With this campaign, my goal is to produce a short fiction film that blends my identities while pushing the stories we see of Muslim and queer women. The purpose of this film is to also challenge and propel my own …

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 …