The genesis for my interest in community arts and the transformative power of vernacular storytelling is rooted in my own search for belonging as a bi-racial kid growing up in Minnesota. I found belonging in the act of collectively devised storytelling and this anchor has carried me through two fine arts degrees, a few professional turns as a theatre creator, ten years of primary research across the globe, a doctoral degree in research creation, teaching in higher education, and nearly twenty years of community arts programming and facilitation.

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While someone outside my experience, looking objectively at the items on my cv, might wonder if I've been wandering, I can tell you that the seemingly disparate corners of my work are all directly linked back to this singular question: how can collective arts and storymaking rehumanize us in a capitalist and colonized society? After digging into these questions more deeply through the Interdisciplinary PhD at Concordia University, I was honored to be named valedictorian for my PhD dissertation on traditional forms of performance and their precarity in a swiftly globalizing cultural landscape (2019 Fine Arts). 

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In the past few years, my interdisciplinary artistic work has included filmmaking, animation, shadow collaboration for the stage, fine arts exhibition, teaching, and two book chapters. Since moving to Toronto, I have been working steadily in the community arts sector. In 2025, I joined the incredible team at Lakeshore Arts to utilize the arts to build social capital in South Etobicoke as one of Toronto's six LASO organizations. I continue my work in puppetry and community building as a co-founder of Toronto's experimental puppetry cabaret, Concrete Cabaret, which is in its seventh year of curation and presentation. 

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If any of this sounds of interest to you, I'd love to hear from you!

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