previously featured artists
adrienne maree brown
adrienne maree brown is the author of Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good, Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds and the co-editor of Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction from Social Justice Movements. She is the cohost of the How to Survive the End of the World and Octavia’s Parables podcasts. adrienne is rooted in Detroit.
NICHOLE WASHINGTON
Nichole Washington is a visual artist working and living in New York. She uses photography, paint and design to create bold and expressive images that are an exploration of identity and spirituality. In 2016 she graduated from School of Visual Arts where she earned a masters degree in digital photography. Nichole’s work is featured in the inaugural issue of MFON: Women Photographers of the African Diaspora. She has created art for popular organizations and programming such as InsecureHBO, Black Girls Code and Refinery29. Nichole has led hands-on workshops at Casita Maria, Vibe Theatre and Lower East Side Girls Club.
NINA GRAE
Nina Grae is a California-based singer-songwriter, recording artist, DJ and creative group facilitator fiercely committed to spreading music with conscious, love-based, relevant-to-the-times messages. "Uplift, Unite & Inspire" is her creative mantra and a vision of a world unified through compassion and empowerment serves as her compass. She has opened up events for Rev. Michael Beckwith, Marianne Williamson, and Jane Goodall with her original song, 'We Are Creators", and continues her walk as an Ambassador of Love in Los Angeles where she currently resides.
VANESSA BOWEN
Vanessa Bowen is a Diné (Navajo) multi-faceted artist, graphic designer, and entrepreneur. She was born in 1985 into a large family of artists, teachers, politicians, military members, and entrepreneurs.
Bowen was born and raised in Naʼnízhoozhí (Gallup, New Mexico), a border town on the edge of the Navajo Nation. Growing up her imagination flourished among the vast semi-arid landscape filled with sagebrush and juniper trees.
In 2016, she became well-known for producing "Make America Native Again" hats as a way of starting conversation about the problematic history behind Donald Trump's presidential campaign slogan -- "Make America Great Again" -- and to raise awareness for marginalized indigenous peoples in the U.S.
james jones
James Jones is a traditional hoop dance artist who has performed and traveled across the world and is amoung the top 3 hoop dancers in the world. Some of James notable performances include the 2006 World Ski Cup Championship in Italy, 2010 Vancouver Olympics, 2014 JUNO Awards, 2015 Pan Am Games, the 2015 Coachella Music Festival, and the 2015 Sydney Opera House.
James has worked with such artists as k-os and Snoop Dogg. In 2009 James appeared as a finalist on popular TV show “So You Think You Can Dance Canada” and is currently hoop-dancing on a world tour with JUNO Award-winning group “A Tribe Called Red.”
Kanyon "Coyote Woman"
Sayers-Roods
Woman" (Hahashkani) Sayers-Roods is a Mutsun-Ohlone and Chumash Two Spirit Indigenous relative. She is proud of her heritage and her native name and is an active leader in the Native Community. Kanyon is the Co-founder & CEO of Kanyon Konsulting LLC, where she strives to bridge the gap between indigenous and contemporary value systems.
Kanyon thrives as an artist, poet, author, activist, student, and teacher. Her art has been featured at the De Young Museum, The Somarts Gallery, Gathering Tribes, Snag Magazine, and numerous Powwows and Indigenous Gatherings. She is a recent graduate of the Art Institute of California, Sunnyvale, obtaining her Associate and Bachelor of Science degrees in Web Design and Interactive Media.
ANGELA HENNESSY
Angela Hennessy is an Oakland-based artist and Associate Professor at California College of the Arts where she teaches courses on visual and cultural narratives of death and contemporary art. Through writing, studio work, and performance, her practice questions assumptions about Death and the Dead themselves.
In 2015, she survived a gunshot wound while interrupting a violent assault on the street in front of her house. Her manifesto, The School of the Dead, was written in the following months of recovery. Alternating between poem, prayer, and call to action, The School of the Dead is in development as an educational program for aesthetic and social practices that mediate the boundary between the living and the dead. She lectures and teaches workshops nationally.
NKECHI NJAKA
Nkechi Deanna Njaka is a neuroscientist, artist, meditation guide and public speaker in SF. She is the founder of NDN lifestyle studio, co-founder of Sitting Matters, a 2017 YBCA Truth Fellow and an upcoming 2020 Kennedy Center Artist in Residence. She is also an SF lululemon ambassador for her work in mindfulness.
She has spent the majority of her life investigating the relationship between the brain and the body and has always felt the significance of their integration. Through her work, research, practice and study, she discovered that mindfulness and creativity are crucial for sustaining individual and global wellbeing. Her work intersects wellness, science, art and social practice.