Euneika Rogers-Sipp (aka NDGO)

Euneika Rogers-Sipp (aka NDGO) is a planning and design artist and the Founder of the Destination Design School of Agricultural Estates (DDSAE), a full-service community-owned art and design school that utilizes collective producer and maker insights to help meet the food and fiber realities of local networks. They have extensive experience in regional design and land use planning—from microscopic to landscape scales, and work intersecting ecological and cultural creation, design education, and public art. At the Destination Design School, she leads design development efforts that reflect local cultural production and vernacular traditions, preserve healthy land use, and reduce family vulnerability. She works in the Black Belt region of the Southern United States.

Through the research area of Destination Design School, they are making a case for the Black Belt region to continue its historical and continued trajectory of transformative formation as a fount and staging grounds for the Green New Deal. Additionally, they are creating a Reparations Design Residency, which seeks to compensate for and heal past harms as well as radically repair forward in ways that serve the combined interests of climate activists, blue-collar workers, and frontline communities in which agriculture has historically been the bedrock of health and well-being for Black Belt residents.

Euneika’s (NDGO) social art practice is internationally acclaimed and focuses mainly on the fields of durational performance, on-site material installation, and Land Art. NDGO’s versatile art has covered such themes as reparations, spirituality, ecology, and memory, often with the exploration of African American Agricultural History. The artist inserts her own body into different landscapes and acts out several other roles in her art. Rogers-Sipp has received some awards for their work, including the Harvard Graduate School of Design Loeb Fellowship, 2016, as well as being featured in Garden & Gun’s Southern Women: “More Than 100 Stories of Innovators, Artists, and Icons.

Ashia Ajani

Ashia Ajani is a sunshower, a glass bead, a carnivorous plant, an overripe nectarine. Hailing from Denver, CO, Queen City of the Plains and the unceded territory of the Cheyenne, Ute and Arapahoe peoples. Ashia’s writing is a kaleidoscope of her work as an eco-griot and abolitionist. At its core, Ashia’s work addresses how overlapping oppressions of colonization, environmental injustice, habitat/biodiversity loss and cultural atrophy contribute to the Black American experience, but also how creation, futurity and joy persist alongside these harms. Influenced by the Black Arts Movement, Planet Earth, femme MCs, bird song, collage art, kente cloth, and rotting fruit, their work speaks to the rich, sensory nature of Black life in communion with nature. Now living in the Bay Area on unceded Ohlone land, Ashia is a recipient of fellowships from Oak Spring Garden Foundation, The Everglades National Park, Tin House, San Francisco Museum of the African Diaspora and Just Buffalo Literary Center. Ashia’s words have been featured in Sierra Magazine, Atmos Magazine, Orion Magazine, and Transition Magazine, among others. They are the author of one collection of poetry, Heirloom (Write Bloody Publishing, 2023) and a forthcoming collection of lyric essays Tending the Vines (Timber Press, 2026).

Ifé Franklin

Ifé Franklin is a Black, Queer, interdisciplinary artist whose work incorporates many modalities, including: photography, adire textiles, written and spoken word, drawing, collage, choreography, sculpture, and installations. She has worked as a professional artist and Roxbury, MA-based community activist for over 30 years. Ifé’s artistic process is informed by her spiritual practice, with deep links to African Diasporic folk cultures. Through her participatory art practice–Ifé Franklin’s Indigo Project–she works with communities to build dialogue about our shared history of slavery that is both ubiquitous and pervasively invisible. 

Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ifé completed her studies at the The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Her work has been exhibited at UMass Boston, Medicine Wheel Productions/SPOKE, Franklin Park, the North Charleston Arts Fest, The Slave Dwelling Project Conference, The Eliot School of Applied Arts, and The Royal House and Slave Quarters. The Slave Narrative of Willie Mae was developed into a short film that can be viewed via Youtube.

