Who We Are
Life is very short and what we have to do must be done in the now. - Audre Lorde
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Marian Taylor Brown (she/her)
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Andrea Gordillo (they/them)
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mica rose (they/them)
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Zakiyyah Sutton (she/her)
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Mel Taing (she/her)
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Meena Malik (she/her)
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Deidra Montgomery (they/she)
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Alyssa Liles-Amponsah (she/her)
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T'Ajmal Hogue (they/them)
Meet Your Team
Marian Taylor Brown (she/her)
Marian is a Boston-based artist, arts and culture, and higher ed nurturer. Her work utilizes art as a mechanism to build and support inclusive and equitable communities, investigating art as a means for healing, collective action, and creative justice. Her discontent with oppressive systems, alongside her eternal optimism and belief in what we can collectively create, heal and nurture, keep her on the path. Marian founded ACI in 2014, having also worked in arts leadership at Open Door Arts, the Art & Global Health Center Africa, ARTZ: Artist’s for Alzheimer’s, the Institute for Community Inclusion, Harvard University’s Project Zero, and Hearthstone Alzheimer Care. Marian has taught as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Hoshschule Heilbronn University in the College of International Business and Intercultural Management, and as an Associate Lecturer at the University of Massachusetts Boston in the Honors College. In the fall of 2023 she will begin teaching at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Marian earned her PhD in Global Inclusion & Social Development from the University of Massachusetts Boston, her EdM in Arts in Education from The Harvard Graduate School of Education, and her BA in Studio Art from Colorado College.
Through Consult With ACI, Marian has led or co-led engagements with: The Massachusetts College of Art & Design, The New England Museum Association, New Rep Theater, MASSCreative, Now & There, Open Door Arts, The Massachusetts Cultural Council, The Dance Complex, Laughter League, The Museum of Fine Arts, and has been support for contracts with MassAssembly and The Harvard EdPortal.
Resides on the land of the Massachusett peoples, in Dorchester, MA.
Andrea Gordillo (they/them)
Andrea is an ACI Artist Leader Alumni, from the 2016 - 2017 Artist-in-Residence cohort, and former ACI Board Member 2019 - 2021 before becoming an ACI co-director 2021 - present. Andrea's residency took place in Mexico and focused on trans-national migration through participatory mixed-media arts. Andrea is an audiovisual artist and co-founder of Selva Records, a transnational feminist audiovisual production house that intentionally disrupts the music industry with intersectional feminist culture. Andrea is also a doctoral candidate at UCLA's Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, having previously earned their EdM from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and their BA from Emerson College. At UCLA Andrea's work focuses on cultural studies and informal public pedagogy through the arts.
Through Consult With ACI, Andrea has co-led engagements with: MassAssembly and The Museum of Fine Arts, and has supported contracts with The Massachusetts College of Art & Design, The New England Museum Association, and Laughter League.
Resides on Mexica land, the landwaters colonially known as “México City”.
mica rose (they/them)
mica is a gemini child of wonder. They love to play with cousins & elders & kasamas, strengthening our power to tend to each other. From childhood, the contradictions in their Northern Virginia hometown and its stark contrasts with their ancestral home in Laguna, Philippines magnetized them toward changemaking. Upon moving to Shawmut for undergrad at Boston University, mica began aligning with revolutionaries and their lineages who guide mica’s practice of oral history, art, and right relations. Márquez Rhyne mentored them in John O’Neal’s story circle method, through support from The Theater Offensive. With sensei Karen Young and kohai Mel Taing, mica is a Massachusetts Traditional Arts Apprentice in North American Taiko. At Company One Theater, mica developed We & other queer goddexxes, a gathering series, with co-creators Alison Qu and Afrikah Smith. And as a cultural organizer with Liyang Network’s West Mass Chapter, they support direct actions here and abroad. Additional major collaborators include: Pao Arts Center, American Repertory Theater, and the Design Studio for Social Intervention. After performing at the Arts Equity Summit and ACI’s fifth birthday celebration in 2019, mica served as a 2020-21 Artist in Community Fellow, and helped launch the Co-Director model 21-present. Find them glitching @ micaxrose
Through Consult With ACI, mica has led or co-led engagements with: MassAssembly, and has supported engagements with: The Massachusetts College of Art & Design and The New England Museum Association.
