Core Team
Danielle Andersen
Operations Manager
Danielle’s career has been guided by a passion for public history. After spending some time traveling the US in an old RV and collecting stories as a bartender, she studied Southern history and the Civil Rights Movement at the University of Mississippi. After receiving her Master’s she moved to NYC and spent eight years at StoryCorps, crisscrossing the country in their mobile recording studio and eventually running their Mobile Tour. She has also worked in film and audio production.
She currently resides in Far Rockaway with family.
Hatim Belyamani
Founder & Director
Growing up in Morocco, surrounded by sounds of the country’s Arabic, Amazigh, and Sub-Saharan African origins, Hatim was an award-winning classical pianist and heavy metal guitarist. At Harvard, he traded in his headbanging to study sociology, jazz, composition, and ethnomusicology, but found a passion in electronic music – a medium that enabled him to combine his eclectic influences. For the next decade, while developing a prestigious career at Apple, Hatim composed, produced, and performed in various solo and collaborative music projects.
In 2012, Hatim felt a strong calling to pursue his vision of bringing people together through music, and resigned from his senior management position at Apple to devote himself to creating Remix ⟷ Culture. His journey with the organization has since taken him and his growing number of collaborators around the world, whether filming and recording traditional musicians, leading workshops, or performing live video remixes at festivals (notably Roskilde and WOMEX). Hatim is currently based in Brooklyn, NY, where a vast trove of thriving and interwoven cultures keeps him inspired to continue bridging divides and connecting disparate communities through the power of music and film.
Darwensi Clark
Operations Director
Darwensi Clark is an operations specialist with almost 20 years of experience in nonprofit leadership, specifically in the field of forced migration. He has worked with various organizations such as Church World Service, the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. In 2013, he earned a master's degree in social service administration from the University of Chicago. Darwensi later became the Managing Director of Program Operations at StoryCorps, where he oversaw finance and administrative activities. In September 2022, he joined the ACLU as the Director of Business Operations.
Conrad Clifton
Release Manager
Conrad Clifton is a Brooklyn-based music producer, composer, DJ and photographer. He creates music that is genre fluid - seamlessly blending elements of hip-hop and electronic music. And with a passion for film photography, he specializes in portraits, lifestyle and events.
Conrad believes creativity is free flowing, and shouldn't be limited to just one medium. As a music producer, he has major film and TV placements with Warner Bros., DC Films, HBO, Netflix, Nike, Starz, MTV, Dr. Martens and more. Winner of the Independent Music Award for BEST DANCE/ELECTRONIC EP, Conrad’s music has received support from The FADER, Magnetic Magazine, BBC Radio 1xtra, Kitsuné Musique and others. He was recently awarded Editors’ Pick for Life Framer: Urban Life Photography Competition, for his image ‘Xeara Tiara’. Also, the collaborative short film 'LAYERS' - for which he starred in and composed the original score - is an Official Selection for the La Jolla International Fashion Film Festival, as well as the Berlin Fashion Film Festival.
His new photography book and exhibition, ‘Act Like I’m Not Here’ was recently on display at Galerie Kitsuné in Brooklyn, and he continues to express himself, shooting music artists and events in NYC - as well as composing custom music for movie trailers.
Waad El Hadidy
Community Liaison
A curator at heart, Waad is a collector of music and a designer of interior spaces. In both music and design, she loves to create opportunities for people to come together, feel welcomed and find happy memories.
Waad started El Series as a monthly music salon in her home in Brooklyn after an inspiring trip to the St. Louis Jazz Festival in Senegal. Almost 20 intimate concerts later, the series continues to bring music lovers together in laid-back convivial gatherings featuring music from many corners of the world.
In her design work Waad approaches each project as an anthropologist. She pivoted into design after a 10-year career across the Middle East and North Africa and later as a social policy researcher at NYU. Fresh out of Parsons School of Design, she joined Starwood Capital Group in 2012 at the launch of three luxury and lifestyle hotel brands, later becoming the head designer of 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge. She then started her own design practice - Medusan Design - to continue creating meaningful public spaces and visceral experiences.
Waad grew up in Cairo and currently lives between New York and Mexico City. In addition to her interior design degree, she holds a Masters in Social Anthropology from the University of Cambridge, UK.
Max Katz
Communications Manager
Max Katz is one part musician, actor, and writer, and the other part advocate for folk cultures, building communities, and strengthening existing ones.
