International Artists and Speakers Bureau
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Sandy Taylor
Founder/Director of Rainbow Child International
Storyteller, author and multicultural teaching artist
Sandy teaches about nature through interactive discovery with performance, in-service training, student workshop or residency. Her programs are designed to help participants become more aware of their own needs and the needs of the environment.
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For over thirty years, Sandy has been a student of philosophy, psychology and cultural practices. She combines her experience with storytelling, song and dance in a celebration that uplifts and inspires the human spirit. Sandy brings her performances and workshops for all ages (preschool to senior citizens) to a variety of venues --including Temple University's Multicultural Training and Research Institute, Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia, World Affairs Council, schools, libraries, conferences, camps, scouts, community centers, churches and theaters -- and is now internationally known having performed in Russia, Ghana, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Cuba and Israel. She served as Executive Director of the Seventh Generation Conference on Peace, Children and the Environment in Moscow.
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Kwadwo Asafo-Agyei Okrah, Ph.D.
Former State Linguist of Ghana
Dr. Okrah is Director of the Center for Global Education and Assistant Professor of Education at Indiana University South Bend. Educated in Ghana and the United States, Dr. Okrah earned a B.A. degree in Religious Studies and Linguistics with a concurrent diploma in Education from the University of Cape Coast, Ghana. He entered the Ohio University, earning an MA in International Affairs and Ph.D. in Social Studies Education (Curriculum and Instruction). While working on his doctorate, he did presentations and residencies in Pennsylvania and New Jersey from pre-schools to Colleges and other social institutions with the Rainbow Child International as a consultant on African (Ghanaian) culture.
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Dr. Okrah has a record experience in teaching elementary, middle and high schools in Ghana. He also worked with the Center for National Culture in Ghana as both a research officer and Traditional Norms and Practices consultant. He was appointed the distinguished position of The State Linguist of the Republic of Ghana, National and Presidential Poet Laureate and Advisor to the President on Cultural Affairs and Protocol.
Dr. Okrah is the author of numerous books and articles on African culture and Educational issues including:
Ghana Arts & Culture for Home & Classroom with Sandy Taylor
African Indigenous Knowledge and Science with Sandy Taylor
By the Fireside (Akan Oral Tradition)
Toward Global Conflict Resolution: Lessons from Akan Chieftaincy and Judicial Systems
Academic Colonization and Africa’s Underdevelopment
Religious Education, Multiculturalism and the Law of Inclusion: Dilemmas the US Public Schools Face
Dr. Okrah, a master orator, whose charismatic delivery is filled with information (a veritable human encyclopedia of Ghanaian culture) and humor, captivates and delights his audiences. He is available for lectures/demonstrations, facilitation of workshops and seminars, and keynote addresses. His many subjects of expertise include, but not limited to the following:
Baby Names and Outdooring Ceremony, Rites of Passage, Marriage and Weddings, Funeral Celebrations, Proverbs, Storytelling for Children, Storytelling for Adults, Traditional Cultural Arts (Ancestral Stools, Adinkra Cloth, Kente Cloth, Beads, Music, Songs and Dance), Chieftaincy Structure (Judiciary System, Conflict Solving, Inheritance, Enstoolment of Chiefs), History and Geography of Ghana, Traditional Religion, Traditional Healing (Herbal, Spiritual), Traditional Prayers (Libation Pouring), Ghanaian Values, Family and Community System and Ghanaian Indigenous Science. Programs include a participatory demonstration of Ghanaian music.
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Mazatl Galindo
Aztec Musician and Dancer
Mazatl Galindo, a native Aztec of Mexico City, is an internationally recognized cultural ambassador of Mexico. Mazatl's diverse artistic creations are inspired in whole, or in part, by the traditions of his ancestors.
His knowledge of the art, architecture, astronomy, mathematics, philosophy, cosmology, and ceremony of ancient Americans provide cultural and spiritual contexts of his paintings, music, and dance so that his audiences directly perceive the interconnectedness between all aspects of life and their foundations in the natural world.
