WHO WE ARE
OUR HISTORY
In 2003, after more than a decade of creating and implementing mentored arts programming with various non-profit organizations throughout the United States, Thomas Dean Kellogg founded The Mentor Artists Playwrights Project (MAPP). The MAPP – Young Native Playwrights Initiative began in 2005. Our goal is to bring professional training, mentorship, and creative education opportunities to underserved indigenous youth, to create a platform for their unique voices, and to bring a greater awareness of these amazing youth and their cultures, which have so much to give to the world at large. Thus far, we have created successful programming with Reservation communities and Urban native centers in Alaska, British Columbia, California, Oregon, and Idaho. Currently, we are expanding, with more development in the process, including more native communities in the Dakotas, Washington State, New Mexico, and Arizona. In 2012 in response to our community partners the MAPP - Diversity and Inclusion Initiative added many new communities, including refugee, foster care, migrant and LBGTQ groups. In 2018 The Mentor Artists Playwrights Project - MAPP began expanding our platforms to also include storytelling workshops in Animation and Mask Making which resulted in updating our name to Mentor Artists-MAPP. We are thrilled that our work and partnerships continue to grow. The story lives on…
FOUNDER/DIRECTOR
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Thomas Dean Kellogg
Thomas has conducted theatre workshops in Indonesia, Malaysia, Hungary, Russia, Great Britian, Turkey, and Spain. With his award- winning multi-disciplinary company, theatre fofo, he has devised, staged, and participated in festivals around the world. He has been a guest artist at the Lincoln Center Director’s Lab West, in Los Angeles, California, sharing his innovative theatre philosophy and techniques. For nearly three decades, he has worked with cultural and social service organizations, to bring arts-based literacy training, artist- mentored playwriting workshops, and professional presentations of the work to marginalized, underserved, and undersrepresented youth and their communities throughout North America. He has implemented and led artist- mentored theatre workshops in juvenile detention centers, drug rehabilitation facilities, community centers, schools, and child residential facilities. Over the past decade, he has expanded MAPP’s Young Native Playwrights Initiative, to include over a dozen Reservation and Urban Native communities throughout the United States and Canada. More recently, through. the Mentor Artists - MAPP Diversity and Inclusion Initiative, he has worked with human rights and social justice organizations to introduce multicultural programming with international refugee, Native American, Latin American, LGBT, migrant and Euro- American participants. As a public speaker, he specializes in cross cultural dialogue and the importance of arts education for all.
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ASSOCIATE PRODUCER
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Zilah Mendoza Hill
Zilah’s work coincides with her lifelong activism around creative education, the natural environment, mental health, and cultural diversity, especially in Indigenous and Latina representation in the arts. She has a 14-year history working in community with Mentor Artists-MAPP as a producer, videographer, and professional actor. A nationally recognized actor who has originated roles in contemporary theatre across the country. She has worked on original material with writers Lisa Loomer, Sarah Ruhl, Luis Alfaro, and Jose Rivera. She has had recurring and guest-starring roles on television on several shows including The King of Queens and Greys Anatomy. She has received multiple awards for her work in the theatre becoming the first Chicana to receive an OBIE, she also received a Lucille Lortel nod. She has received several Backstage Awards and a Garland for various new works.
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Community ADVISORY BOARD
Each of our Advisors serve a critical role in bringing Mentor Artists- MAPP into their respective communities, working diligently with MAPP Director, Thomas Kellogg, and our staff from initial program development through implementation. Because of their guidance and support our work continues to be successful. Truly, we could not do it without them.
Dr. Chris Meyer, Director of Education, Coeur D’ Alene Tribe Dept. of Education, Coeur D'Alene Reservation
Verna Johnson, Special Education Instructor, Lapwai High School, Nez Perce Reservation
Bob Sobotta Jr., Director of Native American/ Minority Student Services, Lewis- Clark
State College (LCSC), Lewiston, ID
Ed Keener – Human Rights and Social Justice Activist, Kessler Keener Foundation Boise, ID
Jaime Campbell, Director of TRIO Upward Bound, Boise State University
Jen Jewett, Sitting Bull College on the Standing Rock Reservation, Ft. Yates, North Dakota
Lynn Manning John, Vice Principal Duck Valley Shoshone Paiute Reservation
OUR COMMUNITY PARTNERS
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Coeur D’ Alene Tribe Dept. of Education
Kessler Keener Foundation, Boise Idaho Boise State University TRIO Upward Bound Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee (NPTEC) – Nez Perce Reservation Duck Valley Shoshone- Paiute Reservation Casey Family Programs Washington State University University of Idaho North Idaho College |
Lapwai High School, Lapwai ID
Lewis- Clark State College (LCSC), Lewiston, ID American Indian Child Resource Center (AICRC), Oakland CA. Native American Youth and Family Center (NAYA), Portland, OR Alaska Native Heritage Center (ANHC), Anchorage, AK Penelakut Tribe – British Columbia, CA Migrant Education Program – Salinas, CA |