FELLOWSHIPS

Elizabeth Belz

Elizabeth Belz is an artist, blacksmith and educator from Stillwater, Minn. She has been the recipient of numerous grants, which have allowed her to develop work and curriculum both in the United States and abroad. Through her travels, Belz has served as both blacksmithing instructor and competitor in internationally recognized forging competitions.

As a craft education intern, Belz assisted in re-establishing North House Folk School’s blacksmithing shop. Her education includes; the Minneapolis College of Art, Penland School of Craft, John C. Campbell Folk School and several residencies, including the position of resident sculpture artist with the Science Museum of Minnesota. Most recently she has served as one of two blacksmithing apprentices at the Metal Museum in Memphis, Tenn. Her work can be found in collections all over the country, including the City Of Eagan and City of Memphis’ “Moveable Collection,” as well as online at elizabethbelz.com.

Jordan Booker-Medley

Jordan Booker-Medley is the current Manager of Grants & Support Services at The Arts Council of Winston-Salem & Forsyth County. Jordan works as part of the Partner Relations and Services staff where he manages The Arts Council’s grant programs, cultivates relationships with, and develops support services for individual artists and arts organizations. Medley is a graduate of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts where he received the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in contemporary dance. Since attending UNCSA, Medley has been a North Carolina based dancer and choreographer and has performed in productions that have given him an opportunity to work with nationally recognized dance world professionals. Medley has his own dance company, Medley of Moves, and has performed, choreographed and premiered work at High Point University, Dance Project, Wake Forest Dance Festival, and musical theater productions in the region.

RJ Hooker

RJ Hooker is a photographer, musician and poet. Much of his career in the arts has been in collaboration with musicians, dance companies and writers. Outside of the arts, he has worked in education as a student support specialist and college counselor. He lives in Greensboro, NC with his wife, two children and entirely too many cameras.

April Parker

April Parker is a cultural worker and architect of Black spaces using public scholarship, radical librarianship, performance art and direct action. As a community organizer and archivist April centers the lives, histories, legacies, resiliency and magic of queer and trans Black people; while working exhaustively at the intersections of social justice movements to create opportunities for institutional accountability, intergenerational relationship building and creative expressions of resistance. April is a Black queer femme, a revolutionary mama and a twin. Her heart work of grassroots organizing emphasizes the liberation and prosperity of Black folks. Parker drives movements forward, agitating public discourse to address systemic oppression and institutional racism to uplift Blackness.

Since 2011 April’s been at the forefront and front lines in Greensboro, serving as a founding member of Black Lives Matter Gate City, Trans Kindred Emergency Fund & Trans Reparations Project, NC Queer TROUBLMakers, Queer People of Color Collective of the Triad (QPOCC) as well as the Anti-Racist White Folks and Bayard Rustin Center LGBTQ Symposium. 

April’s organizing credits include Juneteenth Jamboree, Black Power Town Hall, Black Girls, and Women Matter Town Hall, #SayHerName Defend Black Womanhood, Midnight March, Black Minds Matter Rally and Raised in the Revolution Youth Summit. She served as a Greensboro Delegate to the NC Black Women’s Roundtable Leadership Council as well as Working Group Strategic Facilitator for Democracy Greensboro, during which she co-authored a progressive political platform to push campaigning city councilors toward antiracism. 

As a surveyor of landscapes, both socioeconomic and political, she created “intersectionality in action” workshops and intergenerational support groups, centering the lived experience of trans and queer people of color. She holds a BA in sociology from Kean University and an MLIS in Library Science from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro.

April currently serves as a Media Specialist for Guilford County Schools and is the inaugural Creative Catalyst Fellow at Elsewhere.

Dylan Pickus

Dylan Pickus is an arts administrator, dramaturg and producer. He has been with SPACE on Ryder Farm since 2017, and is currently the Manager of Artistic Programs. Previously he worked in the literary departments of Playwrights Horizons and Williamstown Theater Festival. Additionally, he has read scripts for the O’Neill Theater Festival and the New Voices Festival at Players by the Sea. As a freelance dramaturg and director, he has worked on productions of ”Sondheim on Sondheim” (Porchlight Music Theater), ”A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (Rabid Bat Productions), ”Sweeney Todd” and ”Cabaret” (Northwestern - Wirtz Center for the Performing Arts) and several new plays. He also has extensive experience working with cheese. He is a graduate of Northwestern University with a BS in Theatre and Religious Studies and is a proud native of Washington State.

Mayra Rodas

Mayra Rodas is a Venezuelan-American filmmaker based in NC. She aspires to educate communities through storytelling as well as to bring awareness to social and humanitarian issues. She graduated from UNCSA with a major in film editing and sound design. There she was a member of ArtistCorp, a community engagement program in which she volunteered providing art instruction to ESL students. Her community work helped her shape her goal as an artist, filmmaker and storyteller. Her goal during her fellowship with MIXXER is to implement the use of storytelling to help strengthen the community's voice, empowering diversity and skill development.

Maura Wetzel

Maura’s work is inspired by a passion to serve others and give back to organizations that have greatly impacted her own growth. She received her BFA in Stage Management from UNCSA, where she developed a deep interest in creating safe spaces for others to collaborate in. Her experience outside of traditional performance work includes non-profit company structuring, arts education and administration, and higher education administration.

During her time at the School of the Arts, Maura served as Student Body President, a voting member of the Board of Trustees and a member of the Chancellor and Vice Provost-Dean of Student Affairs Search Committees. She is also a staff member of the youth leadership-development organization, Maryland Leadership Workshops.