Charleston Music Hall – OFFICIAL WEBSITE

PechaKucha:

PechaKucha, Japanese for “chit chat,” is a presentation style in which 20 slides are shown for 20 seconds each (6 minutes and 40 seconds in total) keeping presentation concise, fast-paced, and powerful. Charleston Music Hall is proud to be the official venue and producer of PechaKucha Charleston. The Music Hall, with help from our collaborators Charleston Arts Festival and artist liaison Terry Fox, hopes to focus on developing a strong, interesting, and diverse presenter line up from an array of different artistic, creative, and entrepreneurial disciplines and encourage collaboration, communication, and support in Charleston’s creative community.

Mary Edna Fraser – Artist and Environmental Activist
Polly Buxton – Owner, Buxton Books
Ashley McMullen – Tattoo Artist
Shaniequa Washington – CEO, Zuriel Kingdom Collections
Chase Glenn – Executive Director, Alliance for Full Acceptance
Allyson Maute Smith – Executive Director, Charleston Wine + Food Festival
Patrick Bryant – Co-founder, Code/+/Trust
Robin Phoenix Johnson – CEO, Best Medicine Brigade

Mary Edna Fraser:

The pioneering work of Mary Edna Fraser has been collected and exhibited worldwide. Her silk batiks and oil paintings range from panoramic to plein air. The common thread in her career of four decades is environmental awareness. Her art has supported the efforts of Charleston Waterkeeper, Coastal Conservation League, South Carolina Environmental Law Project, Water Missions International, The Nature Conservancy, Sierra Club and Environmental Defense Fund. Her blog, Delete Apathy, is a venue for activism, from local to global. NASA recognized Fraser as their Artist of the Year and she was featured demonstrating batik in DC at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. The Verner Award was presented in 2016, South Carolina’s highest honor for an artist. Fraser has lectured internationally in Indonesia, Taiwan, and Australia. Venues such as the National Academy of Sciences, Duke University Museum of Art, and the National Science Foundation have hosted over 100 of the artist’s one-woman exhibitions. Orrin Pilkey, renowned Geosicientist and Professor Emeritus at Duke University, has collaborated on their two books Global Climate Change: A Primer, Duke University Press and A Celebration of the World’s Barrier Islands, Columbia University Press.

Robin Phoenix:

After serving over 20 years in the Army, Robin’s new mission is healing people, organizations, and communities through “HEAL*ARIOUS” humor. Robin was voted Best Charleston comic 2022, 1st place winner at Electric Palm 2022 comedy competition out of 48 comics, performed at venues such as Carolines on Broadway, Atlanta Comedy, Theater, Charlotte Comedy Zone, Louisville Comedy Club and is currently on tour with Andrew Conn.

She is a member of the Association For Applied And Therapeutic Humor and a Certified Humor Professional. She combines her advocacy for comedy as a mental health wellness strategy with helping veteran and military spouse comedians get performance opportunities. She performs and produces comedy all over the country with her company Best Medicine Brigade (www.bestmedicinebrigade.com). She resides in the Charleston, SC area and is an active volunteer with the Veterans of Foreign Wars, American Legion, and Armed Services Arts Partnership.

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Patrick Bryant:

Patrick Bryant is a co-founder of Code/+/Trust software development firm in Charleston, SC. After co-founding his first company, Go To Team (broadcast video services) and taking it to 20 offices around the US 25 years ago, his bio is then a steady stream of starting new companies in media, rolling papers, and software. As a serial entrepreneur, he continues to start and invest in new startups including, Teamphoria (human resource engagement software), Event.Gives (fundraising event software), CrewMama (crew production directory software) & Shine Rolling Papers. Bryant feels strongly about making Charleston and South Carolina a better place to work as an Entrepreneur. He serves as a Trustee of Trident Tech, on the SC Department of Workforce & Employment Workforce Review Committee, chairs the Harbor Entrepreneur Center, and was previously Chairman of Palmetto Goodwill and the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce. He’s recognized as a Liberty Fellow by Wofford College, a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network, and as a Riley Fellow granted by Furman University. Bryant resides in Isle of Palms, SC with his partner Nancy Mace and has two sons Pate and Jack.

Bryant loves the start-up process… that moment when you create something innovative that can scale… when you see that clear vision of how to get a unique product or service to everyone on the planet. And then build a company around it with talented creative people. After years as a serial entrepreneur, he founded the Harbor Entrepreneur Center to provide a place to help others launch companies and create collision among the other entrepreneurs in the region.

The keys to his entrepreneurial success are now the founding principles taught to start-up founders in the Harbor Entrepreneur Center Accelerator, a 14 week program offered to 16 companies a year in Charleston, SC. Each company selected receives free space, mentor-ship, access to investors, and free services like marketing, law, and accounting. His first principal is to think of start-ups as movie scripts with a specific timeline for growing each company and a clear plan to exit. Second, selecting the start-up idea is a clear formula involving scale, innovation, and ability to execute.

Alyssa Maute Smith:

Alyssa Maute Smith is Executive Director of Charleston Wine + Food, a 501c3 non profit that aims to celebrate the food and culture of Charleston and the Lowcountry. Born and raised right here on James Island, Alyssa is a proud alumna of both Clemson and the College of Charleston, where she earned a Masters in Communication; she is an adjunct there now. Alyssa was named director in January, after several months serving an interim role, and years as the organization’s communications chief. She’s a strategist at heart, which comes in handy working, teaching and raising two energetic young sons with her husband, Emmett.

