IN-Q
IN-Q is a National Poetry Slam champion, award-winning poet, and multi-platinum songwriter. His groundbreaking achievements include being named to Oprah’s SuperSoul 100 list of the world’s most influential thought leaders, being the first spoken word artist to perform with Cirque Du Soleil, and being featured on A&E, ESPN, and HBO’s Def Poetry Jam. He’s inspired audiences around the world through his live performances and storytelling workshops. Many of his recent poetry videos have gone viral with over 70 million views combined.
As a songwriter, IN-Q’s hit single “Love You Like a Love Song” by Selena Gomez went multi-platinum, winning him a BMI award. He has written with renowned artists including Aloe Blacc, Miley Cyrus, Mike Posner, and Foster the People. His songs have accumulated over one billion views on YouTube alone.
Leading organizations including Nike, Instagram, Spotify, Google, Lululemon, Live Nation, Shazam, The Grammy Foundation, and many more have brought IN-Q in to motivate their teams through his keynote speeches and acclaimed storytelling workshop, a transformational bonding experience for companies who want to share their story more authentically.
Ultimately IN-Q writes to entertain, inspire, and challenge his audiences to look deeper into the human experience and ask questions about themselves, their environment, and the world at large.
3 words to describe Nature?
Beautiful. Wild. Alive.
3 things Nature taught you?
Presence
Presence
Presence
3 most treasured Nature spots?
Eden in Utah. I have spent so much time over there. It is such an integral part of my life.
Road to Hana, Maui, Hawaii. That road for me is filled with life. It is so beautiful, vibrant and alive. It feels like a neon sign for nature.
Kenya. I was recently on a safari there and I have never experienced anything like this. It is a particular nature, that is raw and truly powerful. I really felt small but also part of it.
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?
Relaxed
When you see a forest, it makes you feel...?
Peaceful
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...?
Awe
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?
Gratitude
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?
Power. Not that I feel powerful, but that I am amazed by it. The physical sensation of experiencing the hugeness of the sound all around you is breathtaking.
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?
Brings me back to a childhood memory.
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
Forest the best, though honestly, it is the jungle that calls me.
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
11
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
Well, I don’t remember much for my childhood, unfortunately. But there is indeed one memory that comes to mind. My mom and I went camping. She is really not your outdoorsy type. Anyhow, we ended up in the forest of California, somewhere up north. I was 7 I think. We set up camp and during the night, there was this insane storm, pouring rain like crazy. There were lightings and thunder. Bang and Boum! We stayed up all night. My mom was so scared that she made me sleep with my sneakers on because she thought that the rubber would protect me, not conducting the electricity in case lightning would hit us. I felt so small and so vulnerable.
Yazemeenah Rossi
Yazemeenah Rossi is a professional photographer, social entrepreneur, and pioneering age-defying international fashion model (one of the first ones to assume her white hair). She started her modeling career at age 30, normally the age of retirement for the industry, then became a model for The Ford Modeling Agency in New York City. She has appeared in hundreds of campaigns and magazines all over the world. She is also the founder of YAZEMEENAH, a social enterprise that produces her unique design of Yak or Cashmere shawls that are made by hand, from families in Kathmandu, Nepal. Part of the proceeds supports children at the Destitute and Orphans Children Safeguarding Foundation. At the age of 65 and with a combined 350,000 followers on social media (Instagram/Facebook), Rossi continues to promote her vision of health and natural beauty. Originally from Corsica, she now lives in Malibu, California.
3 words to describe Nature?
Primordial. Beauty. Powerful.
3 things Nature taught you?
Freedom
Wisdom
Inner Power
3 most treasured Nature spots?
Water
Deserts
Skies
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel…?
Timeless, whole, Infinite
When you see a forest, it makes you feel…?
Mesmerized, Green hypnotizes me
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel…?
Powerful, Ancient, connected to the Origins
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel…?
Part of the Universe, dissolving
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel…?
Alive, vibrant, warrior
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel…?
