Amir Denzel Hall struggles with bios tbh. He knows this much tho; when he writes, performs or dreams, he feels free. And above all things, he is trying to share that feeling.

English BIO

Awilda Rodríguez Lora (La Performera) is a performance choreographer and cultural worker. Her artistic practice includes the creation of La Rosario, a home for healthy, collective and sustainable living. In addition, she collaborates in transgressive artistic projects, promoting freedom and expression through performance, dance, video and voice.

Spanish BIO

Awilda Rodríguez Lora(La Performera) es coreógrafa del performance y gestora cultural. Su práctica artística incluye la creación de La Rosario, hogar para la convivencia cuir, colectiva, saludable y sustentable.  Además, colabora  en proyectos artísticos transgresores, promoviendo la libertad y la expresión a través del performance, la danza, el video y la voz.

Beatriz Llenín Figueroa is a compañera and dreamer, a writer and theater apprentice. Alongside her beloved Lissette, they are devotees of Andre, the dog, and Clara, the cat. She teaches at UPR-Mayagüez as adjunct faculty. Her creative and political life revolves around Caribbean literatures and philosophies, island and archipelagic studies, gender and queer theory, decoloniality, theater and performance. Some of her work within PR's crisis was collected in Puerto Islas: crónicas, crisis, amor (2018). She is Editora Educación Emergente’s associate editor and a freelance editor and translator. With her Vueltabajo friends –and with every theater person who makes her an accomplice– she confabulates.

Growing up I was always fascinated by the creative work of television, and especially animation. It being so easy to pick up a pencil and draw, that's where it all started for me, as early as 8 years old. Through my adolescence, I frequently drew, but was never taking it too seriously; I didn't paint either, due to comparing myself to my very talented peers. It wasn't until November of 2019, and after learning my love for oil pastels in 2017, that I discovered my painting style. Painting became far more serious and a part of my life when I realized that above everything else I tried, this worked and fulfilled me. My inspirations for my work regularly come from my love for experimental hip-hop and jazz. The subject of my work is normally from observations and experiences from my work life as a waiter and a bartender, and of course my personal life also.

                               DENISE FRANCIS - ROBINSON M.A.Ed

                                       Artist  Educator  Creativity Specialist

Denise Francis - Robinson is an Artist and Master Educator and Facilitator. She is a multi-talented and highly creative individual. Denise is a graduate of the Edna Manley College for the Visual and Performing Arts and earned her Masters degree in Art in Education from the Ohio State University, in Columbus Ohio. She is a former principal dancer with Jamaica's foremost dance company the National Dance Theater Company (NDTC). With more than a passing interest in dramatic theater, she has also shared the stage with some of Jamaica’s known actors.

In her own artmaking practice, Denise is known for her brightly colored decorative art/ surface designs on ceramic, canvas and almost anything that will hold paint. Her artistic offerings  range from the whimsical to surreal. They are usually expressive with strong symbolism. She has participated in numerous exhibitions and art fairs.

As an accomplished costume designer she has been a three time awardee of the Actor Boy Award for best costume design. In the field of education she was awarded the Top Teacher Award in the JCDC National Visual Arts competition for three years in a row.

Today Denise adds creativity specialist and coach to her long list of creative abilities, engagement and accomplishments. She has an excellent reputation for organization and facilitation of exciting transformational creative workshops that focus transformation in individuals driven by a multi layered artistic process.

For Denise, sharing her wealth of experiences, to enhance the learning experiences of various types of learners of multiple intelligences is a priority. Within the classroom setting, she has engaged with students, from Kindergarten to college. Outside of the formal classroom she has worked with retirees, persons with special needs and disabilities, corporate teams, teachers of the Visual Arts and many others. Her experiences with individuals with special needs, include her own children, a daughter who was diagnosed with speech and language processing delay at an early age and her adult son who suffered a devastating stroke over 15 years ago.

As an artist, educator, facilitator, and caregiver, she has witnessed and experienced the power of transformation and revolution in consciousness through the arts with numerous persons from a variety of backgrounds. This phenomenon is exemplified in the miraculous recovery and transformation of her son, who earned a gold medal in the JCDC annual Visual Art competition.