Resides on waterlands of Wampanoag peoples, colonially known as Roslindale, MA.
T’Ajmal Hogue (they/them)
T’Ajmal is a creative who grew up in Detroit, MI, and currently resides in Boston, MA. They enjoy making space for friends and loved ones to be themselves, create, and feel safe. In college, they refound their love for the arts through multimedia practices and are grateful to the ancestors who passed down the freedom to create as a continuous act of resistance. A lot of T’Ajmal’s creative work is inspired by their own life as a Black, queer, and non-binary person seeking to build safe spaces for their community. They started their journey on the East Coast at Harvard and found roots in Boston by teaching youth and strengthening programmatic systems with Girls LEAP. Additionally, they worked at BAGLY to create a housing and support program for LGBTQ+ youth experiencing homelessness. They are a co-founder of the Pomegranate Art Collective, a QTBIPOC+ space to make art in collaboration with others focused on healing, love, mental health, and collective care. At the end of 2023, T’Ajmal decided to combine their passion for supporting spaces and the arts and joined ACI’s team as Co-Director of Systems Support.
Resides on lands of Pawtucket & Massachusett peoples, colonially known as Brighton, MA.
Zakiyyah Sutton (she/her)
Zakiyyah is an artist-activist and changemaker who utilizes music and visual media to explore themes that centralize marginalized communities via her production company, Black and Bold Productions. As an actress and classically-trained singer who is well-versed in Opera, Hip-Hop, Jazz, and R&B, she employs her extremely versatile skill-set to reach a broad range of audiences and craft a sound that is uniquely her own--including her most well-known, "Hip-Hopera". After graduating from Wellesley College with a degree in Political Science and Sociology, she worked in politics for City Councilor Tito Jackson and later Suffolk County Sheriff Steven Tompkins. During her time there she created D.A.S.H. (Defensive Aids in Situations of Help); a women’s self-defense program that travels throughout Boston and neighboring cities. She also serves as a trustee for the Free for All Concert Fund, an organization charged with providing the necessary funding to make classical music accessible to the masses. After departing from politics, Zakiyyah spent a year pursuing her artistic and scholastic ambitions in the Czech Republic, Thailand, South Africa, and Colombia, hosting Black Lives Matter events in the latter two countries and recording with Grammy-nominated group Explosión Negra. She also has a commitment to education, having worked as an administrator at Conservatory Lab Charter School, offering private voice training via Harvard’s Holden Voice Program and the Hamilton Garrett Music and Arts Academy, and creating an arts-activism program for teens in 2020 entitled “Creative Revolution”. As of September 2022, Zakiyyah is the Season Partner for Boston Children’s Chorus, an engagement consisting of performing with and writing and composing for the choir, conducting workshops in arts-activism and offering video curation for said composition. In addition to her artistic practice, Zakiyyah has worked as a co-director with ACI 2021-2023, and is currently a consultant with ACI.
Through Consult With ACI, Zakiyyah has led or co-led engagements with: The Harvard EdPortal, The Dance Complex, MassAssembly, and has been support for contracts with The Massachusetts College of Art & Design, The New England Museum Association, and Laughter League.
Resides on the land of the Massachusett peoples, in Boston, MA.
Mel Taing (she/her)
Mel is a Cambodian-American photographer, community artist, and educator based in Boston. A former Artist in Community Fellow with Arts Connect International 2021-22, Mel supported the creation of CELC 2.0. Specializing in creative portraiture, Mel seeks to celebrate the vibrance, radiance and joy of the intersecting communities in her life. In addition to her artistic practice, Mel is also an exhibition documentation photographer and works with several arts institutions in the greater Boston area such as the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, MassArt Art Museum, MIT List Visual Arts Center and more. Beyond the camera, she is deeply interested in increasing cultural equity within the arts and culture sector of Boston. Mel collaborates with organizations such as Arts Connect International, Pao Arts Center and Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center, utilizing her artistic practice to create spaces and experiences where connection, healing, and joy are centered. Mel is currently a Creative Engagement Lead for the Boston Chinatown Cultural Plan, which seeks to create community engagement through art and develop policy in order to protect Chinatown’s cultural assets. She is a proud MassArt alumni and Vice-Chair of the Alumni Leadership Council, a volunteer cohort of alumni that work to connect alum to each other, to the college, and to the broader MassArt community. When Mel isn't taking photos, teaching, or deeply contemplating her next delicious meal, she is also a Massachusetts Traditional Arts Apprentice in North American Taiko with sensei Karen Young and senpai mica rose.
