As a contemporary performer trained in the centuries-old art form of Japanese classical dance, I have an ambitious goal of expanding this legacy practice with new performance techniques and modern ideas of identity. Beyond the Box is a series of …

ESCP is an electric-acoustic performance duo that I started in 2016 with my good friend and long-time collaborator, Bob Garrett. For the past year and a half we have created and performed new compositions that explore the presence of music as …

MMIRI: Origin Stories is a short experimental film that offers a fresh interpretation of the creation story, drawing on traditional West African tales and a contemporary fantastical imagination. Storytelling and image-making have always been central components to who I am. …

Five years ago, I co-created The Franklin artist-run project space with my husband in the backyard of our home in Garfield Park. Since then, more than 100 artists have presented site-specific works for the visiting public. Perhaps lesser known to …

I’ve long been aesthetically intrigued by and visually interested in capturing various stages of Black Girlhood in my work.  “Prom Send Offs” is a new body of photographic work in which I document how African-American girls in Chicago celebrate the …

My project, we are, we are, seeks to change the conversation we have about mental health. Since having been diagnosed with schizo-affective disorder myself, in 2005, this project is both personal and deeply needed socially. Too often people with mental …

For the first time, I am creating a short dance film that will merge my choreography with poetry, prose, and musical composition. The title of the project refers to a fictional character and moniker of mine, Delinea Renda, which …

An Illuminated Feminist Seed Bank is a new publication that will tell the story of Seeds InService, a unique Chicago garden project where plant fibers are cultivated for art works, research projects, and public interventions. For the past five …

As a professional illustrator and animator, I’m excited to develop a short animated film called Block Zombies, which follows a young boy in Chicago whose school is in jeopardy of closing. I’ve had this idea in my head for …

For the past 3 years, I’ve been developing Thread.City, a series of collaborative site-specific installations consisting of text-based conversational threads that directly reflect the times in which we live. I was initially inspired by the comment feeds that follow …