It is against this experience and training that Denise brings to the table a depth of knowledge, understanding, structure and profound responses to her classes, talks and workshop activities as she engages with the arts for their intrinsic value for self care, self expression, transformation, as therapy and fun.

“Persons who see the arts as a viable option and opportunity to ‘create’ our way out of many of the challenges we face, as individuals or in our communities, would benefit from my particular point of view.” -

Denise Francis-Robinson

"The power of the creative impulse in all persons offers individuals and the world the solution to our biggest challenges."

Contact
Denise Francis-Robinson
2 Marley Close, Kingston 6
876-413-9518  876-620-6322

darobinson876@gmail.com

FB: Live Cre8tive

Dominique Hunter is a multi-disciplinary visual artist living and working in  Guyana. She received her BFA from the Barbados Community College in  2015 and secured the Leslie's Legacy Foundation Award for Most  Outstanding Work. Past residencies include Caribbean Linked IV (Aruba) and  the Vermont Studio Center Residency (USA), following the award of a Reed  Foundation Fellowship. Hunter has exhibited extensively locally as well as in

Los Angeles, Chicago, New York and Miami. She has work in several  prestigious collections including Guyana’s National Collection. Hunter is  represented in the state of California by ParisTexasLA.

'My art is the truth of my soul through which I communicate'

I am a meticulous individual, from the scenic parish of St Mary, Jamaica. During my formative years of life my passion for art was encouraged by my gram-ma and mother. Since my graduation from the School of Arts in Kentucky, USA., I have exhibited in various shows both locally and internationally. My inspiration comes from my love for the environment; its flora and fauna, social issues, my cultural identity and personal experiences. The urge to experiment with various materials also foster my innate desire to create and make art.

Evoné Walters is a graduate of the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts, School of Drama in Kingston, Jamaica. She has over 10 years experience in the theatre industry. She has worn hats such as stage manager, TV show production manager, radio producer and project coordinator. Currently she is a creative and social entrepreneur, theatre director and producer. She is the founder and managing director of Artribute Performing Arts, a company focused on using the performing arts as a medium of learning.

Gabrielle Wilkes was born in St Lucia but raised in the land of her parent’s birth, Trinidad and Tobago. She received her BFA in Art with a concentration in Metals from Ball State University where she graduated Magna Cum Laude amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite majoring in metals, she often works in mixed media, availing herself of any accessible materials. Her work is born from a constant introspection as she explores the themes of identity and culture.

She was the recipient of the prestigious Dean’s Scholarship, an Aspire Student Grant, and a scholarship to study abroad in Italy.

Soy artista transdisciplinaria del performance, videoartista y fotógrafa autodidacta.

Nacida en el Caribe de los 80, mujer queer, afrodescendiente, obrera del arte y la gestión cultural.

En mis piezas visuales y performáticas trabajo con nociones y conceptos sobre la descolonización del cuerpo, el artivismo, el espacio físico y conceptual de las fronteras, las mudanzas, lo político, lo escatológico, el ritual, lo erótico, lo infraleve, lo esotérico y lo cuir.

Tengo 34 años, he vivido en 11 ciudades, 7 países y 35 casas, lo que quiere decir que tengo más mudanzas en el cuerpo que años en el mundo y son precisamente esos traslados los que marcan una de las líneas temáticas más presente en mi obra: La migración.

Veo las instancias performáticas que diseño como secuelas de mi cotidiano. Hay verdad, también verdades ficcionadas. Trabajo con lo que me pasa, mi cuerpo y su ruta, como sujeto y objeto de estudio es el material.

Jeana Lindo is a multimedia artist based in Kingston, Jamaica. She is a graduate of Parsons School of Design's BFA Photography program in New York City. Her work has been exhibited in many cities including London; Chicago; New York; Washington DC; and Kingston, Jamaica.

Her large family and travel experiences inform her work which is focused on cultural identity and social issues. She expresses herself through collage, poetry, and textiles, and her primary disciplines are photography and painting. Through her art, Jeana intends to expand ideas of contemporary Jamaican art and stories from the African diaspora.