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Shaniequa, L Washington:

Shaniequa, L Washington is a Charleston, SC based content creator, wearable art and earring designer, mental wellness advocate and cultural awareness speaker. Shaniequa’s ultimate passion and life’s purpose is to be and share love and light by illuminating hearts and minds to issues that create division and exclusion in communities and families abroad. Fashion is her vehicle to open the door to share the practicality of community impact by loving oneself oneself, and sharing the best parts of who you are through fashion, faith and inner beauty. With 24 years of senior leadership experience with the number one company on the Forbes Fortune 500 list, a certified trainer of diversity and inclusion, as well as being a certified Life and Leadership coach, and lead curriculum writer for Atiras International Coaching Academy, Shaniequa’s life journey is creating spaces within her community of holistic and authentic living by leading themselves first with truth, authenticity and humility.

Shaniequa uses her fashion as art to open spaces within her community for collective experiences and understanding of how to make our communities a better place to live and work, while also shaping women from all walks of life to never be afraid of being colorful. She is the author of Leading From The Front (2015), A International Speaker and is the founder and CEO of Zuriel Kingdom Collections LLC and Blue Penguin Logistics , LLC.

Polly Buxton:

Polly Buxton, owner of Buxton Books, realized her lifelong dream when she and her husband Julian opened the bookstore in 2016. A native Charlestonian with deep roots in the Lowcountry, Polly’s passion for her hometown is what drove her to start Buxton Books in order to offer the writing and reading community a place that stimulates creativity and conversation.

Her vision for Buxton was to create a dynamic, accessible, vibrant events and sales forward bookstore, and that dream has come to fruition. Buxton Books specializes in ticketed, book-included events as well as multiday author weekends with offerings ranging from bespoke walking tours to culinary events. Under her leadership, the bookstore provides a knowledgeable staff, highly curated book selection, and robust event schedule, and it upholds the values and traditions of a neighborhood bookstore while also welcoming the visiting reading community.

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Ashley McMullen:

Based in Charleston, SC. Featured on Inkmaster Season 4 and Inkmaster Redemption. Voted Charleston’s Best Tattoo artist in 2021. 16 years of tattooing.

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Emcees: The Cocktail Bandits

With global influence in the hospitality industry, Johnny Caldwell and Taneka Reaves comprise the dynamic duo known as the Cocktail Bandit. From college friends to business partners , the Cocktail Bandits are beverage ambassadors who have created a lane to share their passion
and talent is related to food and beverage, travel and lifestyle. They promote female empowerment through advocacy for the food and beverage community from a feminine, urban perspective.

The Cocktail Bandit s educate and entertain their growing audience by sharing original cocktail recipes, promoting the craftsmanship of other bar professionals and sharing their experiences at foodie events in the Holy City and beyond. They manage the self-titled Cocktail Bandit s blog and have published a book, Holy Spirits! Charles ton Culture Through Cocktails. This is the first cocktail book written by African American women in this country.

Listed among Imbibe Magazine’s ‘75 People to Watch in 2018’ and named two of Charleston’ s ’50 Most Influential in 2019’, Johnny and Taneka are known for their expertise and impact. They have hosted many sold-out events, including large- scale ones like Charleston Wine + Food and the Atlanta Food & Wine Festival. The Cocktail Bandit s have also served as expert judges for event s such as the American Craft Spirit Competition, Charles ton Fashion Week’s Top Cocktail Competition and many more. In 2021, they were proclaimed as Official Charles ton Beverage Ambassadors, for the third consecutive year, by Mayor John Tecklenburg.

Chase Glenn:

Chase Glenn is the Executive Director of the Alliance for Full Acceptance, a Charleston-based LGBTQ+ advocacy organization. He is a highly regarded public speaker, program director and LGBTQ+ community advocate, with over 15 years of experience advocating for LGBTQ-identified children, youth and adults. Chase draws from his professional training, as well as his personal experience as a transgender man, to provide education around the lived experiences of LGBTQ+ individuals, and best practices for cultivating inclusive and affirming spaces for students, employees, and patients. He is a knowledgeable consultant on policy development, program design, and building grassroots initiatives.

Chase has been featured in the media, on various podcasts and included in a web series sharing his story and experiences as a trans man. He has served on various nonprofit boards and committees specific to his work in the LGBTQ+ community, as well as relating more broadly to his work in diversity, equity and inclusion.

An Illinois native and South Carolina resident since 2006, Chase holds a B.A. in religion from Belmont University as well as an M.A. in counseling from Webster University. Chase is a Furman University Diversity Leaders Initiative Riley Fellow, class of 2018; and a Liberty Fellow, Class of 2023. He and his wife, Colleen, live in the Charleston, South Carolina area with their two children.

Professor Ping - DJ:

Professor Ping, aka DJ Josh Silverman, has been the house DJ for PechaKucha since the early days.  His style blends old school, breakbeat, rare groove, and electronic tracks in a continuous mix that will blow your headphones.  He produces a weekly radio show, Class with Professor Ping, that broadcasts nationally on the Fleet Radio Network and is the Music Director of LA based Lo Fly Radio.  For more information and to listen in, visit www.professorping.com.

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