Dance choreographer and Executive Director of the Walltown Children's Theatre Cynthia Penn-Halal talks about her career as a modern dancer. 

Cynthia Penn-Halal left home at age twelve to study dance professionally at the North Carolina School of the Arts Carolina. She endured extensive training and became a dancer of the world renowned Alvin Ailey Dance Company. In her career as a modern dancer, she has performed with internationally renowned companies such as The Joffrey Ballet, Agnes de Mille Heritage Dance Theatre, DanzaHoy and Bella Lewitzky.  Cynthia has worked with MacArthur and Kennedy Center Award legendary genius, Jacques d’Amboise of National Dance Institute both in New York City and New Jersey as well as with the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. In the early 2000’s, Cynthia founded the Walltown Children's Theatre in Durham, North Carolina where she now serves as the Executive Director. Walltown Children Theatre’s stated mission is to " inspire positive social change by empowering and reconnecting young people from diverse cultural and socio-economic backgrounds, creating a new expression of community, and enriching their lives and those of their families and communities, through exemplary performing arts instruction and youth development programming." 

music composition by Frédéric Chopin "Nocturnes Op.9 No.2 in E-flat major" 
performed by Aya Hugachi 
recording found on the International Music Score Library Project: https://imslp.org/

audio editing by Sheridan Wilbur

For access to more content visit: daviddelaneymayer.com/thereandback

© David Mayer Films, L.L.C.

Episode 8 | Cynthia Penn-Halal | Part II

Songwriter Rissi Palmer discusses the personal inspirations that drove her to create her most recent album "Revival."

The daughter of Georgia natives, Rissi Palmer was born near Pittsburgh and spent her adolescent years in Missouri. Raised in a musical family that loved both country and R&B, she sang in a singing/dancing troupe sponsored by a local television station at 16. She was offered her first publishing and label deals at 19, and in 2007 released the album Rissi Palmer, charting with the singles, “Country Girl,” “Hold On To Me,” and “No Air.” She followed with a Christmas single, an independently released children’s album, Best Day Ever, and an EP called The Back Porch Sessions.           

Rissi has performed at The White House, Lincoln Center, and the Grand Ole Opry, has appeared on Oprah & Friends, CNN, the CBS Early Show, and the Tavis Smiley Show. She has shared stages with Taylor Swift, The Eagles, Chris Young, and Charley Crockett, and she has been featured in Rolling Stone, The Wall Street Journal, People, Parade, Ebony, Newsweek, and The Huffington Post. 

To follow Rissi on Social Media: 

www.instagram.com/rissipalmermusic/
www.twitter.com/rissipalmer

music by Rissi Palmer 
audio editing by Sheridan Wilbur

For access to more content visit: daviddelaneymayer.com/thereandback

© David Mayer Films, L.L.C.

Episode 9 | Rissi Palmer | Part I

Songwriter Rissi Palmer discusses her new podcast, "Color Me Country" and her newest album "Revival." 

The daughter of Georgia natives, Rissi Palmer was born near Pittsburgh and spent her adolescent years in Missouri. Raised in a musical family that loved both country and R&B, she sang in a singing/dancing troupe sponsored by a local television station at 16. She was offered her first publishing and label deals at 19, and in 2007 released the album Rissi Palmer, charting with the singles, “Country Girl,” “Hold On To Me,” and “No Air.” She followed with a Christmas single, an independently released children’s album, Best Day Ever, and an EP called The Back Porch Sessions.

Rissi has performed at The White House, Lincoln Center, and the Grand Ole Opry, has appeared on Oprah & Friends, CNN, the CBS Early Show, and the Tavis Smiley Show. She has shared stages with Taylor Swift, The Eagles, Chris Young, and Charley Crockett, and she has been featured in Rolling Stone, The Wall Street Journal, People, Parade, Ebony, Newsweek, and The Huffington Post.

To follow Rissi on Social Media:

www.instagram.com/rissipalmermusic/
www.twitter.com/rissipalmer

music by Rissi Palmer
audio editing by Sheridan Wilbur

For access to more content visit: daviddelaneymayer.com/thereandback

© David Mayer Films, L.L.C.

Episode 10 | Rissi Palmer | Part II

Amanda Sarco is a Norwegian-Italian model and actress. She works alongside a variety of photographers and fashion designers in the UK and in Italy. A former gymnast and downhill skier, Amanda has developed a deep passion for performing creatively in front of crowds (or cameras). As she works, she seeks to let go of any emotional guards and to let her emotions, body, and mind simply exist in the moment. Her hope is that the images she helps to create reflect this. 

Amanda’s professional career includes being a runway, e-commerce, commercial and editorial model who has been published in a number of magazines including Imirage, Moevir, Mob Journal and The Fox Magazine. She has worked with GQ, Vogue and Tatler published photographers. Amanda also speaks fluent Norwegian, Italian and English. 

For more about Amanda’s work, visit her website or follow her social media:

Website: https://www.amandasarco.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amandasarco

Twitter: https://twitter.com/amasarco

music by Alan Špiljak (@alanspiljak)
audio editing by Sheridan Wilbur

For access to more content visit: daviddelaneymayer.com/there-and-back

© David Mayer Films, L.L.C.

