Relief Residencies
Conceptualized in response to Covid-19, these residencies provide one-to-two week retreats for local BIPOC artists and culture bearers. 2020 - present
Relief Residencies provide one-to-two week funded residencies for local, BIPOC artists and culture bearers who have not participated in an artist residency before. The mission of A Studio in the Woods, a program of Tulane University’s ByWater Institute, is to foster creative responses to the challenges of our time by providing retreat to artists, scholars, and the public in our protected forest on the Mississippi River. There have been no more acute challenges in recent memory than those presented by Covid-19. In line with our mission, we have crafted Relief Residencies to support those in our community most greatly impacted by the pandemic and the existing racial disparities it has highlighted.
Relief Residents
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Jose Cotto Visual Artist, 2022, Louisiana Jose Cotto was born and raised in Great Brook Valley, a housing project in Worcester, Massachusetts and has called New Orleans home since 2012. The son of a single mother raising four kids, he often found himself being pulled between… -
Gypsi Lewis Multidisciplinary Artist, 2022, Louisiana C. Gypsi Lewis (she/they) is a Black and Brown queer femme born in New Orleans, Louisiana (Bulbancha) of the Lewis, Thomas, Miller, (de)Leon, Ruiz, and Baham families. Their praxis include installation art, small batch herbal skincare goods, full spectrum birth… -
Mwende “FreeQuency” Katwiwa Anti-Disciplinary Artist, 2022, Louisiana Mwende “FreeQuency” Katwiwa is a Kenyan, Immigrant, Shoga|Queer storyteller, speaker & feeler. The 2018 Women of the World Poetry Slam Champion, a 2017 TEDWomen speaker and ranked 3rd at the 2015 Individual World Poetry Slam, FreeQuency is a highly sought… -
Donald Lewis Jr. Performing Artist, 2022, Louisiana Donald Lewis Jr. is a graduate of NOCCA and studied theater at the College of Santa Fe, NM and University of New Orleans. He currently teaches Gifted and Talented Theater in New Orleans Public Schools. He has worked with Edward… -
Quiana Lynell Performing Artist, 2022, Louisiana Growing up in small town West Texas, Quiana Lynell grew her appreciation for all types of music and quickly realized music was a way to connect to the world. With a smile that will entrance you and a voice that… -
Jarrell Hamilton Performing Artist, 2021, Louisiana Jarrell Hamilton is a Mother, Choreographer, Actress, Singer, Dancer, Educator and Film Director. A graduate of Tulane University Theatre and Dance Department Master of Fine Arts Interdisciplinary Dance Program (Choreography and African-American Studies) and Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX,… -
Kina B. Joshua Radical Healer, 2021, Louisiana “Throughout my life, I have been attuned to the vibrant signals our bodies express, and the ways those expressions can guide us to create a fulfilling partnership with ourselves. From a very early age, I learned about the body by… -
Bill Summers Performing Artist, 2021, Louisiana To say that Bill Summers is a percussionist is like saying a Steinway is a piano: The noun conveys none of the history and quality of the owner of the title. Summers is a musician of the highest order, playing… -
Sabine McCalla Performing Artist, 2021, Louisiana Throughout the past year Sabine McCalla, like many of us, found herself deeply isolated from friends and family. She wrote songs that spoke of that loneliness, grounding herself in her environment and space in time. Using her poetry she’s written… -
Sha’Condria “iCon” Sibley Multidisciplinary Artist, 2021, Louisiana Sha’Condria (“iCon”) Sices-Sibley is an Alexandria, Louisiana native and longtime New Orleans-based poet and artist of many mediums whose work spans across visual art, theater, music, and film. A multiple-time national poetry slam champion, iCon travels the country performing, including… -
Alex Sorapuru Visual Artist, 2021, Louisiana Alex Sorapuru’s early passion for creating was fostered while taking in the diverse architecture and color growing up in New Orleans. He began to explore painting during his years at LSU Architecture. Centered around abstract portraits, his work aims to… -
Nikkisha K. Napoleon Literary Artist and Scholar, 2021, Louisiana Nikkisha K. Napoleon is a poet, essayist, and scholar. Affectionately known as Momma Nikki, she is a 2008 graduate of Southern University at New Orleans, where she earned a dual Bachelor of Science in English and History. She is a… -
David L. Harris Performing Artist, 2020, Louisiana David L. Harris is lyricist, vocalist, trombonist, composer and arranger. Harris embodies the edge of modern jazz and the sultriness of blues taking his audiences on an emotionally engaging journey of love and liberation, wrapped in a sound that embraces… -
Christine “Cfreedom” Brown Visual Artist, 2020, Louisiana Christine Brown (aka Cfreedom) is a New Orleans artist, activist, and entrepreneur. Her instagram bio reads “a Nola-based, international, universal, queen-yeyo, photographer-filmmaker kickin in the door for young black women in film and photography to come through 2”. She is… -
Greer Mendy Literary and Performing Artist, 2020, Louisiana Greer Mendy founded and directs Tekrema Center for Art and Culture, a cultural arts organization dedicated to the maintenance, development and perseverance of African and African Diaspora art and culture. She is an independent scholar of African, Caribbean, and Louisiana…