CreativeMornings Great Lakes

Together with our fellow CreativeMornings chapters across the Great Lakes, we host a collaborative exploration of creativity as it relates to October's global theme of Transit.

Deaf Access Services will provide ASL interpreting for this event.

CREATIVES ON DECK:

➤ Julio Montalvo Valentin // CMbuf - Julio Montalvo Valentin is a philosopher and lover of rice and poetry. They/his/Julio is a teaching artist, poet, freelance writer, and arts facilitator. In pursuit of community and home, Julio began by collaborating with others to co-find the late Cringe-Worthy Poets Collective and co-host the late Ground Sky Reading series at Rust Belt Books for several years.

Julio received his bachelor’s and master’s degree in Writing and English literature from SUNY Buffalo State where he received two research fellowships, one for his second coast-to-coast poetry tour and another to study poetry curated on the Stonewall Nation Radio Program. They have also authored three poetry chapbooks, the latest being “Those Who Pray to Rice” (NightBallet Books, 2019). After many years of publishing chapbooks, Julio found his calling through teaching artistry after interacting with the arts community and the non-profit organizations such as Just Buffalo Literary Center. This has led to incredible collaborations and projects that the Buffalo Community continues to draw inspiration from.

These days, Julio is an adjunct professor, teaching artist, and uncle who makes time to serve an ever-changing community of socially-engaged writers through trauma-informed, re/generative workshops. Julio also serves as a member with the Latino/a/x arts collective called Los Artistas del Barrio Buffalo (LAdB), the Spark Filmmakers Collective Board, and the planning committee for the Lit Youngstown 2022 Literary Festival. Julio is currently a part of the TimeSlips: WNY Tele-Stories Project, where four local community-based artists facilitate and cultivate creativity with under-connected elders over the telephone. Julio is also returning as the Lead Poetry Teaching Artist for the Buffalo Public Schools after guiding students through “Woke Words” program into writing the Poetry Mural poem titled “Freedom” at Broderick Park. Aside from joining the inaugural Teaching Artist Mentorship Program with the NYC Arts in Education Roundtable, you can always find Julio ready for the next writing opportunity to share their love of words through his next project, ProcessPoetry.com (coming soon).

➤ The Human-Kind Quest // CMdet - Jan & Greg Thompson of The Human-Kind Quest adventure through sight and sound, people and culture, art and nature, music and noise, food and nutrition, vistas and emotions. Together, they are on a quest to break down old patterns and learn new things, seeking to sharpen the mind and spirit while inspiring their community.

➤ Chris Bobko // via CMcle - Chris Bobko, Ph.D., Head of Engineering Integration, oversees research, development, and engineering teams at HyperloopTT. After completing his doctorate at MIT, Chris was a professor at North Carolina State University, where he gained significant experimental and analytical experience in mechanics of materials for civil engineering applications. As a professor, he joined HyperloopTT as a contributor before shifting his focus full-time to bring life to this new mode of transportation. Today, Chris exercises significant leadership in system engineering, bringing together teams and partners to develop, prototype, and implement infrastructure systems, power systems, propulsion and levitation systems, capsule systems and systems control.

➤ Ernie Adams // CMchi - From being in “transit” to 48 different countries for over three decades, six to eight months out of the year on tour with legendary, Grammy-winning music artists to helping students transit into being professional musicians themselves, drummer Ernie Adams has always found a creative way to keep his passion for music moving ahead as a career while helping students come together and transition onto their own paths as well.

Ernie Adams has had the honor of playing jazz with Dizzy Gillespie, Ahmad Jamal, Slide Hampton and many others. He has performed Afro Latin music with Arturo Sandoval, Paquito D’Rivera, Poncho Sanchez and others. He has played jazz fusion with Al DiMeola, Joe Zawinul, and Mike Stern, among prominent others. He has shared the stage with contemporary jazz artists Ramsey Lewis, Al Jarreau and Nick Colionne and many more. He has also performed with the Chicago Jazz Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Moscow Symphony Orchestra, and Ruse Philharmonic (Bulgaria), among others. He is on over 200 recordings along with music for TV and radio, including performing music for and on the TV show Empire and many movie scores, some in which he has appeared as well.

Though he still plays here and abroad, he has been transitioning, in his own mind and heart, to a more meaningful role as teacher and mentor to young up and coming musicians both here and abroad.

➤ Jennifer Keesmaat // CMto - As an urban planner, Jennifer Keesmaat is passionate about creating places where people flourish. Named one of the “most powerful people in Canada” by Macleans, one of the “most influential” by Toronto Life, and one of the top Women of Influence in Canada, she spent five years as Toronto’s Chief City Planner, where she was celebrated for her forward thinking and collaborative approach to city-building.

Over the past fifteen years, as a founding partner of the Office for Urbanism and subsequently Dialog, Keesmaat worked in municipalities across Canada and around the world on urban design guidelines, official plan reviews and strategies for creating dense, walkable cities. Her planning practice is characterized by an emphasis on collaborations across sectors, and broad engagement with municipal staff, councils, developers, business leaders, NGO’s, and residents’ associations. Keesmaat has been recognized for her expertise in transit planning, heritage preservation, strategy development, communications, sustainable economic development and the creation of walkable, complete communities.

➤ Guillermo Sotelo // CMgr - Guillermo “ASMA SPEEKS” Sotelo is a Grand Rapids native who has spent the last decade and change turning his passion for graffiti and art into elements of vibrant self expression and community. A founding member of Element 7, the team that developed and executed the #WindowsGR project, Guillermo found a higher purpose for his art aside from just writing his name everywhere. With this newly formed powerhouse of creatives he’s learned that his form of art, his form of SPEEKING, can impact and catalyze change. Guillermo has also worked on the AfterDark project, pioneered a legal graffiti wall and is a participating artist on the up and coming skate park downtown!