Who We Are — Continuum

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Ayo R. Alston-Moore, Esq. joined Becker Glynn in 2021 as an associate in the litigation practice group. Her practice includes a wide variety of complex commercial litigation, employment, and arbitration matters. Her diverse skillset and experience span all phases of the trial process, including coordinating complex discovery, preparing witnesses, taking and defending depositions, and motion practice, as well as first-chairing mediations, negotiations, and settlements.
Prior to joining the firm, Ms. Alston-Moore worked at a plaintiff’s rights boutique where she focused on art law, employment discrimination, real estate, and commercial matters. She also worked as an attorney for a New York City agency, where she gained extensive trial experience handling child abuse and neglect matters. After law school, Ms. Alston-Moore clerked for Judge Andrea G. Carter of the New Jersey Superior Court.

Leah Bowden is a drummer, percussionist and educator based between Los Angeles and New York City. She specializes in popular music, world music, contemporary jazz, and chamber music. She performs and tours throughout the United States, Mexico, Europe, and the United Kingdom, with an array of musical projects.
Leah is a founding member of Baby Bushka, a bespoke eight-woman band that performs theatrical reinterpretations of Kate Bush's music, and is a key collaborator on Intersection, a site-specific interdisciplinary project directed by the painter Iva Gueorguieva in Los Angeles. She is a member of The Forest, an experimental percussion quintet based in New York, with fellow musicians Lesley Mok, Andrew Drury, Michael Wimberly and Gustavo Aguilar.
Leah holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of California, San Diego, where she was a member of the resident percussion ensemble red fish blue fish, directed by Steven Schick. During her time as a graduate student, Leah served as the inaugural board president and drummer with The Voices of Our City Choir, an organization serving people experiencing homelessness in San Diego. She is the author of "Max Roach and M’Boom: Diasporic Soundings in American Percussion Music," and is the official archivist for M’Boom co-founder, Warren Smith.
A versatile arts educator, Leah has taught music classes, directed ensembles, and presented performance workshops at UC San Diego, CalArts, Tijuana Cultural Center, the Autonomous University of Baja California, the University of Washington, Amherst College, Bennington College and Springfield College, among others.

Darrell Bridges is the Founder and Director of Arts and Education Continuum, Inc. (A&EC), a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation. His activities at A&EC include the development of multi-disciplinary educational services for students at all levels, along with partnerships with a number of other non-profits and businesses in the areas of arts, education and social services, and legacy preservation.
Darrell has been a highly committed music business professional for more than 20 years. Through A&EC, Darrell also provides management services to Craig Harris, Jay Rodriguez, Eddie Allen & Yayoi Ikawa.
Darrell’s in-the-trenches experiences have included a wide array of activities, including concert production, business administration, tour and stage management, publishing, photography, studio management, and other tasks that spring up in day-to-day music business endeavors. He has produced shows at a variety of New York area clubs and larger venues like Symphony Space, La Guardia Community College, Grand Central Station (Music in Motion) and Hudson River Museum. Most recently the weekly Friday night Harlem Jazz Series located at Mount Morris Ascension Presbyterian Church, West 122nd Street, Harlem, NYC

Dr. Terry Jenoure, musician, writer, visual artist, educator was born and raised in the South Bronx into a Puerto Rican and Jamaican family. The composer, violinist & vocalist has performed and lectured throughout five continents. Her music has earned numerous grants, most recently from New England Foundation for the Arts (2022), Massachusetts Cultural Council (2021), and South Arts Jazz Road Creative Residencies (2021). A self-taught visual artist, Terry has exhibited internationally. As an academic, her writing has been published extensively. Her book NAVIGATORS: African American Musicians, Dancers, and Visual Artists in Academe (SUNY Press) as well as articles and essays are referenced by over forty international scholars. Holding Masters and Doctoral degrees in Education, Terry was an adjunct faculty member at Lesley University for eighteen years, while also serving as Director of Augusta Savage Gallery (University of Massachusetts) for thirty years. She leads creative writing workshops online, and as an independent arts-based researcher has conducted trainings in South Africa, Mexico, India, Israel, Colombia.

