Embry Family Book Signing & Art Exhibit Participants
At the Embry Family Book Signing & Art Exhibit the participants below will be displaying their talents and skills. The Embry family has been primarily known for their academic successes but there is more to the family. In addition, the family is blessed to have relatives on both sides of the family that are skilled in what they do and so they will be participating at the Embry Family Book Signing & Art Exhibit—21st Century Thinking & Reimagining (21 and 22 February 2014).
Authors
Deborah Mapp‐Embry, Ed.D
Deborah Mapp‐Embry, Ed.D., a.k.a. Dr. Mapp, is the Performance Consultant for Inspired Schooling Solutions. She has an Education Doctorate in Instruction and Administration with an emphasis in Educational Leadership and Social Justice. Dr. Mapp has taught in a child development program, in middle and high schools, and in higher education. In addition, she has worked as a teacher leader, district curriculum coordinator, school‐wide adolescent literacy coach, city‐wide career counselor and admi (more...)
Irucka Ajani Embry
Irucka Ajani Embry is a life long teacher and student. He sees himself as a being, which Irucka feels connects him more fully to all beings and not solely to other human beings. He credits this idea of connection rather than separation to the family (especially his father, Jim Embry) and friends that encompassed the village that helped to raise Irucka and his older siblings. It is that springboard that allowed him to question Reality and make seen and unseen connections at an early age. Irucka (more...)
Obiora Embry
Obiora Embry is not only an author but also a poet, amateur photographer, born again artist, entrepreneur, engineer‐in‐training, and a developer with a love for what is real and natural. He finds beauty in Nature and knows that we must "wake up from our collective slumber" to solve the problems we humans have created. Obiora is a life‐long learner and on his journey he has been educating and healing himself, mentoring and educating others, volunteering, growing food and cooking flavorful (more...)
Musicians
Vaughn Gillispie
Vaughn Gillispie, a life‐long resident of Cincinnati and great nephew of Bessie and Andrew Johnson, has been playing music and drawing for as long as he can remember. A member of the Cincinnati Fire Department for 25+ years, Vaughn still finds time to play his horns, saxophone and flute, in various Cincinnati jazz clubs and family gatherings. He has been inspired for many years by all the great jazz artists but of course has special affection for the reed players such as Lester Young; Charlie (more...)
Painter
Bessie Johnson
Bessie Johnson, 90 years old and a lifelong resident of Madison County, KY was married to the late Andrew Johnson for 69 years until his death in December 2013. They are the parents of Kathy Bellfield, grandparents and great‐grand parents of Tiffany and Makayla Bellfield. Bessie began painting 30 years ago when she was encouraged by her arts and craft class instructor, Mrs. Pennington of Kingston, to take up painting as a hobby.
Over the years Bessie has won numerous awards for her paintings at (more...)
Photographers
Jim Embry
Jim Embry director of Sustainable Communities Network regards himself as a sacred Earth activist who has been blessed to share his creative expressions and activism through photography. Well‐known for his 50+ years of social justice and sustainability activism, Jim has traveled with his camera to such places as Italy for Terra Madre/Slowfood, Canada, Brazil, India, Mexico, Cuba, other Caribbean countries and many places around the USA. As a scuba diver he has had the divine blessing to be in t (more...)
Obiora Embry
Obiora N. Embry is a truth seeker that tries to shed light into the darkness that we stumble through as we journey through life on Earth. He was once a creative person and slowly but surely he is trying to regain or relocate the creativity that he lost while in high school. This has made his journey through life difficult as he has been trying to resurrect his former self while evolving and transforming like a butterfly.
In 2012 and 2013, he started to pursue some of his lost creative pursuits. (more...)
Spoken Word Artists
Tiffany Bellfield
Tiffany Bellfield was born in Austin, TX in September 1984 to U.S. Marine John Bellfield and his wife Kathy. As a baby, her parents moved "back home" to Richmond, Kentucky, Jacks Creek to be exact. They later moved to Waco, KY (Madison County), where she attended school until the 3rd grade. At age 8, Tiffany and her mother moved to Lexington, KY. Her mother enrolled Tiffany in the magnet programs at Dixie Magnet Elementary, Lexington Traditional Middle School, and Bryan Station High School. (more...)
Vibration Kunvorted
All that exists is Consciousness vibrating at a certain frequency which we convert into our experiential Reality. Vibration Kunvorted (pronounced Kŏn'vûrt'εd) is the experiential vehicle that Irucka Embry uses to kunvort (play on convert) his Consciousness into Hip Hop lyrical content.