Allow Me to Introduce Myself
I am an organizer drawn to projects that are transformative and embrace diverse communities in efforts for systemic change. Thorough following my varied passions and generating opportunities for community participation, I feel successful in contributing to the greater good!
I invite you to take a look at some highlights from my experiences...
My aim is to bring my unique skill-set cultivated through these experiences and to be of service of a progressive organization.
AN OVERVIEW OF ORGANIZING & COMMUNITY EXPERIENCE
2003-2007 I had the unique opportunity to participate with a not for profit Grand Street Community Arts (Albany, NY). I was elected the President of the Board of Directors after volunteering for a summer with the organization's youth programming. GSCA renovated a historic Catholic Church into a vibrant arts center.
I spent five years organizing and fostering connections between communities of color and the alternative lifestyle community located in the south end of the city. I combined my interests in local music, avant garde art, and political activism in order to establish a dynamic catalog of programs and events. Programming included Youth FX, a youth media production series and YO! Youth Organics a teen employment program in urban agriculture. For one exhibition I coordinated: We Are Architects> Building One: Blanket Fort City, received recognition from a local assemblyman as a relevant creative contribution to community.
2007-2009 While living and working at Earthdance, I discovered a passion for movement and the healing capacity of the body. I dove into the dance culture exploring Contact Improvisation, Contemplative Dance, Authentic Movement, Body Mind Centering, Mahler-Klein Technique, Wild Goose QiGong, Tuning Scores, Suprapto Suryodarmo's Bali infused dance at the S.E.E.D.S. (Somatic Experiments in Earth, Dance, and Science), techniques with choreographer Miguel Gutierrez, and I even took a vacation and attended the Melt Festival with to participate with choreographer Terre O'Connor at the Movement Research Center. Without a doubt, it was a great opportunity to dance and discover contemporary movement modalities with direct exposure to the choreographers and originators of the forms.
2009-2013 After Earthdance, I attended University of Minnesota in Minneapolis continuing studies in art. While at university, I was fascinated with contemporary art. While in school, I worked for Kairos Dance and the internationally recognized Walker Art Center. In my studies, I explored performance art and continued to infuse movement in my video work. I became involved with a group led by the dynamic artist Ali Momeni, Minneapolis Art on Wheels (MAW). MAW focused on collaborative and public projection art, utilizing mobile projectors and bicycles. I was influenced to think about public interactions in art and designing project for the delight of audiences.
2013-2016 I developed a personal art practice that focused on public interaction. For instance, I collaborated with a soft sculpture artist to generate an interactive glow in the dark work: the Pollinator Path, designed for the Greenway Glow (a nighttime art event on a bike path). With Coloring , I staged an interactive 'coloring contest' at a co-op cafe setting. While in Minnesota, I had the opportunity work with other public projects including: Marcus Young and Grace MN for The Lullaby Experiment for the Northern Spark Festival, I also was hired to manufacture over 1,000 light up wire forms, with Meena Menglhadaver, for a Take the Field event. I began to organize events that infused music, movement, and traditional wisdom. One example is the Cross Pollinations event which was held as a fundraiser for the MN Danza de la Luna. The event combined a teaching on sacred corn with Abuela Sylvia Sharma, music with the Peruvian group Alma Andina, and a movement workshop developed to address oppression by Embody Deep Democracy's Founder Zea Leguizamon.
Pursuing my passion for movement and community healing, I invited Maria Heleyna: a BioDanza facilitator to share her offerings in dance, music, and healing in Minnesota. Together we pioneered a pathway for Biodanza in the Midwest. Maria continues to bring the form to the region with Conscious Dance Minnesota. For International Women's Day with KFAI Radio (MN) I produced a piece influenced by ceremony, titled Moonbeams Women of Luminescence: where I interviewed women from a variety of traditions speaking about their connection with the moon.
2015-2018 I traveled in Latin countries, exploring culture, justice through resistance agriculture, learning Spanish, and spent a season organizing with a Native focused urban farm project, Mashkiikii Gitigan. I discovered nuances in the delicate balance of navigating traditional communities and organizing between cultures. I participated with Witness for Peace, in a Delegation to Oaxca, that met with indigenous families, groups, and organizations working towards sovereignty and peace in trade relations. The experience with the Delegation reshaped my understanding of how groups can work in tandem and solidarity functions to keep creating stronger networks for justice and change. During this time, I was actively working as an artisanal barista, in between world travel.
2020-Current In response to the murder of George Floyd, I produced a national radio program, Voices of Uprising, featuring BLM, and a BIPOC healing arts collective, in addition to an interview with Peacemaker Melvin Giles. I found a place of refuge at the Peace Garden, bringing medicinal herbs and vibrational medicines to the garden and collaborating with volunteers. I followed the seasons, via an immersion in grief, and also produced a radio segment, Opening to Grief, designed to assist listeners to moving through the waves of grief associated with the George Floyd Murder. Exploring White Body Supremacy, also felt the call to action, and I was grateful to find support with a somatic based group.
Agriculturally speaking, I was pulled into the unique world of indoor mushroom cultivation, and experienced a crash-course in caring for this sentient food source. Diving-into mushroom frequency, in addition to the unique tending of growing conditions was my post pandemic calling, in addition to supporting the efforts of the Myco-Operative community.
Protecting Frederick-Miller Spring, and furthering the Native narrative on Dakóta land, took over the season. An imminent threat of development initiated a cross-cultural community response. The City of Eden Prairie, MN held a public hearing that garnered local media attention~ I assisted with the public parade to City Hall: WCCO 4 Eden Prairie Residents Fight Frederick Miller Spring Development. I quickly became active within the political response, and also fundraised to support the project in addition to the seed-idea of a cultural talking tour. Collaborative efforts with members of the American Indian Movement as well as intersecting with Ramona Kitto Stately of We Are Still Here MN, played a pivotal role in a dedicated response. This effort is still in progress, with an active legal appeal to forward and Environmental Impact Statement.
Above: A sampling of the variety of working across disciplines and cultures. From top left to right: Organizing independent workshops in Bio-Danza with Canadian facilitator, organizing an Ojibwe Language Table as community curriculum, bringing the 1st Somali teacher to Mashkiikii Gitigan, organizing with the Ojibwe led Women and Water Symposium with Native Elder Maryellen Baker, painting with Somali Step-Up Youth, interactive project for Open Streets, face-painting as a fundraiser for a Mexica cultural organization, an event organized with Afro-Columbian peace worker Daria Q., a drum makinng workshop organized with local native drum instructor Michael Norcross, teaching English in Teotitlan de Valle Village Mexico.
