Performer Bios
Speak Your Peace
Bob Young has a recent book of poetry, If Not Now, When, published by Poetica Publishing Company. A resident of in Virginia since 1970, Young has a doctorate from University of Pennsylvania School of Social Work. He has taught at Bryn Mawr, Penn, VCU, Norfolk State, and ODU. From 1973 to 1991 he was Associate Professor at Eastern Virginia Medical School, Department of Psychiatry, where he was a psychotherapist, an administrator, and a teacher.
Connect with Bob Young on Facebook.
Jack Callan is an award-winning artist and poet. He serves as Poetry Society of Virginia Contest judge, leads poetry workshops, and widely reads his poetry in Virginia and the mountains of western Virginia. He has two collections of poetry, Little River on the Milky Way and Knucklehead Poems. He is The Poetry Society of Virginia Eastern Region V.P. and Hampton Roads Writers board member.
Speakers & M.C.
Rev. Greg West will be offering an opening prayer before the evening concert. The Rev. Greg West is the Chaplain at Virginia Wesleyan College. He is the founding pastor of Grace Harbor, a multi-cultural church in Suffolk, Va. He was ordained as an Elder in the Virginia Conference of the United Methodist Church in 2003 and served as senior pastor at Stokesland United Methodist Church in Danville, Va., for three years.
Find out more about West on Virginia Wesleyan's web site.
Dr. Paul B. Rasor will kick off evening concert with a warm welcome. On the faculty at Virginia Wesleyan as Director of the Center for the Study of Religious Freedom and Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies, he holds a Master of Divinity (M.Div.) and Ph.D. in the study of religion from Harvard, as well as a law degree (J.D.) and a music degree (B. Mus.) from the University of Michigan. He is an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister. He is also a trombonist, and has played with several symphony orchestras as well as small jazz combos.
Find out more about Rasor on Virginia Wesleyan's web site.
Track McCreary will be our M.C. for the evening. McCreary spent his formative years pursuing monastic studies, then found himself traveling the world, looking from pole to pole for the golden thread that connects us all in stories and song. He has set foot in every continent/nation/country/state except for Kazahkstan. His Cheyenne father and Cajun wise-woman mother instilled in him the need and desire for continual journeys of heart and soul.
Concert Performers
Virginia World Rhythms Drum Circle – Bringing Unity to the Community with Drum Circles™. In addition to leading an afternoon drum circle jam, Arthur Lopez will facilitate a drum circle as part of the evening concert. This is a shared audience experience in a drum circle rhythm-based event, where everyone has a voice and is empowered to use it. Lopez will bring hand percussion instruments to share; please bring any you may have. If you have them, please bring hand drums, extra percussion instruments, flutes, maracas, cajon, djembe, congas, bongos, and any other non amplified instruments to share in a fun filled, rhythm based, community drum circle where everyone is welcomed to share and express their rhythm spirit. You do not have to know how to play, just want to play. Rhythms exist everywhere in life. The Virginia World Rhythms Drum Circle wants to make it accessible to all as a tool for community building, relaxation and pleasure, as well as to promote and inspire the development and appreciation among all people.
Connect with Virginia World Rhythms Drum Circle on Facebook, and visit their web site. They also have a great Meetup event page here and a Facebook event here.
Virginia Beach Friends School Soundwaves & Vibes–The Soundwaves are a drumming group (steel drums and African drums), and the Vibes are a singing group. Both groups come to us from the Virginia Beach Friends School. The VB Friends School is a private school for pre-K to high school-age children. The school integrates the Quaker values of equality, integrity, simplicity, peace, and environmental stewardship in a nurturing community of academic excellence that encourages mutual respect, personal responsibility, and the fulfillment of each person’s potential.
Find out more at their web site, friends-school.org.
Narissa Bond – Singer-songwriter-guitarist – 2009 winner of the Hampton Roads Portfolio Awards for best album and best song with her recent release "Three Words." Narissa’s vocal style has been compared to Joni Mitchell and her songwriting styles range from traditional folk, jazz and blues to contemporary folk and pop.
Read full bio, see photos, and listen to clips at narissabond.com.
Vivian Teter – Batten Professor of English at Virginia Wesleyan and award-winning poet, Vivian Teter began teaching at the Virginia Wesleyan College in 1987. In 2007, she received two Pushcart Prize Nominations, one from The Spoon River Poetry Review, and the other from Toadlily Press. One of her poems, "Utterly," has been selected to be immortalized as part of the Metrorail Public Art Project in the D.C. area. Another one of her poems, "Hunger of No Tongue," about the fig tree in VWC's arboretum, was published in Green Mountains Review in 2004.
Find out more about Vivian Teter here and here.
The Life Force Band – ranges from professional to amateur musicians, coming together to form sounds that unite people of diverse backgrounds, religions, and philosophies as one. The band's goal is to connect people on a heart-to-heart basis, through the power of music. Master session drummer Rick Mateo founded the band in 2003, and has newly formulated the band for this year. Mateo uses his experience to raise the band's talents to new levels.
Watch videos of the 2009 incarnation of the Life Force Band on YouTube here and here.
Ebenezer Unity Choir – the Inspirational Unity Choir of Ebenezer Baptist Church had a spectacular performance at the 2010 One Love Festival. In their own words, "We use our voices for the care and stewardship of the earth because music is a healing force. We are on a religious journey to sing praises and to spread the word of the Lord to all. We wholeheartedly invite you to come join us."
Find out more about the Ebenezer Unity Choir on their web site.
Eddie Dowe – The poet is a high school English and Creative Writing teacher in Norfolk and a 2010 graduate of ODU's MFA Creative Writing Program. Poems have appeared in Shape of a Box, Portfolio, Mannequin Envy, and The Strange Fruit, among others. Check out Dowe performing at the 2009 One Love Festival here and here, and follow him on Twitter.
Lawrence Lambert – Raised on a farm in rural Virginia, Lawrence Lambert started singing as a child with his twin brother and older twin brother and sister. Although the group could never replace the "Jackson Five," it was a great way to spend those quiet nights in Pungo, Virginia. Music has always been a big part of Lambert's life. Nicknamed "the Voice" for his unique vocal style and crystal clear delivery; he wants nothing more than to write the kind of music that will helps someone to get over their broken heart. Lambert also performs with Karl Werne and Elaine Dempsey as a group called Big Wide Grin.
Check out videos and music clips here, and enjoy a video of Lambert performing live in the studio on Fox 43 News in 2009.
Playback Hampton Roads – a local interactional, improvisational theatre troupe which invites personal stories from the audience members and enacts those stories on stage using both symbolic and realistic forms. The result is a magical and therapeutic combination of entertainment, humor, poignancy, and drama. The Hampton Roads chapter is part of an international Playback theater organization which has troupes all over the world. Playback Hampton Roads has been performing in a variety of venues from corporate conferences and academic conventions to commercial venues to private birthday parties, anniversaries and weddings for over 14 years.
Videos of the performance of Playback Hampton Roads at the 2009 One Love Festival can be found on YouTube here (part 1) and here (part 2).
The Finale — One Love: Life Force Band/All – Here's where we all join together to end the festival on a high note. The performers, the audience (even the volunteers), playing, singing, laughing, loving—coming together to unite as One.
Sound by Nick Kramarevski, aka Mikhola. Visit his MySpace page.
