Jesse Deganis Librera, Lead Teaching Artist: West Side Studios, and Buffalo Youth Media Institute

Jesse is a filmmaker and educator from Buffalo, NY. He has taught filmmaking to a variety of students from many areas of Buffalo, through the YWCA’s Extended School Day Program, Jericho Road’s Focused Learning for Youth, and has taught Media Art Workshops for adults at Squeaky Wheel for over a year. As a teenager, he was a student in Squeaky Wheel’s Buffalo Youth Media Institute, and since 2018 is the lead teaching artist at Squeaky Wheel’s West Side Studios program and in 2019 became the lead teaching artist of Buffalo Youth Media Institute. He received his M.F.A. in documentary filmmaking from The City College of New York in 2015.
Check out Jesse’s work

 

Amanda Long, Teaching Artist Tech Arts for Youth

Amanda Long is a video sculptor, animator, mirror-maker, lover of the earth and sun and the animals, a dreamer of fairy tale visions. She fantasizes about giving technology a soul and making peace between humans and nature. Her exhibitions include Wishing Well, Dyckman Farmhouse Museum, New York, NY (2016); Silly Faces aka Strike a Pose, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian, Washington D.C. (2016); and the Rainbow Mural at Forest Park Queens NYC (2018).

Check out Amanda’s work

 

Kaitlyn Lowe, Lead Teaching Artist: Saturday Cafe, Tech Art for Girls, and Girls Who Code

Without any formal training, Kaitlyn has prepared for a teaching career most of her life. She has worked as a camp counselor, a teacher’s assistant, and spent ten years as a Girl Scout which developed a passion for helping others all before college. During her time at Buffalo State College, Lowe majored in Media Production and served as the community service chair on the executive board for a poetry organization. Aside from typical executive duties, Lowe worked with the organization’s president to start poetry workshops that operated weekly in an effort to embolden creativity on campus.

It wasn’t until after graduating college in 2018 and interning at Squeaky Wheel Film & Media Art Center that Lowe was given an official opportunity to teach a class–Girls Who Code with the help of Martina LaVallo. After running the class alone for a time, Lowe went on to teach and assist in and currently teaches two other programs at Squeaky Wheel: Tech Arts for Girls and Saturday Cafe in 2020. Both classes seek to get students out of their comfort zones and explore art in ways they might not have previously done before. Lowe has been the event and exhibition photographer for Squeaky Wheel since 2019.

Though teaching has become exponentially difficult due to the global pandemic, Lowe still believes she can positively impact students; lives and teach them things that will stay in their consciousness for years to come. She enjoys being a teaching artist because it allows her to stretch her creative limbs while helping students discover theirs.

Raymarri Hugh, Teaching Assistant West Side Studios

Raymarri is a video maker and young media educator. He is known for his inventiveness and systematic method of creating work and is a consummate perfectionist and collaborator. His work is driven by compassion for and curiosity of spaces of injustice. Since 2016 he has been involved with Squeaky Wheel in various capacities. He started as a student of West Side studios(2016-2017), became a teaching assistant at Buffalo Youth Media Institute and West Side Studios (2018-present), a documentarian (2019-present), and exhibited his work through the advanced track program Saturday Cafe (2019, 2020).

 

Nyles Moore, Lead Teaching Artist: Digital Arts & Technology Access, Media Art Workshops, and Tech Art for Youth

Nyles is a young Buffalo-based multi-media artist that focuses on animation. He is inspired by music and local artists. Nyles is a recent graduate of Villa Maria College with a bachelor of fine arts in Animation. In 2019 Nyles was a video production intern for Squeaky Wheel; since then, he has taught animation and digital media arts to adults in their Media Art Workshops and youth in Tech Arts for Youth and youth with autism in Digital Arts & Technology Access. 

 

Luke Williams, Teaching Artist Tech Arts for Youth

Luke is an endlessly curious musician and creative coder. His work is playful and play-full, blending games, sound tools, data visualization, and browser art. 

Check out Luke’s work