My dad taught me that “A good painting breathes,” meaning not everything should be colored in. And now, this is how I paint people. I don’t want to engulf a person in paint, I want to accent their body. Through body art and photography, I try to reflect our many identities and movements. I create on skin because it’s art with a heartbeat. Showing people in all their varying abilities and rawness, existing in many ways.

www.jennyzander.weebly.com

Instagram: @jennyzander98

I am a community healer, facilitator, ecologist, and dancer. I was raised in South India and am now held mainly in Minneapolis, Mni Sota Makoce. I am deeply invested in the body as our site of practice, imagination, and decomposition as we transform our world. How do we return our bodies to love and belonging through touch, movement, and culture building? I am pouring my love and work towards a world that is abolitionist and caste-free.

mallipumedicines@gmail.com

I be BakiBakiBaki and I am a Twin Cities creative and abolitionist. You know my ancestors personally saw to it that I’d be Queer? Transgender too! They blessed me with not just Sight, but the ability to feel the absurdity of binaries. It’s one of the keys that makes all this shake! How do I know? Simple, I prayed and pray about it. My bloodline be Creole and Blackfoot. My bloodline is FILLED with prayer. Prayer. From me and my ancestors. When I’m writing, thats prayer.

Instagram: @aloverswar

I come from the people of the strong woods, Bois Forte, from the land of misty colored waters, land that birthed the Mississippi River. I come from people descended from the hole in the day, Bugonageshick. On the day I was born, my parents were harvesting wild rice. I am the Executive Director and one of the founder’s of the Indigenous Peoples Task Force. I am an artist, musician and writer. I am an environmental activist, leading over 23 Water Walks since 2011 to offer prayers for rivers including the Mississippi, the Missouri, the Ohio and the James River in Virginia.

www.indigenouspeoplestf.org

In my dream,  I was walking down the new road on the reservation past the cemetery and into the village. I sensed something following me – something dark and ominous, huge like a dark storm cloud. But I was afraid to turn around to look. 

Standing there was the man I had dinner with — smiling, handsome. What’s wrong, he said? You have to help me, something is chasing me, I said. I will but there will be a price…

What is the price to not be different?  To not feel alone?  Is it worth it?

In high school, I dove head-first into the world of Computer Music and a universe of sonic possibilities became my muse. Through many years of trial and error, transformations of mental and physical wellness and identity, I have continued to pursue healing through art. In the practice of this work, I began working with artists who needed production and engineering mentorship to hone their skills and further elevate their creations. Through dedication to craft and perseverance, I have opened a recording studio and production house of my own, Rotoscope Recordings in the Twin Cities.

ro@rotoscoperecordings.com

Instagram: @rowithaslash

When I am fully I, me and mine,
I am forgetful, singsong and occasionally unruly
impatient with my time here, instead of
elsewhere, I tap, curl, pull and scratch
which is often intended to help, but also further
serves reminder that I am the only one tapping,
curling, pulling and scratching at the only
brain in a body in a room in a house that
once held home for many before me, perhaps
They were less lonely