Jacqueline Moscou

Appointed Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center’s Artistic Director in May 2002, after a long association at Intiman Theatre, where she directed several productions and still serves as Artistic Associate.  Among her recent credits include the annual holiday production of Langston Hughes’ Black Nativity:A Gospel Song Play, A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, and Lynn Nottage’s Crumbs from the Table of Joy.  In 2004, she re-staged Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill at Langston Hughes, and directed the Northwest premier at Intiman Theater in Seattle of Virginia Taylor’s Crowns. The production subsequently opened at the In Prince Music Theatre in Philadelphia. In 2005, she directed Intimate Apparel for Intiman.  Recently, Ms Moscou staged Langston Hughes most ambitious work, Arthur Miller’s Pulitzer prize-winning Death of A Salesman, featuring an all African American cast.

Zola Mumford

Curator of Seattle's annual Langston Hughes African American Film Festival. She worked for several years in video production, for such organizations as Seattle Public Schools TV, the Seattle Public Broadcasting Service station KCTS-9, and University of Washington Television. As a filmmaker, Zola Mumford was awarded artist grants from the Seattle Arts Commission and Artist Trust of Washington State. Her media work includes the film Charm School which was broadcast on Canada's WTN network. As a writer, she has published feature and research articles in regional newspapers and The Victorian Web, and was an editor of the anthology Present Tense: Writing and Art by Young Women (Calyx Books). She holds a degree in Communications & Community Media from Antioch College. She has performed as an actor in education videos and onstage in internationally recognized director and playwright Ping Chong's Undesirable Elements: Seattle. Mumford is a past board member of Seattle's Northwest Film Forum and 911 Media Arts Center.

Karen Toering

Program Director for Seattle's Langston Hughes African American Film Festival. Toering is Co-Director of Reclaim the Media, a Seattle-based organization promoting community media, media literacy and media policy reform. She is a principal partner of the Gryphon Group, a strategic media communications and development firm and Co-founder of the Albuquerque Project; promoting accountability and cultural competency for leadership in the media reform movement.

Angela Gilliam

A cultural anthropologist and Faculty Emerita at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA.  She organized the first international film festivals in independent Papua New Guinea--the first in 1979, and a second one in 1980 featuring the films of Senegalese master filmmaker, Ousmane Sembene, entitled "Africa Through the Eyes of One of Its Sons."  She is widely published in English and Portuguese on issues of race, class and gender in Brazil. 

Naomi Ishisaka

Editor in chief of ColorsNW Magazine, a full-color, monthly publication focused on communities of color in the Northwest. As editor, Ishisaka is responsible for all content as well as the design of the magazine. Ishisaka is a Seattle native and worked at several Puget Sound newspapers, including The Seattle Times, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, The News Tribune and the Bremerton Sun. She was a Spring 2005 fellow of the German Marshall Fund and traveled throughout Europe. In September, Ishisaka traveled to the Gulf Coast states to cover the affects of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita on communities of color.

Doreen Mitchum 

Coordinates funding programs at 4Culture (King County's cultural services provider) including Arts Special Projects, the Community Arts Iniaitive and the Touring Arts Roster, a juried directory of performing artists. Ms. Mitchum also produces a monthly television show that is broadcast on King County TV and the Seattle Community Access Network (SCAN). She received her BA from the Ohio State University in Organizational Communications and a MFA in Film Production from Howard University in Washington DC. An artist from an early age, she has also published short fiction and won awards for poetry, screenplays and short films. She owned and operated an art gallery in Seattle and taught at Seattle Central Community College.

Victoria Moreland

 After earning a B.A. in the combined areas of speech communications, art, advertising/marketing from the University of Washington.  Victoria has worked in senior management for over 15 years in the areas of human resources and community outreach for both public and private organizations.  Before coming to SAM five years ago she served as a Human Resources Administrator with the Seattle Public Schools. Her background also includes working for Nordstrom and the University of Washington.   Victoria is grounded in the Seattle arts community as she is a longtime docent at SAM for 10 years, specializing in African art, she's served on arts organization boards and she's an artist.

Stephanie Ogle

A freelance writer in print & the web, screenwriter and aspiring filmmaker, Stephanie, through her "SoulSis Entertainment" venture, is the creator/producer of "Rak On! Bellydance", a community access program about Bellydance. She has written 5 WGA registered screenplays (with more on the way!) & is planning to produce a short film as well as 2 mini documentaries & a feature length documentary. Stephanie is also a member of the Women In Film/Seattle organization.

Nashira Priester

A veteran producer of public broadcasting programs both in the Bay Area and here in Seattle. Longtime host of live radio broadcasts showcasing jazz artists of the last three decades and a half, Nashira was a founder of KPOO-FM community radio (San Francisco); Women in Film/Seattle and was a charter member of I.A.T.S.E. LOCAL 488 -Studio Mechanics of the Pacific Northwest. As a crew person, she works as a Set Decorator/Dresser/Buyer for films, both on features and independent projects: music videos and industrials. Her credits include work with Academy Award-winning director Alan Parker (“Come See the Paradise”), Nancy Savoca (“Dogfight” with River Phoenix) and Stephen King’s “Rose Red”.

Also a published writer of poetry and essays Nashira’s work has appeared in anthologies (“The Next World ed: Bruchac) and she has written for a variety of publications, including recently in Ishmael Reed’s online magazine “Konch”. Ms. Priester is married and lives with her jazz composer/performer/educator husband in Seattle. They have two grown sons.

Paul Toliver

A long time supporter and activist in the Seattle arts community. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Seattle Art Museum, the Chair of SAM's African Arts Council, a past chair and member of the Central District Forum for Arts and Ideas and co-founder of the Seattle Jazz Offering, a community based organization dedicated to the preservation of the history of Northwest jazz legends and their music. As an entrepreneur, he has his own company (New Age Industries) which specializes in new and emerging technologies.

Andre Canty- Bio coming soon.