In 2018 Wild Heart Press published her work of historical fiction titled: The Slave Narrative of Willie Mae (TNSWM), edited by Letta Neely, and printed by Red Sun Press of Jamaica Plain, MA. TSNWM is the fictional account of Willie Mae Lenox, a 20-year old Black woman enslaved in Virginia in the early 1800s, who sets upon her journey to freedom. This narrative is now a short film that can be viewed via Youtube.

Kevin Bernard Moultrie Daye

Kevin Bernard Moultrie Daye (aka Daye Ase Amen b. 1990, USA) curates, fabricates, teaches and theorizes about time, space, matter and spirit. The work explores how culture, climate, class, conflict and chaos is expressed in the built environments across the Diaspora. He is an Assistant Professor of Architecture at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona who holds degrees from University of California, Berkeley and University of California, Los Angeles.

Kera M. Washington – Drum Performer

Kera M. Washington is an artist, educator, and ethnomusicologist who has focused, over the past three decades, artistically and academically, on connected/sibling folkloric percussive arts in the African diaspora.  Kera teaches in the Boston Public Schools, at Wellesley College, and is the founder of an all-female, multi-ethnic, Boston-based world music ensemble, Zili Misik, founded in 2000: Zili retraces routes of forced exile and cultural resistance through diasporic rhythm and song, and performs roots music of the African Diaspora, or “New World Soul.”  As an African American, female, queer, multi-instrumentalist, mom, Kera is driven to create with artists who share a view of art as healing.

www.zilimisik.com 

www.projectmisik.com

www.kerawashington.com

Joh Camara – Drum Performer

Sidi Mohamed Camara, popularly known as “Joh,” was born in Bamako, Mali in West Africa. Surrounded by great artists and musicians as a child, Joh started traditional dance and drumming at the age of five. On his father’s side, he comes from the Camara ancestry that ruled in Mande Society. However, he mastered the art of music and dance from his mother, Fanta Kamissoko, a well-known Jali. Jalis, also known as Griots, are highly venerated in their traditional society as skilled oral historians who are not only singers, storytellers, and musicians, but also advisors and mediators.

With his award-winning dance companies (Troupe Sewa, Troupe Mande, Troupe du District de Bamako, and Percussion Fabla), Sidi has toured the Republic of Mali and many countries in West Africa presenting hundreds of shows. As Chief Choreographer of Troupe Mande and Troupe Sewa, Sidi led them to become among the most renowned and competitive troupes in the world of West African dance and drumming.

In 1995, with the famous Zani Diabate and Troupe Mande, Sidi came to the United States. In a very short time, he was presenting and teaching at some of our most prestigious universities: Brown, Princeton, Brandeis, Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, Berklee School of Music, Boston University, Washington University, and Olympia (Washington State). He currently teaches in numerous Boston Public Schools and other public and private schools and community centers. He also collaborates with organizations such as: Boston Ballet, Boston Symphony Youth Orchestra and Choir, Upward Bound, Planet Aid and others. Nationally, Sidi has presented at various museums, such as the Metropolitan Museum in New York City. He has also taught at various dance and music conferences.

Sidi Mohamed “Joh,” Camara presently resides in Boston, where he continues to teach traditional Mande culture, language, music, and dance as well as those of neighboring Guinea, Ivory Coast, and Senegal. In addition to holding weekly classes in Boston and touring the United States, Canada, and France, he currently teaches at various community centers and instructs a semester dance and drumming class at Boston University and Harvard University. Through his willingness to share at national conferences, community workshops, and academic engagements, Sidi continues to enhance cross-cultural exchanges and to make a positive imprint on the fabric of cultural arts and education in America.

Luana Brazzan Ramos – Drum Performer

Luana Brazzan Ramos is a drummer and percussionist from Lima, Peru. Her style blends afroperuvian rhythms with contemporary sounds.

Instagram: luana_brazzan

Ivanna Cuesta Gonzalez – Drum Performer

Drummer and Composer born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Graduated from the Dominican Republic Music Conservatory in 2015 and from Berklee College of Music in 2020, where she studied with some of the top well known musicians like Neal Smith, Terri Lyne Carrington, Francisco Mela, Tia Fuller, among others.

