About RLENTLSS

RLENTLSS is a not-for-profit initiative aimed at cultivating exceptional creative environments around the world.

We want to develop highly customized workshops for groups of people who typically don’t get to tell their story. We’re here to change the stories we’re told by changing the storytellers.

The workshops will give the Creators — what we call our “participants” — the opportunity to learn about videography, photography, and storytelling. Through the creative process, they’re guided by the Cultivators — what we call the mentors — to examine their own stories and to heal through the craft of creation.

Even though the idea presented itself to our founder in 2018, we’re just getting started. To support us, please contact us.

The Cultivators & Staff

  • Angelica Chavez-Duckworth

    CULTIVATOR

    Jellie is a listener, meaning-maker, storyteller, and guide who is a driving force behind several of the most important and impactful place-based environmental initiatives in Kansas City, the Midwest, and the Southeast. With RLENTLSS, she’s helping cultivate healthier internal environments for our Creators.

  • Betsy Toussaint-Moise

    PROJECT MANAGER

    Betsy is the person you never see who makes sure Jay is on task and on time. As project manager, she’s responsible for thinking through the details and the “what-if’s” of the workshops and beyond.

  • Casondra M. Foster

    CULTIVATOR

    Casondra is a licensed counselor and therapist who helps people grow beyond their trauma. She uses her experiences and deep insight to help lift others like her in her community, and that work continues through this initiative.

  • Cheyenne Nichols

    CULTIVATOR

    Cheyenne is a global citizen based in Dallas, TX, who gravitates towards projects promoting sustainability, innovation, and peace. She helps RLENTLSS craft Impact Reports for the workshops and initiatives.

  • David Sosna

    CULTIVATOR

    Sos is an Emmy-winning creative producer for the Phoenix Suns. Self-taught in the streets of KC — literally — he has helped put the curriculum together for RLENTLSS and was one of the first supporters of the idea.

  • Don Carter

    CULTIVATOR

    Don is a Transformational Executive Coach who helps people address their unidentified and unresolved trauma and grief. This ex-officer will protect the space for our Creators to feel, process, and create throughout their time with RLENTLSS.

  • Esai Saenz

    CULTIVATOR

    Esai is a self-taught cinematographer and multidisciplinary creator based in Kansas City, MO, with a focus on environmental themes. He’s helped to craft the RLENTLSS curriculum.

  • Kevin Berg

    CULTIVATOR

    Kevin is a self-taught cinematographer based in Kansas City, MO, who has shot for the likes of Under Armour, KU Athletics, and the humanitarian organization UUSC. He helps craft the RLENTLSS curriculum and execute in-person workshops.

  • Nico Giles

    CULTIVATOR

    Nico is an award-winning documentarian and producer currently based in Los Angeles. This KCK homeboy uses filmmaking to explore the most tender wounds and tallest scars, always aiming to promote healing. He helps to guide the curriculum and deliver that content in workshops.

Aye, I’m Jay.

RLENTLSS presented itself to me in 2018, and I’ve channeled it ever since. My responsibility in this initiative is to stay with the idea long enough until each part of it comes to life. I get to gather the pieces that lead to exceptional creative environments, then let those environments change the stories we’re told by changing the storytellers.

But not everything is so philosophical and spiritual! I’m also the one with the responsibility of making tough decisions, communicating the vision, executing the workshops, and raising money.

On that note, will you help us change the stories we’re told by changing the storytellers?

RLENTLSS is a fiscally sponsored project of SIMA, a 501(c)(3). Donations are tax deductible.