Meet Eight Community Curators Behind Future Front Texas

Each year, we work with a group of community members, aka FRIENDS, to co-curate our showcase lineups and shape the vision of our programs. From chefs to leaders in tech, every FRIEND brings a unique perspective to what we do—and helps us ensure that the 1500 exhibition and commission opportunities we offer each year are community-centered.

Keep reading to learn more about this year’s founding curatorial team.

MEET OUR FRIENDS:

AISHA LEWIS

Aisha Lewis (she/her) is the Director of Strategic Programs at Notley where she launched Beam Angel Network to provide early-stage, women-founded companies with capital and Notley Health to fund health equity solutions that increase access to care for underserved Texans. Her passion for community impact stems from various roles connecting emerging founders to resources to scale their companies and investing in innovative solutions that are solving some of the world's toughest social and environmental problems in Los Angeles, Nairobi, San Francisco, Durham, and Austin. Outside of work, she loves patio hangs, DJ-ing, eating fruit and cheese (sometimes separately, sometimes together), and traveling!

MICHELE MARTELL

Michele Martell (she/her) is a media and technology attorney and entrepreneur, with more than 30 years of experience working with brands like The Muppets, the WWE and My Little Pony. Michele provides business & legal guidance to clients who are makers, inventors, creators and builders, with a focus on the intersection of technology and entertainment. She actively mentors a diverse group via her leadership as President of the Forklift Danceworks Board of Directors, Programming Chair for Women in Toys, Licensing and Entertainment, Vice-Chair of the Entertainment and Sports Law bar of Austin, and Co-Chair of the Austin chapter of the International Association of Privacy Professionals.

What's your vision for your work and life?

As a long-time attorney, I have learned that if I follow my passions and interests, it generates work that is meaningful to me. When I'm doing meaningful work, it feels completely integrated into my life. I love being my own boss, because it makes it easier to balance taking care of myself with taking care of clients.

What do you want the future of Texas to look like?

The Global Majority! Women & BIPOC running everything! Equity & community care, not extractive exploitative capitalism.

What do you love about being a FRIEND? <3

I love getting to play a small part in an organization that I have admired since moving to Austin. Jane & the team are incredible, and the community that has been formed around FFTx is filled with inspirational women.

AMANDA VAUGHN

Amanda Vaughn, PhD (she/her) is a biochemist and science communicator with creative habits of painting, DJing, and zine-making for recharging and overall well-being. She has lived in Taiwan, a tree house, an old bar in Madrid, and aboard a cruise ship, among other locales, and gets great joy from connecting with people from all walks of life via conversation in different languages. She is infinitely inspired and challenged by the goal of animating scientific thought in playful, engaging ways that encourage awe-inducing recontextualization.

What's your vision for your work and life?

My vision of work and life is to always remain curious, and ask all the stupid (and intelligent) questions. I feel that if curiosity is lost, so is a drive to continue to grow and learn throughout life. Surrounding oneself with people, sounds, and images that inspire is essential.

What do you want the future of Texas to look like?

For me, the future of Texas is free range, open sourced, and communal. In order for this to even begin to reach a level of possibility, people will need to shake it up, step out of old patterns, and meet people they otherwise would not have encountered without making an effort. By intermingling communities, Texans can evolve on both a genetic and communal level, while capturing a truer sense of what it means to be from this part of the world. I hope for the future of Texas to reflect this evolved state, all while providing more opportunities for women and queer members of the community. We still have a long road to travel, but we are making and increasing awareness of the current disparity.

What do you love about being a FRIEND? <3

Being a FRIEND gives me a bird eye's view of the org and provides the space for me to offer support as we grow our programming and community. The resilience of this community that has shone brightly throughout this pandemic era is beyond inspiring - it is *instructional* for how we can continue to thrive when our resources are limited.

CHEF JRODI

Most days, Chef JRodi aka Jen Rodriguez (she/her) plays with knives and blends colors of the earth's palette to feed, and serve others. Texas-born, Jen is the executive chef and owner of 3 small plates catering, a contemporary tapas-style catering company, specializing in culinary journeys. The award-winning DoD journalist retired her pen and paper for a knife and cutting board to share European travel through food, one plate at a time.

What's your vision for your work and life?

My vision for my work and life are interchangeable, one does not work without the other. If anything, my work leads my life.

Our vision is to transform everyday ingredients into unique dishes bringing the world of travel to our community, and great conversations back to the table.

Using similar ingredients from different cultural dishes showcases the diversity of these ingredients, and helps us to bridge the gaps between cultures through food.

One day, it’s our hope to have our own creative space (small bistro) to serve others on a larger scale. By having the necessary tools, space and equipment, 3SP would offer classes (cooking, writing, photography and business), event rental space, and pour into other entrepreneurs to help them reach their goals through networking, collaborations, grants, and partnerships.

What do you want the future of Texas to look like?

Together we thrive! I am an advocate for joining forces with other entrepreneurs, and persons of various backgrounds, and cultures to grow and thrive together. By understanding our neighbors, we’re able to connect in various ways without passing judgment first, and understanding later.