In 2022, she was selected to be part of the program Next Jazz Legacy directed by Terri Lyne Carrington, where she worked side by side and was mentored by Wayne Shorter and Esperanza Spalding.

Currently, Ivanna released her debut album as a bandleader, called “A Letter to the Earth” with the participation of the Grammy Award Winner Kris Davis on Piano, Ben Solomon on Sax, Max Ridley on Bass and Paulina Camou on Vocals by the label Orenda Records.

Website: www.ivannacuesta.com
Instagram: ivannacuesta91
Paiste Cymbals
Facebook
Youtube

Amelia Deshmukh – Drum Performer

Amelia is passionate about public art, urban agriculture, and spatial design for community wellbeing. She loves drumming, printmaking, and ceramics.

Rob G. – DJ

“The People’s DJ” (community member of Dorchester and Roxbury, Massachusetts)

J. Yolande Daniels

Professor Daniels is an Associate Professor in Architecture at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a founding board member of the Black Reconstruction Collective. She completed an M. ARCH. in architecture from the Graduate School of Architecture at Columbia University in 1990 and a B.S. in Architecture at the City College of New York in 1987. Her research investigates how societal ideas of race and gender influence spatial relationships and the construction of objects and places. Professor Daniels is a recipient of the Rome Prize in Architecture and a fellow of the Independent Study Program of the Whitney American Museum of Art in studio practice and cultural studies. She is a co-founding principal of the architecture and design practice, studioSUMO with offices in New York and Los Angeles. Both the practice and individual projects have been recognized for design excellence by the Venice Biennale, Japan National Design Council, German National Design Council, Chicago Athenaeum, AIA New York City Chapter, AIA New York State, New York State Council on the Arts and New York Foundation for the Arts, American Academy of Arts and Letters, Emerging Voices, Design Vanguard, and the League Prize.

Boston Liberation Center / Mia Montrose

The Boston Liberation Center is a socialist community center for and by the working class and oppressed peoples of Boston. As an educational, organizing and cultural hub, we bring people together to struggle around critical issues we face in our workplaces, schools and neighborhoods, and build unity across historic lines of division at home and abroad. We believe that together, we can build power from the bottom up to fight for a society that meets the needs of our people.

Mia Montrose is a senior at Harvard College studying environmental science and engineering. She is interested in sustainable materials, climate change resilience, and educational equity in her hometown of New York City and other major cities nationwide. Her senior capstone project explores the application of waste sheep wool as a biomaterial in buildings.

Dorchester Art Project: HAAWWS

Dorchester Art Project (DAP) is a dynamic, community-driven art and cultural cooperative dedicated to fostering creativity, inclusivity, and economic empowerment in Boston. Our mission is to provide affordable studios, performance spaces, and educational resources to artists, creators, and organizers, with a focus on supporting the BIPOC and arts-driven communities.
Through cooperative membership, studio rentals, event planning, workshops, merchandise, and cultural initiatives, DAP aims to be a catalyst for positive change in the arts and culture landscape. Our products and services include cooperative memberships, studio rentals: event planning/execution, workshops/accelerators/panels, and merchandise. Our key initiatives are based around:

● Economic Stimulation: Focused on creating new businesses and job opportunities
through strategic initiatives, space utilization, and marketing campaigns.

● Culture Building: Strengthening community ties through cultural projects, murals, public
art, and collaborations with local businesses.

● Arts Education: Promoting lifelong learning through multicultural festivals, collaborative
events, and partnerships with educational institutions.

Led by a diverse team with deep roots in the community, DAP’s management emphasizes cooperative values and a commitment to the mission.

HAAWWS is a multi-disciplinary recording artist (Rapper/Entrepreneur) , and entrepreneur from Roxbury, Boston. Known for sharp lyricism, visual storytelling, and insightful social commentary, he blends sound and visuals to capture the pride, struggles, and vibrancy of his city. With over a dozen releases, multiple visual projects, and a reputation for balancing braggadocious energy with vulnerability, HAAWWS creates Hip-Hop as true art—provoking dialogue and connection.

