Excited to report that I’m in the process of recruiting interns and volunteers, setting up trainings, and organizing a team for some current and upcoming media projects. If you’re interested, let me know here or connect to me on Facebook or Twitter.
(More about me below)
Reza Clifton is the Communications Coordinator of the Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence, where she oversees the agency’s publications, helps coordinate Domestic Violence Awareness Month outreach and promotions, and engages in other public awareness activities to promote RICADV’s efforts to end domestic violence.
Reza is also an award-winning writer, producer, digital storyteller and cultural navigator. Since 2007, she has been recognized for multimedia projects that appear on her flagship blog, RezaRitesRi.com; for written work and direction as health editor for She Shines, a regional women’s magazine; and for leadership as a young professional and community organizer in Providence, Rhode Island. In 2011, two separate magazines named Reza “Most Musical” and a “Trender” due to her work bringing diverse styles of music, poetry and other mediums of art to the community. In 2012 she organized a bilingual poetry festival in which a group of bilingual poets and performers “in residence” performed at schools, cafes, and other community venues.
Her published work, multimedia projects and coalition-building efforts have shed light on ways to examine and blend words, music, art, the Pan-African identity, and feminism, while as a DJ, she plays reggae, neosoul, hip hop, and global grooves, with an emphasis on music by women. One way in which she’s channeled and shared these interests and intersections is through Isis Storm, a virtual and interpersonal space organized by a collective of women who use art and words to empower women and communities through performance, workshops, and media projects; Reza spearheaded and co-founded the initiative and website. She has also contributed to audio and video stories aired on NPR, WGBH, and RI Public Radio – in Washington, DC; Boston, MA; and Providence, RI, respectively.
Prior to being hired by RICADV in July 2012, Reza worked as a writer, public speaker and educator/trainer covering topics like health disparities and health equity, new media trends and techniques, diversity in the media, cultural trends and arts in the global community, and gender equity and women’s leadership development. She was founding editor of UrbanHealthWatch.net, a nationally recognized blog funded by the RI Department of Health and the CDC, co-author of a report that looked at persistent challenges and everyday realities that define “the quality of life” of RI’s Southeast Asian youth and a workforce development consultant for an educational program that served teen mothers.
Reza produces a monthly radio show called “Venus Sings Radio” for WRIU (www.wriu.org), a community- and student-run radio station based out of the University of Rhode Island, and a second program, “Sonic Watermelons,” on www.bsrlive.com (Brown Student and Community Radio) – another community- and student-run radio station, but this one from Brown University. You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter as well as on VenusSings.com and her Tumblr, blog, Confessions of an Ambitious Black Feminist.
Reza graduated from the University of Rhode Island in 2003 with a degree in African and African-American Studies – now called the Africana Studies program. She has also studied at the Community College of RI, Rhode Island School of Design, American University in Washington, DC and at the University of Havana in Cuba.
Venus Sings by Reza Rites 