Team
Sonya Clark-Herrera, M.A.
Co-Founder
sonya@muralmusicarts.org
Sonya Clark-Herrera is a painter, the co-founder and current leader of the Mural Music and Arts Project (“MMAP”), a non-profit youth development organization that educates, empowers and inspires youth through engagement in the arts. Mentoring and teaching in after school and community based programs, including her own, and researching in the field of youth development, Ms. Clark-Herrera has dedicated herself to the positive development of traditionally disadvantaged youth with a particular emphasis on public art as a form of cultural empowerment and catalyst for social development and political activism. Prior to founding MMAP, Ms. Clark-Herrera collaborated with her best friend, Denise Roberson, to found a successful consulting business, Jadi Art, Concept & Creation, partnering emerging artists with a variety of institutional and corporate clients in the production of tailored visual art, multimedia and sculpture installations in New York and southern California. Sonya has managed and collaborated on several public art projects in New York, Pennsylvania and California. Ms. Clark-Herrera earned her B.A. in Social Science and B.S. in Biology from the University of California, Irvine, in 1995, and her M.S. in Biomedical Anthropology from Columbia University in 1998.
Tefferi Mogus Brook
Executive Director
teff@muralmusicarts.org
Teff is a lyricist, producer, and educator working in underserved communities since his teenage years. While at Stanford studying Electrical Engineering, Teff expanded his range, integrating music technology and building out MMAP's new History through Hip Hop program. During his undergrad and following graduation Teff taught performing arts to MMAP youth for over three years. After building out three different HHH studios and producing dozens of tracks with young East Palo Alto artists, Teff returned to his home in Los Angeles and began to explore the business aspect of the music industry, working in artist management and content production. Bridging both worlds and boasting experience in branding, production, and business development, Teff plans to increase visibility and range for young hip hop artists upon his return to MMAP.
Dany Ceseña
Director of Community Outreach
dany@muralmusicarts.org
Dany Ceseña was born in the South Central neighborhood of Los Angeles, Ca. After receiving a Bachelor's Degree in Philosophy from UCLA, he moved to South Korea to work as an English teacher and volunteer with a YMCA theatre troupe. After returning home, he moved to the bay area to participate in Americorps' social justice oriented Public Allies fellowship concurrently with MMAP. Since then, he has worked every one of MMAP's programs, including HEArt, HHH, TMP, YLA, Gateway, and PAC.
Because of Dany’s deep involvement with youth and community, he consistently participates in city task forces, consults for law enforcement agencies and youth-serving nonprofits, and speaks at national conferences about his work with MMAP and the East Palo Alto Police Department’s anti-violence and public health initiative, FIT Zones.
Demetric Sanders
History through Hip Hop Director
demetric@muralmusicarts.org
Demetric Sanders, born and raised in Portland, Oregon, is the communications director for the Mural Music & Arts Project (MMAP) and the curriculum coordinator for the History through Hip Hop program (HHH). He graduated from Stanford University with a B.A. in Science, Technology, and Society in 2010 and an M.A. in Learning, Design, and Technology from Stanford's School of Education in 2011. While at Stanford, Demetric volunteered as the assistant varsity basketball coach at Eastside College Prep, worked as the co-coordinator for the 2010 History through Hip Hop program, and co-founded the Speak Up, Speak Out program at St. Francis Youth Club. His masters' project deliverable was an HHH inspired Hip Hop game that promoted self-expression, taught literary devices, and created a community of learners (www.barup.mobi). In his free time, Demetric enjoys watching, coaching, and discussing sports.
Jamaal "Future" Mashack
Artist in Residence
Future is a DJ, producer, and lyricist and a MMAP artist in residence. He has been part of some of the biggest movements in entertainment from working film mogul Tyler Perry on his first film to moving up the ranks with in Interscope records.
Rachel McIntire, Ed.M.
Arts Education Specialist
rachel@muralmusicarts.org
Rachel McIntire oversees MMAP's art education curriculum, and is a multimedia artist as well as the Chair of the Visual Art Department at School of the Sacred Heart, San Francisco and Co-Director of Break Arts: International Art and Education Collaborative. Rachel's interest in education stems from her work as a teacher-organizer, administrator, and researcher in various arts-based community development spaces including schools, community centers, juvenile detention centers, public spaces, and youth arts organizations. Before pursuing a M.ed in Art Education at Harvard’s School of Education, Rachel helped to found a cadre of youth arts organizations including MMAP, International Children Arts Alliance and Arte Campesino in rural Honduras, which was created to promote the use of visual representation as an agent for social change and youth leadership in the rural towns of eastern Honduras.
