A unique point of access for community-driven expression, healing, & togetherness!
Previous Resident Artists
2024-2025 Resident Artists
“I am the happiest when I’m recording and performing my original music, because it allows me to connect with people from different backgrounds. Happiness is contagious; leaving a lasting impact on the audience and community at large.”
Amira B
Amira B is an “NYC-based soulful, R&B singer-songwriter, and head turner” (Jukely). Her sound blends soul, R&B, jazz, and funk, topped off by her sultry vocals. ‘Songwriting Magazine’ has compared her to artists like Joss Stone, Amy Winehouse, and Ms. Lauryn Hill.
She has released numerous singles and EPs, including her single ‘Do You,’ which received favorable reviews from critics. Her music has been featured on Spotify Editorial Playlists, charted on Hype Machine, and earned airplay on WFUV FM Radio. Amira has performed at prestigious venues across the country and internationally, including the Outreach Music Festival in Austria.
Whether she’s on stage, in the studio, or teaching young children, Amira’s powerful songs send a clear message of empowerment infused with love and positivity, aiming to spread joy and inspire others.
“Amira B’s ‘Do You’ is an uplifting soulful record we all need. The record brims [with] lush, soulful textures…accentuated by B’s honeyed vocals and uplifting lyrics which lean towards self-love and acceptance on all levels.” — Hip Hop Magz
The grand prize winner of last season’s Upper West Side Talent Show hosted by Goddard Riverside returns to the Bernie Wohl Center, where she will be in residence to compose and produce her first full studio album. The residency’s support will allow Amira to access a full range of instrumentation (trumpet, trombone, saxophone etc.) bringing her music to life like never before, culminating in a special night of sharing new music with the Goddard Riverside Community.
“Stories hold the essence of human life. We yearn for them to help us understand our own story. I recognize the importance of two things for the health of the body; non-judgmental mind towards self and others, and expressing that which is repressed; finding it and naming it and sharing it.”
Fay Simpson
Fay Van Alstyne Simpson is the Artistic Director of Impact Theatre, co-founded in 1990 as a collective of physical theater artists devising theatre for social change. Fay founded The Veterans Project working with a company of veterans and actors to devise works that speak to the needs of the returning soldier, inspired by her husband’s military service. Jenny Pacanowski joins as the Associate Director. Trained as a combat medic, Jenny Pacanowski was part of providing medical support to convoys in Iraq. She is the Founder and Director of Women Veterans Empowered & Thriving; a reintegration program that utilizes writing and performance to empower the veteran’s experiences and facilitate skills to thrive in daily life. “With insight and compassion”, the residency at Goddard Riverside is a “holistic project of healing and empathy to help bridge the gap between veterans and civilians on the Upper West Side” in the form of a workshop and performances.
“For most of my life I have felt as if I had one foot nailed to the floor and all I could do was go in circles. I am learning to work with my PTSD. I have prayed for my whole life for this simple insight. I have been dead. I am coming to life. I am deeply grateful [to Impact Theatre’s Veterans Project].” -Everett Cox, Veteran
“Thank you! What amazing, thoughtful, and thought-provoking work. It’s the best interactive, really challenging social justice theater work that I’ve seen…” -Professor Cecilia Rubino, Audience Member
Informed by her 20-year career in dance and theater, Fay created The Lucid Body, a process of introspection, exertion, and mental challenge that empowers actors and dancers to express their fullest potential and has since gone on to be taught around the world and from which Fay has become a published author. The Lucid Body; A Guide for the Physical Actor (Allworth, 2008) was released in August 2020 as a 2nd edition. Head of Movement and Associate Arts Professor in the Graduate Acting Program at the Tisch School of the Arts, NYU, she also coaches actors for TV, stage, and screen. She is a Qualified Intimacy Choreographer with credits at the Classical Theater of Harlem, Ars Nova, and Shubert Theater, among many others.