Though a native New Yorker, he has passed the last decade vagabonding across Europe and North America. He has performed on stages in Montréal, London, and New York, guided whitewater rafts in the Maine Northwoods, supported digital rights non-profits in the UK and France, sustainably farmed in Sicily, and helped acclimate migrants in Milan, amongst many other adventures. Along this ride, he accumulated a radical appreciation for the beauty and vastness of this world, its cultures, peoples, and, of course, music.
Max completed his MFA in Acting from Drama Centre at Central Saint Martins and his BA from McGill University in European literature and culture, with a focus on Russian literature.
Tyler Wood
Audio Director
Tyler Wood was born and raised in rural northern Maine. By age 5 he'd fallen in love with playing and recording music, and was making original albums with his brother on a boombox tape recorder. Before too long Tyler was performing professionally as a pianist, and also began a parallel career as an audio engineer and producer. A decade ensued of touring and making records with artists including Chester French, Joan As Policewoman, Luke Temple (Here We Go Magic), Glass Ghost, and Oh My Goodness. Tyler's work has encompassed a wide range of music from avant-garde to pop to traditional. His openness has led him in many directions, some very technologically oriented, but he has always maintained a passion for capturing a pure human performance-- a moment's music in a moment's time. When Hatim Belyamani sought Tyler's advice on early Remix ⟷ Culture work, Tyler fell in love with the music and was refreshed by the intimacy and vitality of the recordings. Tyler happily joined the trip to Morocco in spring 2014, and has been Remix ⟷ Culture's chief audio engineer and audio director ever since.
Board of Directors
Justin Adams
Justin Adams is a UK based Guitarist, Composer and Record Producer.
After a childhood spent partly in the Middle East he developed his sound in the Post-Punk London scene, his solo album Desert Road (2000) referencing North and West African Trance music, blues, dub and psychedelia. He has toured the world and co-written 4 albums with Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant, produced iconic albums for Tuareg guitar rebels Tinariwen and Algerian maverick Rachid Taha, and collaborated with West African Master Musician Juldeh Camara on a series of albums for Peter Gabriel’s Real World records. In 2023 he has played in the U.S. and Australia with roots Italian virtuoso Mauro Durante, in Paris with Algerian songstress Souad Massi ,recorded an album with New Wave Fado artist Lina in Lisbon, and played with Pandit V.M. Bhatt in Jodhpur, Rajasthan.
Steven Bean
Steve Bean has spent the last 30+ years striving to help create a more kind, equitable and just society through work in not-for-profits. An award-winning social entrepreneur and creator of best-practice program models, Steve has experience and expertise in a wide array of fields: education (including arts education), positive youth development, career development for underserved and underrepresented youth, and community-led economic development. Steve has 20+ years of senior management experience, including 8+ years at the executive level, and in these roles, he has led the design of original programs, organizational development, grant development, and business operations, and has done original research and conducted program evaluation.
Steve prides himself on practicing collaborative leadership and prioritizing recognition of, and support for, the people he works with: co-workers, organizational partners or communities/community members. Steve was inspired to join the Remix<-->Culture Board by the organization’s commitment to fair trade practices and the parallels between the concept of “remixing” and the 4 Rs approach to moving forward into the climate crisis offered by the Deep Adaptation movement.
When not smashing capitalism, Steve lets his creative juices flow by dabbling in tabletop game design, writing and publishing tabletop roleplaying games and scale modeling. Steve is a former student of historical European martial arts (HEMA) and renaissance faire performer. Trained in natural building, Steve is currently looking to expand his knowledge of permaculture by learning restorative agriculture. An avid sailor, Steve is currently “between boats” and would welcome any help rectifying that situation.
Jeremy Burke
Jeremy Burke is a nonprofit professional with more than 20 years of experience in financial leadership of mission-driven organizations, currently serving as Controller for The Paley Center for Media.
Previously, he has served as the Director of Finance and Accounting for StoryCorps, an award-winning public media organization, and Chief Operating Officer of Cambridge in America, where he was responsible for managing financial and business operations to support fundraising, alumni relations, and outreach to U.S. alumni of the University of Cambridge.
He also served as Director of Finance and Operations overseeing operations in New York and China for Trace Foundation, a private foundation supporting the continuity and development of Tibetan communities in China.
Kurt Korthals
Kurt Korthals was born and raised in the region of southeast Alaska, where he grew up with Alaskan natives and their indigenous art and culture, which shaped him immensely. Gravitating towards a love of music, he formally learned to play the clarinet, jazz guitar, formed the town’s only punk band, and eventually discovered electronic music, with which he became completely enthralled.