I’m Texas born, the Texas of my childhood and now are different. But, Texas doesn’t define who I am or how I engage with others who are not like me. I attribute my openness of engaging with other nationalities to living aboard. Many of my friends aren’t just friends to me, they’re family. We’ve learned a lot from each other’s heritage, culture and backgrounds from spending quality time with one another.

This is why I hope that Texas becomes a melting pot of all nationalities, learning, appreciating and growing with each other.

What do you love about being a FRIEND? <3

Friends help us to connect to each other without judgment. We realize that we are either creatives, artists, entrepreneurs or fighters of injustices. At some point ,we will cross paths to support each other directly and indirectly. Friends allow us to collaborate and help us to learn from one another, support one another and grow in our respective fields. By joining forces, we build and sometimes rebuild the community to what it was essentially meant to be. Then, together we thrive, and conquer the world.

SHANNON ELDER

Shannon Elder (she/her) is a writer, editor, designer, and curator with a focus on art and social justice. She currently oversees documentary photography projects as the Managing Editor and Designer at Native Agency, an organization diversifying the journalism industry. Catch her making collages and eating tacos in Austin, Texas.

What's your vision for your work and life?

Overall I would say to maintain joy, to be in community with and care for others, and to work towards justice. I really enjoy keeping my hands in multiple projects because it keeps me learning, growing, and creatively challenged. I have been on a journey of reshaping my idea of what labor means in our society and what our relationship to labor can look like after reading the book Laziness Does Not Exist by Dr. Devon Price. Right now I'm trying to move a little slower, be more present with myself, and take time for the projects that I've been putting off for too long.

What do you want the future of Texas to look like?

The future of Texas is diverse, creative, and powerful. At a time where we have many coexisting challenges to overcome - whether that's rooting out systematic racism, or ensuring the right to reproductive healthcare, or protecting those who migrate to this country for a better life, or working to address the immediate needs of a dying planet - everyone has a role to take on. This is a big state filled with fierce, radical, loving people doing that work to lead us to the future we all deserve.

What do you love about being a FRIEND? <3

I've popped through different Future Front events since I moved to Austin in the fall of 2017. Over the last few years I've kept coming back because I found a sense of community that is often difficult to come across elsewhere. I love being a FRIEND because it provides a structured way to contribute to Future Front programming, and event curation is something I have always really enjoyed. Beyond that, though, through this role I'm able to connect more deeply with others which is especially valuable to me as someone who has been working remotely.

SHANNON RIVERS

Shannon Rivers (she/her) is a local connection expert with clients featured in WWD, Forbes, and Tribeza. Her ten years of retail experience has led to a pivot into creative strategy, PR, and partnership roles, with various startups at the intersection of art and tech. Her passion for sustainability across industries and co-writing with musicians fills her free time.

What's your vision for your work and life?

My mission has been to assist clients in achieving sustainability in both their business and personal lives — the pandemic has been a lesson for me to take my own advice. Moving forward, I am looking to prioritize rest so I can continue co-agitating in both the creation and demolition of structures.

What do you want the future of Texas to look like?

Organizers in the South to get the support and visibility they deserve. Visible non-profits like Future Front who work to amplify other orgs expanding their reach to include all of Texas has been an important step. As someone who works in media, holding press that's not local accountable for reinforcing harmful narratives about our state is another important step.

What do you love about being a FRIEND? <3

I think especially right now there is a universal feeling of wanting to help and not being sure where to even begin. I'm grateful to be a part of a local social justice ecosystem that allocates volunteers. Being from here, it is an opportunity to give back to an org who has given myself and the community hope.

Tess Cagle

Tess Cagle (she/her) is a photographer and writer in Austin, Texas. Hailing from the Rio Grande Valley, Tess moved to Austin to study journalism and cultural anthropology at the University of Texas. Currently, her work centers around documenting the milestones of her neighbors and community to curate heirloom-level photos that tell stories.

What's your vision for your work and life?

My vision for my work and life can be summed up in one word: Balance.

I’m striving to cultivate a work/life balance that allows me to both create work that creatively nourishes me, but also leaves ample space for life beyond a career. I’ve struggled with hustle culture and burnout for much of my adult life and this year I finally see myself building a business that supports mental, emotional, and physical sustainability.

For my work specifically, my vision is documentarian photography that’s attainable for all. Candid photos that capture the essence of our community. My goal with every client I work with is to make them feel at home in themselves — comfortable in front of the camera and in love with the person they see captured. I want to show the Insta generation that photography is not about making you look a certain way or editing away parts of your body or even manufacturing a moment for the gram — it’s a tool we use to capture a feeling, time, and place. It’s a way to create an archive of your life.

What do you want the future of Texas to look like?

Vaccinated.

What do you love about being a FRIEND? <3

Whenever I feel hopeless about the future, I’ve learned to turn to my direct community and see what I can do to help locally. I love being a FRIEND because it’s a rewarding outlet to channel that need to help. Also, watching small business owners we partner with thrive is one of the most rewarding feelings ever.

TAYLOR DAVIS

Taylor Davis (she/her) is a graduate of UT Austin's Masters of Landscape Architecture program and works for a local design firm in Austin. Understanding that systems of marginalization exist by design, as a designer, it is important that her practice actively attempts to dismantle those systems. She hopes to facilitate and design spaces for communities to utilize, and to thrive in.