SPEAKERS SPOTLIGHT SERIES

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Clifton Joseph is an award-winning poet and journalist who writes for television, radio, newspapers, magazines and the internet. He has worked as, a CBC - Canadian Broadcast Corporation - national reporter on the CBC television program “The National”; as a CBC consumer affairs investigative reporter on the CBC television program “Marketplace”; and, a CBC media reporter on the CBC television program “Undercurrents”. 

A founding member of the dub poetry movement in Canada, he has published a book of poems “Metropolitan Blues”; an album of poetry and music “Oral Trans/Missions”; the videos “Pimps” and “Survival in the City”, as well as numerous single dub poetry releases including “A Chant For Monk”, “That Night In Tunisia” and “Shots On Eglinton”. His latest single of poetry and music is “Fly, Fly High”. He is currently chief content producer for Eglinton TV. 

Mr. Joseph has performed widely across Canada, the U.S., the U.K. and the Caribbean and his poems have been incorporated in a number of written and audio anthologies including, but not limited to, “Poetry Nation”, “Word Up”, and Virgin Records’ compilation of North American performance poets. He holds a Bachelor of Honour’s Degree in Literature from York University, Toronto, Canada, and is the recipient of many Awards. 

Among these Awards are two Gemini Awards for Best Writing in an Information Program or Series; a Time-Warner “Freddies” Award for excellence in health reporting; a Silver Fleece Award from the Chicago International Film Festival for TV Ontario’s literary talk-show “Imprint”; the Best Dub Poet Award and the Peter Tosh Memorial Award from the Canadian Reggae Music Awards; a New York TV and Video Festival Bronze Award for CBC TV’s “Undercurrents”; and an Honorable Mention, Columbus International Film and Video Festival for CBC Newsworld. He is a member of the Canadian Media Guild, ACTRA and the League of Canadian Poets.

  Music Director, Kostantinos Matzaleris, is a multi-talented musician, composer, arranger, audio engineer producer and lover of music that contains truth and real stories. As a graduate of the Royal Conservatory of Music and Glenn Gould Professional School of Music in Toronto, Canada and the Hellenic Conservatory of Music in Volos Greece, he holds degrees with specializations in piano performance and pedagogy and in harmony and composition. 

He achieved twice a 1st prize award at the National Competition of Composition in Athens Greece and was awarded twice the Songwriting Award of the Year in Texas US. He is versed and performs and writes in both classical and contemporary musical genres, including theatrical and cinematographic musical scores. His professional performing and studio works include collaborations with many musical groups, solo artists, theatrical teams, communities, music schools, etc... 

He works as a piano and music theory instructor at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto Canada and privately, and is an active member of ORMTA, the Ontario Registered Music Teachers Association and CFMTA, the Canadian Federation of Music Teachers Association. In addition to his performing, teaching and composition, he also directs a polyphonic choir and has studied, worked and collaborated with the production academy of the multi-platinum musical artist and performer, Aerosmith, in developing unique and original audio techniques which he incorporates in his own recording and production studio in Toronto known as Studio MK-72. 

  Dr. Frank Alexander Clark is a board-certified adult outpatient psychiatrist at Prisma Health-Upstate. He also serves as clinical associate professor at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine-Greenville. Dr. Clark received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Monmouth College in Illinois and a Doctor of Medicine degree from Northwestern University. He then completed his residency in general psychiatry at Palmetto Richland Hospital in Columbia, SC (now Prisma Health-Midlands)

In addition to his psychiatric practice, Dr. Clark has held many leadership positions in national organizations including the American Medical Association (AMA) and the American Psychiatric Association(APA). Locally he serves on the board of directors for National Alliance on Mental Illness-Greenville (NAMI)

Dr. Clark is passionate about the intersection between the humanities and medicine. He is a former recipient of the 2019 Leo Tow Humanism in Medicine Award sponsored by the Arnold P. Gold Foundation. Dr. Clark is a former board member of the South Carolina Philharmonic and currently serves on their advisory council. One of his proudest accomplishments involves being the co-founder of the South Carolina Philharmonic Healing Harmonies Program. This program seeks to provide music as healing tool for healthcare environments. 

Dr. Clark has a strong passion for medical mission work and has traveled to numerous countries including Zambia, Ireland, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Canada, and Haiti to serve others medically and spiritually. He considers his faith a significant factor in his success and his practice. He enjoys spending with his family, exercising, writing poetry, collaborating with composers/artists, and traveling.

Lekhanath Sapkota is a national of Nepal and the President and CEO of the leading NGO, SPDM (Nepal) - “Sustainable Peace and Development Movement Nepal”. As the principal of SPDM (Nepal) and the director of his own dairy production company, Lekhanath International Dairy, Mr. Sapkota’s interests range from improving workplace safety to managing environmental responsibilities. His NGO addresses the theme of “eradicating poverty and promoting prosperity in a changing world,” an imperative that is also a prerequisite for sustainable peace. 

Mr. Sapkota holds in the belief that each country is responsible for achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs) in consultation with its people. SPDM (Nepal) advocates for governments to promote programming that develops knowledge to practice sustainable agriculture, and support stakeholders across the food system – primary small and family farm producers, food chain workers, and small and medium enterprises, particularly producer-led enterprises and cooperatives.

From individuals to local authorities to national ministries to UN agencies, Mr. Sapkota and his NGO take ownership of these goals in their particular contexts, and recommend the following regarding the SDGs:

Goal 1: Addressing the causes and manifestations of structural poverty by utilizing holistic, context-specific solutions interlinked with all other goals.

Goal 2: To end hunger and all forms of malnutrition, by changing agricultural production from high-input, industrial exploitation towards systems that support smallholders’ livelihoods and preserve cultures and biodiversity. 

Goal 3: Efforts to achieve health-related targets should prioritize the full spectrum of services from promotion, prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and palliation. Governments, through a multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder approach, must endeavour to remove social, cultural, and economic barriers to ensure full access to affordable, quality physical and mental health services for all. 

Goal 4: Obstacles to the actualization of gender equality and the fundamental rights of women and girls should be overcome through implementing laws and policies that prohibit discrimination, redistribute unpaid care work, promote equality in access to resources, education, and decision-making, in alignment with internationally agreed conventions and standards. 

Goal 5: All governments, including regional and local authorities, should promote inclusive, ecologically-sound industrialization and the provision of basic infrastructure that incorporates the protection of nature and participatory decision-making.

Goal 6: SDG 6 must be a keystone in protecting the oceans as a substantial part of the biosphere, a unique ecosystem, an integral part of human civilization and major food provider, and a common good with equal and fair access rights. 

In keeping with the commitment to “Leave No One Behind,” the full position paper of the SPDM (Nepal) details the ways in which the SDGs are interconnected, locally applicable yet requiring universal commitment, and essential for the eradication of poverty and promotion of prosperity for all. 

As a graduate of Tribhuvan University, a non-profit autonomous, pioneering public institution, and the oldest university in Nepal, Mr. Sapkota has had the privilege of collaborating with members of the university’s department of food technology and the department of geology, among many others, in implementing the goals of SPDM (Nepal).