Host
Shawn Strong
Shawn Strong, a Newburgh native and graduate of Newburgh Free Academy. A real creative who delves into many art forms. From drawing and painting to DJ, music production, and filmmaking. After graduating from NFA in '94, Shawn attended St. John's University on a partial art scholarship as a Communications major minoring in Fine Arts. Some years later, Shawn attended SUNY Orange as a Visual Communications student, where he also learned video editing by taking TV Production classes.
This creative husband, a father of 2 girls, Ayah and Sabreen, studied Islam since 1994 and a practicing Muslim since 2007. He sits as a board member of Masjid Al-Ikhlas in Newburgh and a board member of the Arts Mid-Hudson arts council. In the past couple of years, Shawn has formed with fellow Hudson Valley filmmakers Jesse Brown and Angel Gates, founding Hudsy TV, a digital storytelling platform and co-op of the Hudson Valley. There, they create and curate digital content.
Shawn's love for Blaxploitation movies comes from watching them when he was young as his father was a movie buff and DJ. As a working creative, vinyl records, his late father's reel-to-reel, a turntable and mixer, and a Native Instruments Maschine MK3 series beat machine still fills his creative space to work. He still dabs into all of his love of the arts. Art is something he'll probably never outgrow.