Meet the BYA facilitators!
Meet BYA's current facilitators! They are talented and patient and caring and have been creating spaces of experimentation and collaboration in the Baltimore City Juvenile Justice Center and the Thomas Waxter Children's Center. Check 'em out!
Devin Wilkins
Brandon Jones
Maura Dwyer
Rashad Hawkins
Devin Wilkins has a background in communications and currently works for the Social Security Administration. He enjoys working within the community that he was raised in and wants to see the youth of Baltimore City progress and succeed. Devin is currently facilitating BYA's Job Readiness class in the Baltimore City Juvenile Justice Center (BCJJC).
Brandon Jones, artist and graphic designer, is a recent addition to the BYA team. Brandon is born and raised in Baltimore and is a self-taught painter. He also makes dope fabric designs! Brandon is currently teaching a Saturday painting class at the Baltimore City Juvenile Justice Center. Check out a couple of his pieces below his picture!
Maura Dwyer is an interdisciplinary artist raised and currently based in Baltimore. In the past three years she has focused on making education and community-oriented murals, and dabbled in performance and prop-making with several DIY theater collectives. In 2016 she started Spectrum Studio with two other painters, Hanna Moran and Lindy Swan, to provide murals to organizations and workshops for youth. She plans to continue working with schools and non-profits who need more arts programming to help youth develop critical thinking skills, gain confidence in their design skills, and exercise their imagination.
Maura is working with the young women at the Thomas J.S. Waxter Children's Center on a mural project. mauradwyer.com
Rashad Hawkins is an independent Hip Hop artist, producer and social activist, born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland in the notoriously tough Lexington Terrace neighborhood. His desire for social change and his love for music were born out of his early exposure to the city's harshest conditions including drugs, violence and poverty. After suffering the loss of his father and uncle, Hawkins worked at McDonalds to support his family. By the age of 16, he was writing his own songs and making beats as a tool to cope with his environment and write his own narrative.
His inventiveness and genre-breaking style earned him a reputation as one of Baltimore's versatile producers and has resulted in his immense success at staying ahead of the curve. Hawkins believes strongly in the power of music and art to transform people and communities, and is a self-proclaimed "Artivist." Throughout his work and life, his ultimate goal is to "destroy the walls that keep us separated, and build bridges to unify."
Rashad is currently teaching a weekly History of Hip Hop class to young men at the BCJJC. He is also the Director of Bmore Awesome! (check him out!)