Inwood Art Works On Air

With his home-base out of New York City, filmmaker and non-fiction storyteller Brian Miller focuses primarily on creating short-form video content: documentaries, commercials, branded content and promos. Working in the roles of producer, shooter and editor, his work has taken him from Ghana to Japan to Costa Rica, telling stories for a variety of individuals and organizations along the way includi...

Swedish-born choreographer Julia Bengtsson came to New York in 2012 to immerse herself in diverse opportunities that have ranged from classical ballet to baroque opera and film. She has choreographed over 20 productions at venues such as Carnegie Hall, UN Headquarters, Bruno Walter Auditorium at Lincoln Center, and Alvin Ailey Dance Center. In addition, she has choreographed and directed works for...

Since graduating in 2018 from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Hassiem Muhammad has gone on to work in regional theater, Off Broadway workshops, indie films, and network television. At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Hassiem penned the web series “Angels of Uptown” – which he a co-produced, co-directed and acted in. Follow it on YouTube: Angels of Uptown , or Instagram/Face...

Len Cicio is an architectural and landscape draftsman who works in colored pencils, pen & ink, oil pastels and aqua stick oil pastels.  Influenced and inspired by Vincent Van Gogh’s use of strong vibrant colors, Lyonel Feininger's towering architectural forms, and the essential strokes illustrating the work of Georgia O’Keefe, Len captures gothic, abstract, and surreal images with lush colors,...

Born in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic, Carla Franchesca attended Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo and moved to New York with her family in 2010. Following her graduation from BMCC with an associate’s degree in Video Arts and Technology, she got her Bachelors in Film and Video at the City College of New York, and has risen through the ranks at the Manhattan Neighborhood Network to beco...

Michael Manese is a Inwood-based Philippine-Born Filmmaker. His previous films include When bart6874 met lulu5547, Maxine, and The Pleasure of Being Served; which has gone on to play 22 film festivals throughout North America, Europe and the Philippines. He is currently in production for his latest project, "Asian PersuAsian" - which is a recipient of Inwood Art Works Inwood Film Festival Filmmake...

This Live N' Local episode features local composer, pianist and educator, Eli Yamin. Eli has dedicated his life to performing, teaching, and building community through jazz. He has performed and toured as a jazz ambassador for the United States in over 25 countries, and at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and the White House. He co-founded and now directs  Jazz Power In...

Melissa Riker is the Artistic Director/Choreographer of Kinesis Project dance theatre where she, and her collaborators, create large scale dance performances in public spaces. Kinesis Project has core company members in NYC and in Seattle, and the company regularly performs in both cities. Melissa is also the Executive Director of the EstroGenius Festival and founding co-producer of Women in Motio...

Atom Fellows is a multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter, record producer, filmmaker and creator of the YouTube show The Anarchy Funhouse. Born in 1971, in Fort Huachuca, Arizona and raised in a Catholic blue collar suburb of Baltimore County, Atom moved to New York City in 1992 to become a rock star. He played countless gigs in dive bars and clubs while also honing his recording engineer skills...

Zafiria Dimitropoulou Del Angel is a GreekMexican performer and Director. She has studied Political Science and Public Administration at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and Acting at the Greek Art Theatre Karolos Koun, and is currently the Artistic Director of People’s Theater Project. Rooted in Upper Manhattan, the Peoples Theatre Project is a social justice arts organizat...

On this Artist Spotlight episode we welcome the Co-Founding Directors of the Higher Ground Festival, Temple Kemezis & Pablo Francisco Ruvalcaba.  The Higher Ground Festival brings Northern Manhattan artists together to network and create interdisciplinary, stage-based collaborations produced by the festival and present them locally during the annual HG Premiere Performance.  Since their inaugu...

  On this Live N' Local episode of Inwood Art Works On Air we are excited to welcome Grammy nominated Cuban pianist & composer Manuel Valera. Valera was born in  Havana , Cuba, but since 2000 he has lived in New York City, where he attended  New School University . His playing is influenced by  Bill Evans ,  Chick Corea and  Keith Jarrett , and he has worked extensively in many groups includin...

  A lifelong resident of Inwood, NYC, Asher Ben-Or has been playing the guitar since the age of 13 after falling in love with Rock and Roll and Blues music. Since that time his musical journey has spanned several rock bands, cover bands, freelance work in and around NYC, and most recently, a steady roster of gigs performing jazz inspired by Django Reinhardt. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Jaz...

