Neartown’s Rising Stars

Seyi Adewuya

I first started making music my junior year of college at University of Texas at Austin. I had always wanted to make music and saw myself as an artist but growing up, I never felt like I had access to the resources or time necessary to hone the skills I needed. Back as far middle school, my cousins and I would record directly into the microphone on instrumentals we downloaded from Limewire and we’d make rap songs but as we started getting more serious about athletics we stopped pursuing a lot of our other creative activities. A little bit before summer, my junior year at UT I was hanging with a friend who I had met through some childhood friends that I had re-ignited friendships with after not seeing them for close to ten years. My friend Uzo was already a very established producer in his own right. One day I saw his studio setup and I asked him that if I brought my hard drive would he give me all the music programs and specifically plugins/VSTs he used. I didn’t even want him to teach me anything I just wanted to have all the tools. Read more>>

Liz Hughes

I like to say I didn’t choose to become a therapist, the therapy field chose me. From a really young age, I was always sensitive and empathic, sometimes to my detriment. Supporting others and listening to problems came naturally and as I grew older, I quickly became my friend’s and family’s unofficial therapist. Once I left for college, I felt a bit lost. How an 18-year-old is supposed to choose a lifelong career is beyond me, but somehow I decided business would be the route for me. The beginning of sophomore year, I had just started some of my more advanced business courses and then I received “the call”. The urgent phone call requested that I immediately come home from school. Something had happened to my dad but they couldn’t tell me what. I made the three hour drive home from college confused and hoping for the best. When I arrived at home, I was told my dad had died by suicide, physically healthy at age 53. I could try and explain why my dad might have died by suicide, but suicide is one of those things that will never make rational sense unless you’ve been in the dark depths of depression yourself. Read more>>

Demetria Johnson

Growing up, I always knew that I wanted to act and model. As a kid, I would immerse myself into the television to escape what was going on in my life. I grew up in DC with my mother, who was an alcoholic and sister. I had to watch my mom be abused and raped by men so to keep my mind off of things, tv was my escape. I loved the characters that were being portrayed by the actors. I told myself one day I will be an actress on tv and other platforms. So acting and modeling has always my dream. But getting there took some time. I have been acting and Modeling for the past four Years now. I have been in a few independent films like “Angels Revenge,” “I Use Two Love Her,” and “Have you seen London.” “The Life of An OG Cougar Movie, Cycles Tv Series and also a few stage productions “For Colored Who Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Enuf,” “When My Life Changed,” and also “The Vagina Monologues.” I have also modeled in shows like Africstyle Initiatives and CMBEA Fashion Show, just to name a few. Read more>>

Devontae Holland

I am 22 years old and I am a dancer/choreographer currently based here in the Houston area. My journey as a dancer started back in 2009 in my hometown, Bassett, Virginia. I was about the age of ten and Beyonce had just released her music video for “Single Ladies.” I had learned the choreography after watching the video about a million times and I remember running around the house doing the dance just about every single day. That moment began my Beyonce obsession and I started to learn every piece of choreography to every Beyonce song since that day. Mind you, I was still a kid, so I didn’t fully understand what is was I was doing. I was just a kid having fun. It wasn’t until freshman year of high school that I started to find out exactly who I was. I had came out to everyone at school that I was gay and I knew that all I wanted to do was dance for Beyonce one day. But growing up in my hometown made that very difficult for me. I was constantly bullied at school for my sexuality and because of the fact that I was a cheerleader. Read more>>

Veronica Vega

I am the lead photographer here at V. Vega Photography. We started V. Vega Photography in 2017 based in Houston Texas. V. Vega Photography was founded as a husband and wife photography team. Together we make a great team. We are the perfect kind of different, that’s what makes us a unique creative team. I bring the artistry and my husband the craftmanship. As an artist, I bring the creativity and I seek the beauty in photography. My husband has the ability to turn our artistic vision into reality by using technical precision and objective quality. Before becoming a photographer, my artistic outlet was painting and drawing. I am an artist at heart. After having my first daughter, I started to use my camera more often. I found another artistic medium to express myself. It made me fall in love with photography in a different way. As a mother of three beautiful, smart girls, I find inspiration in motherhood and family. Some of my favorite photoshoots are maternity and toddlers. Read more>>

Jarrod Perez

I was born and raised in Houston, TX. From an early age I loved to draw and I’ve always stuck to it. As a kid when I went to my grandparents’ house I would go through their newspaper and head straight to the comics pages. Soon after in elementary school I began drawing comics featuring my own characters. While it was fun crafting my own superhero stories I found myself also drawing comics poking fun at the culture all around me, whether it was other comics, popular TV shows, even the commercials in between programs. Throughout grade school I was bused to different parts of the city to attend vanguard and magnet programs that focused on the arts. Not only did this put more emphasis on my personal academic achievement but also placed me in very diverse environments full of other students of various religions, creeds and colors. For high school I attended HSPVA and honed in on my visual arts skills, while sharpening my comic skills on the side. Around this time I started my first job as caricature artist at everyone’s favorite local theme park Astroworld. Read more>>

Sarah Kwang

Dr. Scott and I started Heights Endodontics as an idea years ago. At the time, Heights Endodntics was an idea and we did not have a name yet. We dedicated an extensive period of time to market research and strategy. We were met with the phrase “the market is oversaturated” or “are you sure you want to leave your comfortable corporate job” and it goes on. It created doubts; however, eventually we were suddenly hit with the entrepreneurial spirit and we rolled the dice. Needless to say it was a favorable outcome dream to reality. Endodontics’ is not a popular field. We deal with dental trauma, perform root canals and surgeries to aid the general dentist in helping to save your natural teeth. Our patient population is referred and typically in pain due to an infection and our practice is to “help” get the person out of pain and thereby assist the body in healing the infection. Our practice is here, systems in place and we are slowly growing one day at a time with our brand “We are here to help”. Read more>>