Our Contributors and Collaborators
Debbie Fier
Debbie Fier brings over 35 years of experience to her life as a performing vocalist, drummer, pianist, composer, percussionist and teacher. She has performed internationally throughout England and in Berlin, Germany as well as throughout the U.S. Her original compositions are available on four recordings — In Your Hands, Firelight, and her most recent, Waterways. Debbie has spent over 25 years exploring voice in many different contexts including western/classical vocal technique, music theory, ear training, improvisation, jazz, chanting and Indian raga singing. She spent years as a mentor teacher in the Institute of Music, Health and Education, helping students learn how to use music and the voice for overall health. She studied piano with the legendary pianist and master musician, Mary Lou Williams in the early 1980's. She has studied numerous drum and dance styles for over 35 years, including Middle Eastern, N. African, West African, and Afro-Cuban. She teaches drumming, body percussion and rhythm to children and adults, encouraging everyone to find their individual and authentic voice through music. Most recently, Debbie has turned her focus to playing and composing on the handpan, an instrument created 25 years ago in Switzerland based on the steel pan family, played with the hands, rather than mallets. The pan has a beautiful, resonant sound - perfect for relaxation, meditation, movement and more.
Corrina Gould
Corrina Gould (Lisjan Ohlone) is the chair and spokesperson for the Confederated Villages of Lisjan—she was born and raised in Oakland, CA, the village of Huichin. A mother of three and grandmother of four, Corrina is the Co-Director for The Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, a women-led organization within the urban setting of her ancestral territory of the Bay Area that works to return Indigenous land to Indigenous people, and the Co-Founder and Lead Organizer for Indian People Organizing for Change, a small Native run organization that works on Indigenous people issues and sponsored annual Shellmound Peace Walks from 2005 to 2009. These walks brought about education and awareness of the desecration of sacred sites in the greater Bay Area.As a tribal leader, she has continued to fight for the protection of the Shellmounds, uphold her nation's inherent right to sovereignty, and stand in solidarity with her Indigenous relatives to protect our sacred waters, mountains, and lands all over the world.
Anna Lappé
Anna Lappé is a bestselling author, advocate for sustainability and justice along the food chain, and funder for food systems transformation. Since 2016, she has developed and led the Food Sovereignty Fund of the Panta Rhea Foundation. She is also the founder and strategic advisor to Real Food Media, which works with food movement partners around the world to develop powerful media and communications strategy. A national bestselling author, Anna has authored or co-authored three books and is the contributing author to fourteen more, including Diet for a Hot Planet: The Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork and What You Can Do About It. She regularly speaks with audiences around the country and her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Guardian, The New York Times, and The Washington Post, among other outlets. Along with her mother, Frances Moore Lappé, Anna also co-founded the Small Planet Institute and the Small Planet Fund, supporting grassroots changemakers around the world. A James Beard Foundation award recipient, Anna lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and two daughters.
Ruth Orta
Ruth Orta is an elder who has been involved with the Ohlone Gathering at East Bay Regional Park District for the last 24 years. Her living family spans five generations: She is a mother of seven, grandmother of 17, great grandmother of 37 and and great, great grandmother of sevens. Her message: “we are still here.”
Erik Pearson
Erik Pearson has been immersed in music of all kinds since he was a child in Easton, Pennsylvania, where he studied classical flute and music theory, sung in choirs, and played in rock bands. In the late 1980’s at Oberlin College/Conservatory of Music he studied Music Composition and Cultural Anthropology, and was also drawn to Carnatic Music of Southern India and to his growing interest in the banjo and Old Time American Music, a passion which has remained a constant in his life. Since moving to San Francisco in 1990 he has made over 30 records/CDs and performed with a multitude of bands including Mushroom, Sonya Hunter and Evie Ladin/Evil Diane.
He has composed music for San Francisco choreographers Chris Black, Erin Mei-Ling Stuart, and Jordan Fuchs, and written film and chamber music ranging from Creeping Dawn: Mountain & Shadow, a prize winning composition for 24 recorders performed in the 2007 season of the American Recorder Orchestra of the West, to “Fork & File”, a banjo composition on the Crooked Jades’ World’s on Fire CD which was included in the soundtrack for Sean Penn’s 2007 film Into the Wild. Pearson spends a lot of time on the road accompanying master storyteller Diane Ferlatte on banjo and guitar. Together they have made six CDs, all of which have won awards including three Parent’s Choice Gold awards, and a 2007 Grammy® nomination for their CD Wickety Whack, Brer Rabbit is Back. Pearson’s other recent projects include recording a solo banjo CD, writing a piece of music for harpsichord and percussion for a concert celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Rite of Spring at the Community Music Center, and creating an orchestral version of Diane and Erik’s storytelling show Aesop, Alive and Well. In the works are more compositions for recorder orchestra, and some flute and piano pieces.
Kanyon Sayers-Roods
Kanyon Sayers-Roods is Costanoan Ohlone-Mutsun and Chumash; she also goes by her given Native name, “Coyote Woman”. She is proud of her heritage and her native name (though it comes with its own back story), and is very active in the Native Community. She is an Artist, Poet, Published Author, Activist, Student and Teacher. The daughter of Ann-Marie Sayers, she was raised in Indian Canyon, trust land of her family, which currently is one of the few spaces in Central California available for the Indigenous community for ceremony. Kanyon’s art has been featured at the De Young Museum, The Somarts Gallery, Gathering Tribes, Snag Magazine, and numerous Powwows and Indigenous Gatherings. She is a recent graduate of the Art Institute of California, Sunnyvale, obtaining her Associate and Bachelor of Science degrees in Web Design and Interactive Media. She is motivated to learn, teach, start conversations around decolonization and reinidgenization, permaculture and to continue doing what she loves, Art.
Ravinder Sehgal
Ravinder Sehgal is a Professor in the Dept. of Biology at San Francisco State University where he teaches courses in parasitology and emerging infectious diseases. His research focuses on the ecology of diseases in birds. For example, he studies how deforestation affects the prevalence and diversity of avian malaria in African rainforest birds. More recently he has begun studying how global climate change may affect the spread of avian malaria . With a PhD in cell biology from UCSF, he takes advantage of current advances in molecular biology to address large questions in disease emergence. Since an early age, he was fascinated and saddened by the extinction of species, from dinosaurs to dodos. Through research and teaching he strives to make an impact in conservation biology. He is a vegan activist, and also an accomplished musician, playing bassoon and piano.
Other Collaborators
Cyril Kowo
Ronald Bruce Smith
Kirsten Price
Edwin Hacking