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He is a highly proficient musician, dancer, and painter and studied muralism at the Fine Art Institute of Mexico. Mazatl has been invited as a guest lecturer by the University of Calgary, Harvard University, Cambriane College in Ontario, the UCLA Departments of Ethnomusicology and Dance as well as several syndicated radio programs in the U.S.
Mazatl's art work has been exhibited through the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes de Mexico, the Kumho Cultural Center in South Korea, the Centro Cultural Kosqo in Cuzco, Peru, and the Milagro Gallery in Taos, New Mexico. He recently received a special invitation from the University of Puebla, Mexico, to exhibit his works and perform in conjunction with the showing.
Mazatl has devoted his life to the preservation of pre-Columbian music. He has composed original scores for documentaries, films and commercial recordings with his collection of more than 200 original instruments, Mazatl has appeared at the Museum of the American Indian in New York City, the Dallas Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, at Stonehenge in England, at the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, and Machu Picchu in Peru.
Mazatl has shared with both young and old our common roots, goals, hopes and dreams. He has led a rediscovery of the universal understanding of life that the ancient ones have left for us encoded in their magnificent sites. He believes they are the key to a better future for us and for generations to come.
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Johnny Moses
One of the most beloved and well-know Native American storytellers
When he laughs, the room erupts and his buoyant mood imprints on those around him. When he lifts his resonant voice in prayer song, accompanying himself with the squat octagonal drum of the old medicine or the ringing pulse of the bell, waving his open-palmed arms in a gesture of poverty and thankfulness, an aura of something unquestionably sacred and deep as time itself takes momentary form and then evaporates like dry-ice smoke.
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Johnny Moses, whose traditional name is Whis.stem.men.knee, or Walking Medicine Robe, is a traditional healer, an oral historian and bearer by permission of his elders of Native American songs, stories, Si.Si.Wiss medicine teachings and healing ceremonies of the Tulalip and Nootka of the Northwest Coast. His compelling storytelling, accented by gesture, song and drumming along with his knowledge of eight Native Northwest Coast languages keeps audiences of all ages engaged and hungry for more.
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Kola Abimbola
Nigerian Yoruba Priest, Professor of Religion and Philosophy, Lawyer
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Welcome Farm - Pottstown, PA
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Hiroshi Makita
Master Zen Gardener
Hiroshi Makita is acclaimed as one of the foremost landscape designers and environmental artists of the world. He studied under the guidance of a Zen Master of the Rinzai Sect at the Temple of Fusaiji, Nagano Prefecture on the island of Honshu, Japan, where he lived for 16 years developing his life long love for the spiritual and aesthetic sensibilities of Confucianism to Zen.
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Makita made a pilgrimage to the United States where he was awarded his first multi-million dollar project, requiring 10 years to complete, at the Swiss Pines Garden in Pennsylvania. Other notable projects include the garden, Dans le Foret, on the estate of a prominent New York City art gallery owner and an expansive Feng Shui garden at Welcome Farm in Pennsylvania.
Makita’s classical grounding in oriental landscaping has not restrained his adventuresome style and creativity, which has also been applauded in publications from England, Germany, France and Italy to Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Representations of his artistic expression have been published in more than 50 books, calendars and magazines. The millions of exposures include two “Architectural Digest” features and one in the United Airlines magazine, “Hemispheres”. His diary, “The Zen of Gardening”, was featured in “Connoisseur Magazine”.
Raices de Borinquen is a non-profit folkloric group dedicated to the presentation, preservation and education of the Pueerto Rican culture. Their emphasis is on the integration of African, Native and European influences that make the richness of the Puerto Rican culture. Included in their lively, engaging performances and workshops: The Areyto (native tribal dance) and the African based 'Bomba".
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Raices de Borinquen Dance Group
Puerto Rican Dance Ensemble 
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