Administrative Staff:
Michele Kotler, CWP's Executive Director, founded the organization in 1997. Ms. Kotler is a graduate of Jamaica High School in Queens, and won a scholarship to attend Sarah Lawrence College. She received an MFA in creative writing (poetry) from the University of Michigan where she also taught creative writing. Before starting CWP, Ms. Kotler worked with other arts-in-education groups in New York City, creating curriculum, training artists, and directly serving young writers in the classroom. She serves on The After-School Corporation's Advisory Committee, the Association of Teaching Artists' Advisory Committee and the New York City Arts-in-Education Roundtable's Board. Her poetry has appeared in Washington Square Review, Painted Bride Quarterly and the anthology, Days I Moved Through Ordinary Sounds, The Teachers of WritersCorps in Poetry and Prose published by City Lights.
Gay Haubner, Development Director, has recently come to non-profits after spending most of her career as a writer and editor in magazines, newspapers, advertising, and corporate communications. She received the One Award in advertising for her work for TBS and the Atlanta Braves. Her two sons are graduates of the New York City public schools. Gay has been a student of Shaolin Kung Fu and Chan Buddhism for the past six years.
Keith Kaminiski, CWP’s Program Director, oversees CWP's programs, including arts residencies and TATIP, as well CWP's professional development programming, both internally for teaching artist staff, and externally for other organizations and after-school sites. Keith provides ongoing support for residency programs to help ensure that residency goals are being met, programs are integrating into the classroom curricula in meaningful ways, and to nurture development of partnerships within CWP's partner schools. He received his BFA in Art Education from Syracuse University with a studio concentration in Printmaking. He has worked as head of Snug Harbor Cultural Center’s education department in addition to serving as a New York City public school arts specialist teacher in Queens. Keith is one half of
Hyptone recording artists/ DJ duo Ladycreme and creates visual art through printmaking, drawing and graphic design.
Tara Moncure, CWP'S Program Assisant, graduated from Colorado College in Colorado, where she studied Spanish Literature and Art History. She has been involved in the arts her whole life and has spent a great deal of time working for arts-in-education organizations in New York City, participating in fundraising and event planning departments. Inspired by her appreciation for the Spanish language and Latino culture, she has worked with ESL students in the public school system and spent the 2008-09 school year teaching high school Spanish and hip-hop dance. She is thrilled to be part of the Community-Word team and share her passion for the arts.
Teaching Artist Staff:
Elana Bell was selected as the winner of the 2004 Stephen Dunn Poetry Award, and is the recipient of grants and fellowships from the Jerome Foundation, the Edward Albee Foundation, and the Drisha Institute. Elana holds a MFA in poetry from Sarah Lawrence College and has been a featured poet at Bar 13, the NuYorican Poets Cafe, Hunter College, Teachers and Writers Collaborative, The Bowery Poetry Club, Cornelia Street Café, the Bronx Council on the Arts' First Wednesday Series, and at the Indian Institute for Advanced Studies in Simla, India. Her poems have appeared in Calyx, the Bellevue Literary Review, Storyscape, Clamor, and Poetz.com. Elana has led creative writing workshops for women in prison, for teachers, and for undeserved high school students in Israel and Palestine. Elana serves as the writer-in-residence for the Bronx Academy of Letters, and sings with the a cappella trio, Saheli. She graduated from CWP’s Teaching Artist Training and Internship Program (TATIP) in 2003.
Amy Bonnaffons completed an MFA in Fiction Writing from New York University, where she was twice named a Goldwater Fellow. She has taught creative writing in a hospital on Roosevelt Island, in after-school programs in the Bronx and Morningside Heights, and at New York University, where she received an Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award. Her fiction appears in Kenyon Review Online, Word Riot, and The First Line. She also performs Eastern European music with her group, Slavic Love Telegram. She graduated from TATIP in 2009.
Susan Buttenwieser’s fiction has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and appeared in Failbetter, Epiphany, 3am and other publications. She received several fiction fellowships from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Since 2004, she has taught creative writing in organizations that provide services to at-risk youth and underserved communities, including the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility; Rikers Island; Sylvia's Place, a homeless shelter for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth; and the youth program at the LGBT Community Center. She graduated from TATIP in 2008.
David Ciminello has received a BFA in Acting from The Catholic University of America. As an actor he has appeared in Seinfeld, Murder She Wrote, Matlock, and Kojak. His writing has appeared in the Lambda Literary Award winning anthology Portland Queer: Tales of the Rose City, Best Gay Romance 2010, the online anthology Underwater New York: Stories from the Deep, Lumina, and Poetry Northwest. He wrote the original screenplay Bruno, directed by Shirley MacLaine, and has worked extensively as a screenwriter in Los Angeles. He received his MFA in fiction from Sarah Lawrence College. David graduated from TATIP in 2008.
