At Level Ground we believe that our Board of Directors exists to do more than fulfill legal and fiduciary responsibilities. We work to craft a unique position for each of our board members to ensure each person can have a significant and personal impact on the culture and mission of Level Ground. Together, the board is committed to working diligently to instill lasting, reciprocal, and mutually beneficial relationships within Level Ground.

Get to know the new 2021 Board of Directors below. They’ll be sharing their first big project, the 2021-2023 Strategic Plan, with you soon.

Avril Speaks

Pronouns: she/her
Role: President

Avril Speaks has been carving out her path as a bold, innovative content creator for several years, not only as a producer and director but also during her days as a former professor at Howard University. She produced the award-winning film Jinn, which premiered in Narrative Competition at SXSW and won Special Jury Recognition for Writing. Jinn gained distribution through MGM/Orion Classics and continues to be seen throughout the world. Avril has also produced several films including Hosea, the South African film African America, (both of which will release in fall 2020), and the comedy Dotty & Soul, starring Leslie Uggams, Gary Owen and Margot Bingham. Avril was also an Associate Producer on the TNT docu-series “American Race” and has helped produce both scripted and non-scripted content for BET, Coca Cola, Essence, and others.

Avril has been selected for producing labs with Film Independent, Sundance, IFP, Rotterdam and Cannes, and she is currently a 2020 Sundance Momentum Fellow and a Blackhouse Producer’s Lab Fellow. Avril has coordinated international film education programs such as Global Media Makers and the inaugural Hollywood Foreign Press Association Filmmaker Residency. She is a contributing writer for DearProducer.com and has also directed feature films, including The Round Table and the award-winning Sophisticated Romance.

Avril has been a friend, supporter, and advisor to Level Ground since 2013.

Follow Avril on Instagram @azuspeak.

Micah bournes

Pronouns: he/him
Role: Vice President

Micah Bournes is a poet and musician from Long Beach, California. He's most known for his dynamic performance of spoken word poetry. He writes on themes of culture, justice, and faith. He is a co-editor of the Fight Evil With Poetry Anthology, the author of "Here Comes This Dreamer", and has released several music albums in various genres including hip hop, blues, and folk. He is a travelling artist, performing his work and teaching creative writing workshops all over the world.

Follow Micah on Instagram @micahbournes.

Elizabeth Villa

Pronouns: she/her
Role: Treasurer

Elizabeth Villa is an entrepreneur and marketing professional who thrives building ideas from the ground up currently as an early employee in a restaurant industry startup and formerly as the founder of Do The Good Stuff – a curated database of personal health resources.

She was first introduced to Level Ground in 2014 as a volunteer for the first Level Ground Film Festival and for the past seven years Level Ground has introduced her to the arts, to the power of creative work to create change, and to the privilege of being a patron.

In her free time Elizabeth is learning Spanish and how to make her grandma’s tortillas, plays recreational league soccer, and coaches a Special Olympics soccer team.

Follow Elizabeth on Instagram @elizabethrvilla.

PATRICK JONES BAYÓN

Pronouns: he/him
Role: Secretary

Patrick Jones Bayón is a seasoned operations professional, specializing in helping established family businesses grow while honoring and preserving the values and company culture that created their success.

Raised with an inclination toward curiosity and exploration, Patrick has enjoyed the expressive arts throughout his life, including singing choral music and opera, acting in musicals and Shakespeare, and exploring what some may consider drier art forms like modern astrophysics theories.

Partially informed by a degree in child development, Patrick is passionate about facilitating sacred space for big emotions in tiny humans, including the two little bipeds in his home.

LABKHAND OLFATMANESH

Pronouns: she/her
Role: At-large Member

Labkhand Olfatmanesh is a multidisciplinary artist examining topics of feminism, race, isolation, borders, immigration, and storytelling. Her work explores how these forces take dual shape as an immigrant to the United States and in her home country of Iran. As an artist living in diaspora the understanding of diversity and intersectionality has always been a subject very close to my heart. Through her work, Labkhand tells intensely personal stories about herself and her subjects. She thinks of her approach as a healing methodology that flows from the feeling of being constricted and widens into a kind of confrontational vulnerability. Labkhand received a B.A. in Graphic Design from Azad Tehran University School of Art and Architecture in 1998 and continued her studies receiving a Certificate in 2006 at London Academy of Radio, Film, and Television.

Labkhand was invited to be part of the Level Ground Artist Collective in early 2020. Amidst the limitations and obstacles of COVID-19, she was impressed by Level Ground's adaptation and flexibility and was delighted to participate and take part in community building. She joins the board looking forward to growing with Level Ground, a space that allows her to practice thoughtful stewardship, leadership, community building, engagement, critical dialogue and innovation.

As William Blake said “The true method of knowledge is experiment.” It’s refreshing to see Level Ground create a playground and site of experimentation for artists from underrepresented communities and intersecting identities.

Follow Labkhand on Instagram @labbiephotography.

RA AVIS

Pronouns: she/her
Role: At-large Member

Ra Avis is an award-winning blogger and author based on out of Long Beach, CA. She is a once-upon-a-time inmate, a reluctantly-optimistic widow, and a generational storyteller. Ra writes regularly about grief, incarceration, and the inheritance of being Chicana-Desi.

Follow Ra on Instagram @rawra.avis.

Turay Pastel

Pronouns: he/him; femme
Role: At-large Member

Turay Pastel is a interdisciplinary artist and DJ based in Los Angeles working with body movement, sound  experimentation, and vocal exercise to explore BIPOC Queer Feminist theory. Their projects seek to explore femme embodiment and notions of resiliency.

Turay co-curated both the 2020 SKEW Magazine and Syllabus Project with Level Ground and centers their work on creating  space(s) that offer healing for BIPOC people through sound, movement and community.

Follow Turay on Instagram @pas.telshade.