Category: Program

Ross Van Dusen worked as an art director in Detroit, New York, Los Angeles, and a creative director in Los Angeles and San Francisco. He’s won two Clio’s, an International Broadcasting Award, British International Award, multiple ADDY, ANDY, and Belding awards, and many others. His art has been on the cover of Datamation magazine and his editorial drawings in the LA Times. 

After he retired as Executive Vice President, Creative Director of Chiat/Day Advertising in San Francisco, he turned his full attention to art. Since then, he has had solo fine art shows in New York, Los Angeles, and Detroit and has been in group shows in Albuquerque, Vancouver, and San Diego.

In 2015, he began writing and illustrating children’s picture books, published by a leading regional trade publisher headquartered in New Mexico.

His children’s picture books express the whimsy and joy all children feel—with illustrations done in bright colors and text written in happy words. Most are fiction, but some present basic science in a fanciful way.  His children’s books have won over twenty awards for Best Children’s Picture Book or Best Cover Design, including Gold in the Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards, Grand Winner in the New Mexico/Arizona Book Awards, Finalist in the Eric Hoffer Montaigne Awards, and Albuquerque Journal Top Ten Favorite Books in 2017.  

He has also written and published fourteen light-hearted action-mysteries, with more on the way. 

Ross has two grown children, one grandchild, and two great grandchildren. He lives with his wife, Jean, and her cat in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

View the full presentation at OFPL’s YouTube Channel.

Claudia Christian is the most recognized global advocate for the Sinclair Method, a treatment for alcohol use disorder (AUD). In 2013 she started her nonprofit C Three Foundation to help raise awareness of the treatment, which saved her life in 2009. In 2020 she was the driving force behind C Three’s launch of  www.yoursinclairmethod.com to provide individuals on TSM with support from experienced coaches, and the release of “Journeys” a collection of stories from people on the Sinclair Method.

Claudia has been in the film and television business as a performer for over 35 years. She is the author of two autobiographical books; “My Life with Freaks and Geeks” (2010) and “Babylon Confidential” (2012) and the sci-fi novel “Wolf’s Empire” (2016). In 2019 her first cookbook written with gaming expert Mark Michel came out to 5-star reviews. 

In addition to her nonprofit work, Claudia still appears in TV and film and lends her distinctive voice to the award winning audio series; Anne Manx, Disney’s Atlantis and some of the biggest games in the world including SkyRim, Guild Wars 2, World of Warcraft , StarCraft, Call of Duty, Halo and Fallout 4. She recently completed the first season of Netflix’s new animated series “Gods and Heroes” and “DOTA”.  Claudia currently has a recurring role on the Fox series 911 playing the Captain of the LAPD. 

View her full presentation on OFPL’s YouTube Channel.

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Giao Chi (Annie Phan) grew up in Vietnam and Singapore. She graduated from Duke University with an MBA and currently lives in the San Francisco Bay area.

At thirteen years old, she won a professional comic scriptwriting award from the Nhi Dong publishing company. She went on to publish more than three hundred comics printed in magazines such as Nhi Dong, Khan Quang Do, and Muc Tim. Her first novel, The Girl Who Kept Winter, began as a blog post that went viral in 2007 and was later expanded into a full-length best-seller. Her novels, comics, and graphic novels have been enjoyed by generations of Vietnamese readers.

View her presentation on the OFPL YouTube Channel.

Zachary Kluckman, the National Poetry Awards 2015-2016 Slam Organizer of the Year and 2014 Slam Artist of the Year, is a Scholastic Art & Writing Awards Gold Medal Poetry Teacher, Red Mountain Press National Poetry Prize recipient and a founding organizer of the 100 Thousand Poets for Change program, now recognized as the largest poetry reading in history. Kluckman has appeared multiple times at the National and Individual World Poetry slams and tours the nation as a spoken word artist. Recently he was one of 3 poets invited to represent the United States at the Kistrech International Poetry Festival in Kenya. Kluckman is the Slam Manager and founder of MindWell Poetry in Albuquerque, New Mexico and has authored two poetry collections, “The Animals in Our Flesh” and “Some of It is Muscle”.

