Yames Moffitt

James Moffitt, aka YAMES, is a Buffalo native and co-founder of Pine Apple Company, an artist collective and gallery/gift shop located in Buffalo’s Allentown neighborhood. Art has been a passion of YAMES’ since a young age, leading him to study at the Buffalo Academy for Visual and Performing Arts and then at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. YAMES has grown into a multidisciplinary graphic artist who specializes in hand-painted signs, gold leaf, typography, illustration, murals, and more.
You can see his work on businesses throughout Buffalo, including Hydraulic Hearth, Sato Ramen, Larkin Square, Detailer’s Barbershop and National Grid’s Terminal Station B. In 2020, YAMES completed two mural projects with the Buffalo AKG Art Museum’s Public Art Initiative, and has assisted on numerous other projects as well. The first mural titled Practice, located in Buffalo’s Cobblestone district, speaks to YAMES’ personal growth as an artist and individual. The second mural, Love Black is a collaboration with Edreys Wajed. Edreys developed the art of Love Black Boys in 2017. After the murder of George Floyd, both Edreys and YAMES shared the desire to speak out with their art. So the collaboration of Edreys’ idea and silhouette imagery with YAMES’ lettering was developed and became the mural that now stands at 712 Main Street in Buffalo. In 2021 YAMES was selected to take part in the Lowe’s 100th anniversary mural campaign at their Webster, N.Y. store. This year Yames is the recipient of two grants that will be used to grow and evolve his practice of gold leaf glass signs. The first grant is from the Andy Warhol Foundation through the Buffalo Institute for Contemporary Art. The second is from the New York State Council on the Arts through Arts Services Incorporated. YAMES plans to use these funds to attend workshops in brilliant glass cutting and to build out his personal art practice here in Buffalo, N.Y. with the goal of having a gallery show later in 2024.
theyames.com

Jade Warrick

Long Version: Jade Warrick, known artistically as TrashKiD, is a beacon of creativity and advocacy in New York’s Capital Region. Originally from Los Angeles, her journey has always been driven by a mission to intertwine art with social impact. Through her distinctive murals and public artworks, Warrick doesn’t just capture attention; she weaves a rich narrative of histories, personal experiences, and the intricate dance of community life. Her art initiates critical conversations around community development, healing, and artist rights, transforming urban canvases into immersive stories that urge a deeper engagement with our environments. As the visionary behind Amplified Voices, Warrick champions the empowerment of marginalized voices through art and wellness programming, creating a platform for healing and expression. Her role as a host for PBS’s AHA! (A House for Arts) and her impactful tenure as the Curator of Public Art and Placemaking in Troy, NY, further cement her commitment to embedding art into the fabric of community life. With over a decade of experience in arts education, public art production, and placemaking, alongside her dedication to curriculum design and program development, Warrick stands as a formidable figure in the art and education sectors. Her work not only adorns spaces but also stirs a profound emotional and social resonance, leaving indelible marks on individuals and communities alike. Beyond her creative endeavors, Warrick is an ardent arts advocate, believing fervently that the vitality of a thriving creative ecosystem lies in society’s recognition and investment in the arts as a pivotal driver of economic opportunity and community revitalization. She argues for increased public and private funding for the arts, integration of arts in economic development planning, and the provision of essential infrastructure to support artists. Her advocacy underscores the art sector’s potential for driving inclusive growth and enhancing quality of life, advocating for a recognition of its value that transcends its economic impact. Short Version: Jade Warrick, known as TrashKiD, merges art and social advocacy in New York’s Capital Region. Originally from Los Angeles, she creates impactful murals and public art exploring community life, sparking conversations on development, healing, and rights. Founder of Amplified Voices, Warrick provides a platform for communities in underserved areas to express themselves through art and wellness programs. Her past role as Curator of Public Art in Troy, NY, alongside her current work with PBS’s ‘A House for Arts!’, underscores her commitment to integrating art into communities. With extensive experience in arts education and programming, her work strives to profoundly impacts individuals and communities. As a fervent arts advocate, she champions public and private investment, viewing the arts as essential for economic growth and community vitality. She advocates for funding, inclusive planning, and artist support to enhance quality of life.

