Shorlette (she/her), is a native of Beautancus, North Carolina, where she grew up in a large family of farmworkers, cooks, storytellers and spades players. She currently serves as Co-Executive Director of Farm Aid, an organization founded by musician and artist Willie Nelson, that seeks to raise money and awareness of the plight of family farmers to keep them on their land. Farm Aid hosts an annual festival where we bring together music, fellowship and Homegrown© Concessions to raise funds to support our grantmaking efforts. She also serves on the board of Land Loss Prevention Project, an organization based in Durham, North Carolina, that works to save and preserve family farmland. She also is a former children’s librarian. In her work and daily life, Ammons seeks to lift up and be informed by familial ancestors like her grandparents, Grandma Adell and Grandaddy Rasper, daddy June, aunts Annette, Lou and Viv; uncles Buck, Ross and L.J., cousin Brandon, and others as well as freedom fighters like Fannie Lou Hamer and educators like George Washington Carver. Ammons and her daughter still call North Carolina home. (Photo © Bliss Floccare)
Web: www.ShorletteAmmons.com
IG: @shorlettea
FB: https://www.facebook.com/shorlette/
Kenneth Pattengale, best known as one half of The Milk Carton Kids, returns to the stage solo for the first time in sixteen years. A distinctive guitarist, singer, and producer, he has spent the past decade and a half refining a musical language defined by precision, restraint, and emotional clarity. This rare solo appearance isn’t a step away from anything so much as a step into new creative ground, where his songwriting and guitar work can unfold with uncommon freedom. Intimate and quietly daring, it offers a vivid glimpse of an artist charting a new path.
Some people start life with a plan. Not Steve Poltz. He opens himself up to the universe in a way most of us will never be loose enough to achieve, and the universe responds with a wink, a seemingly bottomless well of inspiration, and the talent to truly connect with an audience. While 2021 could have found him adrift, faced with a tour moratorium the likes of which he hadn’t experienced in decades, it opened a door — literally, his friend Oliver Wood of The Wood Brother’s door — to creating an exuberant, thoughtful batch of songs that celebrate life in all of its stages.
Amber Rubarth (Producer & Co-Host, Singer-Songwriter)
Julie Fratantoni, PhD, is a cognitive neuroscientist who is passionate about helping people become proactive about their brain health. Prior to starting her own science communication company, Julie spent five years at The University of Texas at Dallas Center for BrainHealth where she launched and led a large scale longitudinal study seeking to define, measure, and improve brain performance across the lifespan. Her research experience also includes initiatives for women’s brain health, sleep, and kindness. She is a skilled science communicator who regularly appears on Good Morning Texas with brain tips and neuroscience insights. Julie also authors a weekly Substack newsletter called Better Brain, that breaks down neuroscience and has over 175,000 subscribers. She received her PhD from UT Dallas and is also a licensed speech language pathologist, and trained in biofeedback and mindfulness techniques. Her clinical work has focused on facilitating high performance brain training for corporate executives, veterans, and athletes.
Robert Vogel, M.D., is a preventive cardiologist and Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of Colorado Denver. He received his B.A. from Columbia University (physics) and M.D. from Yale University. He served on the faculties of the Universities of Colorado, Michigan, and Maryland, the latter as Director of Cardiology. Dr. Vogel has investigated how to prevent coronary heart disease for more than 40 years. He has authored two books and more than 250 scientific publications. He appeared in James Cameron’s documentary on athletes and plant-based eating, “The Game Changers.” Dr. Vogel frequently lectures to physicians and health organizations on lifestyle and heart disease prevention. He has received a Good Housekeeping Magazine’s “Best Doctors in America” designation, a Federal Scientist of the Year Award, and has been President of the Association of University Cardiologists. Dr. Vogel has served as a consultant to the NFL, FDA, NIH, and Pritikin Longevity Institute. He now resides in Denver with his wife, a former Rancho La Puerta docent.
Jennifer Schulz, Ph.D., LMHC, is a literature professor, psychotherapist, and writer. For the past 30 years, she has taught creative writing, literature, clinical psychology, and interdisciplinary studies at Seattle University and the University of Washington, Bothell. She also leads creative writing workshops in the Seattle community and maintains a private psychotherapy practice specializing in helping adults navigate anxiety, depression, and trauma. Many of her clients are writers, musicians, filmmakers, and artists.
Karl Anthony
Mary Gauthier (Songwriter, guitarist, vocalist, author, activist) “Writing helps me sort out confusion, untangle powerful emotions, and ward off desperation. It helps me navigate the powerful emotional weather systems of life.”– Mary Gauthier, Saved by a Song. As she has so eloquently accomplished over the past 25 years, Mary Gauthier has used her art once again to traverse the uncharted waters of the past few years. “I’m the kind of songwriter who writes what I see in the world right now,” she affirms. Thankfully, amid dark storms of pandemic loss, she found and followed the beacon of new love. Her gift to us, the powerful Dark Enough to See the Stars, collects ten sparkling jewels of Gauthier songcraft reflecting both love and loss. Her eleventh album, Dark Enough to See the Stars, follows the profound antidote to trauma, Rifles & Rosary Beads, her 2018 collaborative work with wounded Iraq war veterans. It garnered a Grammy nomination for Best Folk Album, as well as a nomination for Album of the Year by the Americana Music Association. Publication of her first book, the illuminating Saved by a Song: The Art and Healing Power of Songwriting, in 2021, brought her more praise. Brandi Carlile has said, “Mary’s songwriting speaks to the tender aspects of our humanness. We need her voice in times like these more than we ever have.” The Associated Press called Gauthier “one of the best songwriters of her generation.”
