Season 2

Calli Roche

guest

Calli Roche is an American artist and pattern maker based in Brooklyn, NY. Her current work is a material manifestation of internal diatribes; an attempt to instantiate stream of conciousness narratives and profound whims. Using personal and cultural histories, both true and delusive, she creates artifacts to materialize inner monologues.

Calli frequently works with reclaimed objects, wood, skins, and textiles. The materials take on different ontological significance in each work yet frequently reference the fraught relationships between violence, identity, and sexuality. Their work has been exhibited at Colorado State University's Gustafson Gallery, The Colored Girl's Museum in Philadelphia, and Housing Gallery in New York City

As a pattern maker and textile art fabricator, she works to make tangible the ideations of the cloth creatives in her orbit. Vacillating between CAD programs and centuries-old hand techniques, they often find themselves immersed and obsessing over the geometry of the human body.

Christina Riley

guest

A small town girl with big city dreams, Christina Riley is originally from the Peach State, but now resides in the Big Apple.

She works as a publicist with a passion for creative, mission-driven work and has experience in publicity, media relations, and marketing at leading arts nonprofits in New York City and western Massachusetts. ]

She enjoys traveling, the arts, volunteering and learning. In other words, Christina is a human being being human, despite the odds, but in daily communion with grace.

Nyasha

author

Nyasha is an avid advocate for health and human rights. She is a global health professional and a fashion enthusiast. As a proud Zimbabwean fat femme in the diaspora, Nyasha is unpacking her stories as she navigates her way through life and hopefully connecting with others along the way.

Nathara

guest

Nathara was born in Montego Bay, Jamaica and, at age 9, moved with her family to Amherst Massachusetts.

She is a doctoral student in clinical psychology with a passion for mental health care access for black and brown people. Nathara’s work explores identity development, sense of self, and possible research tools to further understand post-colonial and intergenerational trauma, especially in her approach to therapy and mental hygiene.

As a three-year-old, sitting under a large tree at the University of the West Indies during a theatre rehearsal, Nathara was captivated. Her mother noticed and began supporting the development of her daughter’s love for performance. The arts sit powerfully in the depths of Nathara’s approach to healing.

An interest in the intersections of trauma and culture grew during Nathara’s undergraduate years. She believes that the tools we need to heal exist within us, but often require the help of a caring and skilled external resource. The arts remain one of those resources for Nathara, providing hope and profound stability during her most delicate times.

Jaleeca Yancy

guest

Jaleeca Yancy of JRY Designs is a multi-disciplinary artist from Memphis, TN, based in New York, NY. She comes from a creative military family of artists, designers, and entrepreneurs. Jaleeca is a graduate of Lipscomb University in Nashville, TN, with a dual major in Marketing and Design. After working as an in-house designer for multiple startups, she decided to focus her energy on creating her art and design studio. She is an illustrator, abstract painter, graphic designer, animator, experimental creator, art & culture producer, teacher, digital content creator, and installation artist.

Jaleeca has presented her work in group shows at the National Art Club, Superchief Gallery, Chinatown Soup Gallery, Bronx Art Space, and The Gallery LIC. Her minimalist illustration series, Contemporary Black Identity, has been reviewed by the international literary journal Mud Season Review. Jaleeca collaborated with up-and-coming poet Jillian Richardson on The Virtue of Doubt with illustrations and formatting.

Jaleeca has designed and facilitated a mural wall project with a group of volunteers renovating Bronx Girls Home Garden. She recently created a public art mural for The Harlem Community Fridge supporting mutual aid for food insecurity and Paint Memphis.

Jaleeca channels her multifacetedness into the freedom of expression through various mediums she engages within her art. She has extensive freelance experience in the creative industry as an art director. Her skills have allowed her to work in the film & tv industry, as part of the costume department for Apple TV+ and CBS.

She is currently splitting her time in her art studio in Memphis, TN, and New York creating content for an assortment of new mixed-media series. All while traveling America in her vintage Motorhome.