Sophie Eisner

Sophie Eisner (b. 1985, New York City, NY) is a visual artist working in sculpture, installation, drawing and performance. Using a combination of industrial materials (steel, concrete, wood, vinyl fabric) and traditional art media (plaster, paper, ink) Eisner explores relationships between our bodies, the built environment and emotion. She is particularly concerned with the intersection of intimacy and utility. By collapsing the familiar and the strange, her work explores poetic qualities of functional objects with playfulness and longing. Sophie Eisner has exhibited at Simone DeSousa Gallery, Cranbrook Museum of Art, Wasserman Projects, Franconia Sculpture Park, and the Wright Museum of African American History. She was the 2020 recipient of the Louise Bourgeois Award in Sculpture from Yaddo and holds an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art.
sophieeisner.com

Rochal Rae Lipkind – WO+rd

Rochal Rae Lipkind is a nature driven poet, witch, gardener, lover of plants and rocks and water. They work with words, voice, sounds, and field recordings to create bodily sensations in resonance with the past, presents and futures in resistance to letting our experiences be administered by forces that do not center our communal well being.

raelipkind.com

H.R. Webster – WO+rd

H.R. Webster is the author of What Follows (Black Lawrence Press, 2022). Her poems can be found in Agni, POETRY, The Iowa Review, and Guernica. Her work has been supported by the Vermont Studio Center and the Fine Arts Work Center. She lives and works in the Hudson Valley.

hwebster.com

Tabitha Vidaurri – WO+rd

Tabitha is a writer and comedian based in New York. She loves using the horror genre as a way to tell new and interesting stories about women, queer folks, and people in addiction recovery. Tabitha works as a freelance healthcare copywriter for organizations like Oscar, Violet, Northwell, Tempest, Nurx, and Boulder Care. She was writer and performer on Prove It All Night! a live comedy variety show on the freeform radio station WFMU. Tabitha has also starred in shorts for Rooftop Films, Funny or Die, Above Average Productions, Channel 101, and PIT TV as well as theater productions The Park Avenue Armory, The Cherry Lane Theatre, Dixon Place, The Brick, The Bushwick Starr, and HB Studios.

tabithavidaurri.com

Cohen Miles-Rath – WO+rd

Cohen Miles-Rath, MSW, is an Author, Speaker, and Advocate with half a decade of professional experience in mental health. His efforts have supported policies related to mental health workforce funding, mental health education, and more. He has facilitated more than fifty trainings including Mental Health First Aid, Mental Health and Wellness 101, and Introduction to Trauma-Sensitive Schools. He has shared his story with high-school students, colleges, mental and behavioral health professionals, and elected officials, and has published articles for the National Alliance of Mental Illness, Pete Earley’s blog, and more.

Cohen holds a Bachelor’s in Sociology and Communications from SUNY Geneseo, and a Master’s degree in Social Work with a focus on Community, Policy, and Political Social Action from Stony Brook University. His memoir, Mending Reality: An Advocate’s Existential Journey with Mental Health, will be published in 2025 by Post Hill Press, distributed by Simon and Schuster.
cohenmilesrath.com

Robyn Hager – WO+rd

Robyn Hager has an MA in Creative Writing from SUNY New Paltz and hosts an open mic called White Noise at Green Kill in Kingston, where she also works as a journalist for the Kingston Wire. Her first collection of poems, Sewage Flowers, was published by NDR Press in August 2019. Her poetry has been featured in the Shawangunk Review, Graphic Violence, midsummer magazine, The Words Faire, Vocivia Magazine, Lightwood Press, and others.

https://atestamenttomyself.com

Dia Felix – WO+rd

I am a writer from California presently living in the Hudson Valley. Language is my love language. In my multi-modal, unruly practice, I engage with memory, obsession, sex, visual art, illness, self-obliteration, chisme, loss, magic, and place, often California, what is called California. What is called New York. Through experiments in poetry, prose, collaboration, and multilingual composition, I build and fracture worlds and solid perspectives. Approaching from all directions. I am interested in writing/reading as experience, a vapor, something felt more than known. Something that might vibrate, arrest, thrill. Rooted in rock and roll, or from the same place, or dreaming of being from the same place, or anywhere but here. Also as a political act because I the revolution won’t happen from information but more from feeling together and energizing each other. “I believe in music, I believe in love.” Another world is possible. Destroy the family, pay the poet.