Kate McCabeTitle: How to Tell the Desert You Love ItKate McCabe has called the hi-desert home since 2005 when she founded Kidnap Yourself. She holds an MFA in Experimental Animation from CalArts. Most re-known for Sabbia, her feature film for low desert legend, Brant Bjork, her films have screened globally, and most recently at the Palm Springs Art Museum. McCabe has taught film at CalArts and UC San Diego and has worked with some of Los Angeles’ most prolific independent filmmakers. Her “Mojave Weather Diaries” has produced 4 books and her current work includes paintings, photography, and diaries, incorporating communication themes and humorous observations of the world. www.kidnapyourself.com
Ted QuinnTitle: Hey dad. What if the sand in the hourglass is quicksand?Before the world was so rudely interrupted, Ted Quinn aka Teddy Quinn was working with his friend Caylyn on an autobiographical art-film/documentary and in his 12th year hosting Super Groovy Tuesday Open Mic at the Joshua Tree Saloon while sitting on the board at Joshua Tree gallery/community space the Beatnik Lounge. Since moving to the desert in the 1990s, Quinn has worked in radio, recording, theatrical production, journalism and community building. The proud father and co-parent of a son, Sage, Ted Quinn is a singer, a songwriter and an actor whose career spans the centuries. https://teddyquinn.bandcamp.com
Kim Stringfellow
Title: Excerpt from the Venn Jackrabbit Homesteading Diaries
Kim Stringfellow is an artist, educator, writer and independent curator based in Joshua Tree, CA. Her work bridges cultural geography, public practice and experimental documentary into creative, socially engaged transmedia experiences. She is a 2016 Andy Warhol for the Visual Arts Curatorial Fellow and a 2015 Guggenheim Fellow in Photography. She was awarded an honorary doctorate from Claremont Graduate University in 2018. Stringfellow is a Professor at San Diego State University’s School of Art + Design.
https://kimstringfellow.com
Ken Layne
Title: Wonders in the Mojave Sky
Ken Layne is editor of Desert Oracle and host of its companion radio program, broadcasting Friday nights from Joshua Tree. http://desertoracle.com / http://instagram.com/desertoracle
Elise Kost
Title: Poems from Temple of Changes
Elise Kost (“Coast”) has lived in Joshua Tree for 20 years, and although known for making jewelry, her life is devoted to the wisdom traditions, indigenous healing arts, energy cultivation, and assisting people in body-mind-spirit awareness capacities.
After 6 years in university studies, Elise lived nomadically (in her truck) for 5 years, exploring and witnessing the Ways of Nature, repeatedly meditating for several consecutive days, and reflecting her experiences through poetry. She has 2 masters certifications in Energy Medicine which she applies in: teaching students how to become healing facilitators; mentoring practitioners; and in client work, guiding people through trauma integration into living with more presence and peace.
For information on Elise’s work or to purchase her book of poems, Temple Of Changes :: Between Earth and Mystery, please visit www.TempleOfChanges.com or www.EliseKost.com.
Miri Hunter
Title: Dance Like You’re Falling In Love
Miri Hunter, Ph.D, is a musician, writer, performing artist and scholar. She moved to the desert in 2013. Her non-profit organization Project Sheba was imagined as a vehicle for the transformation of culture through the lens of personal storytelling and art. Her organization’s mission is fulfilled by her Hi Desert Theatre Company, Thought Theatre where she is the producing and Artistic Director as well as the Hi Desert Fringe Festival, of she which is co-producer. Miri’s writing has been featured in the Los Angeles Short Fiction Series, the Annenberg Summer Cultural Series, and the LA Lit Crawl Festival. Her original, one woman shows “Grandmothers of the Universe,” “Stand for Freedom Cabaret” as well as “the Bobby Jo Jackson series” have been widely presented and acclaimed. She is also singer/songwriter with the Hi Desert band, Hunter and the Wick’d. Miri teaches at St. Mary’s College and Copper Mountain College. www.projectsheba.com
Cheryl Montelle
Director and Host
Cheryl Montelle is thrilled to host and curate Mil-Tree’s first online spoken word fundraiser. She is a writer whose stories have been published in anthologies and magazines, and performed in Los Angeles, Joshua Tree and New York City. She created and hosted Desert Stories at the HDCC for 12 years, 14 shows. She has also produced similar shows in New York City and Los Angeles. Cheryl loves bringing community together and in 2012 she founded the veteran/ community non-profit, Mil-Tree. For more information go to mil-tree.org.
Robbi Robb
Producer
Robbi, producer, editor and experimental musician has been involved with FurstWurld for 10 years, running sound, cameras, hosting and more. Now focussed on transforming FurstWurld into a post production, recording and broadcasting facility for music, filming, photography and performing arts. Live From Joshua Tree 2020 is the first of the newly transformed FurstWurld events to be filmed, edited and broadcast live from FurstWurld.
Brian Leatart
Photographer
Brian Leatart (photographer for poster) is an internationally acclaimed photographer of limitless imagination and powerful vision. His work is distinguished by learned classicism nuanced by an irreverent point of view. His idiosyncratic visual language is informed by the emotion and style of his artistic upbringing. www.brianleatart.com