Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Members of the Month - October 2008



Ladies Lotto Los Angeles
Shaden Tavakoli

A turntablist, musician, vocalist, and nightlife innovator, Shaden Tavakoli, aka Lady Sha, continuously returns home to LA a citizen of the world as reflected in her eclectic DJ sets. Gracing stages both nationally and internationally, Lady Sha is one of the world's top female DJ's. Most recently, she became the first female to win the annual Winter Music Conference DJ Spin-off in WMC history (Miami, 2008).

Born in Iran and raised in Los Angeles, Shaden was exposed to a wide range of music from an early age. Her training in turntablism began while attending UC Berkeley as a double-major in pre-med and anthropology. Upon graduating, she turned her focus completely to music. Spinning heated hip-hop sets fused with electro, soul, rock, house, reggae, and global sounds, she has moved dance floors worldwide. One of the few female DJ's rocking parties in Jamaica yearly and the first female DJ to spin live on South African airwaves (2004 southern Africa tour), Lady Sha innovates the music and nightlife industries universally.


In 2006, Shaden and partner Aneesah Williams co-founded LionessLA, a special events production and marketing firm dedicated to progressing nightlife with cutting edge music, art, and philanthropy. Currently Shaden produces several annual events for LionessLA, while also DJing full-time in Los Angeles and touring New York, San Francisco, Miami, Vegas and cities around the globe.


Ladies Lotto Chicago
Lola Jenkins

Coming of age on the west side of Chicago, Lola was deeply involved in service activities with organizations such as The Greater Chicago Food Depository and Girl Scouts of America. Demonstrating a standard for high achievement, Lola graduated from Spellman College in May 2004. Characteristic of her foresight concerning her early desire for a career in social service, she earned a degree in political science, with a minor in sociology.

Quick wit and sharp intellect have been the defining factors in Lola's quick rise, leading to a promotion to VP of Operations at the Westside Association for Community Action in early 2008. For years she's served the under represented and ill-served residents of the Westside of Chicago. She is an actively sought after voice, and can often be seen networking at major events to create bridges of opportunity for WACA’s diverse constituency.

She is a member of the Cook County States Attorney African American Advisory Board and a Gala Committee Member for ETA Creative Arts Foundation. She credits her mother’s life of service and her father’s innovative vision as the standard by which she measures any accomplishments in her personal life and career.



Ladies Lotto New York
Jerri Chou

Granola values, LA party style, and NYC work ethic. Sound crazy? It is. But what might seem like contradictory traits makes for a smooth bold blend of social action and just plain being social. More recently, Jerri has taken her understanding of brands, digital and holistic experiences to the social realm.

As founding partner of alldaybuffet, Jerri runs general operations, brokers partnerships and brings together creatives, thinkers, educators, nonprofits, and digital mavens to create and realize innovative solutions to the world's problems. She's also helped create Cause for Drinks, GOOD WOOD, and
The Feast Social Innovation Conference.


A graduate of Boston University's school of communication, she lived a former life as an advertising account manager at Grey Advertising. She's since worked on everything from hyper local website editorial and development with Steven Berlin Johnson's Outside.in to interactive social media marketing. She has since been asked back to Boston University as a guest lecturer.




Ladies Lotto Seattle
Mia Beardsley aka DJ B-Girl

Mia Beardsley, aka DJ B-Girl has been a staple in the Seattle music scene since 2001. She DJs, produces, runs an independent record label called B-Girl Media, is a hip hop teaching artist, and coordinates a hip hop community group for women called B-Girl Bench. Her label, B-Girl Media was established in 2004 and is home to a select few of Seattle's most talented artists.

Many styles and influences in her music production run parallel to that of her crew, Project Mayhem, a mainstay in the Seattle underground scene since 2003. Her first full-length solo release called "Love or Fate" debuted worldwide in March, 2008. Her follow up project is a three-person collaboration under the name Knox Family, and is expected to make major waves this November.

She has her own radio show on KBCS 91.3FM, called Freshcoast Radio, playing the best local and independent hip hop. B-Girl currently teaches high school youth in a hip hop music program called Katalyst, passing on her knowledge and experience to the next generation.

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