Kate Czajka is a graduate of Virginia Tech and is currently finishing her Educational Theater and Social Studies degree at NYU. She has worked in the NYC public school systems for 2 years as a teaching artist, student teacher and tutor. She has been the Education Intern for the New York Philharmonic and the MCC Theater. Katie created a theater curriculum guide for the New York public school system for the play Family Week. She recently completed an Applied Theater intensive in Ireland where she studied and created devised theater that is community based. Kate graduated from TATIP in 2010.
Gwendolyn Dorell is a flutist; her most recent project is the ensemble Brooklyn Fife that she co-leads with percussionist Elizabeth Hanson and singer Liliana Aruaju. Brooklyn Fife performs music of the African-American Mississippi fife and drum tradition as well as the fife music of Northeastern Brazil. Gwendolyn received her bachelors in classical flute performance from Mannes College of Music and received her masters from the Eastman School of Music as a student of Bonita Boyd. She has performed in Brazil with Maracatu NY, a Brazilian percussion ensemble. She completed the TATIP training in 2007.
Felipe Galindo (aka Feggo) was born in Cuernavaca, Mexico, and has a BFA in Visual Arts from the National Autonomous University of Mexico. US citizen. He is a cartoonist, illustrator and independent animator, who has received grants for his art and animation projects from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, National Association of Latino Arts & Culture, Puffin Foundation, Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance, NYSCA, US/MEX Fund for Culture NYC Metropolitan Transit Authority, and The Latino Public Broadcasting. Felipe’s work has received awards in the US, Mexico, Italy, Japan and Greece. His drawings have appeared in The New Yorker, New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Wall Street Journal, Reader’s Digest, Nickelodeon, Mad, and Newsday. Felipe has taught drawing in after school programs and at the School of Visual Arts. He graduated from TATIP in 2010.
Nanya-Akuki Goodrich is a writer and actor who toured with The Interborough Repertory Theater's children's show, The Roots of Rap: Poetry, bringing to life the works of significant poets such as Langston Hughes and Nikki Giovanni. She recently performed her poetry with the Straight-No-Chaser Jazz Ensemble, which includes legendary drummer Marion Booker. She graduated from TATIP in 2006.
Ellen Hagan is a writer, actress, and educator. Her poetry has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2004 & 2008 and can be seen in Failbetter, America! What's My Name?, Check the Rhyme, Submerged: Tales from the Basin and upcoming in Blood Lotus. Her work has been produced by SpokenWorks for the New York International Fringe Festival, and she has performed for season five of Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry Jam and the Los Angeles Women's Theatre Festival, among others. Ellen holds an MFA in fiction from The New School University and her debut book of poems: Crowned, was recently published by Sawyer House Press. She graduated from TATIP in 2002. Click here to visit Ellen's website.
Kim Hoeckele is a photographer, artist and educator. She received her BFA in Photography from Georgia State University and is currently pursuing her MFA in Studio Art at Hunter College. Kim’s work was recently showcased in “MOCA GA Collects: The Photographic Image” at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Atlanta, Georgia. Kim has been working as an educator since 2004, and completed TATIP in 2007. Click here to visit Kim's website.
Josephine Ishmon is an African-Asian American novelist and educator. She received her BA from Hunter College and her MFA in Creative Writing from New School University. Her writing has garnered fellowships from the Mellon Foundation and a merit scholarship from New School University. While employed at The Feminist Press at CUNY she held author workshops and assisted in building the academic curriculums at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in Westchester County and Bayview Correctional Facility in Manhattan. She has also taught creative writing to teens at The Family Center, an organization based in Manhattan for children whose parents have AIDS or cancer. Her first novel A Beautiful Thing is a double narration story of two sisters, one living the American dream and the other homeless with her children. Josephine graduated from TATIP in 2009.
Paloma McGregor is a New York-based choreographer and co-founder of Angela's Pulse, a collaborative performance company. Her work has been presented at The Kitchen, Harlem Stage, EXIT Art, the Brecht Forum, Tribeca Performing Arts Center and Bronx Academy of Art and Dance, Yale University, UCLA, The Dance Place in Washington, DC, Cleveland Public Theatre and the McKenna Museum in New Orleans. Her current project, Blood Dazzler, is a choreoplay adaptation of poet Patricia Smith's award-winning poetry about Hurricane Katrina and will premiere in September at Harlem Stage. A former newspaper reporter and editor, Paloma earned her BS in Journalism (Florida A & M University) and her MFA in Dance (Case Western Reserve University). Paloma graduated from TATIP in 2005.
Kamilah Aisha Moon has received fellowships to the Cave Canem Foundation, the Prague Summer Writing Institute, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA, and The Vermont Studio Center. Her work has been featured or is forthcoming in several journals and anthologies, including jubilat, Sou’wester, The Oxford American, Lumina, Callaloo, Essence, Bloom, Bum Rush the Page, Gathering Ground, The Ringing Ear and Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry. Moon received her MFA in Creative Writing from Sarah Lawrence College (06). In addition to her work with Community~Word Project, she lectures at Medgar Evers College-CUNY. She graduated from TATIP in 2006. Click here to visit Kimilah's website.
