2019 Board of Directors
Gastor Almonte
Gastor Almonte keeps busy. He is an award-winning storyteller, standup comedian, show producer and host. He’s an active member of the New York City comedy scene, and can been seen nightly at various clubs on the east coast. He’s appeared on Comedy Central’s This Is Not Happening, the New York Time’s featured The Liar Show, and The Story Collider. As the host Stoops2Stages, a weekly interview series, Gastor interviews various HipHop artist and comedians.
David Crabb
David Crabb is an LA & NYC-based author, performer, storyteller & host of The Moth. In 2013, his solo show Bad Kid was named a New York Times Critics' Pick. Bad Kid the memoir was released last year by Harper Perennial. David was one of 7 performers chosen by Time Out New York for their 2013 New York Comedy Festival line-up. The Wall Street Journal praised him as a performer capable of guiding a crowd "from belly laughs to pin-drop silence."
David has been a member of NYC's Axis Company Theatre since 2003, developing original material in New York, Paris and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. Since 2012 he has performed the solo pieces Bad Kid, $1800, Story Roulette & Man In A Hole. His next memoir, Whoever You Are I Hope You're Okay, comes out in 2018.
Malia Fisher
Malia Fisher is Co-Founder and President of Defiant Network. Defiant is a nonprofit community dedicated to helping the next generation imagine a better world.. Defiant believes that in order to make politics work for the 21st century, we need to find creative ways for people to make meaningful contributions to the political system online. Defiant is currently working to build a digital platform to crowdsource a political manifesto -- a platform for the future of the progressive movement. Learn more at www.defiantnetwork.org.
Sherry Hakimi
Sherry Hakimi is the Executive Director of genEquality, a nonprofit organization dedicated to activating gender equality with and for everyone. Her work is fueled by her research-driven belief that we can collectively design our way out of sexism. Part-national security nerd, part-gender equality activist, Sherry's writing has been published in the Kennedy School Review and Fast Company, among others. Her passion for community organizing began as a CityYear volunteer during high school, and has been sustained and maintained by her deep love of creating, and crossing off, her many to-do lists.
Susan Kent
Susan Kent is a writer, storyteller and show curator who’s been performing and producing work in NYC for nearly a decade. She’s storytelling curator for The Tank and her work has appeared on Snap Judgment, RISK! and The Moth Radio Hour.
Andrew Slack
Andrew Slack is the Civic Imagination Fellow at Civic Hall, and also an Ashoka Fellow. He is a practitioner of cultural acupuncture and the founder of Imagine Better, where he has directed campaigns around Star Wars and money in politics, Back to the Future and imagination, Superman and immigration, the Hunger Games and economic inequality, and begun to remix holidays with projects like #TeachMeYouDid and assisting in Esther Day.
He started his work on Imagine Better in creating the Harry Potter Alliance (HPA) where he served as Executive Director, Movement Director, and Board of Directors president for 10 years. While at the HPA, he helped direct campaigns that have sent five cargo planes to Haiti, allowed all Harry Potter chocolate to be either Utz or Fair Trade certified, and started a chapters program that now boasts close to 300 chapters in over 30 countries on six continents.
Asher Novek, Producer
Asher is a community organizer, tech designer, media producer, storyteller, storytelling coach, and occasional wedding officiant.
Asher is involved in local political and community organizing, using tech. He is a member of his Community Board and newly minted President of the Central Brooklyn Independent Democratic club, and a facilitator of the Civic Activism working groups within Get Organized Brooklyn. He is passionate about community engagement in local issues, and working with communities to amplify their voices.
He has also performed and produced comedy and storytelling for the last 5 years. He produces a monthly storytelling show, So What Happened Was, in Park Slope. He also co-hosts and co-produces the podcast, the Whole Story, which looks at the medium of storytelling, talking to the world’s best performers about storytelling.
Asher has been featured on the Risk! podcast, Yum’s the Word, and the Bady House Concert Series. He has also led storytelling workshops with the Moth, the Field Innovation Team, Civic Hall, SVA, and recently began 1 on 1 coaching.