On May 21, our talented mentees shared genre-bending work about resilience, roots and beyond at the seventh episode of the Unmuted Spring Performance Series, with pair emcees Mentee Chelsea Chinedo and Mentor Olivia Jane Smith.
We were thrilled to honor Ashley C. Ford, author of Somebody’s Daughter (Flatiron Books, June 2021) with the Agent of Change Award! You can still catch the full show above!
Watch the Pre-Show Q&A
Meet the Emcees & Honoree
MENTEE EMCEE
Chelsea Chinedo
Chelsea Chinedo is currently a junior in high school and she loves to explore different writing genres and get out of her comfort zone once in a while. She is a driven student that is always willing to learn and improve in any way she can. She enjoys dressing up, doing makeup looks, having fun with family and friends and watching Netflix!
MENTOR EMCEE
Olivia Jane Smith
Olivia Jane Smith loves all kinds of stories. In her current job she often writes about what people do all day and what they find meaningful about their work, seeking to inform, engage and inspire a diverse audience of more than 40,000 healthcare workers. She also does some executive writing. Earlier in her career she worked as a theater reviewer at the Gambit Weekly in New Orleans and as an online editor at the New York Daily News.
HONOREE
Ashley C. Ford
Ashley C. Ford is a writer, host, and educator who lives in Indianapolis, Indiana with her husband, poet and fiction writer Kelly Stacy, and their chocolate lab Astro Renegade Ford-Stacy. Her memoir, Somebody’s Daughter, will be published by Flatiron Books on June 1, 2021. Ford is the former host of The Chronicles of Now podcast, co-host of The HBO companion podcast Lovecraft Country Radio, seasons one & three of MasterCard’s Fortune Favors The Bold, as well as the video interview series PROFILE by BuzzFeed News, and Brooklyn-based news & culture TV show, 112BK. She was also the host of the first season of Audible’s literary interview series, Authorized. She has been named among Forbes Magazine’s 30 Under 30 in Media (2017), Brooklyn Magazine’s Brooklyn 100 (2016), Time Out New York’s New Yorkers of The Year (2017), and Variety’s New Power of New York (2019). Photo Credit: Sylvie Rosokoff
Meet the Performers
Adelle Xiao & Sarah Custen
Akiko Jindo & Linda Corman
Amoya Evans & Julia Carpenter
Anaís Fernández & Kayla Thurber
Chelsea Chinedo & Olivia Jane Smith
Chelsea Yan & KK Apple
Christine Yan & Avery Carpenter Forrey
Dominique de Castro & Courtney Stevenson
Filomena Baker & Molly Vossler
Kayla Morgan & Stephanie Cohen-Perez
Lamia Rahman & Lipika Raghunathan
Melanie Santiago & Arianna Friedman
Michelle Cao & Emily Gregor
Sandra Cheah & Natalie Daher
Shayla Astudillo & Danielle Mazzeo
Sue Najm & Caitlin Chase
Suha Khan & Vanida Narrainen