Danny Hoch - Founder
Danny Hoch is an actor, playwright and director whose plays Pot Melting, Some People, and Jails, Hospitals, Hip-Hop have garnered many awards including 2 OBIES, an NEA Solo Theatre Fellowship, Sundance Writers Fellowship, CalArts/Alpert Award In Theatre and a Tennessee Williams Fellowship. His theatre work has toured to 50 U.S. cities and 15 countries. He is a Senior Fellow at the New School's Vera List Center For Art & Politics and his writings on hip-hop, race and class have appeared in The Village Voice, New York Times, Harper's, The Nation, American Theatre, and various books: Out Of Character, Extreme Exposure, Creating Your Own Monologue and Total Chaos. His book Jails, Hospitals & Hip-Hop is in its second printing by Villard Books/Random House.

His writing and acting credits for television and film include Bamboozled, Washington Heights, Prison Song, Some People, Subway Stories, Thin Red Line, Whiteboys, Blackhawk Down, American Splendor, War Of The Worlds, Lucky You, HBO Def Poetry and the film version of Jails, Hospitals & Hip-Hop. Most recently he appears alongside Joaquin Phoenix, Robert Duvall and Eva Mendes in We Own The Night.

Mr. Hoch founded the Hip-Hop Theater Festival in 2000 which has since presented over 100 Hip-Hop Generation plays from around the globe and now appears annually in New York, Chicago, DC and San Francisco/Oakland. He directed Will Power's hit show Flow at New York Theatre Workshop, as well as the bilingual Representa at the the SFIAF, and his own Till The Break Of Dawn at New York's Abrons Arts Center in 2007. He was the 2007 Sundance Theatre Lab's Playwright-In-Residence and was awarded a 2008 Guggenheim Fellowship for Drama. His new play Taking Over, about gentrification will open at New York City's Public Theater in November 2008.

Kamilah Forbes - Artistic Director
As the Artistic Director of Hip-Hop Theatre Junction, Kamilah conceived and directed Rhyme Deferred, which was produced at various venues throughout New York City, Washington D.C., Dallas, and North Carolina. Her directing credits include Boxing Ennui, Twelfth Night, and Caged Rhythm. A working actress and playwright, she is a member of the Folger Shakespeare Performance Troupe in Washington D.C. Kamilah is also a co-founder of the Nommo Cultural Arts Camp for under-privileged youth in Kingston, Jamaica. She holds a BFA in Theatre from Howard University and is the recipient of the Owen Dodson Excellence in New Performance Award.

Clyde Valentin - Executive Director
Clyde Valentín was born and raised in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. He has a history of contributing to and creating socially responsible entertainment projects for the last ten years. Clyde co-founded Stress Magazine, a pioneering publication that examined the socio-political context of Hip-Hop through groundbreaking content and design.

Clyde also co-founded the Black August Benefit Concert series, entering its 10th year of programming. Black August, currently a project of the Malcom X Grassroots Movement, strives to support the global development of Hip Hop culture by facilitating exchanges between international communities where Hip Hop is a vital part of youth culture. Clyde, serving in the capacity of Production Manager, recently completed work on his first feature film entitled On the Outs, which won both the Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize at the Slam Dance Film Festival in 2005.

He is a graduate of Binghamton University, where he was a member of La Raza Theater Company and he currently sits on the board of the Artists Community Federal Credit Union, ACFCU offers a variety of financial services, including investment and credit programs, to member artists, arts workers and non-profit arts organizations in New York City and the metropolitan region.

Elz Cuya - External Affairs Director
Some run away with the circus. Elz Cuya ran away with the Hip-Hop Theater Festival. For three straight years this native San Franciscan watched the incredible work of the Hip-Hop Theater Festival, Bay Area. When year four rolled around, her fixation with the Festival became so overwhelming she left her beloved city of San Francisco to join HHTF headquarters in New York as the External Affairs Director. Now she devotes herself to bringing more young people of color into theater, both on stage and in the house. Moreover, she works toward a world where Hip-Hop is naturally represented in theater, not just at the Festival, but in the theater world at large.

