Josh T. Franco is an artist with an art history Ph.D. He often builds or suggests environments that invite haunting by ancestors and disincarnate peers. Enfleshed folks are invited into these settings to share stories with Franco and make something new together, be it physical, experiential, or spiritual. He is devoted to handwriting, printed text, and beeswax as mediums that can command visual attention and physical space while also transmitting and preserving knowledge between generations. Franco is guided by the understanding that art history is made by hand.

During Franco’s residency, he created PICTURES ELSEWHERE combines three acts of reverent and irreverent gratitude to art historian Michael Baxandall and Elsewhere matriarch Sylvia Gray.

2 Elephants In The Room is a podcast focused on reducing the stigma around mental health. The hosts, Erin Steele, MA LMFT and Alicia Tetteh, MSW LCSW,  are two licensed clinicians based in Charlotte, NC. They discuss real experiences from popular culture or their own lives and demonstrate how to improve communication and have the difficult conversations to reduce barriers in relationships. Tune in to episodes on iTunes, SoundCloud or Stitcher Radio.

Laura Richie (Board Vice President / Executive Committee / Program Committee Co-Chair) is co-founder of The Carrack, a zero-commission community art space in Durham, NC. Ritchie served as Director of The Carrack from 2011-2018. A native of Salisbury, North Carolina, Ritchie studied at UNC-Chapel Hill (BFA), SACI Florence, and at the Institute for Curatorial Practice at Hampshire College. She is pursuing a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies at Duke University. Through community-engaged projects, Ritchie strives to be a catalyst for collaborative, interdisciplinary work across the arts in the Triangle region of North Carolina.

Mavis Gragg is an attorney and art enthusiast based in Durham, NC. A solo legal practitioner dealing with death and dirt (estate planning, estate administration, and heirs property), Mavis also loves to mediate conversation between art and the art consumer. She believes this allows her to champion making art accessible to her community. Mavis served as a docent at the prestigious Corcoran Gallery of Art where she also helped raise money for the Corcoran's youth arts program as an active member of the 1869 Society. Since her return to the Bull City (Durham, NC) in 2015, Mavis has continued to prioritize art and community. In addition to hosting a coloring book party for adults, artists’ talks and studio visits,Mavis recently curated an art show of work by lawyers. She also plays the Dobra with theSamba-Reggae drumming group, Batalá Durham. Mavis is an alumna of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (B.A., Industrial Relations)and Pepperdine University School of Law (Juris Doctor and Master of Dispute Resolution).

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.

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.

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.

House Manager / Curator

Avery Rose (they/them) is a 3rd generation dumpster diver, collector, maker, and jack of all trades wannabe raised in Waxhaw, NC. They have a BFA in painting and a range of professional experiences in furniture, upholstery, design, and restoration related fields. They like to explore color, shape, and line through textile work, tattooing, painting on unconventional surfaces, and collecting natural and discarded objects. Avery's work founded on interests in sustainable and communal living, travel and exploration, environmentalism, homesteading, and diy culture.

Avery has been the House Manager/Curator at Elsewhere since 2018. They have completed a number of projects including building a new front desk from collection, co-creating the Shelter Elsewhere Residency, and patching various holes around the museum in unexpected ways. Avery can be found at @dirt_soup on Instagram.

Kerri Mubaarak (Board Director / Executive Committee / Board Secretary)

If you encounter Kerri Mubaarak, it won’t take you long to figure out that her perspective is different. The way she approaches a subject—any subject— whether it’s an artist’s proposed work that she evaluates or a socio-political paradigm addressed in her performances is different. In fact, it’s difference that underlies all her works of theatrical art.

Kerri chose theater as a medium to express what she sees and senses interacting with “people in the periphery” a term she uses to describe those who are often marginalized by race, gender, religion or cultural norms. “The gift of this medium,” she says “is that the raw emotion of human experience can be shared openly and in the safety of an audience.” She considers the craft a practice of both art and healing that pre-dates modern theater.

Sam Cone is a financial consultant with Pinsker Wealth Management. He earned his JD cum laude from the New York University School of Law in 2008 and his BA in mathematics and philosophy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2003. Following law school, he was a law clerk to Justice Mark Martin of the NC Supreme Court, after which he practiced in the litigation group of Irell & Manella in Los Angeles, CA. Sam is active in the community and is presently involved with several non-profits devoted to youth health, gender equality, charitable giving within the Jewish community, and other causes. Sam is a certified professional stunt performer, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu student, and roller derby