Velez Moore is a poet and spoken word artist. She has taught poetry at Kings Collegiate Charter School and led a dance residency with the Phyllis Rose Dance Company. Velez holds a BA in Communication Arts from Marymount Manhattan College, and volunteers as an audio documenter for the Smithsonian Institute’s Folklife Festival. Her writing has appeared in the Brooklyn Arts Council's Folklife Arts Archive 9/11 Memorial Project, Hazmat Review, and The Link. Velez is also a member of Barry Harris's Jazz Chorus. Velez graduated from TATIP in 2009.
Hilary Pharr has experience teaching visual arts in after school programs, outreach programs, at the Children's Museum of Manhattan, and at a Waldorf School initiative in Brooklyn. She received her BA in Fine Art from Hampshire College, with additional studies in art education and child development, and continues to create drawings, paintings and other work in various mediums. Hilary graduated from TATIP in 2007. Click here to visit Hilary's website.
Carrie Rubinstein makes sculpture in paper metal, wood, fabric, glass and wire. She has studied at artist James Turrell’s Roden Crater project and participated in group exhibitions in California, Massachusetts and New York City. Carrie attended Smith College, where she was selected to study art criticism with curator Thelma Golden, traveled to Prague as a Righteous Persons Foundation Fellow in Jewish Studies, and graduated with honors in studio art. While attending Hunter College’s MFA sculpture program, she traveled as an exchange student to L’École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Currently, she is the coordinator of the tART women’s artist collective. Carrie graduated from TATIP in 2010.
Levi Rubeck is a poet, musician and teaching artist currently living in New York City after spending the majority of his life in the plains of Wyoming. While working on his MFA at NYU, Levi served as the Editor-in-Chief of Washington Square review. He received a Starworks Fellowship to teach creative writing at St. Mary's Health Care System for Children in Bayside, Queens, he volunteered at Goldwater Hospital's Golden Writer's program, and he has read for Earshot, Teachers and Writers 2020 Visions series and others. Levi has worked for the Brooklyn Rail/Black Square Editions, Ugly Duckling Presse, and co-edits the web journal Paper Bag Magazine. Levi completed Community~Word Project's TATIP in May of 2009.
Jade Sanchez-Ventura completed an MFA in creative non-fiction at Hunter College. Hunter named her a Hertog Fellow in 2005, which made possible her work as an editorial assistant to Michael Patrick MacDonald on his second memoir, Easter Rising (Houghton Miffllin, 2006.) Her essay, “In Spite of My Skin”, appeared in the anthology About Face; Women Write About What They See When They Look in the Mirror. (Seal Press, 2008). Her self-published pamphlet, The Birth Control Columns, Volume 1; "The everything-but boyfriend" can be found at St. Mark’s Bookstore and Bluestockings. She founded and hosts Rough Cut Readings, and is nearing the completion of her first manuscript. Though she has ties to many far-slung states and countries, she has always made her home in Brooklyn, New York, and is committed to bringing arts education to the city’s classrooms. Jade graduated from TATIP in 2009.
Keelie Sheridan is an actor, dancer and writer. A professionally trained Irish Step dancer, Keelie has traveled to Ireland, Canada and across the US with the Wild Irish Acres School of Irish Dance. Keelie has studied acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and the Stella Adler Studio, and has a BA in Theatre from SUNY Empire State College. She currently dances with the Niall O'Leary school, is a board member for Mind the Art Entertainment, an arts-in-education contributor to Artistew, and has recently finished writing her first full-length one-woman show, A Woman in Progress. Keelie has developed drama programming for students with developmental disabilities, and currently serves as the Artistic Director of Block Institute's Building Blocks program. Keelie graduated from TATIP in 2010.
Roberto Carlos Soto was born in Mexico City and spent his elementary and secondary education years constantly moving back and forth from his native city to California. He received his BA in Art and Latin American Studies from the University of California Santa Cruz. During his undergraduate studies he spent several months working with homeless children in Mexico City and 9 months living in Brazil, also working with homeless children and producing a photo documentary of Favela da Rocinha, one of the largest shantytowns in South America. In 2004 he moved to NYC to attend Hunter College, where he obtained his MFA in photography. Roberto works as a freelance photographer, translator and interpreter. He lives in the heart of Harlem and his personal work currently explores the intersection between faith, politics, economics and personal identity. He graduated from the TATIP training in 2009.
Renée Watson is the author of a middle grade novel, What Momma Left Me, (Bloomsbury) and a children’s book, A Place Where Hurricanes Happen (Random House). Her one woman show, Roses are Red, Women are Blue, debuted at New York City's Lincoln Center at a showcase for emerging artists. Her poetry and articles have been published in Rethinking Schools, Theatre of the Mind and With Hearts Ablaze. Renée has been a teaching artist for ten years. She first started her teaching artist work in Portland, OR and has also taught poetry workshops in New Orleans with children coping with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. She began facilitating professional development trainings for teaching artists in 2006. Renée graduated from The New School, where she earned a BA in Creative Writing and a certificate in Drama Therapy. Renée graduated from CWP’s Advanced TATIP program in 2005. Click here to visit Rene's website.
