Brent Devaram Buffone
Brent Devaram Buffone is a Las Vegas Native. He is a graduate of UNLV College of Liberal Arts, obtaining an Interdisciplinary Studies Degree with areas of study in psychology, communication, and marriage family therapy. Brent strongly believes that you can do anything that you put your mind to, if you simply focus on the matter. Brent is a registered yoga teacher and is the founder of ChewManja, an organic chewing gum company whose mission is to protect and preserve the life of the rainforest. Brent is an eclectic human being as he is passionate about many things. Brent is a licensed life and health insurance agent in California, Nevada, and Arizona and provides employee benefits counseling to small and large businesses alike. Brent enjoys sharing his own written poetry over instrumentals in the local Las Vegas art scene. You can typically find him as the first to perform at ‘Soul Sessions’, an open mic that takes place the first Sunday of every month in Downtown Las Vegas.
Chase McCurdy
Chase McCurdy is an interdisciplinary artist and educator in Las Vegas, Nevada. Chase’s art practice has evolved from a focus in photography and film to encompass painting and writing among others. With a focus on art history and theory, education, and societal relationships, Chase’s studies have brought him back to his hometown of Las Vegas after living and working in Los Angeles, CA and Paris, France.
Oliver Jones
Oliver Jones was born and raised in Las Vegas, NV. He graduated from Palo Verde High School in 2006 where he won Best Actor in a Leading Role, received 3 superiors for his contrasting monologue at the Nevada State Thespian Conference, designed all the posters for the school’s theater productions, and performed on his high school improv team.
Since then he has coached and judged high school improv. He is is an award winning playwright for his original play ‘When Mom Died on Saturn.’ Training with Insurgo Theater Movement’s Ensemble lead to many opportunities on stage. You may have seen him perform in ‘Waiting for Godot’ at the Plaza Hotel and Casino, ‘Awesome 80’s Prom’ at the Planet Hollywood Hotel and Casino’s V Theater, or Red Dress at the Baobab Stage in Town Square. Recently, you can find him putting up 10 minute plays at Cockroach Theatre on First Friday, or at the Mob Museum role-playing with guests at the Use of Force Training Experience.
Right now he is getting ready to produce ‘Romeo y Julieta’ (Romeo and Juliet in Spanish) at the Las Vegas Fringe Festival. He is also working with the community to change the cross-walk messages in the arts district to reflect the voices of the artists in Las Vegas. He is also for hire as a performer for private parties that need environment actors or clowns.
Lucas Ybarra
Lucas Ybarra was born in Tacoma, WA but at the age of four moved to Japan and grew as a military brat. He moved to Las Vegas, NV in 2002 and has spent most of the time in the valley and Los Angeles, CA.
He is a UNLV alumnus and graphic designer by profession. His passion lie in music, where he also co-founded a collective of musicians/music producers called The Rabbit Hole. He has made big strides with the collective in the Las Vegas Downtown scene, recently named Best DJ/Beat Collective in Las Vegas by the Desert Companion Magazine.
His goals are to continue striving to make changes in the Las Vegas Downtown scene and tirelessly work in having a hand in the culture that is developing. For more in depth views on his work visit his online portfolio: lucasybarra.com
Elias Benjelloun
Elias Benjelloun is a social entrepreneur, digital marketer, and podcast host. Elias believes in empowering others through education, collaboration, and mentorship. He is on a mission to prepare the next generation for the digital revolution while helping businesses generate ROI through digital marketing. He co founded Powered By Nova, a growth marketing agency working with companies around the world.
“I became a digital marketer accidentally on purpose. I learned how to create and market my website as a teenager for fun. But then I discovered I could make money using these skills. Getting the work is easy, but having the ability to connect and collaborate with people around the world to make a positive impact in their business and community is the reason I still do this.”
Elias co authored: “Power Couple Confessions: How Not to Kill Each Other” & “Marketing Essentials”. Read more about the work Elias does on his blog at www.eliasbenjelloun.com
Moee Turbin
Moee Turbin is a student at Nevada State College currently at the tail end of her Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary – Special Education. One of few Substitute teachers in the Clark County School District who is fluent in American Sign Language, Moee also holds a Minor in both Deaf Studies and Psychology and in the midst of completing one in Sociology.
With her passion for education, Moee has worked tirelessly since she was a child to educate herself and make the most of the opportunities that have came her way along with supporting and uplifting underrepresented communities, helping families and individuals find resources, and advocating on behalf of those whose voice may be silenced or rarely heard. Moee has developed programming for 1st Generation students, and mentored them academically, financially and personally as they matriculate through college.
In addition to helping her peers, Moee has worked with Nevada Education for Women’s Leadership (NEWL) in providing leadership training and support for women in NV since 2015. Outside of her professional life and when she is not volunteering her time to those who need the support, Moee is out supporting local artists at shows and promoting events in the Vegas rave community. After years of playing guitar and writing songs, Moee has recently begun to experiment with making electronic beats and aspires to commit to being a DJ after her undergraduate degree is finished.
Nima Abkenar
Nima Abkenar is a visual and conceptual artist based in Las Vegas, Nevada. His interests include the nature of phenomenon, context, and their elaborated roots in social structures. Through exhibiting the anomaly of social events, Nima seeks to reiterate the circumstances and perspectives surrounding a phenomenon.
Nima is a native from Iran. His dislocation from his native home at 17 has shaped his contextual and conceptual views in art and sociology. His latest work Reiterative Onefocuses on aquariums, reminding their gradual fading presence in public. His interest in context has bounded his art practice with public art and cultural events.
For his latest collaboration with the Believer Festival, he created a site-specific installation 1200; using water as the main medium to create a body of still water in a hostile environment, he sought to create a picture that is both foreign and familiar to local Las Vegans.
Marie Valencia
Marie Valencia is a long-time resident of Las Vegas and Downtown. Founder & creator of Mystic Herbs Shop, a Local Pop-Up shop that offers original artwork, handmade jewelry and fortune-telling locally since 2014 including events such as Life As Beautiful and First Friday.Karla lagunas
Karla Lagunas is an interdisciplinary artist currently investigating how built environments both construct and reflect our identity. Born in Chicago to Mexican immigrant parents, Karla is a Las Vegas resident of 23 years. A graduate of UNLV with degrees in Art History and Art, her projects explore colonization, urbanization and their branches – immigration and gentrification. Karla’s work manifests through performance, painting, video, writing, and collaborative multimedia endeavors, all while rooting subject and medium to place. Her work challenges an audience to not take any construct, whether social or physical, as a given. Often asking, “Why is this the way it is? Where did this originate? Who does it benefit?” In doing so she asks her audience to do the same and continue to carry this critical curiosity elsewhere and absorb it in an everyday practice. She believes that nurturing a compassionately critical mind is not just the job of artists and activists, but of everyone. Karla is involved in several collectives that have similar visions that place identity – race, gender, sexuality- in the forefront of their practice. Together, they all proactively engage the community not only as performers and organizers, but as audiences and supporters. Both as individuals and as a collective, they encourage open dialogues, support political activism and volunteer beyond the scope of our art practice.