Michael Reinke is an ordained priest in the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire. Michael was born in Boston and moved with his parents to Royalston, Massachusetts (30 miles south of Keene), where his parents bought a small farm and adopted four additional children with mixed racial heritage. Michael attended Wesleyan University in Middletown, Ct, and Union Theological Seminary in NYC. Michael serves as the Executive Director for Lowell House and is the former Executive Director of the Nashua Soup Kitchen and Shelter. When not at church or at work, you will find him hiking, riding his bike or playing his banjo.

Alissa Schwartz, MSW, PhD, Principal of Solid Fire Consulting, is an independent consultant who holds space for joy and possibility. Centered on strengthening mission-driven non-profits and organizations in the solidarity economy, Alissa supports communities that are passionate and pragmatic, grounded and yearning. Rooted in a racial, economic, and gender equity lens, Alissa draws upon multiple influences in her work, including complexity systems theory, theater directing, and experience in research and organizational behavior.
Alissa has over 25 years of experience in the non-profit sector. Current and prior clients (non-exhaustive list) include: Immigration Equality, William Caspar Graustein Memorial Foundation; 92nd Street YM-YWHA; Opportunity Agenda; and the United Nations.
Alissa is co-editor and chapter author of an issue of New Directions in Evaluation that is focused on the intersectionalities of evaluation and facilitation. She holds a PhD from Columbia University, an MSW from the University of Washington, and a BA from Wesleyan University.

Ashera Schwartz is an interdisciplinary artist and researcher based in Brooklyn, NY in unceded Lenapehoking. She is a graduate in Urban Ecology in the CUNY Baccalaureate for Unique and Interdisciplinary Studies program where she received awards for her research on fossil fuel history in North Brooklyn, as well as experiments in ecological sound art. Ashera makes electroacoustic music/performance solo (“Allium”) and in collaborations such as Mossball, Bicycle Noise Creation Machine, and Tricycle. From 2018-2020 she drummed in Big Pity, independently releasing 3 records. She has also produced dozens of events with live music, political education, visual art, and ritual components, including some as part of Continuum Culture & Arts. Ashera has also been a Microhauler/ Composter and grantwriter for BK Rot since 2021. Ashera hopes to use her work to support larger anti-colonial and anti-capitalist struggles.

OUR TEAM

interns

Andrew Drury is a drummer, improviser, composer, and bandleader as well as a presenter, producer, educator, pioneer of extended techniques for percussion, and co-founder and Director of Continuum Culture & Arts. Originally from the Seattle area, he studied with Ed Blackwell for nearly a decade, and lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Drury performs as a soloist, leads ensembles of all sizes, produces audio and video, and collaborates with adventurous musicians and artists in many contexts. He has performed in 30 countries and on nearly 80 recordings. As of June, 2024 he will have presented 200 concerts in his Soup & Sound music series in Brooklyn. He has given masterclasses in 20 universities on three continents, and has led over 1,500 community workshops in schools, prisons, museums, homeless shelters, shelters for battered women, with Kurdish refugees in Germany, on Indian reservations (including the Oneida Nation where he was artist-in-residence for six months in 2000), and in remote villages in Guatemala and Nicaragua. His work has received high praise from critics throughout his career.
Over the years he has had the pleasure of playing with great artists, well-known and obscure, including Christine Abdelnour, Kris Davis, Michel Doneda, Mark Dresser, Peter Evans, The Forest, Satoko Fujii, Charles Gayle, Wayne Horvitz, Earl Howard, Jason Kao Hwang, Howard Johnson, Eyvind Kang, Mazen Kerbaj, Ku-umba Frank Lacy, Ingrid Laubrock, James Brandon Lewis, Annea Lockwood, Alexis Marcelo, Myra Melford, Butch Morris, J. D. Parran, Tomeka Reid, Stephanie Richards, Roswell Rudd, Elliott Sharp, Wadada Leo Smith, and John Tchicai, to name a few.

