The heart of our mission at VoyageLA is to find the amazing souls that breathe life into our city. In the recent weeks we’ve had the privilege to connect with some of South Bay’s finest artists, creatives, entrepreneurs and rebel rousers and we can’t begin to express how impressed we are with our city’s incredibly deep talent pool. Check out the area’s rising stars below.
DAWN HANCOCK
Music has always been a part of my life. From a very young age, I was drawn to various instruments and took advantage of every opportunity I had to sing or play. I took lessons for a while, for both piano and flute, but I found the rigid structure frustrating, so I didn’t stick with them. At one point, I wanted to be able to accompany myself when singing so I taught myself how to play chords. Read more>>
ILYSE CRAFT
Coaching & mentoring has been a part of my job in the Fashion Industry for the past 25+ years, and as much as I love design, fashion and decor….working with people is the part that has always lit me up the most. In 2014, I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, and it caused me to really look at how I was showing up for myself, or really how I wasn’t. Read more>>
CHUCK DIZZLE
While attending CSULB around 2004 I got my start in radio interning for 100.3 The Beat here in Los Angeles. That opportunity allowed me to see how each department in radio worked and over the years moved my way up on multiple occasions, from a street team member to an on air personality. One thing I was able to identify was how much of a void there was for local talent at the time. Read more>>
CLASSIC CAULEY
My life in entertainment began in music as a vocalist and songwriter. After college and pursuing a career in business, I worked in the corporate sector for over eight years. During my last year in my corporate position, I was feeling a pull to go back to music and entertainment and decided to audition for a music program and did that for a year and fully began writing and recording music. Read more>>
ALIAH HUSAIN
Growing up in a first generation South Asian family, my parents were always trying to guard me from doing anything that they viewed as unconventional or unstable. My hobbies of drawing and creative writing were seen as “cute” and never anything to be harnessed or taken seriously. My life was written as a doctor, lawyer, scientist or whatever. Read more>>
CHRIS HUMES
The youngest of three and raised by single parent Growing up in the West Adams district was rough. To keep myself active, I used sports as a tool to escape the distraction in the area. I was an outstanding athlete in track & field and in Football for the Los Angeles Roman. Read more>>
RYCK JANE
My musical journey began around the age of seven. I took piano lessons in my early years and although I had a love for music, I hated taking them simply because my mother forced me to because her mother couldn’t afford them when she was a child. My grandfather was a member of “The Four Knights” in the 1950’s which influenced me musically and helped train my young ears and musical spirit. Read more>>
MISSY BERKOWITZ
I spent 18 years in the Corporate World, “living the dream”. Like many other women, I prided myself on being independent and living that balanced life. I got to do all the things: buy a condo, travel the world. Yet, I was not fulfilled. Read more>>
JUNE “JUMAKAE” KAEWSITH
In 2015, I was working as a rape crisis hotline counselor and community organizer to open up the conversation about domestic violence prevention in Long Beach, CA. Being someone who had experienced sexual abuse at an early age and knew very well how taboo this topic is amongst Asian American populations, it became natural for others to open up their story to me. Read more>>
STACEY GORDON
I spent years recruiting and what never failed to change is the difficulty companies have in looking outside the box. If you don’t meet their pre-defined terms of the role, you are not even considered. This disproportionately affects women of all races and ethnicities, black men, Latino men, anyone queer, anyone with a disability or anyone with health issues. That is a very large group of people and it’s not an exhaustive list. Read more>>
COURAGE MOLINA
I am a teen parent who beat the odds by graduating on time and going off to graduate from Florida State University with a Bachelor’s degree in Economics. By the time I graduated from college, I was a wife and mother of three. My husband and I were high school sweethearts (kinda) that beat the odds by surviving each other (we were both abusive, hyper-critical and emotionally. Read more>>
ANIA NELSON
I started pursuing music professionally a little over a year ago. But, for my entire life I have been surrounded by music. My grandfather was a musician as well as my father, and my mom always always always played music around the house. When I was younger, I would spend hours in front of the mirror mimicking music videos and using hairbrushes as microphones. Read more>>
BRANDIE DAVISON
I was born and raised in the wonderful city of Long Beach, California. I have always had a passion for art and creativity. I was always writing, drawing, listening to music, and dancing. When I was younger, we had an assignment to create “something we could sell” while most of the other kids made baked goods or toys, I created a magazine and a magazine subscription service. Read more>>
Claudine Cooper
I rummaged through my mom’s VHS tapes and found some corny workout videos. I muted the sound and turned on my own music (specifically NWA, DJ Quick, and AMG). Miraculously, I found myself feeling a little bit better each day. I applied for a job at my local gym and the rest is history. Read more>>
Nicole Woods
I started Viking Social to be an agency that balances quality and affordability for all our clients. I wanted a place where just because you might be a small company doesn’t mean you can’t get the same quality as some of our larger clients. We have two sides of our business – management and creative, but as we’ve grown, we’ve really shifted into focusing on the creative whether it’s custom content shoots, graphic design or motion graphics. Read more>>
