Spoken Soul Festival Vol. 15 Stories From the Womb

Artists

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  Deborah Magdalena

  Founder

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  Whether she's hosting a spoken word event, producing a music festival or playing the role of a santera or vixen, Deborah Magdalena makes every emotion super real. This performance artist has acquired impressive TV and film credits for the past 25 years, including Sesame Street (CTW), The Apollo Comedy Hour (Tribune Entertainment), Safe Harbor (Warner Brothers), Striptease (Castle Rock), Holy Man (Caravan) and For Love or Country (HBO). As a published spoken word artist, Magdalena has released three CDs, a chapbook and the spoken word musical FUNKdalena. The album FUNKdalena was nominated by the Poetry National Awards in 2013 for best album of the year and the musical was awarded The Jenny Duany Light Bulb Fund Award from The Miami Light Project in 2012. As an artist-activist, she’s the founder of Spoken Soul Festival, a 14-year-old festival whose mission is to spotlight South Florida’s women artists. Magdalena was awarded the prestigious TAFARI Award in 2013 for her work with women artists alongside the Miami Beach Mayor Matti Herrera Bower and Michele Pommier, founder of the first modeling agency in Miami. In 2014, Magdalena was nominated for the Troy Poet Lewis Community Outreach Award by the National Poetry Awards. As an educator, Magdalena for the past 11 years has led in-school presentations in numerous high schools for the National YoungArts Foundation; is one of The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts teaching artists under their TAP Program; is a co-founder of Piano Slam; and has led various workshops for local art organizations like Arts for learning, Miami Light Project, Institute of Contemporary Art, P.A.T.H., Urgent Inc. and the Arsht Center. Her spoken word short film My Lover was commissioned by the Adrienne Arsht Center’s Heart of Art 2020 series. Most recently, and for the 10^th year in a row, she was invited by the Arsht Center and Ailey Arts & Education Foundation to serve as creative communication instructor for the award-winning AileyCamp Miami. @funkdalena

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  Veronica Barrios Garcia

  Director/Producer

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  Despite failing miserably at her childhood dreams of becoming Miss America or the next Madonna, Veronica Garcia continues to impress as a storyteller, television and event producer, community activist, mommy and lover of all things funny. Garcia has written and produced online content and projects for film and TV. She is co-founder of Garnet Productions, a boutique, Miami-based production company, and South Dade Creative, an events- and community-driven consulting firm. She has contributed her skills to companies such as CBS Productions, The Food Network, Travel Channel, MTV, MTV Latino, Nickelodeon Latino, BBC and the Telemundo Network. A strategist who is adept at planning, organizing and following through.

  Garcia is also founder of West Kendall Local, a community campaign and resident coalition assisting in the development and promotion of art, culture and local businesses in West Kendall, and sits on the board of Friends of West Kendall. As a result, the group has been awarded the Miami Foundation Public Space Challenge grant twice and delivered to its district an outdoor concert series and the first-ever cycling street fair in Kendall, Garcia proudly sits on the board of Pridelines, South Florida’s only LGBTQ community center. She is also the producer of The Spoken Soul Festival, an annual event that showcases local female artists at the Adrienne Arsht Center, now in its 15th year. With creativity and enthusiasm, Garcia’s ability to manage, plan and organize has proven invaluable to her community and profession. The child of Argentine immigrants born in New York, Garcia attributes her optimistic disposition to her mother, who encouraged her to see the good in all people and situations. She is a graduate of the International Fine Arts College in Miami, with a bachelor’s degree in film, resides in Miami, is married and the proud mother of two rambunctious boys. @luckyveronica

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  Annette Gonzalez Silvera

  Director/Producer

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  South Florida native Annette Gonzalez Silvera always knew she wanted a career in entertainment. Her love of storytelling and producing began at an early age, when she would perform and tell stories in front of family. That passion turned into a career when she earned a degree in film from International Fine Arts College and a degree in communications and marketing from St. Thomas University. Early in her career, she began learning the ins and outs of live production when she had the opportunity to work with Clear Channel Radio, now iHeartMedia. Wanting to venture out on her own, Silvera began offering her skills and services and has had the privilege of working with companies such as HGTV, Discovery, TLC, MTV, Univision and Telemundo.

  In 2011, Silvera won her first Telly Award for videos that she and her husband produced for HGTV in Spanish. In 2015, she won her second Telly Award, for directing and producing a video showcasing a South Florida school for autistic children. This production sparked an interest to produce content that would help organizations in need of funding and awareness. Silvera went on to direct and produce promotional and fundraising videos for the Live Like Bella Childhood Cancer Foundation, the Miami Shores Presbyterian Church & School, St. Theresa Catholic School, The Rise & Succeed conference and a Kickstarter campaign for a new line of female firefighter dolls for girls.

  In 2016, Silvera joined the Spoken Soul Festival, an annual event that showcases local female artists at the Adrienne Arsht Center, as a producer. She has been tasked with producing much of the festival’s visual content. @annettesilvera

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  Natalie Lewis Schere

  PATH co-founder and executive director

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  Natalie has over 15 years of professional experience in creative production, education, public relations and community building. Her experience as a member of the Society of Royce Fellows (Brown University Swearer Center for Public Service) laid a foundation for her career in community engagement and social innovation. Since then, she has founded and directed youth/community development programs in the U.S. and the Caribbean including:

  • 4MILE@bryant (Bryant University, Smithfield, RI)
  • Growing UpRooted (a program of Project New Urban Arts, Providence, RI)
  • Project S.E.E. (a program of the Alabama School of Mathematics & Science, Mobile, AL)
  • ANU PATH (Antigua, West Indies) and
  • PATH: Preserving, Archiving & Teaching Hiphop, Inc. (Miami, FL)

  Her passion for learning was influenced by her family and the unique cast of educators/mentors that have guided her path. Her first education course, “The Craft of Teaching,” with Bil Johnson offered her insight into ways that education could transform minds and communities. She was recruited to direct STEM enrichment programs in rural Alabama under the mentorship of Andrea Agnew and was trained in public relations at the pioneering education reform organization, The Big Picture Company/Big Picture Learning with Cally Wolk and education reform pioneers Dennis Littky & Elliot Washor. She served as the Education Outreach Coordinator for the Rhode Island Black Heritage Society and was later appointed Assistant Director of the Intercultural Center at Bryant University. She moved to Miami as a Miami Teaching Fellow and after 6 years teaching mathematics and science in public and IB schools in the U.S. and the Caribbean, she is an advocate for project based learning, performance/product assessment, student centered learning and Hip Hop-based education.

  Natalie is a a consultant for Royal Life Centers, a full-service treatment facility for adults overcoming substance dependence.

  She is an avid gardener, sustainable energy enthusiast and musician.