Jonathan van Arneman (AJ) is a dancer, choreographer, and musician from Soualiga (the indigenous name for St Martin, meaning land of salt). He is the 2019 recipient of the Momentum New Dance Works grant for emerging choreographers in Minneapolis and is the current Artist in Residence at the National Institute of Arts (NIA) in Soualiga. AJ is a previous company member of Ananya Dance Theatre and Afoutayi where he trained in Yorchha under the leadership of Dr Ananya Chatterjee and traditional Haitian dance under Djenane Saint-Juste, respectively. His training also includes West African dance forms, Modern, Caribbean Social and Traditional Dances, and Capoeira. His current project, entitled Atlantis Rebirth, is both a nod to the defiant history of black peoples in the Caribbean as well as an imagination of a post-colonial Caribbean utopia. It is the sequel to Atlantis13, a work choreographed in collaboration with Peace Madimutsa and a cast of brilliant dancers in Minneapolis that explores diasporic connections and black liberation. In the realm of music, AJ trained and performed with Souliga's Ebony Steel Orchestra for 10 years under the leadership of steelpan legend Isidore York aka The Mighty Dow.

Joni P. Gordon (BFA Photography, 2019) was born in Mandeville, Manchester,  Jamaica, in 1997 and is now based in Kingston. She has a passion for sculpture and  photography, which she explored while enrolled at the Edna Manley College.  Being a tactile learner, Joni merges her love for using her hands with her  photographic skills, bringing about a marriage of the two mediums that challenges  the conventional boundaries of photography. Her work has been exhibited in the School of Visual Arts Faculty Exhibition (2019) and Resonances: Selections from  2019 School of Visual Arts Final Year Exhibition in collaboration with Kingston  Creative.

Katrina Coombs, born in St. Andrew, Jamaica, holds an MFA in Creative Practice from Transart Institute via The University of Plymouth. Coombs' work has been featured in numerous international exhibitions, of which, her most recent includes, DVCAI traveling exhibition ‘Inter│Sectionality: Diaspora Art from The Creole City’, at the Corcoran Museum (2019) and her first solo exhibition ‘Iyami Aje’, at the Gene Pearson Gallery (2020). She has been awarded residencies with DVCAI (Miami), G.E.M. (New York) and Davidoffe Arts Initiative (Colombia). Coombs, works engages the role and existence of the woman, the M’0’ther through fiber. She lives and works in Jamaica.

Kenneth ‘Black’ Blackman is a sculptor, practicing for over 30 years.  His art developed through self-awareness, intuition, and inner guidance. He is deeply influenced by his love of Africa. He works mainly in wood, but also sculpts in stone and creates mixed media works utilizing the objects found around him.  His practice revolves around the exploration of nature and upliftment of Black people. He has participated in countless shows, has work in private collections around the world and the Barbados National collection. He has won numerous awards including a Jubilee award in recognition of his contribution to the Arts in Barbados.

Kevin Bhall is a self-taught artist and animator from Trinidad. He has been animating all his life and since the early 2000s has been producing independent animated projects, several of which have earned critical nominations and awards.

His films focus on a variety of themes ranging from environmental and cultural to humourous in nature. These themes are often combined together and delivered with stunning animation for maximum effect. Additionally, his hilarious viral animations done over live action video, known as "real life doodles" under the name "bloopledebleep1" have delighted millions on sites such as imgur, reddit, 9gag, instagram and more.

Even now he continues to push the boundaries of the medium in the new space that the internet has created, to spread humour, our Caribbean culture, environmental awareness and more.

Lisandro Suriel earned his Bachelor’s degree in Photography at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague and received his Master’s of Art by research in Artistic Research at the University of Amsterdam.  His on-going project Ghost Island employs Black imagination in order to generate linkages to a forgotten past and decolonial identity. Ghost Island also stands for Suriel’s insular background in Saint Martin, and connotes the Caribbean condition of complex overlapping histories. He proposes that the imaginative lens is arguably the best with which to view how folkloric figures act as an agent in history and animate cultural memory.

