Culture Club- New!
Culture Club – New!
The Culture Club brought our diverse community together to showcase the hidden talents and passion projects of our members. These casual, fun evenings feature musicians, filmmakers, poets and artists in our midst. We kick-offed this quarterly program by spotlighting emerging artist Alicia Ray and Nigerian musician Olu Bliss.
A special thanks to our sponsors Bullish Inc., Candid Worldwide, Man With A Cam, and Publicis Media!
Meet Our TalentMeet Our Featured Talent!
Olu Bliss – Singer, Writer, Performer
Nigerian born, New York-based singer-songwriter Olu Bliss learned to appreciate the diversity in music throughout his life travels. Visiting 9 countries so far, exposed him to the ubiquitous fragments of Afro-beat, jazz and rock & roll. This allowed him to channel a soulful sound that merges elements of alternative rock, blues and pop citing artists like John Mayer, D’Angelo, Local Natives, Coldplay & Maxwell among his wide range of influences.
Olu released his first project in four years late 2016 titled Traveling Bliss; a 5-song offering mixing his Nigerian roots with alternative rock, soul, blues and pop. Says Olu, “I took time off to figure out who I am as a man and artist. I saw a lot of the world and wrote about it. Traveling Bliss is a public explanation of who I am, encouraging others to explore who they are and push their personal boundaries.” Olu’s forthcoming project, Traveling Bliss Remixes, is a collection of remixes of music from Traveling Bliss. It features producers all over the globe: Austin Lebron, Verzache, Anh, PRVDNT, UNO Stereo, Jamvvis, djin and guest appearances from artists Khary and Lege Kale.
Traveling Bliss remixes is out Aug. 25 and single “Dive In” feat. Khary is out now.
Alicia Ray – Artist
Alicia Ray is the Manager of Product Marketing for AT&T AdWorks. Alicia spends most of her time transforming with the rapidly morphing digital media industry at the intersection of emerging technologies and content.
However, Born in Jamaica, W.I. Ray knew by age six she wanted to become an artist. She pursued and completed her Fine Arts and Graphic Design studies at Design and Architecture Senior High School, Miami, FL, Bachelor of Arts degree in Studio Art and Design in 2011 from Florida State University, and in 2014, she received a Master of Arts degree in Interactive Media from Long Island University Post, Brookville, NY.
Although Alicia did not pursue a Fine Arts career path, instead being responsible for driving product marketing strategy and direction across the AT&T’ ad tech portfolio during the day, she continues during her spare time to explore gender, race, and black history in her artwork.
Believing in the great philosopher Mr. Ralph Waldo Emerson’s quote “Most of the shadows of this life are caused by standing in one’s own sunshine”, Alicia’s work explores just that… women with stiff demeanors, bold colors, and other arranged elements that represent the holding patterns women have been in for far too long.
She also spends most of her time as an adjunct instructor empowering college students to identify new areas of opportunities through technology-driven learning.
Additionally, Alicia is the recipient of the AD Club’s first class of I’MPART Fellows and has been a featured speaker at a number of events from ad:Tech, AT&T STEM forum and a host of career development programs.
Sponsorship
Oath Inc. is a subsidiary of Verizon Communications that serves as the umbrella company of its digital content subdivisions, including AOL and Yahoo!.
Candid Litho was established in 1956 and promptly became one of Manhattans most preeminent printing and graphic arts companies. Headquartered on Hudson Street in New York City’s Soho neighborhood Candid Litho provided high-end print work to the city’s top companies. In 2006 current owners Howard and Scott Weinstein began their expansion into Long Island to house more cutting edge equipment and to increase their production capabilities. In June of 2013 Candid Litho, with the acquisition of its Las Vegas facility, expanded into the large format (Out Of Home) printing industry and Candid Worldwide was created. The Candid team provides a wide range of services including: design creation/ development, spec verification, creative approval, project management, printing, logistics, shipping, materials tracking and posting verification. Today we are an innovative all-inclusive solutions provider bringing print excellence to every market.
Man With A Cam is a production company delivering turn-key, cost-effective solutions for media production.
Publicis Groupe is a French multinational advertising and public relations company, and is the oldest and one of the largest marketing and communications companies in the world, by revenue, headquartered in Paris.