Jeffrey Camarillo, M.A.
Community School Partner
jeffrey@muralmusicarts.org
Jeffrey Camarillo, is a lyricist, appearing on several Hip Hop releases, he performs his original songs to benefit the non-profits and schools where he works. Jeffrey, or “Mr. C” as his students call him, was born and raised in Menlo Park, CA. As the eldest son of a Stanford University history professor (Albert Camarillo) and middle school counselor (Susan Camarillo), education and public service were emphasized throughout his youth. Jeffrey attended public schools his entire educational career, and graduated from Menlo-Atherton High School in 1997, where he was Student Body President and Co-Captain of the varsity basketball team. He then attended the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, where he majored in Urban Studies with a concentration in Urban Education. In Philadelphia, Jeff discovered his passion for teaching and working with youth, as he founded and directed an after-school reading and writing program in Southwest Philly. Upon graduating with honors from the University of Pennsylvania in 2001, Jeffrey returned to California to teach 8th grade U.S. History in Compton, CA, his father's hometown. During his three years in Compton, Jeffrey taught over 600 young people and coached basketball, football, baseball and track and field. In 2004, Jeffrey returned to the Bay Area to pursue his master's degree, complete his teaching credentials at Stanford University's School of Education, and begin working with the Mural Music & Arts Project (“MMAP”) to help instructors increase their effectiveness reaching traditionally underserved, low performing youth in an academic environment. Jeffrey currently teaches in Compton, and provides MMAP staff with leadership, and professional development opportunities throughout the school year, and Directs MMAP's summer staff and programs.
Justin Phipps
Collaborating Artist
Justin Phipps is a Bay Area native who has been working with youth for over 15 years and has been a professional musician for 17. Justin has lived and worked in East Palo Alto for the last 10 years. As the Director of Art and Music at Live In Peace, Justin teaches music classes, runs student bands, gives private music instruction, and hosts community performances for youth (and adults) of East Palo Alto. His work has now brought him to two San Francisco schools to run similar programs, one in Bayview/Hunters Point and the other in Potrero Hill, both economically disadvantaged districts similar to East Palo Alto. In addition to teaching in schools, Justin directs H2O (the Hip Hop Orchestra), a live hip-hop brass band made up of East Palo Alto youth. He is running a recording studio and soon-to-be record label in EPA for the purpose of producing and promoting positive and uplifting music from the community. Outside of Live In Peace, Justin is a private music instructor in surrounding cities, the musical director of the Vintage Music Collective (a 12-piece roots-reggae band from East Palo Alto that performs throughout the Bay Area), and an afrobeat/highlife guitarist. He graduated from Stanford University in African American Studies with a focus in Ethnomusicology.
Lauren Camarillo
Collaborating Artist
Lauren Camarillo is a dancer who was formally trained in ballet and ultimately expanded her repertoire to include contemporary, jazz, and lyrical dance. A dance savant, Lauren began teaching in her early teens and founded a Hip Hop dance camp for children at a local homeless shelter in 2001, which remains thriving today. While studying at University of California at Los Angeles, Lauren continued to learn alternative forms of dance, including house and improvisation. Devoting her time to direct Samahang Modern, a competitive Hip Hop team, Lauren choreographed works for performances and competitions from 2007 to 2010. Lauren has performed internationally, learning Latin dance forms while touring in Chile and Argentina. She embraces salsa, Hip Hop, house, jazz, tap, contemporary, and ballet, while aspiring to create choreography that raises social consciousness. Currently, Lauren is a part of The Company, a Hip Hop team based out of Daly City, CA.
Keith Cross
Collaborating Artist
Keith Cross is a musician, writer and artist. Originally from Los Angeles, Keith studied religion at University of Southern California and relocated to the Bay Area in 2010. Keith has toured Europe as a solo artist and has toured internationally with Flora Purim. Keith has published two full musical projects including “Look Both Ways” which combines Hip Hop, soul, funk and jazz. A fervent believer in the power of the word and authentic expression, Keith is a seasoned Hip Hop curriculum designer and veteran performer.
Joshua M. Cantwell
CPA, MBA, CFM, CMA, MMAP Finances