-year career as an attorney specializing in real estate law and now serves as Executive Director of Springfield Preservation and Revitalization Council, Inc. She is a founder of Jacksonville PorchFest, an annual music festival that brings thousands of people to Springfield to enjoy dozens of performances on porches and in parks throughout the historic district. A board member or chair of several other civic organizations, Christina recently completed her goal of visiting each of the fifty United States and believes Jacksonville is poised to end its reign as America’s most underrated, unappreciated, and misunderstood city.
Bio: Tiffany Melanson
Tiffany is a poet, performer and graduate of the Bennington Writing Seminars. An educator as well as artist, she teaches poetry workshops, magazine production and oral interpretation at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts. Her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and has most recently appeared in Compose Journal, Coda Quarterly, Bridge Eight and on Swamp Radio, a live radio and podcast experience celebrating the culture, art and history of Northeast Florida, where she is both occasional co-host, interviewer and frequent contributor. She recently completed an audio chapbook for Eat Poems and was previously featured in The Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens' exhibit, Reflections: Artful Perspectives on the St. Johns River.
TIFFANY WILL BE
A PANELIST at THE
TEDXFSCJ SALON:
ART (RE)DEFINES US
Bio: Roosevelt Watson III
Roosevelt is a painter working in surreal, abstract, and figurative modes. A native of Jacksonville, he received his BFA from the Atlanta College of Art (now the Savannah College of Art and Design), and his work is currently on display at the Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens exhibit, LIFT: Contemporary Expressions of the African American Experience. He was awarded the Savannah Individual Arts Assistance Grant and has twice placed first in the Jacksonville-area Beaches Fine Arts Series. His work has been commissioned by the Ritz Theatre and LaVilla Museum in Jacksonville, the Emmanuel Church in Tampa, and the Boys and Girls Club in Hilton Head, South Carolina, and his paintings have been featured on the covers of Savannah Scene, Folio Weekly, and Contemporary Arts Today.
ROOSEVELT WILL BE A PANELIST AT THE
TEDXFSCJ SALON: ART (RE)DEFINES US
Bio: Ebony Payne-English
Ebony is a writer, performer, educator, and human rights activist from Jacksonville, where she is a board member of The Performers Academy. She is the first woman to establish her own chapter of the international poetry organization, Black on Black Rhyme. Ebony is a 2015 Southern Fried Poetry Slam double finalist as well as the winner of Florida Urban Culture’s 2015 award for Most Influential Artist. Her 12 years of professional experience include performances at the New Orleans House of Blues, Essence Festival, Nuyorican Café, and the Denver Mercury Slam. Her discography comprises three critically acclaimed poetry albums, and she is the author of a nationally accredited, artistically centered K-12 STEAM curriculum and children’s book series in use in some 48 programs nationwide.