Jasmine Jian is a scholar and musician originally from China, currently pursuing her studies in Philosophy at New York University. Her research spans a wide range of interdisciplinary interests, including Critical Theory, History of Philosophy, Religious studies, and Ethnomusicology. Deeply influenced by New York City’s vibrant jazz and contemporary music scene, she likes to combine spoken words with music and explore free improvisation on piano, bass, and flute. She has performed with indie bands at various venues in NYC, including Terminal 5.
She likes to document the beautiful things in the world, so she takes photos and videos for Continuum and also helps run social media and organize live events.

Cheryl Richards is a graphic designer with more than a decade of experience creating thoughtful, engaging visual communications for nonprofits, artists, small businesses, and mission-driven organizations. Her work spans branding, website design, social media content, advertising, email marketing, and print materials, with a strong focus on translating complex ideas into clear, compelling designs that support client goals.
Cheryl is also a vocalist with a BFA in Music from Cornish College of the Arts. She has been singing jazz and improvised music since 2002 and has performed at venues throughout NYC including Silvana’s, Café Bohemia, the 55 Bar, Downtown Music Gallery, the Stone, and Greenwich Music House as well as venues and festivals in Seattle. She has released two jazz albums on New Artists Records (Another Spring and If Not For You) as well as several independently released albums with the vocal group, Oriana.

chai (he-they-she) is a conglomerate-media artist (clay, metal, wood, puppets, writing, sewing, wiring, vocalizing, organizing, dancing, sonifying, depicting, etc.), sound engineer, and human extraordinaire. He is from Brooklyn, and can be seen carrying large groceries, speakers, or riding on (a) wheel(s) of sorts (skateboard, unicycle, heelys, tricycle... ), or heard. She is a lover of feeling the texture of sounds on their eardrums, eating chocolate, and occasionally enjoying a scifi ___ . A maker of strange sounds, peculiar solutions, and pancakes, he will happily talk to you about his puppet show, "Y, & Everything"

Ezra Moran is a guitarist, composer, and songwriter from Brooklyn, NY. He is currently a high school senior at the Institute for Collaborative Education, where he directs and composes for the high school jazz band. This fall, he will attend Oberlin college, where he will pursue dual degrees in Jazz and English. Ezra began his compositional education at Special Music School on the Upper West Side, where he studied the works of Scriabin, Bartok, and Schoenberg. In 2023, Ezra was commissioned by Special Music School to arrange a work by an incarcerated composer as part of the Decoda Ensemble’s Musical Bridges series. He performed his arrangement at Merkin Hall alongside works by the Decoda Ensemble. Ezra is also a member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Youth Orchestra, where he has performed with Randy Brecker, Ted Nash, and Philip Harper.

Ezra loves long walks in the park, spending time with his little brother and his little dog, and having a good laugh.

Sabina is an art historian and educator turned jazz musicians’ agent, event co-ordinator, project manager, consultant and arts administrator, with broad experience within the cultural sector, including the non-profit one in Europe and the US. Founder of Mo’ Connections, a creative collaborations company, she stands as a powerful advocate for artists. Versed in facilitating projects that provide cultural enrichment to segments of the population that are not traditionally exposed to the arts. Having worked with accomplished, award-winning arts practitioners worldwide, she has forged long-lasting relationships in the broader cultural landscape and values collaborative endeavours. With a love for music, visual arts, dance, and a deep appreciation for interdisciplinary projects, Sabina seeks to push the envelope and create innovative experiences that bring meaning and healing to the community.
Also a tango dancer, photography enthusiast, keen traveller and nature lover – she cannot live too far from a body of water…

photo © Teresa Tam