SHAINA LYNN SIMMONS is an actress, performance artist, and creative producer, healer, and author. She says, “At the interstice of activism and artistic praxis, my work seeks to heal the past, tend to the present, and reimagine the future of the diaspora […] as an organic archaeology to elevate Black stories.”

KAI HAZELWOOD doesn’t mince words when it comes to what she thinks we need more of in the arts. “I'm less interested in how the field is changing and more interested in remaking it entirely by disempowering its traditional structure and building an independent, stable, and lucrative collaborative that can operate outside of the traditional axis of institutional funding and support.”