Though she terribly misses the Bay Area, Elz is thrilled to say that she's finally able to give directions in Manhattan when asked. "I probably only messed up twice," she says. "Ok, maybe three times."

Elz is the founder of the Poetry Mission in San Francisco, the celebrated Mission District-based literary community that presents poetry, performance art and music. As though no one noticed she left, and granted, she would have it no other way, performances are still happily deviant and going strong at DALVA on Thursday nights. www.myspace.com/poetrymission.

Born to immigrant Filipino parents, she earned her BA in Mass Communications from University of California, Berkeley. She spent nearly a decade of her early career in news radio prior to entering the non-profit sector. Elz currently lives in Bushwick, hella propagating words like "hella," and facilitates a bi-monthly creative writing workshop in Bed-Stuy. For writers curious, rigorous, and felonious-yet-luminous, please email poetrymission@gmail.com.

Daphne Farganis - Director of Education
Daphne was the Founding Director of the Institute for Urban Education at New School University, which was designed to support public high school students as they navigate the transition to higher education. Daphne developed and fostered innovative community-based programs in partnership with schools, organized educational events and public programming, facilitated professional development for educators and youth workers and taught both college and high school courses. Through this work she has taught and written about the intersection of education, social activism, public policy and hip hop.Before founding the Institute, Daphne served as Acting Director for the Master of Science in Teaching Program at the New School University; prior to that, as Program Officer with the Jenesis Family Foundation. In addition, she held posts of Project Director at the International Education Center (Denmark) and Senior Trainer with Global Kids (New York City), where she designed programs and curriculum on human rights and global issues. Daphne was also the co-founder of NEXT Innovations (Minneapolis), a youth, leadership development project.Daphne is a graduate of Vassar College and holds a Master’s degree from the Bank Street School of Education.

Katy Savard - Company/Tour Manager
Katy started working in theater at the age of 14 at The Union County Arts Center (Rahway, NJ) where she Staged Managed Rahway High Schools Musical Productions. RHS was a part of The Papermill Playhouse Adopt-a-School Program. Katy received her BFA in Theater Production/Stage Management from Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University in 2001. She has worked in NYC since her University graduation in Freelance Production for Theater and Television. Theater credits include : The Seven (New York Theater Workshop: Company Manager), Momma's Boyz written by Candido Tirado, Cyrano (Chekhov Theater Ensemble), City Lights Youth Theater, Pepetian's Jump It Up Festival. Resident Stage Manager: Hostos Center for the Arts & Culture (2003 - 2006) TV credits include: HBO's Def Poetry Jam, VH1's Hip Hop Honors, P. Diddy's Bad Boys of Comedy, Arthur Ashe Kids' Day (USA Networks), Macy's 4th of July Celebration, The NYC New Year's Eve Celebration, as well as for ESPN, MTVN, A&E, NBC, UPN9 - among others. Katy is also currently the Company / Tour Manager for Elizabeth Streb / Streb Lab for Action Mechanics. She has toured with Streb Extreme Action nationally and internationally, and also toured with Candido Tirado's Momma's Boyz, Will Power's Flow, Jerry Quickley's Live From the Front, and The Suicide Kings' In Spite of Everything.

Kristin Hill - Grants Coordinator
Pennsylvania native Kristen Hill had her first experiences in the theater at Freedom Theater’s Summer Intensive Training program at the age of 12. Since then, she has gone on to study various forms of theater and dance and in 2007, received a BA degree in Theater Arts from Rutgers University. Inspired and introduced to the Hip-Hop Theater movement by Kamilah Forbes’ Rhyme Deferred, Kristen came on board to HHTF after graduation as an intern and is currently serving as Grant Coordinator for the Future Aesthetics Artist Regrant (FAAR) program. In the fall of 2008, she will begin pursuit of a Master’s Degree in Performing Arts Administration at NYU’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development. Her work in the arts is dedicated to advocating the under-represented voice in theater and performance.

