Calley N. Anderson (she/her) is a Brooklyn-based playwright from Memphis, TN. Her work has been staged at several colleges and 10-minute play festivals around the country, including commissions by the Davidson College Theatre Department and the University of Memphis Department of Theatre and Dance. Anderson is currently a National Black Theatre I AM SOUL Resident Playwright. Her work has been supported by Page 73, SPACE on Ryder Farm/RE Endeavors, American Theatre Group PlayLab, Downtown Urban Arts Festival, MacDowell, Liberation Theatre Company, Clubbed Thumb, The Civilians, and the Dramatist Guild Foundation. Anderson holds an MFA from New School for Drama and a BA from Davidson College.

Fellowship Statement

Almost everything I do (personally, professionally, and artistically) is inspired by, in service of, and/or a reflection of Southern Black folks. My Memphian-ness is the heartbeat of my work. Even if a particular play is not set in Memphis or the South, both are woven into the work—alive and pulsing in the background because it is my frame of reference for being in this world. I believe it creates an on-ramp for other Southern Black folks: to fully see themselves as the critical part of someone’s journey, the main and supporting characters on someone’s stage, and the audience, whose opinion matters most to at least one person in the world. Like many before me, I hope to use my work not just to build new narratives for Southerners to hold, but also for those beyond our Mason-Dixon to witness, engage with, and take seriously. 

Photo by Nathaniel Johnston.

Zainab “Zai” Aliyu is a Nigerian-American artist, designer, and cultural worker living in Lenapehoking (Brooklyn, NY). Her work explores the cybernetic and temporal entanglements within societal dynamics. She aims to understand how all sociotechnological systems of control are interconnected, and how we are all materially implicated through time. Aliyu is a 2023-24 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow and former co-director of the School for Poetic Computation. Her work has been presented internationally at Gardiner Museum (Toronto, Canada), Vienna Design Week (Vienna, Austria), Film at Lincoln Center (New York, NY), Smack Mellon (Brooklyn, NY), Museum of Modern Art (New York, NY), Miller ICA (Pittsburgh, PA), Centre for Heritage, and Arts and Textile (Hong Kong, China), among others. She has been awarded residencies at MASS MoCA (North Adams, MA), Haystack Mountain School of Crafts (Deer Isle, ME), The Luminary (St. Louis, MI), Casa do Povo (São Paulo, Brazil), and Pocoapoco (Oaxaca, Mexico), among others.

Fellowship Statement

I draw upon my body as a corporeal archive and site of ancestral memory to craft counter-narratives through sculptures, videos, installations, virtual environments, publications, archives, and social practice. Grounded in antiracist, decolonial, and feminist critiques of technology, my work situates personal, familial, and ancestral histories within broader sociopolitical frameworks. During the fellowship, I plan to research, conceptualize and build new works that experiment with sculptural and digital media, with an aim to expand the narrative possibilities of my practice.

ỌLÁKÌÍTÁN ADÉỌLÁ is a writer and experiential artist working between the lyric, multimedia installation, and theatrical performance. Kìítán’s artistry is in flux with ÌSÈSE of the Yorùbá tradition and continually devoted to storytelling eros and wayward survival. He authored the interactive memoir, Whiskery Squid and the experiential art box, Perfekt Trans~. Kìítán’s work has been exhibited and published in The Museum of Modern Art, Anthology Film Archives, The Wrong Biennale, Five Myles, NY Art Book Fair, Swiss Art Awards, For Space, Brooklyn Rail, Gulf Coast Journal, amongst others, and has received support from CUE Art Foundation, Recess Art, the Toni Beauchamp Award, Lucky Risograph, and The School for Poetic Computation.

Fellowship Statement

I dwell with lived experience, poke underneath the hood of time, slice and cut things apart to unravel submerged—historical, bodily, and psychic—realities within. Survival is also laying our stories bare. I am crafting a house—a novel—honouring ancestral thrums, heat and native rhythms. For a verse novel that crawls across generations, striding through time drenched in wild love and grief, it is important to give ear and eyes abundantly to its grunts, where it breaks and desires to be stitched back with crimson and gold streaks. This Fellowship will support my time to drill more into the lyric as a form to animate history and as a poetics of being. Perhaps epics choose us. I’ve had a realtime experience of this. The lyric and I continue to have the most intricate relationship.

A. E. Wynter is a Black, Jamaican-descended writer, editor, and curator living in Saint Paul, MN. She has received multiple grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board and has organized various events throughout the Twin Cities, including readings, writing workshops, and multimedia art exhibits. Wynter was a fiction fellow in the 2021-2022 Loft Mentor Series and a 2023 resident at the Carolyn Moore Writers Residency. Her poems have appeared in Torch Literary Arts, West Trade Review, Water~Stone Review, and elsewhere. Wynter received The Florida Review 2024 Editors’ Award in Poetry, the 53rd New Millennium Award for Poetry, and was recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

Fellowship Statement

As a writer, I explore many themes: family and womanhood, home and spirituality, memory and language, ghosts and genetic inheritance, the dissonance between being Black and American. Recently, I have begun to examine these themes through the lens of the body, or rather, body translation—interrogating emotional, spiritual, and physical scars to create a conversation in which the body talks back. Is body memory our most reliable record keeper? How does a body housing fractured histories become whole? Throughout the Fellowship, I will work on in-progress poetry collections and continue to experiment with existing and (re)imagined forms, finding ways of “bodying” the poem to process personal and communal histories. The goal is to create another language in which to understand the world, the self, and the unseen. 