Wild, Free… The wind speaks to me secrets
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
Desert by the Ocean :)
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
10
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
Corsica, no running water, no electricity until I was 10 on the beach where I lived raised by my grandparents totally immersed in Nature. Washing our bodies and laundry at the river, collecting drinking water coming from a rock under the giant wild fig tree…Vision of my grandmother carrying our precious water in a clay pot on her head … running with my little legs on the desert beach without tourists at that time, all for me ... playing with crabs in the rocs; turtles, lizards, and snakes were my pets … Fishing, gardening, hunting with my grandfather, cooking with my grandmother, knitting by the fireplace with story telling…Nature provided everything we needed, it has been my best teacher… Nature is raw, beauty, and wisdom. It fed me and imprinted my soul for a lifetime, molded me into who I am today.
Stefan Simcowitz
Stefan Simchowitz is a controversial Los Angeles based art collector, art curator, art advisor and founder of Simco's Club, an art-collecting, selling, and promoting website dedicated to successful, young, and emerging artists around the world. In November 2015, he was ranked #95 in Art Review Magazine's POWER 100, a list of the "most influential people in the contemporary artworld." He was famously dubbed “The Art World’s Patron Satan” by the New York Times back in 2014. Journalist Andrew Goldstein of New York Magazine, Artnet, and Artspace, argues that Simcho is destabilizing outdated art-world archetypes that perpetuate dangerous myths about how art is distributed, displayed, and discussed.
After college, Stefan started a film production company responsible for a number of feature films and shorts, such as Darren Aronofsky's critically acclaimed drama, Requiem for a Dream. He co-founded the celebrity photo and video service, WireImage, which eventually sold to Getty Images in 2007 for $200 million.
Stefan is a vocal proponent of social media as a legitimate way of discovering, distributing, and popularizing the fine arts, primarily using Facebook and Instagram as platforms for self-promotion, discovering new artists, and endorsing those he already manages.
3 words to describe Nature?
Electron. Neutron. Proton
3 things Nature taught you?
We are all one and the same
Nature defines the rules of the game
Understand the end is not different to the beginning and you will be fine
3 most treasured Nature spots?
The hills of Tuscany
The sea of Liguria
The Blue Mountains
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?
Like going for a swim
When you see a forest, it makes you feel...?
Going for a walk
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...?
Like wishing I was getting a cold brew coffee and pastry
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?
Like an ancient human
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?
Getting inside
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?
Getting under the duvet
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
Somewhere between the forest and the mountain
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
10
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
The game reserve, safari.
Kelly Lund
Kelly is an avid outdoorsman, photographer, and owner of Loki. A few years ago, he started an Instagram account for Loki, his adventure dog, playfully logging their everyday life.
A photo of the two sleeping in a hammock together landed on the front page of Reddit, shortly thereafter it was picked up by Bored Panda and BuzzFeed.
Loki shot to Instagram fame and hasn’t showed signs of slowing down.
Kelly shares photos of the two traveling across North America, often taking their favorite brands with them along the way. Kelly and Loki can be found backcountry snowboarding in Colorado, on a mountaintop in Canada, or roaming the deserts of Utah. They want to push the limits in the great outdoors of what a human-dog relationship can be, all while capturing photos to share with the world.
3 words to describe Nature?
Home. Beauty. Life
3 things Nature taught you?
That we are just one small thing in this world, it gives me perspective.
To slow down and appreciate the sun when it’s out and the rain, and all the senses that come with them both.
It has taught me to have a hunger for what is out there, a hunger to keep exploring to see everything we can.
3 most treasured Nature spots?
Crescent city, CA
Brooks Range, AK
Cedar mesa, UT
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel…?
Calm and peaceful.
When you see a forest, it makes you feel…?
Like I’m wrapped up in something - enveloped by the trees.
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel…?
Like i have an expiration date.
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel…?
Like a something is starting or ending - it’s the next thing coming.
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel…?
Mischievous
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel…?
Surrounded by nature
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
Ocean - it’s in my blood
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
100
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
Building forts in the Redwoods outside of my hometown, Crescent City.