Llaima Suwani Sanfiorenzo, has had a career as a documentary filmmaker and video artist for a number of years. She is a Puerto Rican mother of two who graduated from EICTV in Cuba, and was awarded a scholarship from the University of Potsdam in Germany. She has a participatory film project called The Selfportrait Factory, and is a workshop owner and independent artist working with video art and social cinema. She works as coordinator of the Laboratory and Film Market at the Santo Domingo Film Festival, and is currently the President of the Association of Documentalists of Puerto Rico. #suwanillaima

Lysanne “GoddessEye” Charles is a native of the Dutch Caribbean islands of Saba and St. Maarten and has been writing poetry, short stories and songs for the past 30 years. For the past 15 years she has been busy with theater production, staging poetry events and writing calypso, power & groovy soca and roadmarch.  In 2017 she edited and self-published her grandmother’s memoir and in 2019 her own book HERE: A Collection of Queer Caribbean LGBT Affirming Poetry & Short Stories. As an artist/activist she focuses on themes around women, youth, Caribbean and LGBTQIA+ identity and empowerment, sexuality and spirituality.

Mariantonia Ordóñez studied Art in The University of Puerto Rico, La Liga de Arte, Escuela de Artes Plásticas and Casa Candina.  Her work has been exhibited individually and collectively from the year 1980. She was a member of Asociación de Mujeres Artistas de Puerto Rico, has illustrated children’s books and taught Art in Casa Candina, La Liga de Arte and Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico.  At the moment she works as an artist in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Niarus Walker is a 49 year old artist who lives and works in St. Croix, USVI. She has been a practicing artist  and educator for 25 years and is proficient in traditional wet and dry media. She also uses encaustic techniques in some of her work. Her focus lies mainly in  mixed media pieces which explore social issues through the lens of generational and collective memories and experiences mostly steeped in Virgin Islands history and culture. Niarus most recently completed a series of  watercolor paintings which explores the idea of women as the bridge which transfers our cultural traditions.

Nicholas Rose is a multidisciplinary artist, educator, designer and entrepreneur. He is best known as an artist, featuring his ‘heavily line decorated’ drawings, illustrations and paintings exploring the local archetypes, as featured in the Jamaica Biennial 2017 and the National Biennial 2014 at the National Gallery of Jamaica.
Remarkably, his works have been shown at Brooklyn Museum (New York), Gallery 550 (Texas), Warrington (UK) and recently in Venice, Italy.
Mr. Rose initiated ‘NRoseArtStudio’ which included six of his students. And, staged their first studio exhibition entitled “Project 119,” which opened at the Olympia Art Gallery and then travel to several other Spaces in Kingston including the Regional Headquarters, UWI Mona.

It is impossible to have a credible discussion about Hip Hop in Jamaica without mentioning Five Steez. Although the country isn't a hot spot for Hip Hop talent, the underground Kingston MC has graced international festivals and has been acknowledged by Earmilk, Okayplayer and The FADER. Reminiscent of the golden era, with a new twist, a common man’s perspective and an unheard Jamaican narrative, Five Steez’ music has been described by critics as ‘poignant’ and ‘soulful’, with lyricism full of imagery, storytelling and wit.

Rachel Chin is a filmmaker and researcher from Kingston, Jamaica. Currently pursuing a  Master’s in History at McGill University, she works freelance as a screenwriter and story  editor.

As an undergraduate, she was heavily involved in Columbia University’s DIY film scene. In  2019, she was selected as story editor in the JAFTA-JAMPRO-British Council Feature Film  Lab. Since then, she has worked on several projects within the Jamaican film industry and  facilitated an online screenwriting workshop for up-and-coming talent from the island.

Multimedium Visual Artist and Urban Scenographer.

Born in Guadeloupe in 1959, graduate of Beaux-Arts in Paris, former student of Arts-Déco in  Paris, has studied photography at the American Parson's School of Photography and art  history at the Sorbonne.

Exhibitions from 1981 to 2019 :

France, Japan, Guadeloupe, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Martinique, Senegal, Italy ...  In 2010, he received the "Innovation Prize" at the Triennale of Contemporary art in the  Caribbean (Dominican Republic), and in 2017 the "installation price" at the Biennale of  Contemporary Art in Florence, Italy. In February 2019, he exhibited at the Gallery 24 Beaubourg (France / Paris), an installation as part of a collective institutional exhibition, then  at the end of April at the Havana Biennale in Cuba. His Installation is kept at the Havana Rum

Rochelle Ward is a poet and teacher, who started writing poetry while attending the St. Maarten Academy, the school where she now teaches English and Literature. The recipient of the 2004 Hilary Becker Poetry Award holds a BA in English and Communications from Pace University and completed MFA-level creative writing courses at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad. Ward has recited her poetry at slams and literary festivals in Anguilla, Dominica, St. Maarten and Nevis. Her poetry appears in the anthology, Where I See the Sun—Contemporary Poetry in St. Martin (2013), published by House of Nehesi Publishers.

