After spending the first six years in Japan, DJinza Thayer grew up in Brooklyn, New York. She graduated from Johns Hopkins University and received an MFA in Dance at George Mason University. Based in the Twin Cities, she presents her work as Movement Architecture (MA).

Through public art collaborations across Minnesota, Moira Villiard is a multidisciplinary artist who uses art to uplift underrepresented narratives, explore the nuance of society’s historical community intersections, and promote community healing spaces.

Friday, May 3rd, 2024 | Doors 4pm | Artist Talk 6pm

Opening reception and program with social practice artists-in-residence Moira Villiard with collaborator Carla Hamilton and their project Waiting for Beds. This exhibition highlights youth artists and stories and explores what happens to individuals in crisis when they are made to “wait” for support, shelter, healthcare, and other services.

Yoni Light is a captivating and multifaceted performing artist known for seamlessly weaving together the realms of dance, film, and music to craft immersive storytelling experiences.

Sarah Abdel-Jelil is a Mauritanian-American filmmaker, dancer, and choreographer. As a dancer/movement artist, her artwork centers the body as a primary way of knowing and experiencing the world.

Songs in your Body on this Land February 16th (studio 331) & March 8th, 2024 (studio 240)

Led by GOOD TROUBLE, aka Conie Borchardt and Liz Digitale Anderson. We teach songs for joy, courage, grief, hope, and justice in the oral tradition, call and echo.

Conie Borchardt is a Mixed Asian Public Heart Artist and Cultural Catalyst, a listener and vibration holding space for truth, pain, and delight while inviting expression in sound, movement, and color within themselves and in others.

Sam Aros-Mitchell is an enrolled member with the Texas Band of Yaqui Indians. As an art-maker, dancer, and scholar, his work spans the disciplines of performance, sound/light/scenic design, choreography, and embodied writing.

Demian DinéYazhi ́is born to the clans Naasht’ézhí Tábąąhá (Zuni Clan Water’s Edge) and Tódích’íí’nii (Bitter Water). Their practice is a regurgitation of purported Decolonial praxis informed by the overaccumulative and exploitative supremacist nature of hetero cisgender communities.

NAKA Dance Theater’s José Ome and Debby will reflect on the creative process and why they were inspired to create Y Basta Ya! In collaboration with the women of Mujeres Unidas y Activas (MUA). The performance will feature performances by two women, Sarita and Maria, originally from Guatemala, who perform their stories through movement, storytelling, art objects and dance.

Founded in 2001 by co-directors Debby Kajiyama & José Ome Navarrete Mazat. NAKA Dance Theater creates experimental performance works using dance, storytelling, multimedia installations and site-specific environments. NAKA builds partnerships with communities, engages people's histories and folklore and expresses experiences through accessible performances that challenge the viewer to think critically about social justice issues.

"Between" is a video series seeking to sit, explore, and expand the often condensed, and unsettling space/state/site of "in betweenness."

Lela Pierce (she/they) is a Black multiracial artist, born and raised in rural MniSota Makoce - the ancestral and current homeland of the Dakota and Anishinaabe people. Lela has danced extensively with Ananya Dance Theatre as a founding member (2004-2016) as well as Rosy Simas Danse and Pramila Vasudevan of Anichha Arts (both 2015-present).

Drop-in session for self-identifying Black women

Arneisha’s Invitation:

If you want to come by, talk a bit about the upcoming sharing - a workshop for Black Women on May 27, 2023 - and vibe out with an informal peek-in of what we'll share in more detail on the 27th, come on by. It'll be flow-n-go and you'll move with us. And Black Women, you're invited to the in-person workshop on the 27th. Details forthcoming on my website