June 9th, 2014

Clinical psychologist Dr. Donny Jackson is a trainer and consultant for SHIELDS for Familes, the Creative Writing and Media Studies instructor for College Bridge Academy charter high school in Compton, as well as a Co-Executive Producer and Director in unscripted television and film, including “Teach: Tony Danza,” and “Perfectly Normal” for A&E, and, 2013’s “The Sheards” for BET and “R&B Divas: Atlanta,” on TVOne. In the written arts, Donny has enjoyed stints as an autobiography ghostwriter, playwright, and book critic, as well as speech writer for a diverse set of clients, from Blair Underwood to the Clinton White House. As an actor, he made his theatre debut in Philadelphia as “Zooman” in Freedom Theatre’s production of Pulitzer Prize winner Charles Fuller’s Zooman and the Sign. Donny’s debut as a playwright, After the River, was produced by Theatre Center Philadelphia, where he also earned the lead role in Samm-Art Williams’ political drama, Eyes of the American. In the summer of 2013, he completed a 5-week run of his one man show, One Man Shown, at the Greenway Court Theatre in Los Angeles, and has featured coast-to-coast as a spoken word artist for over a decade. His favorite food is pretzels.

Ricki Mandeville’s poems have appeared in Comstock Review, San Pedro River Review, The Prairie Journal, 200 New Mexico Poems and numerous other publications. She is co-founder and consulting editor of Moon Tide Press and has edited 20 volumes of poetry. An educator and public speaker, she lives and writes near the ocean in Huntington Beach CA and is the author of A Thin Strand of Lights (Moon Tide Press 2006.)