Samuel Sarmiento is a self-taught artist. In 2010, he undertook a Master's degree in Artistic Production at the Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain. He has participated in various exhibitions, individually as well as collectively in Venezuela, Aruba, Germany, Spain, Panama, Argentina and China. His work is composed of enigmatic characters, giving it an air of uncanniness, nonconformity and uncertainty together with a nuance of ludic and unreal sensations. His work is the "pictorial equivalent" of his emotions, thoughts and beliefs related with Caribbean folktales. Samuel lives and works in Aruba.

Sandra Vivas studied Art History at the Universidad Central de Venezuela, and later completed her MFA at the San Francisco Art Institute in the United States before moving to Dominica in 2009. Vivas is a video and performance artist with strong conceptual influences, questioning clichés about identity and the structure of power in relationships. Vivas works with multiple media including: drawing, painting, video, live performances and most recently film. In 2017 Vivas was at her home in Dominica when Cat 5 Hurricane Maria nearly killed her and her family. Since then, Vivas’ relationship with climate change became personal.

Sonja Dumas is a multi-hyphenate arts practitioner and theorist, specializing in Caribbean culture and working in the areas of arts consultancy, performance, choreography, teaching, filmmaking and writing.  She is a co-founder and co-director of COCO Dance Festival, the largest contemporary dance festival in the English-speaking Caribbean, as well as the founder and artistic director of her own dance company, Continuum Dance Project.

An award-winning filmmaker, Sonja has written, directed and produced several films that speak to the Caribbean experience. She recently established Zum-Zum Museum, an interactive children’s museum highlighting various aspects of Caribbean heritage.

Stephanie Leitch is a writer, feminist organizer, LGBTQ+ advocate and nonprofit leader from Trinidad and Tobago. In 2011, she founded the digital platform WOMANTRA, which remains the premiere hub for Caribbean and Diaspora social justice activists and cyber-feminist advocacy.  In 2015, Stephanie successfully transitioned the popular virtual space into a registered nonprofit and has headed the organization for the past five years. Her activism largely focuses on sexual and gender-based violence, social policy development and young feminist mentorship. Employing dynamic approaches to her advocacy, Stephanie has utilized popular theatre, art installation, creative campaign development and digital media strategies.

Susan Mains is an artist with a self-inflicted art education. An educator by training, she began painting while living in Dominica in the 1980’s. The Caribbean is her home, having grown up in Barbados and Grenada. Recent genetic research has revealed ancestors from Barbados as early as the late 1600s. More importantly, the love of place has inspired decades of communicating its beauty and essence via paint on canvas. A community art activist, she has been involved in the promotion of art in Grenada on a community, regional and international level. Her highest accolade has been the appointment of commissioner for the organization of the Grenada Pavilion at the Venice Biennale for three consecutive editions. In October of 2020 she was awarded the British Empire Medal by Queen Elizabeth for services to Art in Grenada. Her paintings have been collected world wide, and her contemporary installations have been exhibited in biennales in such diverse places as Dominican Republic, Rio di Janeiro, Venice, and Spain. Susan is an artist who follows her heart.

Vivien Elizabeth Armour is a multidisciplinary artist from Trinidad & Tobago. Having grown up around the world, Vivien explores the relationship between culture, race, tradition, ethnic hybridity, bodily autonomy and sexuality. Vivien currently situates her practice in the overlap of belonging and not belonging, exploring notions of alien-ness, indigeneity, post-colonial trauma and how that relates to identity. Her paintings juxtapose natural materials such as clay, spices, and raw cotton, with vibrant acid colours, reflecting the visceral energy of Caribbean culture, while focusing on the raw materiality of the earth and its relationship to the body in her ceramic practice.