Beyond music, he is one of the co-owners of the Dorchester Art Project. An arts cooperative dedicated to nurturing the next generation of BIPOC thought leaders By providing spaces for artists to create, monetize their art and turn ideas into reality.

Mavis Gragg

Mavis is a “death and dirt” attorney and conservation professional with nearly twenty years of experience, dedicated to empowering generational, family real estate owners, particularly heirs’ property owners, with the knowledge and tools to sustain ownership and stewardship of their land. Her work highlights the critical role of heirs’ property in advancing affordable housing, rural and urban planning, climate resiliency, and equitable markets. By integrating strategies inclusive of natural resource conservation, Mavis champions innovative approaches to stabilizing family land ownership while promoting sustainable land use practices.

As the CEO of HeirShares, Mavis is leading the development of groundbreaking technology to provide affordable solutions for intergenerational, family-owned real estate ownership. A 2024 Loeb Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, she previously directed the eight-state Sustainable Forestry and African American Land Retention Program and managed The Gragg Law Firm, PLLC.

Mavis has chaired the boards of the North Carolina Parks and Recreation Trust Fund Authority and the Triangle Land Conservancy land trust, reflecting her commitment to conservation leadership. In addition to her legal and conservation work, she is an art enthusiast and co-founder of Pop Box Gallery, a zero-commission art gallery in Durham, NC, where she also serves on the Nasher Friends’ Board and the North Carolina Museum of Art Foundation Board.

Carlos Alonzo

Carlos Alonzo is a Boston-based Realtor with A.C.B. Realty, Inc.  where he specializes in guiding first-time buyers, and small-scale investors with complex transactions in the Greater Boston market. With a deep understanding of local neighborhoods, market dynamics, and down-payment assistance programs, Carlos helps clients navigate the complex path to homeownership while building lasting stability and opportunity. His work reflects a commitment to making the buying process accessible and empowering for individuals and families across the region.

Cecilia Cuff

Cecilia Cuff is a regenerative urban design and community development strategist from Chicago’s South Side whose practice bridges luxury hospitality design and development and equitable community building. With a global background in award winning resort and destination design, she applies the same intentionality used in shaping world class guest experiences to developing neighborhoods with resident centered amenities, cultural identity, and environmental stewardship.

As founder of The Nascent Group, Cecilia leads national interdisciplinary design and development projects at the intersection of design, policy, and investment. Her work advances small business ecosystems and anti displacement strategies that preserve heritage while catalyzing local ownership and economic resilience. Cecilia advises the Mayor of Chicago on equitable corridor development policy, translating community vision into financed, buildable projects accessible for all. While she has designed dozens of restaurants throughout the United States and abroad, she owns two in Chicago, Illinois (Bronzeville Winery), and Taos, New Mexico (The Stakeout), as well as South Side Sanctuary, a biophilic public space that serves as a community hub for wellness, entrepreneurship, and the arts.

Her team, an all female minority collective, has supported entrepreneurs in accessing more than 25 million dollars in capital, delivered billions in built projects from concept design through construction, and activated vacant land as platforms for civic engagement and enterprise. Cecilia also mentors young Black and Brown women to understand every stage of the design and development process, cultivating the next generation of civically minded designers, developers, and leaders.

A Loeb Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, her work explores design as a civic tool for healing, opportunity, and belonging.

Imani Day

Imani Day is a licensed architect, educator, and founder of her award-winning practice, RVSN Studios. She graduated from early from Cornell University’s School of Architecture and spent her early career in New York working with Robert Stern and Diller Scofidio. In 2015, Day moved to Detroit at the height of the
city’s bankruptcy to focus on community-oriented work, designing and building socially inclusive spaces across multiple scales of impact. Her interests and advocacy efforts support the equitable evolution of under-resourced neighborhoods, the authenticity of culturally grounded spaces, and revising design processes to focus on tangible social progress. Day’s practice has received accolades including the Young Architect Award AIA Detroit. Prior to coming to the GSD, Imani was a Design Teaching Fellow with Cornell University and has previously taught at Florida A&M University and the University of Detroit Mercy.