“I aim to inspire audiences to physically sense emotional and psychological aspects of the human condition onstage, and connect to their own expansive potential. My most recent choreographic works center around a mission of accessibility with a focus on trauma and embodied healing through trust and community. I seek to broaden the perspectives of my audience members and allow them to lean into emotions that are often neglected.”
Teresa Fellion
Teresa Fellion Dance is a contemporary dance company of womxn and non-binary individuals that captures and communicates universal human encounters through dynamic, purposeful movement. BodyStories’ mission is to examine depths of society in their darkest and brightest moments, inspiring audiences to physically sense emotional and psychological aspects of the human condition through dance. They are committed to creating accessible and inclusive art that can be enjoyed by all bodies, and the belief that everyone is deserving of happiness, health, love, support, and privacy. The company will develop and perform ongoing work tailored for the Goddard Riverside Community, opening up a dialogue about accessibility to somatic healing methodologies within the field of public health.
Teresa has worked in social justice and activism since the 1990’s, involved with community groups, homeless shelters, soup kitchens, and protests. Since 2005, Fellion has employed dance, live music, and theater with social justice at scores of NYC schools and organizations. Teresa was named Artistic Liaison between Cameroon & U.S. by president Paul Biya, while performing with National Ballet du Cameroun and at the National Soccer Cup Finals. She has performed for Lucinda Childs and performed works by Twyla Tharp and Liz Lerman, among others. She has received the Choreographic Fellowship from SummerStages Dance Festival and ICA Boston and the American Dance Guild Fellowship for Jacob’s Pillow’s Choreographers’ Lab. Support for BodyStories includes The National Endowment for the Arts Window Award, LMCC, Brooklyn Arts Council, New York Community Trust, and Mark Morris Dance Center through the Mellon Foundation.
2023-2024 Resident Artists
“Art heals the soul. Art is the greatest teacher of understanding and the best facilitator of personal growth. Art touches lives in a universal way. Through the craft of Applied Theater, I use tools such as improvisation to meet everyone at whatever artistic level they’re at and bring out their creativity. It’s a pleasure to be able to shine a light on participants’ talent with this opportunity.”
Renoly Santiago
Renoly Santiago is a critically acclaimed Puerto Rican actor, singer, speaker, writer and director known for starring in the blockbuster films Dangerous Minds (opp. Michelle Pfeiffer), Hackers (opp. Angelina Jolie), Daylight (opp. Sylvester Stallone) and Con Air (opp. Nicholas Cage, John Malkovich). His television appearances include: The Night Of (HBO), The Get Down, Difficult People, Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Touched by an Angel. He is also a Drama Desk Nominee for his Broadway musical debut in The Capeman starring alongside Marc Anthony, written by Paul Simon. Renoly is presently recording songs to debut his music. Next, he can be seen in the feature film 3 Days Rising with Ice-T and Mickey Rourke set for release in 2023.
As a Featured Teaching Artist, Renoly leads a series of bi-lingual Acting Classes for residents of supportive housing units operated by Goddard Riverside. Previously, Renoly has been in residence at Loisaida, Inc. teaching acting in community centers and for homeless youth. He has also instructed acting at the New York Film Academy.
“I think now more than ever the world needs healing. Healing comes through understanding. That’s why art exists. Art is a window into worlds that we don’t live in. Using art to educate and bring people together creates healthy and inspiring environments. My goal with my art is not only to create good work, but also create opportunities for other people of color.”
DJ DaviS
Outside Entertainment is a New York based minority run media production company established in 2021. Outside Entertainment was made as a place where anybody can tell the stories they want without prejudice or bureaucratic obstacles. Partners in the industry and best friends in real life, the company strive to make art that represents them and the people around them who don’t have much of a voice in a society where the working class goes ignored. How can we bring the community closer? Outside Entertainment is not limited to any one medium. Our goal with every project is to break boundaries. The name is reminiscent of the outdoor playgrounds where we used to play pretend, and the opportunities were limitless. As 2023-2024 Artists in Residence at Goddard Riverside’s Community Arts Program, OE is hosting the first ever Outside Entertainment Arts Festival, “Ending the Stigma,” a night of different arts pertaining to the theme of community mental health, healing from shame, and normalizing neurodivergence. Short films, excerpts from plays, original music, poetry, and dance will prioritize artists of color.