Photo by Davide Ranieri.

Oanh Vu (she/her) is a puppeteer, educator, and community organizer. As a second-generation Vietnamese American, she employs humor and the playful art of puppetry to weave narratives centered on healing and social change for her communities. Her latest puppet show, Phantom Loss, follows a cast of multi-generational Vietnamese characters as they navigate the legacies of war and what healing can look like in the wake of historical violence. Oanh has been recognized with grants from the Jim Henson Foundation in 2023 and 2024. She began her puppetry journey with Monkeybear’s Harmolodic Workshop and served as a 2024 Maker Series Artist in Residence at Pillsbury House Theatre. Her work has reached audiences at various venues across the Twin Cities, including In the Heart of the Beast Theatre, Minnesota Opera, the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia), the Playwrights' Center, and Theater Mu.

Fellowship Statement

I hope to use this Fellowship to support the creation of my next puppet show, which will delve into the impacts of labor and capitalism on Asian Americans, whose value is often measured by their productivity. These damaging perceptions contribute to wage inequality and lead to issues such as overextension and burnout.

Additionally, I am excited about using this Fellowship to better balance my role as an artist with my work as an educator, and community organizer. I wrestle with how to effect tangible changes in people's material conditions. This is a question I am actively exploring and look forward to unpacking further. I find that narrative is a powerful tool to shape our understanding of the world and thus a way to create political change. The puppetry field in America is sorely lacking BIPOC artists, so many of our stories are missing from this artform, despite puppetry having historical global roots. As a Vietnamese American I want to continue creating shows that are unapologetically Vietnamese but generally accessible to non-Vietnamese people.

Photo by Ryan Stopera.

Amy Usdin weaves onto worn nets, sculpting work that speaks to loss, longing, and the dissonance of nostalgia. With a BFA in Graphic Communications from Washington University, St. Louis, she began her current practice in 2018. She has exhibited throughout the United States and in Australia in surveys representing the diversity and breadth of contemporary craft and fiber art. In 2025, she will open solo shows at Lawton Gallery in Green Bay, WI and the Appalachian Center for Craft in Smithville, TN. Usdin has held residencies with Hafnarfjörður Centre of Culture and Fine Art, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, the Miller Art Museum, and Praxis Fiber Workshop. She has received past support from the Minnesota State Arts Board and the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council. Usdin  is a 2024 Stone and DeGuire Contemporary Art Award recipient and a 2024/25 MCAD–Jerome Foundation Fellow.

Fellowship Statement

I needle-weave abstract physical and psychological landscapes onto aging fiber artifacts—most often fly nets for horses and fishing nets. As I recontextualize these materials of trade into critical and aesthetic space, the transformation creates new narratives that honor the revolving intersections of past and present. The ragged nets act as empathic objects, offering a point of connection and shared humanity. I am increasingly interested in the correlation between bodies of land and water and bodies of flesh and blood—the trauma they endure, what is inevitable versus imposed; weaving fills a need to document these scars aesthetically. Throughout the Fellowship years, this slight conceptual shift will find expression through net sculptures as well as loom-woven work that sits in conversation with them.

Mohammed Sheikh is a self-taught filmmaker, director, and cinematographer dedicated to capturing the unique narratives of Somalis. His filmmaking journey began unexpectedly in the Kebribeyah refugee camp in Eastern Ethiopia. There, his mother’s storytelling and audio tapes kindled a passion in him for storytelling and film. Through films like The Forgotten Ones and Balwo, he sheds light on the resilience, culture, and experiences of his community, aiming to foster understanding and preserve Somali stories. His work is a blend of authenticity and visual impact, celebrating the depth of Somali life. His short narrative films The Forgotten Ones and Luul have received recognition on platforms like CBS, Sahan Journal, and MPR News. Sheikh received a grant from the 2023 Jerome Foundation MN Film Production program.

Fellowship Statement

I aspire to tell authentic Somali stories that amplify community voices and challenge stereotypes. By adding dreamlike visuals and symbolic imagery, I want to bring fresh perspectives to my work and spark important conversations. During the Fellowship, I plan to focus on improving my craft, sharing my films at festivals, and connecting with a wider audience. I’m working to share my documentary The Forgotten Ones, which highlights the opioid crisis in the Somali community. This opportunity will allow me to dedicate myself fully to my artistic journey and make a meaningful impact through my storytelling. I’m currently working on my first feature film, Barni, about three friends searching for a missing girl in a Somali village and developing a new project about family and displacement.