Imani will be moderating the “Ancestral Fabrications: Crafting Collective Memory” Panel.

Curry Hackett

Curry J. Hackett is a transdisciplinary designer, visual artist, and educator exploring Black relationships to land, media, and memory. A Farmville, Virginia native, his work works across scales and mediums to speculate on the aesthetics and ecologies of the American South.

Hackett’s work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Bloomberg, and Metropolis, among others. He has exhibited at the University of Tennessee–Knoxville, the Architectural Association School of Architecture, and the “Making Home”—Smithsonian Design Triennial at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.

Curry holds architecture degrees from Howard University and the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and currently serves as Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Media, Culture, and Communication at the NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development.

Curry will be moderating “The Spider, The Rabbit and The Preacher Man” Keynote.

Kiki Cooper

Kiki Cooper is a designer-activist, organizer, and facilitator. They received a BLA from Penn State and are currently at the GSD pursuing MLAUD and MDes Publics degrees. Their practice combines food security, design justice, education, community building, youth empowerment, queer identities, and mental health. With Design As Protest (DAP), Dark Matter U (DMU), and Bruxas Bruxas, Kiki advances their passions through collaboration, art, research, and academia. They serve on the Executive Board of Students With Psychosis and co-authored Design Justice 101 (Zonda, 2023) and Curating with Care (Routledge, 2024). Kiki also received Boston’s Neighborhood Activation Grant (2024).

Kiki will be moderating the “Blueprints for Liberation: Black Infrastructures of Creation and Care” Panel.

Leonard Allen-Smith

Leonard Allen-Smith is the Founder and CEO of Allen Smith Equities, LLC, a real estate development and advisory firm. With a deep focus on the New York market, Leonard has executed redevelopment projects, including gut renovations, vertical enlargements, and adaptive use conversions. He oversees acquisitions, development, management, and capital formation for the firm.

In addition to his development work, Leonard advises real estate firms on integrating artificial intelligence and automation into their operations, helping them enhance efficiency, decision-making, and deal execution through emerging technologies.

Leonard’s prior experience includes serving as Managing Partner at East Chop Capital, where he managed real estate funds focused on the short-term vacation rental market. Earlier in his career, Leonard worked at KPMG providing tax compliance services for real estate funds and REITs.

Leonard is a Certified Public Accountant and earned both his MBA and Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Hampton University. He is also a graduate of the inaugural Master in Real Estate program at Harvard University.

Leonard will be moderating the “Grounds of Inheritance: Land, Law, and Sovereignties” Panel.

Dr. Tracey E. Hucks

Dr. Tracey E. Hucks is the Victor S. Thomas Professor of Africana Religious Studies at Harvard Divinity School and the Suzanne Young Murray Professor at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. She has served as Provost and Dean of the Faculty at Colgate University; previously taught at Davidson College, where she was the James D. Vail III Professor and chair of the Africana Studies Department; and was chair of the Department of Religion at Haverford College. Hucks is the author of Yoruba Traditions and African American Religious Nationalism (2012), and Obeah, Orisa and Religious Identity in Trinidad: Volume One: Africans in the White Colonial Imagination (2022). Her most recent 2025 publication includes “If These Waters Could Talk”: Emmett Till and the Terror of Diaspora Waters” published in Open Casket: Philosophical Meditations on the Lynching of Emmett Till by George D. Yancy and A. Todd Franklin in observance of the 70th anniversary of the 1955 murder of Emmett Till. She is also the author of numerous articles on theory and method in Africana religious studies and religion and healing in the African diaspora, and has travelled extensively throughout Africa, the Caribbean, Europe and the Americas for her archival and ethnographic research on Africana religious traditions. Hucks is an initiated Iyanifa in the Yoruba priesthood of Ifa.

Dr. Hucks will be moderating the Princess Faniyi Keynote.