Who We Are

Spontaneous Celebrations is run by an active and committed staff, board, and volunteer team composed of community residents, students, artists, parents, business-people, activists, and organizers who reflect the diversity of the surrounding communities.

Key Staff

Jen Kiok, Executive Director, is the former Youth Programs Coordinator at Spontaneous. Jen holds a Masters degree in Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Kiok has a strong commitment to youth empowerment and a passion for social change. She has experience developing and implementing curriculum for middle-school students in areas of team-building, leadership development, job training, communication, conflict-resolution, diversity, anti-bias, media literacy, youth activism and community organizing. She has worked for several Boston-based youth programs, including Thompson Island Outward Bound Education Center, Teens Against Gang Violence and Girls LEAP.

Helen Duncan, Festival Arts Director, is originally from Ireland and brings over a decade of experience in arts education.

Gerdon Encarnacion, Festival Arts Youth Worker

Seth Kirshenbaum, Beantown Society Director, is a youth worker with nine years experience running social justice youth programs in Boston and New York City.   In addition to directing Beantown Society (BTS),  a “by youth, for youth” program for high school age youth, Seth also directs the Summer Leadership Program (SLP), an intensive six week social justice program at The City School in Dorchester.  The two programs collaborate continuously to help build a youth-led justice movement in Boston.  Seth’s education comes primarily from mentors who helped shape his understanding of powerful youth work, and also from Harvard’s Graduate School of Education where he earned a Master’s degree with a self-designed study of Education as the Practice of Freedom. 

Gerry Lake, our Bookkeeper, grew up in Boston and holds two degrees from Boston College including a BA in Accounting and an MBA. He has over twenty years experience in accounting and financial positions, mostly in financial services. Over the last few years, Gerry has done a lot of work for non-profits including Community Works and Spontaneous Celebrations. He also serves on the board of the Cooperative Artists Institute.

Claudia Martinez, Youth Programs Coordinator

Hector Negron, Beantown Society Youth Worker

Ed Pazzanese, Accessibility Coordinator, has been involved in various roles with Spontaneous Celebrations since the first Wake-Up the Earth Festival in 1979. He currently serves as our Accessibility Coordinator, ensuring full participation in Spontaneous programs, festivals, and outreach efforts for community members and visiting artists with a wide range of abilities. Ed brings over 25 years of experience with community rooted arts education programs in organizations committed to the inclusion of children, youth, and families with a wide range of abilities. Throughout his many roles in the disability rights and desegregation court order movement, he has provided leadership and support for muliticultural, intergenerational, and inclusive initiaitives focused on the expressive arts. Ed Pazzanese holds a Masters of Science from Wheelock College and a Bachelors of Fine Arts from Mass College of Art. He was also a recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in 1990 and the co-recipiant of the first Lifetime Achievement Award from Spontaneous Celebrations for his accessibility efforts. Mr. Pazzanese recently participated in the 2006 Very Special Arts Institute in Washington D.C. where he received a certificate for studies in adaptive arts education and disability awareness.

Mark Pelletier, works on Building Maintenance, and has been managing the renovation of our bathrooms.

Femke Rosenbaum, the original founder of SC and its many festivals has dedicated her life to the people of her community in Jamaica Plain and Roxbury. Originally from Holland, as an artist, organizer, and community member, she has brought new meaning to life in the JP area through the festivals that have come to define the neighborhood.

Eve Shapiro, Interim Membership Coordinator

Rosalba Solis, Festival Arts Founder, and La Pinata Director is one of the founding members of Spontaneous Celebrations. She is a native of Mexico and a music and performance teacher at the Rafael Hernandez School in Egleston Sq., Roxbury. She finds time to run her own program, La Piņata, a Latin American Family Cultural Network that operates out of our Center and where she teaches dance and music of Latin America to children from Latin countries. She is also an accomplished tap dancer and teacher.

Volunteers are essential to our work.

Find out how you can get involved today!