Mary Prescott is a Thai-American interdisciplinary artist, composer, and pianist who explores the foundations and facets of identity and social conditions through experiential performance. Her output includes several large-scale interdisciplinary works involving music, theater, film, word, and movement; as well as improvised music, opera, sound journaling, film music, solo, and chamber concert works. Prescott is an awardee of the McKnight Composer Fellowship, the Princess Grace Award, NPN Creation and Development Fund, a New Music USA Grant, and many more. Her recent residencies include Loghaven, Camargo, VCCA, and Lanesboro Arts. Prescott holds piano performance degrees from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and Manhattan School of Music and is a Steinway Artist.

Fellowship Statement

Responding to my own encounters with marginalization, I create embodied work that draws critical attention toward social imbalances. By illuminating invisible stories, recovering lost and forgotten identities, and untangling systemic impacts of social and cultural structures, my work gives voice and brings awareness to underrepresented communities and subject matter, focusing on Asian-Americans, women, and mothers. I connect to audiences with searching, mysterious, and evocative performances that activate empathy and responsibility, and ultimately initiate social change and justice. During my Jerome Fellowship, I will develop Ancestral Table, a shared meal and interdisciplinary performance, including music, word, movement, and film, that examines the relationships between ecology, migration, cultural inheritance, and maternal legacy through my Thai mother’s family recipes. This work furthers my explorations of Asian mythologies, folklore and Futurism.

Photo by Bill Phelps.

Alys Ayumi Ogura (オグラ アリス ア有美)(she/her) is a dance performance-maker, storyteller, dancer, and through her movements, voice, and quirky humor. A Twin Cities-based native of Japan, Ogura has been developing her own work since 2015. Ogura started her dancing with two mentors: the late Mika Kurosawa and Rob Scoggins, who each offered unconditional encouragement. She has worked with more than 40 artists—near and far—including Hauser Dance, Emily Johnson/Catalyst, ASDC, Emily Gastineau, Sandrine Harris, Kata Juhasz, Pam Gleason, Pramila Vasudevan, and Laurie Van Wieren. Ogura has created more than 20 works performed in various U.S. venues, including the Walker Art Center and Southern Theater. Recognition highlights include: Arts Organizing Institute (2017-18), Naked Stages (2021) Fellowships, An Isolated Act commission at the Red Eye Theater’s New Works 4 Festival (2023), and Keshet Makers Space Experience Residency (2024). Ogura is also a steering-committee member for DanceMN.

Fellowship Statement

When I develop and perform my work, I want to challenge the audience's acceptance of ambiguity by flipping the power dynamic and centering on my mother tongue, and Japanese views and values. My thematic foci and social concerns focus on my identity as an Asian woman who speaks English with a Japanese accent.  I wonder how I can offer my audiences—particularly those with different cultural frameworks for navigating the world—a glimpse of my worldview. This is the question I want to continue pursuing, to provide a safer, more enjoyable, and perhaps even transformative experience for my audiences. I want to use my voice to give a platform to those who have similarly marginalized voices. Rather than appropriating others’ voices, I will be a good ally and amplify their voices through my own creative work. This is a challenging, but worthwhile endeavor I am eager to continue exploring. 

Photo by Pat Berrett. Courtesy of Keshet Makers Experience Space, Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Taylor Ngiri Seaberg (they/them) is a Black, bi-polar, gender non-binary composer, multi-instrumentalist, photographer, and organizer based in South Minneapolis, Minnesota with artistic communities in Chicago and Mexico City. Born in Kusel, Germany, migrating to the southeast coast in Norfolk, Virginia, and settling with family in Minnesota, Ngiri was introduced to different music styles in their formative years. Their main love is the bass guitar. They go by the tongue-in-cheek artist moniker, “Manic Pixie Dream Boi” to highlight representation of bi-polar disorder within the Black queer community. Ngiri was awarded a Minnesota State Arts Board (MSAB) 2019 Cultural Community Partnership grant for an artist networking series called Artist Feast. They were awarded a Foundation for Contemporary Arts (FCA) grant and Red Bull Arts grant for their protest photography around the Uprising in the Twin Cities in 2020 and a 2021 Metropolitan Regional Arts Council’s Next Step Fund. They also performed in an artist residency, The Playground Experience, curated by 2021-2023 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, Vie Boheme, in partnership with Public Functionary.

Fellowship Statement

Ngiri's work lies at the intersections of protest work (with photography and songwriting focusing on the Black experience) and breaking the mental health stigma, having been diagnosed with Bi-polar type 1 from a young age. They play bass and electric guitar, piano and flute, all of which they self-record and self-produce.

During the fellowship period, Ngiri aims to highlight the intersections of bi-polar disorder and artmaking, specifically with their self-produced (albeit slightly manic) album—a kaleidoscope of diverse beats called Manic Pixie Dream Boi, the queer tongue-in-cheek moniker that is also their artist name.

Photo by Alex Hazel.