Carissa Stolting is an artist & event manager, Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Unmanageable, and Founder/Principal of Left Bank Artists. In 2014, Carissa designed Left Bank with Grammy award-winning artist and cultural ambassador, Abigail Washburn, with the intent of creating an arts management company that champions artistic integrity and creativity above all. Left Bank has since become the management home to wildly inventive artists like Allison Russell, Leyla McCalla, Rachel Grimes, Wu Fei, Uncle Earl, Shane Parish, Ahleuchatistas and more.

Carissa has a passion for producing live events in addition to supporting the growth of artists’ careers. She was the Managing Director of the internationally renown Big Ears Festival (2018 & 2019), produced / curated Nashville International Women’s Day (2017), and Bela Fleck & Abigail Washburn’s “Circle Round Home” residency (2017), which raised over $30,000 for Nashville non-profit organizations.

Carissa is a board member of experimental chamber ensemble chatterbird, The Porch Writers' Collective, Sonosphere, and an advisory board member of Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures at University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Carissa holds an M.A. in French & Linguistics and was a French Lecturer before she began working in the music industry.

Celine Thackston

Celine is Co-Founder and Development Strategist for Unmanageable, supporting fundraising and organizational planning. A skilled fundraiser, she has helped to raise millions of dollars each year for a range of nonprofit organizations and individual artists. Clients have included major cultural organizations, human services nonprofits providing aid at both regional and national levels, grassroots groups, social justice institutions, an internationally-recognized music festival, and more. In addition to her work with Unmanageable, Celine serves as the Executive Director of the Hello in There Foundation, a nonprofit organization established by the family of John Prine to celebrate his legacy and generous spirit through community giving. She holds a DMA in Music Performance from the University of Oregon, with supporting studies in Arts Administration and a Graduate Certificate in Nonprofit Management. Celine has served as a grant reviewer for the National Endowment for the Arts, South Arts, Tennessee Arts Commission, and Metro Nashville’s Community Enhancement Fund.

Octavia Yearwood

Octavia Yearwood is Special Projects Director for Unmanageable, working to envision, build, and implement artist-driven projects that ensure artists have the resources needed in order to build and sustain careers. Yearwood is a true maven. She is a native New Yorker who has found success as an award-winning conceptual artist, producer, and life coach. Over the last 15 years, she has produced and curated for The Institute of Contemporary Art, The HistoryMiami Museum, The Bass Museum, The City of Miami Beach, The Soho House, AppleTV, and OUTTV. Yearwood has made her mark in various art mediums from film, to art curation and book publishing. Yearwood was named “Best Author in Miami” by the Miami New Times (2018) and was recognized as an Emerging Arts Leader by Americans for the Arts (2016) and one of the top 40 under 40 Black Leaders by Legacy magazine (2016). Yearwood was the recipient of an Ellie from Oolite Arts (2019) and named Knights Arts Champion by The Knight Foundation (2019), Knight New Work awardee (2019/2020), and Art in Public Places awardee by the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs (2022). Her debut docuseries on Black trans Women, "The Tranz Form", was picked in 2020 up by AppleTV and OUTtv. Her self-published book "How The Hell Did You DO That?!” is in 50 MDC Libraries, and her publishing house’s recent release, “Gracias Madre”, from emerging author Tara Benmeleh, is available at the Perez Art Museum. Yearwood's passion is empowering others to win, no matter what that looks like to them. She is known for creating opportunities for others to matter in the community and for self-actualization. Yearwood's motto: Create dope things while elevating unheard voices.