Anthony "Fascious" Martinez - Intern
As a member of The Intangibles Spoken Word Collective and founder of the Poetry Slam Association, Anthony "Fascious" Martinez has gained substantial recognition for receiving numerous awards and medals recognizing his writing and performance abilities. [“Best Flow,” (2005) “Rookie of the Year,”(2005) “Best Team Piece,” (2005, 2006) “All Around Bad Ass,” (2006) and “Grossest Poem,” (2007) for the ACUI National Poetry Slams]. After having been ranked 2nd in the United States for the 2005 SUNY Oneonta Poetry Slam Team, Fascious has since written, directed, as well as performed his own one man show released as a Hip Hop Theater play inspired by his solo debut album entitled Penumbra which was the recipient of the 2008 Research and Creative Activity Grant Award.

As Two Time Northeast Regional Poetry Slam Champion (2007, 2008), Two Time SUNY Oneonta Grand Slam Champion (2006, 2007), 11th Annual 7 Deadly Sins Poetry Slam Champion (2008) and Nuyorican Poets Café Grand Slam Finalist (2007); Fascious has taken steps toward the next level of his career; opening up for Saul Williams, M1 of Dead Prez, Head Automatica, and Immortal Technique. In addition to performing alongside talents such as Platinum Selling Recording Artist/Grammy Nominated Pianist Jeremy Wall, Fascious was cast for John McCaslin's production of Accidental Death of an Anarchist written by legendary Italian playwright and Nobel Peace Prize winning theater director, Dario Fo. Fascious is a graduate of the State University of New York, College at Oneonta and the Recipient of the Bronx Borough’s Peacemaker Award. He is a Digidesign certified Pro Tools Technician and specializes in Audio Arts Production.

Nicola Geismar - Intern
Nicola grew up across the pond in London, England.Her background is multi-disciplinary having trained heavily in a variety of dance disciplines.Hip hop culture has always been the prime inspiration for Nicola developing a robust movement vocabulary in bboy/bgirl and athletic dance styles.She has been fortunate enough to be involved in pioneering projects both on and offstage, and has worked with instrumental UK based hip hop theatre artists such as Jonzi D and Benji Reid.

Projects have taken her worldwide, exploring Hip Hop territory in South Africa, Berlin, Montreal and now New York.As well as her physical training, Nicola has experience in coordinating dance projects for urban youth and is a qualified Pilates instructor.As a promoter of Hip Hop dance artists, she is a key liaison in arranging transatlantic cultural dance exchanges.Most recently Nicola was successful in bringing Greg Campbellock Jr to London to teach workshops at the world renowned Breakin Convention in London, England.

Nicola is excited to be part of the HHTF team helping them market their concept as well as promote their unique brand of hip hop theater.She is inspired by their relentless work to push the boundaries as they continue to be a growing force and platform for hip hop artists locally and worldwide.

Inés García - Intern
Inés studies theater at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. She's in the Playwrights Horizons Theater School where she focuses on directing, acting, design, and stage management. Her gymnastic training influences her awareness of her own and other bodies in a performance space; it has become a springboard for her work and a fundamental element of her style.

She endeavors to fuse these influences in her work to create art that allows for community building, community healing, dialogue, agreement/disagreement, and most importantly, a good time. She has been given opportunities to see and work on that kind of art with various groups in Kentucky, France, Vietnam, Puerto Rico, Mexico, New York, and at home in Jersey. Her formal introduction to Hip-Hop Theater began last year and has been growing exponentially ever since.

HHTF Board

Danny Hoch - Ex Officio
(Actor, Playwright - Caseroc Productions)

Darren Sussman - Chair
(President - TheaterMania.com)

Constance Mortell - Secretary
(Development Consultant - Freelance)

Michael Skolnik - Treasurer
(Independent Filmmaker - Skolnik Productions)

Jennifer Ortega
(Artistic Director - Monarch Theater)

Lumumba Mosquera
(Entertainment Lawyer - Dimension Films, The Weinstein Company)

Malik Yoba
(Actor)

Clyde Valentin
(Executive Director - Hip-Hop Theater Festival)