Takashi Harada is a Japanese Painting (Nihonga) artist born in a small porcelain-making town, Arita, Saga, in Japan. After completing the PhD program of the Graduate School of Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music (which is currently Tokyo University of the Arts), he was granted a fellowship to study overseas by the Japanese Government in 2005, and has been exhibiting his artworks in Ja...

Since moving to the United States in 1995, Eri Yamamoto has established herself as one of jazz's most original and compelling pianists and composers. Jazz legend Herbie Hancock has said, “My hat’s off to her... already she’s found her own voice.” Eri has collaborated with such creative and celebrated musicians as William Parker, Daniel Carter, Hamid Drake, among others. Since 1998, Eri's trio has...

Libby Stadstad is a scenic designer for theater, opera, dance, film, television, and immersive installations. Her work has been presented by New York City Center, Kennedy Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Williamstown Theater Festival, and the Guggenheim Museum’s Works and Process Series, among others. In 2019, she made her debut with the highly acclaimed Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at New...

  Originally from the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan in Milwaukee, Jerome Kitzke has thought himself to be as much a storyteller as he is a composer. Some of his stories are about life's personal roads, like The Redness of Blood and Sunflower Sutra which both express his love for his blood family. Many, however, like Haunted America and The Paha Sapa Give-Back are about the roads that go look...

Alan Sidransky is an award-winning writer of novels and short stories who focuses on the personal experience of everyday people faced with extraordinary circumstances. As a member of a family ravaged by the Holocaust, he is determined to tell the stories of refugees and survivors he’s known who have triumphed over oppression. His stories range from Hitler’s Germany to Soviet Russia, from Trujillo’...

Rich Shemaria is a long-time Inwood resident and currently the Jazz Composer in Residence within the NYU Steinhardt Jazz Studies Program, where he teaches composition and arranging and directs the NYU Jazz Orchestra . Along with Dave Schroeder, he formed the band Combo Nuvo ; which recorded his  One World Suite , a composition he wrote as a positive statement on climate change, and the band toured...

Kevin Berry is a self-described “narcoleptic comedian” living in New York City . He has done stand-up all over the world. Locally, in Inwood, he is the creator and curator of the weekly Dope Comedy Show, where you can “Catch the DOPEST comedians in the Galaxy” every Saturday at 10pm. He is also the writer and creator of a new podcast called the “Hellgate City Companion” which is described as a Dys...

This is our On Air 2021 Live N’ Local Seasonal Sampler - Volume 1. Believe it or not, we’ve doubled our output of episodes in 2021, so we are going to take a listen at a live selection from the 12 musical guests we have presented in the first half of 2021. This is less of a greatest hits, and more of a critic’s pick - a mix-tape, if you will, curated by hosts Aaron Simms and Jonathan Bell, with th...

Chris Whittaker’s musical language of classical, jazz, pop, and gospel music melds genres and brings people together. He started playing piano by ear and writing songs when he was around 6 years old which began a journey that eventually led him to study composition at the Peabody Institute the John Hopkins University, then on getting his masters in conducting at the University of Michigan. In 2015...

Melissa Moschitto is a director, writer and producer, and the Founding Artistic Director of The Anthropologists – a theater group dedicated to the collaborative creation of investigative theatre that inspires action. Melissa holds a B.A. in Theater from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and has led devising workshops for Hofstra University, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, the Berkshire Fringe, and...

John Albin is a blues and jazz guitarist, composer, and vocalist who has been playing in and around NY since the early 1980s. John has appeared at many of the City's blues, jazz, and rock venues, and can most often be heard in a jazz guitar duet with Mike Melkonian. The two have been regulars (pandemic permitting) at Kismat Indian Restaurant in Washington Heights and Bettola Italian Restaurant on...

We're turning our spotlight on writer, editor, filmmaker, and photographer, Brian Mihok . His novel The Quantum Manual of Style was published by Aqueous Books in 2013 and his work has appeared in The Disconnect, Vol 1 Brooklyn, Everyday Genius, and elsewhere. He is also the editor and co-founder of “matchbook literary magazine” and associate editor of “sunnyoutside.” As a filmmaker, Brian created...