“Shaped by the jagged edges of growing up in an underserved urban environment, my approach as a theater arts practitioner is grounded in a freedom to play, innovate, wonder about, and elevate transformational stories that must be told.”
Carolyn Harrison
Good Light Productions, LLC (GLP) creates access for new and emerging under-resourced artists to tell their own stories. Lived experiences confirm that telling others about the incomprehensible joys and sorrows of life serves as a healing modality for both the teller and their witnesses. Transformation becomes possible for all when we dare to share what is behind the curtain of each of our unique human stories.
As 2023-2024 Artists in Residence at Goddard Riverside’s Community Arts Program, Good Light Productions is conducting the Real Life Writers Poetry Project (RLWPP), a multi-session spoken word poetry workshop for young adults; and a new staging of Precious Metals: Beauty in Brokenness, by and featuring Carolyn Harrison. Both projects will specifically address Goddard’s program values to inspire and heal. Crafted through a social justice lens, RLWPP is a series of poetry writing projects designed for participants to learn the craft, styles, and methods of creating award-winning spoken word by professional spoken word artists. RLWPP purposefully sets out to de-center the notion that poetry is an elite, inaccessible, art form and inspires participants to develop and perform poetry reflecting their ideas, thoughts, and lived experiences. The workshop culminates in a showcase where featured spoken word artists are invited to perform and be interviewed live by program participants.
2022-2023 Resident Artists
“I am interested in the space between where we are and where we need to be to find liberation, where my community and I can feel healed and empowered in the face of the villains that have tried to keep us from pursuing our “happily ever after.”
LIZ MORGAN
Liz Morgan is best known for her work “Why I was Late Today…” (Huffington Post). She is currently Waterwell’s 2023 New Works Lab Commissioned Playwright. Her original plays include Deliver: Letters to the Motherland from a Foreign Body (Kilroys Honorable Mention) and The Clark Doll which was featured at the Deep Water Literary Festival and nominated for a Drammy Award in the category of Best Original Script after its premiere. Other theatrical honors include the 2021 Rising Leaders of Color cohort and the 2017 Torchbearer for Black Theatre Award.
The Community Arts program will support Liz’s development of a new play titled Life, Liberty & The Pursuit of Happily Ever After, a multifaceted immersive theatre piece about immigrant rights with an advocacy engagement strategy. The piece was originally developed as part of Liz’s studies within Columbia Law & Broadway Advocacy Coalition’s Theatre of Change program. The workshop production will be presented with support from The Helen Gurley Brown Foundation’s BOLD Ventures Grant.
“I want the music to represent a location for expressing freedom of heart, mind, and soul. A ‘lifting’ of the atmosphere at least for a little while.”
TYRONE BIRKETT
Tyrone Birkett, [Apollo Theater, Symphony Space, Storm King Arts Center, Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Center, Schomburg Center for Black Culture, Historic Mother Bethel AME Church, Blue Note Jazz Club, Harlem Arts Festival, United Nations] is a saxophonist, composer, producer, and speaker with extensive experience partnering art and social consciousness. He, along with his wife Paula Ralph Birkett and a core set of musicians with experience in jazz, R&B, and Black church music, are “artists for humanity” producing music that is “necessary.” TB|E’s purpose is to bring the hope of freedom song into the 21st century and provoke social change through art for the benefit of the disinherited and disenfranchised.
The Sonic Sanctuary Series is an in-depth season-long presentation of Tyrone Birkett | Ensemble’s work structured as a series of multi-media music performances paired with post-show talkbacks to connect the dots between the music and its social context.