Through Consult with ACI, Mel is co-leading the Harvard Ed Portal Artist Pipeline Program.
Resides on the landwaters of the Massachusett peoples, formally called Wessagussett, colonially known as Weymouth, MA
Meena Malik (she/her)
Meena is a musician, arts consultant, facilitator, mediator and a coach, who is known as a mover and shaker re-defining what conversations around equity in the arts look like. Formerly as the Senior Program Manager of Theater at the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA), she managed the National Theater Project (NTP), a grant program that supports the creation and touring of devised ensemble theater work. Meena organized and led “Beyond Orientalism: The Boston Forum” in 2017 and is a co-founder and steering committee member of Boston’s first API (Asian Pacific Islander) Arts Network. An alumna of the artEquity Facilitator Training, a member of the Emergent Strategy Ideation Institute Facilitation Cohort and a Senior Associate at the Aspire Group, Meena is actively engaged in a national community of practice for anti-oppression work in the arts. She was a founding member and performer with Voci Angelica Trio, an international band that created a musical fusion of world folk and classical music, for 14 years. With Voci Angelica, Meena toured to the USA’s East Coast, Midwest and Southern regions, Canada, Japan, and South Korea. Meena began her journey with ACI as a Board Member from 2018-2021, a CELC core team member starting in 2020, as a co-director from 2021-2023, and currently as a consultant. Meena holds a Masters in Vocal Performance from New England Conservatory and a Masters in Arts Administration from Boston University.
Through Consult With ACI, Meena has supported contracts with The Massachusetts College of Art & Design and The New England Museum Association.
Resides on the land of the Kizh, Gabrieleño, and Tongva peoples, in Torrance, CA.
Deidra Montgomery (she/they)
Deidra is a consultant, musician, and coach supporting individuals, groups, organizations, and projects that seek to make the world more joyful and just. Deidra’s work in the arts spans disciplines, regions, and roles. Deidra's approach is collaborative and iterative. It requires deep listening and trust building; relies on mutual respect and a commitment to learning and growth; and promotes creativity, integrity, compassion, and congruence. Deidra began collaborating with ACI as a CELC Core Team Member in 2020, as a co-director 2021-2023, and will continues with the organization as a consultant today. Deidra holds a Master’s in Arts Administration from Goucher College and a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Amherst College.
Through Consult With ACI, Deidra has led or co-led engagements with: The Massachusetts Cultural Council and MASSCreative, and has been support for contracts with The New England Museum Association and MassAssembly.
Resides on the land of the Narragansett, Wampanoag, and Pokanoket peoples, in Providence, RI.
Alyssa Liles-Amponsah (she/her)
Alyssa grew up spending time in local art galleries in Norfolk, VA with her father, artist Ted Liles. Those early experiences in galleries that supported and included the surrounding communities inspired Alyssa’s interest in art. Alyssa earned her BFA in Painting and Printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University and an MA in African American and African Diaspora studies from Indiana University, Bloomington. Alyssa then moved to Boston and taught in an alternative school called YouthBuild where she was inspired by the young people she worked with and became concerned about the lack of arts learning opportunities available to them. Hoping to learn more about these issues, Alyssa attended the Harvard Graduate School of Education and earned an Ed.M in Arts in Education where she focused her studies on race in education and issues of accessibility to the arts within urban education. After graduating Alyssa worked as a Teaching Fellow for two years for the Arts in Education graduate program at Harvard. She then went on to work with youth/social justice oriented arts non-profit organization, The Urbano Project, while also completing a year long Silk Road Connect Fellowship in art education. Alyssa also worked in museum education at the JFK Presidential Library and Museum where she did outreach and helped produce educational programming. Additionally, she served as a Resident Tutor for Education and the Arts at Lowell House at Harvard University. Alyssa recently worked at Temple University as an Associate Director of Diversity Initiatives, and now is the Director of Community Engagement and Inclusion at Please Touch Museum.
Through Consult With ACI, Alyssa has led or co-led engagements with: The Harvard EdPortal, and has supported contracts with The Massachusetts College of Art & Design, The New England Museum Association, and Laughter League.
Resides on the land of the Lenape peoples, in Pittsburgh, PA.