Christianne Ebel, a Queer BIPOC photographer & visual artist, grew up surrounded by family lore in a multi-lingual, multi-cultural, and multi-generational household situated in rural NJ. Her family tales, which originated from different parts of the world, founded her. Those stories inspired Christianne to seek out how people, events, cultures, languages, identities, and silent moments come together to make a narrative. Later on, her passion for stories and storytelling turned into a career as a photojournalist for nearly two decades.
Read MoreMay 2024 - Katelyn Halpern
Katelyn Halpern is a multidisciplinary artist living in Jersey City, New Jersey.
Read MoreApril 2024 - Chanika Svetvilas
Chanika Svetvilas is an interdisciplinary artist and cultural worker whose practice focuses on mental health difference. Her work is an extension of her continued interest in using narratives as a way to challenge stereotypes in contemporary society and to create safe spaces. She is a disability justice advocate filled with Mad Pride.
Read MoreMarch 2024 - TyLie Shider
Tylie Shider is an American writer and the inaugural playwright in residence at ArtYard. A McKnight Fellow in Playwriting at the Playwrights' Center, he is a recipient of Premiere Stages' Liberty Live commission, two consecutive Jerome Fellowships, and an I Am Soul playwright in residence at the National Black Theatre.
Read MoreFebruary 2024 - Estefany Rodríguez
Estefany (Stef) Rodríguez, a 26-year-old Latina artist and art educator from the Dominican Republic, is on a mission to ignite artistic inspiration in the next generation, using art as a means of healing and growth.
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July 2021 - Alicia Saadi
Alicia Saadi is a multi-disciplinary artist whose current focus is collage. Her work often references the aftermath of civil unrest, as well as the sexist portrayals of women that lingered during her childhood.
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May 2021 - marcus d. harvey
NJ-based award-winning performer/writer & educator, marcus d. harvey believes in the power of art and its transformation. marcus recently directed Surely Goodness and Mercy at Passage Theatre Company. He is currently at work on his first full length play, i am not okay, centered around depression, suicide and mental health in the Black and Latinx communities. He currently teaches acting at Montclair State University and New Jersey City University. His motto for life is “On the other side of fear is a fantastic possibility.”
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April 2021 - Kirk Maynard
Kirk Maynard is a mixed media artist who is originally from Brooklyn, New York. A second-generation Guyanese-American, Maynard’s work focuses on the political undercurrents of culture and identity in America. His work has been exhibited in solo and group shows in New York City, San Francisco, and New Jersey. He has also given artist talks at the New Museum, Queens College, and Princeton University. Maynard currently lives and works in Orange, New Jersey.
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March 2021 - Kenya Bullock
Kenya Bullock is an interdisciplinary artist and civil rights advocate from Trenton, NJ. In August 2018, Kenya began working with Ping Chong and Company, as a Generation NYZ Fellow and Associate Lighting Designer for BAD HUSBAND //\\ BAD HOMO. In March of 2020, Kenya launched her own community theater Tha Block Theatre Company, LLC. Tha Block intends to become a cultural hub in Trenton, NJ, with a mission to promote theatre and art as healing tools. Kenya has worked with artists such as Charlotte Brathwaite, Abigail Deville and Sanford Biggers, and interned with BlackStar Film Festival and Trenton‘s Passage Theatre. Kenya’s goal as an artist and community advocate is to redistribute resources while also providing a space of artistic exploration and healing for Trentonians. She received a Theatre Design degree from Dickinson college. Kenya’s studies focused on how different art forms are the language that connects the African Diaspora and how that understanding can be used to heal the communities of the Black and Brown. You can make a direct contribution to Kenya via the Cash.App/$thablockllc.
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