No.68 Project

Kokayi (Carl Walker) is a Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter, emcee, producer and educator. Pronounced ‘Ko-Kah-Yee’ (or KOKE for short), this Washington D.C. native takes his name from the Swahili word meaning ‘to summon the people’. Musically self-sufficient and versatile in ways that are reserved for upper-echelon talents, he produces his own music, writes his own rhymes, sings from the gut, and is self-taught on several instruments.

On his own, Kokayi has already independently released his debut album Mass Instructions (2007), toured the world and snagged the aforementioned 2009 Grammy-nod for Best Urban/Alternative Performance for his work as a vocalist and co-producer on ‘Lovin’ You (Music)’ by Ethiopian singer Wayna. He also produced Wayna’s ‘Moonlight Rendezvous’ which spent 7 consecutive weeks on Billboard’s Top 10 R&B/Hip Hop Singles; 100 Hot Singles Sales charts, peaking at #3 and #12 respectively. Read More…

Everyone knows the only thing more painful than relationships is not having them–or is it the other way around? Whatever, says author and cartoonist and Nick Galifianakis. In his first book, If You Loved Me, You’d Think This Was Cute: Uncomfortably True Cartoons About You, he makes the case that either way, the only recourse is to embrace our frailties and laugh.

Taken from Carolyn Hax’s nationally syndicated advice column, this collection of illustrations spins the pain of dating, mothers-in-law, “beneficial” friends, and more into humor we all can use, whether we like it or not. With searing and astute observations on life, love, relationships, and pet camaraderie, If You Loved Me, You’d Think This Was Cute features Nick Galifianakis’ intricate black-and-white drawings paired with his biting wit and a pointed message: If we can’t laugh at ourselves, he’ll do it for us. These are uncomfortable, but true, cartoons about you.

Nick Galifianakis is an American cartoonist whose work is nationally recognized alongside the syndicated, must-read advice column by Carolyn Hax. The column appears in hundreds of newspapers and is one of the most popular features on washingtonpost.com. It also was named by Time magazine as America’s best advice column.

Marie Tillman is a writer, advocate and co-founder of the Pat Tillman Foundation, a nonprofit organization that invests in veterans and their families.

The Pat Tillman Foundation is a national leader in providing resources and educational scholarship support to veterans, active service members and their dependents. The Tillman Military Scholars program aids all veterans, specifically the ever-growing population of veterans and dependents of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.

Martha Raddatz currently serves as the Chief Foreign Correspondent for ABC News. She reports for ABC’s World News with Diane Sawyer, Nightline, and other network broadcasts. In addition to her work for ABC News, Raddatz has written for The New Republic and is a frequent guest on PBS’s Washington Week.

Raddatz began her tenure at ABC News in 1999 as the network’s State Department correspondent and became ABC’s senior national security correspondent in May 2003, reporting extensively from Iraq. From 1993 to 1998, Raddatz covered the Pentagon for National Public Radio. Prior to joining NPR in 1993, Raddatz was the chief correspondent at the ABC News Boston affiliate WCVB-TV.

She is also the author of the New York Times bestseller The Long Road Home, a book about the war in Sadr City, Iraq.

Nick Wiseman is the Co-Founder of Roadside Organics and a lifelong Washingtonian.

After several years in the professional kitchen under the guidance of Todd Gray, Fabio Trabocchi, and Michael White, Nick left with a vision to help rewrite a new food system. He wanted to give a platform to the unsung heroes of the food movement.

Along with his partners Seth Teicher and David Wiseman, Nick recently launched Roadside Organics to bring food concepts to life. The company is an incubator for innovative food projects that provides strategic consulting on concept development and execution.

Derek Beres has devoted his life to exposing people to international music, yoga and mythology, and better nutritious choices as a means of creating both better individuals and a more understanding global culture. In the global music industry, he works as a journalist and DJ as well as producer and presenter. He has published five books, and has contributed to dozens of magazines and websites regarding the traditional and digital realms of global music, currently writing for Rolling Stone Middle East, National Geographic, Yoga Journal, Huffington Post, and Relix, among others. He is one half of global music producers EarthRise SoundSystem, which creates innovative contexts for 21st century music and cultures to be explored. He currently teaches eleven weekly yoga classes at Equinox Fitness and two at Pure Yoga. Derek has been featured in the NY Times, NBC Weekend Today, ABC Eyewitness News, Fox Business, BBC, and NY1, as well as in print and online by Fitness, Yoga Journal, Boston Globe, AOL’s Spinner, Newsday, MTV, NPR, and PRI.

Dr. Ogi Ogas won $500,000 on an episode of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire that aired on November 8, 2006, using his cognitive science research to guide his game strategy. Since playing, he has appeared 22 times as the syndicated show’s “Ask The Expert” Lifeline.

Ogas is co-author of A Billion Wicked Thoughts, a study of human sexuality and desire.

Praise for A Billion Wicked Thoughts:

“In a stroke of ingenuity, Ogas and Gaddam circumvent the deepest limitation of standard psychological surveys: that they merely tap undergraduates’ socially acceptable responses, a flaw nowhere more damaging than in the touchy realm of sexuality. A Billion Wicked Thoughts is a goldmine of information about this hugely important topic, and, not surprisingly, gripping and sometimes disturbing reading.”

—Steven Pinker, Harvard College Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and author of How the Mind Works and The Blank Slate

Robert Egger is the Founder and President of the DC Central Kitchen, the nation’s first “community kitchen”, where unemployed men and women learn marketable culinary skills while donated food is converted into balanced meals. Since opening in 1989, the DCCK has distributed over 20 million meals and helped 700 men and women gain full-time employment.

Robert served as the Co-Convener of the first Nonprofit Congress in 2006, and was the founding Chair of the Mayor’s Commission on Nutrition, and Street Sense, Washington’s “homeless” newspaper.

Robert has been on the Non Profit Times “50 Most Powerful and Influential Nonprofit Leaders” list in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009. He was the recipient of the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington’s 2007 “Lifetime Achievement” award and the 2004 James Beard Foundation “Humanitarian of the Year” award. He has also been named an Oprah Angel, a Washingtonian of the Year, a Point of Light and one of the Ten Most Caring People in America, by the Caring Institute. He is also a 14-gallon blood donor to the American Red Cross. Read More…

Barton Seaver has been at the helm of some of Washington, DC’s most acclaimed restaurants. He brought the idea of sustainable seafood to DC at Hook restaurant in Georgetown. After Hook, he opened Blue Ridge restaurant, where he was named as Esquire’s 2009 Chef of the Year.

His focus now is on larger issues of ocean sustainability as it relates to eating. He was recently named a Fellow with the Blue Ocean Institute, to help link the environmental community with real-life, delicious applications of an eco-friendly ethic. He works with the Ocean Now program at the National Geographic Society to influence the practices of large corporations and consumers alike toward a more responsible and sustainable sourcing ethic. Barton is an appointed member of the Mayor’s Council on Nutrition in Washington, DC, where he is helping to craft a wellness policy for District residents.

Photo by Tracy Sham

The former Frugal Traveler columnist for the New York Times, Matt Gross now writes the “Getting Lost” series for the paper, the “Voyager” column for GetCurrency.com, and various other stories for Saveur and Afar magazines. Along with two other journalists, he also writes about parenting at DadWagon.com. Born in Concord, Massachusetts, and raised up and down the eastern seaboard, he now lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Jean, and daughter, Sasha.