In the late nineties, Kurt moved to Austin, Texas to further his music and education. There he became a regular disc jockey at 91.7FM KVRX Austin and Free Radio Austin, was technical supervisor for Cinematexas Short Film Festival, released music on small labels around the globe, co-founded a small record label (Notenuf), organized and facilitated a myriad of music and art events, and eventually received a BS degree in computer sciences.
Today Kurt is based in Berlin and works as a music software engineer while maintaining an obscure output of electronic music mingling between avant-garde and left-field dance music. He has been invited to give presentations and perform at Mooste Külalis Stuudio (MoKS) in Estonia, Carnival of e-Creativity (CeC) in India, and continuous to perform and DJ at numerous locations throughout Europe and America.
Dominique Troy
Dominique Troy is a strategist and storyteller with a background in communications, recruiting, and developing community networks to support young professionals. She has experience providing art programming as a healing practice with unhoused and impoverished communities, navigating systemic inequity alongside families to leverage community care solutions, and consulting with yoga and wellness businesses. Dominique is keen on building connections between people to create more empathic and compassionate humans.
Currently, she stewards historical interview collections and audio-visual projects at the award-winning national nonprofit StoryCorps, straddling operations, product development, and sales in collaboration with corporations, nonprofits, and professional associations. Her communications and theater education at Santa Clara University included a course portfolio shaped by design thinking, which informs her approach to systems change.
In her free time, Dominique is volunteering as a horticulturist at Central Park, practicing yoga, and attending theater and other cultural events.
Amita Vempati
Amita Vempati is a musician, writer, curator, and arts professional. A lifelong performer with training in South Asian, Persianate/Central Asian, and East European traditions, she uses her passions for social justice and art to connect with communities all over the world.
Amita completed her B.A. in Government, History, and Russian Studies at the University of Texas and her M.A. in Central Eurasian Studies (focusing on post-Soviet Central Asia) at Indiana University.
Prior to her professional pivot to the arts, Amita was a Senior Program Officer for the Western Balkans and Moldova at the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative. She also worked with the Inner Asian and Uralic National Resource Center and American Councils for International Education directing outreach programming based in the United States and Central Asia.
Amita currently serves as the Development Manager at the Brooklyn-based Artistic Freedom Initiative, an organization directly assisting artists who have experienced persecution, censorship, or other restrictions on their freedom of expression. In addition to her role at AFI, she works with the East European Folklife Center to uplift Balkan arts in the United States and leads the Uncovered/Recovered series at Brooklyn Raga Massive to platform underrepresented voices in South Asian music.
Countless Contributors
We are also immeasurably grateful to the many friends (old and new) who have lent a hand or an ear along the years, including:
Field Production
Khalid Agli Yasser Belaiachi Aziz Bouyabrine Sully Chamand Mhammed Elyadini Bajram (Kafu) Kinolli Eno Zangoun Fatima El Azadi Soraya Joundy
Video Editing
Abla Benyahia Michelle Chen Nina Jordan Souki Mehdaoui Will Truesdell Sya Warfield
Translation
Khalid Agli Khalid Belyamani Kenza Bensaid Meryem Bensouda Fatima El Azadi Fatima Matousse Yang Shuo Esraa Warda
Manufacturing
Youssef Aziz El-Idrissi Daniel Giffin
Graphic Design
Arian Behzadi Shawn Feeney Danielle Regan
Lighting Design
Antonin Bouvier Andres Karu
Cameras
Khalid Agli Hamza Atifi Youness Aziz El Idrissi Yahya Badaoui Yassine Bellamine Mourad Belouadi Abla Benyahia Antonin Bouvier Sephira Fierce Jordan Fletcher Mohamed Gara Hassan Houari Aicha Jabour Nina Jordan Andres Karu Barjam (Kafu) Kinolli Souki Mehdaoui Sophia Menni Richard Milligan Yasmine Yata Sya Warfield
Communication
Kenza Bensaid Amina Bensouda Casey Karr Layal Rhanem Amita Vempati
Sample Production
Amino Belyamani Hatim Belyamani Michelle Chen Souki Mehdaoui Michael Silverstein Will Truesdell Tyler Wood
Recording
Ed Bentley Bajram (Kafu) Kinolli Aziz Nashat Derek Nievergelt Tyler Wood
Mixing
Tyler Wood
Mastering
Josh Bonati Joe Lambert Tyler Wood
Fundraising
Jordan Fletcher Mounir Kabbaj Barbara Toy
Events
Darby Beck Natalie Cohen Shawn Feeney Daniel Giffin Altay Guvench Scott Hawley Maryann Hulsman Michelle Lobo Mark and Alexis Mian Maria Ruhe Maha Elmadi Esraa Warda