Brother Wesley is a native of Raleigh, NC. His current focus of work at the Beloved Community Center includes immigrant and worker justice and youth organizing. Brother Wesley is a dedicated mentor, facilitator, and reconciler. He actively works, building better relationships among the races, especially African American and Latino Unity. Brother Wesley also serves as Youth Pastor at Faith Community Church for the youth ministry called the “Dreamzone”. Wesley considers the work of social justice and healing as a major inspiration of his call to Christian Ministry. Brother Wesley currently serves as the Youth and Student Initiatives Coordinator.

Riley Cox is a Greensboro native currently studying sculpture at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. She grew up surrounded by a family working in textiles, which led to an early love for texture and material exploration. She is interested in the healing properties of creative play and working in a communal setting. Riley loves collecting discarded items, exploring and any event she has the excuse to wear a costume.

Mindy is a self-proclaimed master-of-none that enjoys taking things apart almost as much as she enjoys cozying up in dark corners. Currently working on her Bachelor's in Parks and Recreation Management, she loves getting dirt under her nails and has a well-honed talent for googling things to assist in the problem-solving process. In her free time, she writes, concentrating on narrative writing and performance poetry. She hopes that her time at Elsewhere will inspire her to refocus her creative energies both in work and in play.

Haley is an artist from Virginia. She graduated in 2018 from Virginia Tech with a BFA in Fine Arts as well as a BA in Art History. She would say that her focus is in mixed media sculpture but that’s because she does not really have a focus. She is interested in woodworking, metal working, painting, drawing and fiber arts. She likes collection, recycling of materials, and anything with a nice texture.

Jon Pulse is a flamboyant Aquarian and embroidery artist based in Savannah, Georgia. Utilizing his composition skills and strong eye for color theory, Jon likes to experiment with unconventional materials in creating art that dazzles the eye. He draws inspiration from the bright colorful patterning and geometric shape he finds in discarded fabrics, as well as his experience as a genderqueer person in the South.

Paige has BFA in painting and printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University. Her work involves exploring human connections with nature. One can often find her outdoors, turning over rocks and logs to find a new critter to study.

Dammit Wesley is a dynamic multi-disciplinary artist who uses his work and platform to provide context and commentary on the black experience through the lens of pop culture. He has played a very active role in the southeast arts community for the past decade as the Founder and Director of BLK MRKT CLT, developing monthly minority based art exhibitions and showcases, instructing hip hop-themed figure painting classes, and working as a teaching artist for local institutions. Dammit Wesley holds a Bachelors degree in Fine Arts & Graphic Design from Winthrop University.

Dr. Maxwell is an international community-engaged health researcher and behavioral research scientist with extensive experience designing and conducting community-engaged and evaluative research on social determinants of health. Her program of research centers on the impact of media (e.g., music and social media) on the mental and physical health of young ethnic minorities, and the influence their intersectional identities.

Kidd is currently an art student at UNCG (University of North Carolina at Greensboro), obtaining a BFA in sculpture.

Aviva is a mom, an entrepreneur, an artist, and professional marketer. She received her BA in Art and Design from NC State. Her career has zigzagged from freelancing, to entrepreneurship, to corporate management, to startup marketing. She specializes in building marketing teams with a focus on social impact. Currently, she leads a team in Durham at TransLoc working to improve mobility options for transit riders. Outside of work, Aviva sticks to her roots in art by continuing to explore new techniques for mixed media pieces.

Nadia Phillips is an artist, designer, teacher and entrepreneur! African American the Beautiful Co. started with a concept and a hand drawing and was launched November 2017. She has been an educator, specializing for middle age students for the last 7 years and uses her degree in Entrepreneurship to inspire students towards owning there own businesses through creativity and art. Beyond that she is a wife to Quintin and a mother to Quintin Jr. and Aidan.

Ayan is a business strategist at BrightHouse, a creative consultancy that helps organizations uncover their timeless purpose — the reason they exist — so they can grow their people, profits, and social impact. She is also the founder of The Whole-Hearted, a social platform geared towards promoting a deep, meaningful connection with yourself, others, and the world at large. Fueled from the heart, Ayan also has a deep love for tea, world travel and yoga. You can find her at TheWhole-Hearted.com or on iG at @ayanzado

Debbie The Artist is a black, gender-queer, artist and educator who believes in the power of art and culture to empower marginalized voices through radical community based knowledge sharing. Debbie is currently enrolled as a student at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University where she studies Social Work and Music. She combine these two disciplines in an effort to serve community through artistic expression.

Roland is a North Carolina native—born in Asheville and currently living in Raleigh—who received a BFA in design and MFA in studio art from the University of North Carolina–Greensboro. As he describes his work, Roland “creates art that challenges ideas around controversial social and political constructs, and generates a safe space to process, question, and share.” He is the founder of the acclaimed Jumpsuit Project, intended to raise awareness around issues related to mass incarceration. The work grew out of personal history, from the ten months he spent in state prison on a wrongful conviction just as he had started his last year of grad school in 2013. Based on new evidence, Roland was exonerated of all charges in 2015. Back in school, he wanted to provoke conversation around issues related to incarceration, including prejudice toward those incarcerated—for his MFA thesis project, Roland wore an orange jumpsuit every day and documented his interactions until his graduation in spring 2017. He has shared the project around the country via speaking engagements at the University of Michigan Law School, Princeton University, and other educational institutions, and as a performance piece, most recently at LACE: Los Angeles, the Studio Museum of Harlem, and ARTSpace Raleigh.

Lonnie Holley was born on February 10, 1950 in Birmingham, Alabama. From the age of five, Holley worked various jobs: picking up trash at a drive-in movie theatre, washing dishes, and cooking. He lived in a whiskey house, on the state fairgrounds, and in several foster homes. His early life was chaotic and Holley was never afforded the pleasure of a real childhood.

Since 1979, Holley has devoted his life to the practice of improvisational creativity. His art and music, born out of struggle, hardship, but perhaps more importantly, out of furious curiosity and biological necessity, has manifested itself in drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, performance, and sound. Holley’s sculptures are constructed from found materials in the oldest tradition of African American sculpture. Objects, already imbued with cultural and artistic metaphor, are combined into narrative sculptures that commemorate places, people, and events. His work is now in collections of major museums throughout the country, on permanent display in the United Nations, and been displayed in the White House Rose Garden. In January of 2014, Holley completed a one-month artist-in-residence with the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation in Captiva Island, Florida, site of the acclaimed artist’s studio...Read More.

During Holley’s residency, he created Mixed.

Julia Gutman is an emerging Australian artist, best known for her intricate textile sculptures and commitment to narrative installation. Her work spans textiles, sculpture, painting and prose, with a distinctive irreverence that permeates all forms. Her growing collection of sculptures and stories intersect and build on one and other, continually investigating themes of gender, mythology, religion and fashion. Equal parts pointed and absurd, abject and romantic, Julia’s work is a surreal investigation of cultural behaviors and systems of belief.

During Gutman's residency, she created Try Sitting On Me Now.