2000s

Denise Hinds

 Denise Hinds is the Chief Program Officer for Youth and Family Wellbeing at Good Shepherd Services, where she oversees the agency’s foster care programs, child welfare, and juvenile justice residential programs, supportive housing and other programs for young adults.

In 38 years at Good Shepherd Services, Denise has developed many innovative youth development-driven programs. Most notably, in 2002, she played a significant role in the development and implementation of the Chelsea Foyer, the agency’s first supportive housing program for young adults experiencing homelessness and...

John Calendo

 John Calendo (b. 1948) has led a rich, full life, in which Newark entered the picture late and in somewhat marginal fashion. Thus this oral history departs a bit from tradition and centers his experiences at Newark’s Little Theatre and Cameo adult theaters rather than his full life story per se, though it touches on many aspects of his larger trajectory. 

John’s biography captures some of the other notable elements: 
I graduated NYU in the spring of 1970. I joined Andy Warhol’s Interview a year after college. I was brought out to Hollywood to work on a script, stayed there...

Lioniemar Reyes

 Lioniemar Reyes, Lily,  is a  peace love and positivity, protector of individuality, energetic soul.  She is a 90's baby who grew up in Newark, New Jersey.  She and her brother were raised by two proud and hardworking Puerto Rican parents.  She attended Middle School and High School at North Start Academy Charter School of Newark and went on to study Psychology and Theater at Rutgers University-Newark Campus.  She is constantly learning every day who she wants to be in this world, that of which is constantly changing.  She has been a Library Assistant, Peer Educator, Mentor, Teacher's...

Deion Session

 Deion Amar “Dee Amar” Session. I rep Newark for life. Rutgers University: Newark. Unapologetically Black & Queer. Live your truth!

Emma Wilcox

Emma Wilcox is the Gallery Director at Gallery Aferro, where, with co-founder Artistic Director Evonne Davis she has designed and implemented hundreds of exhibits, public programs, educational initiatives, public art projects as well as more than two dozen publications. Addressing barriers to full cultural participation by historically underserved populations has been an overriding concern throughout the gallery’s fifteen years of existence, during which time we have earned 5 consecutive citations of excellence from the NJSCA. Many of our efforts have been highly collaborative in nature, ...

Aminah Washington

 Aminah Washington is an African American Trans woman, b.1986, born and raised in Newark, NJ.  She attended Malcolm X Shabazz High School and Peshine Ave Prep. She has been through more than most and is blessed to have the chance to learn and grow from her life experiences. She knows that regardless of her trials and tribulations she has come out on the other side strong and is still striving to make the best of her life.
 

Patreese Johnson

 Patreese Johnson is a femme-identified poet. She is the youngest of four brothers and one sister, and she grew up as the youngest on the block in her tight-knit community in Newark, New Jersey. She is fiercely empathetic with a big heart. While incarcerated after fighting off a street harasser in New York City (a story told in the documentary Out in the Night), she received her GED and ran a support group for women who were survivors of domestic violence. Since her release, she has enrolled at Essex County Community College, studying for Associates degree in Liberal Arts. She has been touring...

Kysheif DeGraffenreid

 Kysheif DeGraffenreid was born and raised in Newark, NJ attending some of the finest schools from St. Benedicts to Montclair State University earning a Bachelors in Sociology. His academic career has led him to provide mental health counseling to many of his peers in the neighborhood. After working for many years in community and public health, Kysheif launched KD REID Interiors to pursue his passion. KD Reid Interiors, which was established in 2020, addresses interior design entirely from the standpoint of the client. This tactic and Reid's distinctive, individual designs are only two of the...

Alicia Heath-Toby

 C. Alicia Heath-Toby resides in Newark, NJ with her wife, Saundra ‘Honei’. She is the current board president of the Newark LGBTQ Community Center Board of Directors. In 1984 she received her Bachelor of Arts from the College of the Holy Cross. After leaving college, she was given the opportunity to work with a team of black doctors and community activists on addressing the HIV and AIDS crisis for Black Americans; this organization became known as the Black Leadership Commission on AIDS. In 1997, she joined Liberation In Truth Unity Fellowship Church (LITUFC) in Newark, NJ; a local church of...

Bryan Epps

 Bryan Matthew Charles Epps is a policy wonk and community lover. He has worked for Mayor’s Cory A. Booker and Michael Bloomberg conducting outreach and training to the not-for-profit sector and performance management for city departments. Currently Epps directs a historical human rights based nonprofit and operates a beverage startup. As a Newark native Epps has dedicated himself to helping to build community as founding board chair of People's Prep high-school and First Advisory board chair of HMI:NJ and a former President of the James Street Neighborhood Association. He studied Urban Policy...

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