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MindWell Poetry Instagram

Kristin Patton, an Albuquerque, New Mexico native, grew up writing poetry in the back of the classroom. After stumbling into a poetry reading in 2015, she began frequenting open mics and poetry slams to support personal growth and mental health. She recently earned a spot on the 2019 & 2020 MindWell Slam teams, which competed at the Southern Fried Poetry Slam and placed Third at the Southwest Shootout regional. Kristin holds the 2019 title of Poetry Goddess of Albuquerque and will represent her community at the Women of the World Poetry Slam in 2020.When not attending poetry events, Kristin is learning to enjoy this thing called life.

Rene Mullen is managing editor for a PR firm in Albuquerque, performance and traditional poet, and author of the full-length poetry collection This Still Breathing Canvas. His poetry has been featured in Poetry Quarterly, 50 Haikus, and the Santa Fe Literary Review.

Marcial Delgado is the host and organizer for the vibrant and welcoming space known as Voices of the Barrio Open Mic Poetry at El Chante:Casa de Cultura in the heart of downtown Albuquerque. Marcial’s first publication, Sell Me Insanity, (published by Swimming With Elephants Publications) was released in 2019. Marcial Delgado is just a vato from the barrio who fell in love with writing and poetry.

Dolores “Scarlett” Cortez is an artist from Santa Fe,New Mexico . She works with a variety of media depending on what best represents her concepts, primarily photography,printmaking and poetry.

Kristi Rae Wilson received her MFA in Jewelry/Metals from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. Here she was the recipient of the Creative and Performing Arts Fellowship and the Brodie Material Grant. Her work has been included in international and national publications and exhibited throughout the United States. The Society of North American Goldsmiths (SNAG) awarded her the Educational Endowment Scholarship to participate in the Jewelry Opere Workshop (Netherlands) where she studied with contemporary jeweler, Ruudt Peters. Wilson, was an Artist-In-Resident at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (2010-2011), a guest lecturer at Bowling Green State University (2012) and New Mexico State University (2014). Wilson has taught fine art courses and served as an advisor for the Art Student Collective at the University of New Mexico for 8 years. Currently she teaches Jewelry and Small Metals Construction, Drawing and Introduction to Art History as a Visiting Assistant Professor. To view her work please visit www.kraewilson.com.

View her full presentation on OFPL’s YouTube Channel.

Daniel Vandever is the communications director for Navajo Technical University where he heads the university’s strategic communication efforts. Prior to working with NTU, Vandever served as the public information officer for Navajo Nation Parks and Recreation and as a copywriter for an advertising agency in St. Louis, MO, where he won state and regional ADDY awards. Vandever obtained his master’s degree in Community and Regional Planning from the University of New Mexico and his undergraduate degree from the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism. Vandever released a children’s book, Fall in Line, Holden, in 2017, and plans on publishing his second, titled Herizon, in 2021.

In addition to his work in higher education and writing books, Vandever provides strategic communication consultation and lectures on marketing on the Navajo Nation.

Daniel will be previewing Herizon on May 22nd, 2021 on the OFPL FaceBook Livestream.

Submit your questions for Daniel Vandever here.

Join the May 22nd Livestream here.

Read more about Herizon below.

In the 1860s, the Navajo tribe, the Diné, were forcibly removed from their homelands by the US military and sent to a military-controlled reservation in southcentral New Mexico. Many Navajos did not survive the harsh conditions and military violence they faced while marching hundreds of miles. The year 2018 marked the 150th anniversary of the Navajos’ eventual return to their homelands following the devastation of the Long Walk.
Edison Eskeets commemorates the anniversary by running 330 miles from Canyon de Chelly, Arizona, to Santa Fé, New Mexico, in sixteen days. At the pace of a marathon a day, Eskeets seeks to honor the survivors of the Long Walk and to deliver a message to the state legislature in Santa Fé, where the Long Walk was once planned and executed. His support team on the road includes Jim Kristofic, who observes the journey and records it in his notebook. Send a Runner: A Navajo Honors the Long Walk is a story of running for family,
for history, and for the future of the Diné.

Edison Eskeets is a former All-American runner, coach, artist, and teacher. He served as the head of school and the dean of students for the nationally recognized Native American Preparatory School.
Jim Kristofic grew up on the Navajo Reservation in northeastern Arizona.
He is the author of five previous books including Reservation Restless.

View the full Book Talk on OFPL’s YouTube Channel.