Episode 11 | Amanda Sarco

Maureen Delaney has spent much of her career as a college counselor working with students to help them prepare for college. Her days are spent strategizing with students, talking about their plans, and guiding them to create compelling personal essays and applications. Over her years as a college counselor, she has listened to countless students speak about their future goals and their vision for themselves as they move from high school to college. Watching teenagers take flight is exciting and inspiring to Maureen because she can listen to each individual share their unique academic or artistic story.

On her nights and weekends, though, Maureen paints. She creates beautiful, large canvases filled with abstract shapes, colors and patterns. Her pieces are simultaneously highly organized and playfully chaotic. Largely self-taught, she describes her work as trying to find a balance in all things: in color, in form, and in textures. When asked why she decides to approach her paintings in the way that she does, she said, “Because I don’t really have any choice. Because [the paintings] follow me around in my mind somehow, and I have to listen and get them down on canvas.”  

For access to more content visit: daviddelaneymayer.com/thereandback

© David Mayer Films, L.L.C.

Episode 12 | Maureen Delaney

Zach Goldberg is a writer, educator, and arts administrator from Durham, NC. He is the author of XV (Nomadic Press, 2020) and the recipient of a 2020 Project Support Grant from Rimon: the Minnesota Jewish Arts Council. His recent work can be found in PANK, Knight’s Library, Button Poetry, and elsewhere, and he has represented Wesleyan University and Berkeley, CA at various national and regional poetry slam tournaments. Zach’s work deals with issues of religion, gender and masculinity, generational trauma, addiction, and mental health. He lives in Minneapolis, MN.

For access to more content visit: daviddelaneymayer.com/thereandback

© David Mayer Films, L.L.C.

Episode 13 | Zach Goldberg

Steve Goldberg has worked as a US History teacher for over two decades. Much of Steve’s career has been focused on helping students connect to history in ways that go beyond the dates and facts found in a textbook. Over the course of his career, Steve has taught at a variety of public, private, and charter schools. He received his bachelor’s degree from Duke University for Public Policy, and he later returned to earn a Master of Arts in Teaching Social Studies. Steve also has a law degree from Georgetown Law School and is a member of the Maryland bar.

Nearly two years ago, while teaching history at Research Triangle High School, Steve met Holocaust survivor Abe Piasek, and they immediately became friends. Fascinated by Abe's story, Steve interviewed Abe on numerous occasions about his life, and Steve even helped to coordinate a trip to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC, for a dozen students from his high school and Abe's family (including his two great-granddaughters).  As it turned out, though, that was Abe's first and only visit to the Holocaust Museum. Abe passed away in January 2020. 

Since Abe’s passing, Steve has dedicated himself to sharing Abe’s story with a wider audience. Steve has researched Abe’s life extensively. He has put together a series of talks that weaves together Abe’s videotaped testimony with maps and images to help bring Abe’s story to life.  His next talk will be a digital event hosted by the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University. He plans to a do a number more in the subsequent months. 

To learn more about the event at Duke: https://kenan.ethics.duke.edu/event/my-friend-abe-a-holocaust-survivors-story/

To contact Steve for more information about his talks, send him an email at: 
mrgoldberg@gmail.com

For access to more content visit: daviddelaneymayer.com/artistsamongus

© David Mayer Films, L.L.C.

Episode 14 | Steve Goldberg

Anna Lustberg is an illustrator and graphic designer based in NYC who draws playful, relatable vignettes of everyday life. After a daily drawing challenge on Instagram reignited her passion to create, she created Life is Short: A Coloring Book, illustrated a children’s book, hand-painted murals in Brooklyn and Harlem, and had a solo exhibition in September 2019 titled “What's Mine is Yours: Illustrated Memories by Anna Lustberg”. Anna participates in group exhibitions and continues to work primarily on book projects and custom artwork commissions.

To see more of Anna's work: 
www.annalustberg.com
www.instagram.com/annalustberg/

For access to more content visit: daviddelaneymayer.com/artistsamongus

© All Rights Reserved. David Mayer Films, L.L.C.

Episode 15 | Anna Lustberg

Kamara Thomas is a singer, songspeller, mythology fanatic, and multidisciplinary storyteller based in Durham, NC. Her storytelling for film and stage is multi-faceted— weaving together musical and theatre performance, community art-making, ritual, and visual elements including masks, archival material, and photography.

To see more of Kamara's work: 
www.kamarathomas.com

For access to more content visit: daviddelaneymayer.com/artistsamongus

© All Rights Reserved. David Mayer Films, L.L.C.

Episode 16 | Kamara Thomas

Hosted by Forbes 30 under 30 filmmaker David Delaney Mayer, Artists Among Us is a series of conversations that presents ideas and work from artists whose lives are defined by a search for poetic truths. There and Back is a monthly podcast and website produced by our media production company based in Durham, North Carolina. 

www.daviddelaneymayer.com/artistsamongus

Artists Among Us with David Delaney Mayer

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