Founded upon the inspiration of artists and artisans working to fight AIDS on the front lines in Africa, and continuing to evolve with the inspiration of many more creative change-makers, Empowerment WORKS is proud to feature a few extraordinary Artists in Action here. stay tuned for updates!
Onamare Heart
Artist in Action / 1PIE Founding Community Member
Onamare feeds her passion for art through a multifaceted array of talent passion, and grace. Her desire is to inspire with movement and artistic freedom. She has dedicated the past ten years to study the circus arts (aerial and fire artistry, hand-balancing, acro-balance, and improvisation story-telling). She engages in performances that move beyond just entertainment, but hold purpose with intent. The purpose for her is two-folded, one to spark a transcendent experience that feeds the human story and the other to push the edges of cultural perception and human disbelief. Onamare encourages each individual to become their authentic self and live in inner-joy with self-love. She is currently working towards her PhD in Mind-Body Medicine. More information at onamareheart.com
Singing Bear & Singing Bear Music Band
Artists in Action /1PIE Founding Community Member
Anthony Singing Bear is a stylistic singer-songwriter weaving wise words and personal stories into jazzy swing, world beat, reggae, hip hop and soul. His popularity is in large part due to his conscious well-thought lyrics, inventive songwriting, and soulful emotive voice. Bears prolific garden of songs seem developed and timeless like something out of the archives, and yet his ever evolving repertoire is very much here and now. It is a unique brand of music, in the style of John Mayer, Jason Mraz, and Brett Dennen, but really defying all genre classifications. More: singingbearmusic.com Singing Bear is also IN ACTION both as a father, and with his social justice work as a co-founder of Harmonic Humanity (harmonichumanity.com) an organization creating livelihoods for homeless through music.
Members of the Singing Bear Band
Anthony Singing Bear (Acoustic Guitar, Vocals, Harmonicas, Percussion)
Kevin Njikam (Electric Guitar, Keys, Beat Box, Vocals)
Chocolate Face (Vocals)
James Caran (Percussion, Beat Box, Vocals, Bass, Sax, and just about everything else)*
Jared May (Bass)*
* When they are not busy touring the world with nationally recognized acts.
Tonya Ridgely, MA
Artists in Action Ambassador / 1PIE Founding Community Member
Tonya Ridgely is on her way to being one of the most inspirational voices of her generation. As an 
artist & leader, she uses creativity to instigate freedom to help other artists and leaders achieve massive breakthroughs in their life which empower as way to express, relate and encourage productive awareness of our shared responsibility for the environment and community. Starting with her first conscious musical connection to Nature in 1995 at The Pittsburgh National Aviary, imitating birds, wind and water on flute, she established a sacred connection with nature that continues to grow. In her music and performance career, Tbird has traveled through Africa, Asia and Mexico; and has collaborated with Master musicians like Ry Cooder, USA, Ustad Hossein Alizadeth, Iran, and Nyoman Wenten, Bali, Indonesia. Combined with a solid Classical Music foundation from Carnegie Mellon University and a World Music and Dance foundation at Cal Arts, these influences form Tbird's creative musical fusion integrating flute and voice. Since 2003, she's applied her avant-garde approach in music and the healing arts to the social change arena, served in leadership roles with the Center for Transformative Change and as Cultural Arts Director of The Global Summit (2010) and co-creating a variety of EW Artists in Action events (2011/12) in the Bay Area and beyond.
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