Jaimee Harris (Guitarist, vocalist, songwriter, storyteller) When Jaimee Harris alighted upon the scene in Austin, Texas, the jaded music city, replete with (and weary of) singer-songwriters, woke up and took notice. Here, finally, was a new voice. Her singing voice is noteworthy: rich, sonorous, and full, delivering a uniquely stylized, throaty tone; the voice of a writer and performer. When you watch her sing, she’ll break, cradle, and win your heart, then break it all over again. Harris turned 30 during the pandemic. It’s a milestone that is a rite of passage even during normal times. But for this Texas-born singer-songwriter, it came in the midst of one of the strangest and most tumultuous periods in American history. When the world stopped during lockdown, Harris, like many others, found herself gazing back into the past, ruminating on the nature of her hometown and family origins, and reckoning with their imprint on her. The term ‘nostalgia’ derives from the Greek words nostos (return) and algos (pain), and if Harris’s new album Boomerang Town can be regarded as a nostalgic album, it is only nostalgic in the sense that the longing for home is a desire to return to the past and heal old wounds. A poet and stunning vocalist, Harris has created an arresting, ambitious song-cycle that explores the generational arc of family, the stranglehold of addiction, and the fragile ties that bind us together as Americans.
Tom Birmingham is an artist, photographer, and teacher who has lived and worked in Big Sur, California, for more than 30 years and recently relocated to a home near the Long Island Sound in Connecticut. A founding director of the Big Sur Arts Initiative, Tom has long been dedicated to fostering creativity and community through the arts. He has led instruction in a wide range of mediums, including ten years directing the art program for Big Sur’s summer children’s theater, StageKids. For over fifteen years, Tom has taught photography and drawing at Rancho La Puerta in Tecate, Mexico, where he and his wife, artist Erin Lee Gafill, have also led the Family Week programs since their inception. Together, they have conducted annual retreats in Italy focused on painting and sketching.
Emily Birmingham is an artist living Big Sur, California. She works in a range of mediums, from fabric manipulation and assemblage to observational sketch and acrylic painting. Currently she is exploring group quilting and gathering together through this traditional practice. Born into a family of artists, she sees the world through a creative lens and is quick to incorporate and adapt new disciplines. Her aim is to share her expressions, through work that feels like play and interactive installation with a focus on connecting people through their creativity.
An award-winning painter and author, Erin Gafill has inspired people around the world with her inspirational art, heartfelt stories, and uniquely engaging teaching methods. Her work bridges art, craft, and community, weaving observation, intuition, and imagination into her painting, writing, teaching, and public speaking. A fifth-generation California artist, she was born in Big Sur, California in 1963, the daughter of a beatnik and a flower child. She is the great-great-granddaughter of Carmel’s first artist-in-residence. Growing up at her grandparents’ legendary restaurant, Nepenthe, a mecca for poets, bohemians and dreamers, she drew inspiration from its ever-changing cast of characters as well as the stunning and mystical beauty of the coast. Erin is the founder of the nonprofit Big Sur Arts Initiative, and a founding member of the Monterey Bay Plein Air Painters Association (MBPAPA). In 2001 Erin was honored to serve as the first American Artist-in-Residence at the Hamada International Children’s Museum, Hamada, Japan. In 2009, she and her husband Tom Birmingham were named Champions of the Arts by the Arts Council of Monterey County and were honored by the United States Congress for their service to the community through the arts. Her exhibit Color Duets was the featured 2021 Spring/Summer show for the Monterey Museum of Art, Monterey, California, followed the next summer by a solo exhibit, California Atmosphere at the Morris Graves Museum of Art, Eureka, California. She is the author of a coffee-table art book, Color Duets, with Kaffe Fassett, and a memoir about life/work balance, Drinking from a Cold Spring, a Little Book of Hope.
Christi Williford is the Creative Director and owner of Elemental Studio Design, with 25 years of branding and communication design experience. She has launched over a dozen brands, built 20+ websites, and guided companies of all sizes—from global giants to nonprofits. A graduate of the University of Georgia, Christi blends artistic intuition with strategic thinking, shaped by an upbringing rooted in both science and art. She’s worked with brands like Microsoft, Julep Beauty, and DHL, and is passionate about teaching design principles through fine art. Christi brings clarity, creativity, and heart to every project she leads.
Nancy Cetel, MD, is an engaging and passionate physician, author and professional speaker. Following her graduation from the New York University School of Medicine, she obtained her postgraduate training in Reproductive Endocrinology at the University of California, San Diego, and Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Southern California. Her pioneering research in hormonal issues led to numerous publications and awards. Dr. Cetel is often referenced in books and journals, and is a frequently invited lecturer nationally and internationally. Live appearances and interviews have brought her acclaim as an accomplished communicator and advocate for an informed public. She is the author of Double Menopause: What to Do When Both You and Your Mate Go through Hormonal Changes Together. Her passions include her family, vegetarian cooking, dancing, and the joys of being a grandparent.
Dana Dean, OD, is a behavioral optometrist who specializes in holistic optometry and vision intelligence. Dr. Dean has had a private optometric practice in San Diego for the past 25 years. Originally from South Africa, she completed her studies in San Diego as well as attending the New England College of Optometry in Boston. She treats her patients holistically performing vision therapy on both children and adults. Her patients also include brain injuries, stroke victims and adults who want to achieve maximum success in life and reach their true potential. Not only does she see patients performing eye-brain-body connection and building visual efficiency, she also lectures on the topics of vision and brain integration, vision and the aging eyes, vision and spirituality, vision with balance and coordination, as well as vision intelligence. Dr. Dana Dean is also a passionate advocate for educating teachers on the importance of vision and learning in a school setting.