We’re so excited to welcome two new staff members to the Arts Corps team:

 

Amy Piñon, our new Data and Communications Coordinator, is a dedicated vocalist, audio engineer, and teaching artist. Toward the end of her education at The Art Institute of Seattle, she learned that she had a passion for teaching and deviantly designed an audio curriculum for her Senior Portfolio instead of creating an audio piece. Since obtaining her Bachelor’s Degree in Audio Design Technology, she has set out to use her degree and skill-set to create access to recording arts for youth.

Amy spent the past year working with Arts Corps as an Artist-in-Service for the Creative Schools Initiative, where she activated the traditional curriculum at Madrona K-8 with audio and music components. She has developed and taught the Sounds of Science summer camp at the Pacific Science Center and is working to revise The Vera Project’s audio curriculum, in addition to being an active volunteer, member, and teacher at Vera. She is also the newest appointed member of the Seattle Arts Commission.

She has been singing since she could speak and currently writes and performs music with her duo band, I’m with Amy, whose music has been licensed to Starbucks and MTV.

 

Donté Johnson, our new AmeriCorps Teen Programs Co-Coordinator, is a poet, community organizer, workshop coordinator and writing circle facilitator known by his beloved community as “Donté Johnson Da Queen”. ‘Da Queen’ writes about surviving, loving, breathing, and learning. They write of ancestors and their home in the moons heart beat. They have released their Self Published chapbook ‘Steps to the Throne’ in the summer of 2013. This QPOC Queen has been making a name for their selves in Seattle, working with Youth Speaks Seattle for a number of years running the slam series, open mics, writing circles.

Donté was on the Youth Speaks Seattle slam team in 2012 and was an assistant teaching artist for the Winter and Spring Quarters of 2013 at Madrona K-8 in Seattle WA for Arts Corps, they also  made it on the 2014 Rain City Poetry Slam Team. Donté believes in putting their art to werq! Hosting shows for the University of Washington, Teaching workshops at places like Central Washington University, and the Gateways for Incarcerated Youth Program in Olympia, WA. Donté has also featured at a number of top venues and events all over Seattle From the Moore Theater to the Triple Door, to the Neptune Theater to opening for Andrea Gibson at Bumbershoot and The Fremont Abbey.

Donté shares Youth Speaks Seattle’s Mantra of being un-apologetically infinite and is bringing the Queendom to a poetry event, city bus, open mic, classroom, lunchroom or performance space near you.

 

Congratulations, Amy and Donté, and welcome!!