“My work with older adults is informed by my experiences with my mother and mother-in-law who routinely are overlooked or infantilized. The themes I explore are: dancing with an aging body, losing one’s memory, losing one’s friends….the subtle ways senior citizens are treated with contempt by way of gradual exclusion from society. My ultimate message is that of hope – we all have much to gain through their lives and specific experiences.”
SLOKA IYENGAR
Sloka Iyengar is a neuroscientist and Bharatanatyam dancer, passionate about relieving suffering through the convergence of science and arts. Some of her recent achievements include becoming Chapter Co-Chair for Women of Color Advancing Peace and Security (WCAPS) NYC and Co-Director of the NYC New Leaders Council (NLC). Sloka was also selected to serve on the Research Committee for the National Organization of Arts In Health, named Honorary Director at Public Health Literacy, and was awarded the 2022-2023 Aseemkala Initiative Choreography Fellow.
While in residence, Sloka will conduct a series of Indian dance classes adapted for seniors in partnership with Goddard Riverside’s Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities (NORC) program and Older Adult Center, an open dance class for all ages, and performances of her solo work merging Bharatanatyam with neuroscience.
“I believe in resilience of the human spirit; no matter the hardships and struggles in the world (especially in New York) which you will see reflected in my dances, art is a messenger that there is hope for something new after the breakdown.”
ALISON COOK BEATTY
Alison Cook Beatty (BFA Boston Conservatory of Music at Berklee) moved to New York City with the Paul Taylor Dance Company. Alison is the founder and Executive/Artistic Director of Alison Cook Beatty Dance, a classically-based modern dance company grounded in Alison’s belief that art is capable of restoring the human spirit. The company c. 2012 has dual missions, seeking a universal human condition and building community through art. The company strives to break down boundaries of the possible including through diversity in hiring core company dancers, collaborations, and outreach programming, as currently more than a quarter of Alison Cook Beatty Dance dancers are immigrants.
Alison Cook Beatty Dance will present “One More Day”, an evening presented in collaboration with The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention to bring awareness to mental health care. Simultaneously the residency will give the company the opportunity to expand and refine on its repertory which includes “Central Park Field #4”, “In Spite Of, Because Of… The Wallpaper”, “Lifeline” and “In The Forest Between Life And Death”.
“The process of creating art is an act of healing the individual and the community at large. Our goal for creating a theater company is to remove the corporate grid from artists and to establish a community where they can create anything they wish so long as they fully realize that vision.”
THE GREENHOUSE ENSEMBLE
REANNA ARMELLINO & HAZEN CUYLER
For the past decade, The Greenhouse Ensemblehas been creating memorable art experiences in unconventional contexts with a maximalist approach based on the philosophy of abundance. Blending theater, film, music, and fine art, their work adds a contemporary interpretation to works by playwrights both dead (Shakespeare) and living (Shanley). They conduct trainings in Michael Chekhov gesture work and Alexander Technique, and are known for throwing fabulous pop-up “art parties” all over NYC.
The Community Arts Program will jointly host a series of creative Writer’s Roundtable feedback sessions with Greenhouse and support the development of Muse, their play about a crime and its aftermath. Sheila, a promising young artist, is brutally killed by her lover, Mathias, who then kills himself. Their families must then face a dilemma that interweaves grief, guilt, and the nature of artistic creation.
“The importance of the arts isn’t in the employment of actors but the introduction of worlds, philosophy, thought, and escape.”
DIFFERENT BRO PRODUCTIONS
JMONET HILL, MARCUS FARROW, CRAIG JACKSON
DiffBro LLC began as a creative outlet during the pandemic for performances, events, a talk show web series, and more focusing on Black lives and stories. Now two years, a president, and a pandemic later, with the dedication of the team and DiffBro family, we have started to build a safe space for artistic expression. We work with artists to create spaces and build platforms that transform us as humans.
Professional development for Different Bros includes a series of upbeat, participatory events to foster joy and communion: beloved classic ‘The Wiz’, adapted with references to current events and issues, a series of free enhanced Zumba classes throughout Black History Month, and Songs for Mama, a cabaret celebrating Mother’s Day.