CO-FOUNDER & CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Konstance Patton Ke-nee-go-keshek is an award-winning Anishnaabek Artist and Creative Director born in Detroit, and based in New York City. She’s an enrolled member of The Little River Band of Ottawa Indians in Michigan, and she carries on multigenerational tradition of art, community building, healing, and storytelling in her family. Her work also includes sustainable art and fashion with her ongoing collaboration with CocoRedoux. Her Goddezz Projekt celebrates the divine feminine spirit, beauty, and adornment of women documented in her extended international travels. Konstance founded the street art festival Be A Lover Fest in NYC in 2021, and the community healing art festival The Potluck Festival in Detroit, 2023. She is a founder of the art collective Soho Renaissance Factory, and was featured on The Kelly Clarkston Show, after painting over 30 murals on plywood to beautify NYC during the 2020 shutdown. She is a 2022 recipient of the Cast Iron Awards for Distinguished Service to the SoHo Broadway Community. In February 2024, she was honored by the New York State Assembly for her spirit, commitment, and visionary leadership. She recently exhibited her work at The Boggs Center in Detroit. Konstance makes art for future generations.

CO-FOUNDER & WELLNESS DIRECTOR

Kendra Patton is a multidisciplinary medicine woman and an expert in both western medicine and holistic healing techniques. Hailing from Detroit, MI, she is a board-certified physician assistant with over 10 years of experience in several medical specialties. However, Kendra realized several years into practicing western medicine, that her true purpose is outside of the hospital, educating the community on holistic, natural, and integrative medicine.

In 2023 she founded a holistic health and wellness company called The Healing Phase, where she practices as an integrative health practitioner and holistic health coach. She uses the elements of food, music, sound healing, detoxing, mindfulness, movement, art and nature as medicine, combined with the science and technology of western medicine. Kendra is an enrolled member of the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians in Michigan, and a staunch health advocate for members of the BIPOC community.

The foundation of her practice is rooted in helping others to heal by becoming their own best doctor. She has made it her mission to empower others to heal themselves, so they can go on to heal their families, friends, and communities.

“Heal yourself first, and inspire others to do the same” - Kendra Patton

CO-FOUNDER MUSIC DIRECTOR

Wes is a print maker, designer, musician, animator, educator, mentor, and curator. He roots his practice in performance and social justice. He is one of the owners of The Talking Dolls Studio, and facilitates artists development around the world. He roots his practice in performance and social justice. His work combines, oscillates between, and blurs these different disciplines. His work is multi-discipinary as well as anti-disciplinary. His work is inextricably linked to his constellation of collectives and networks he has formed over 20 years. Those collectives include: Complex Movements, Talking Dolls Detroit, Design Justice Network, Athletic Mic League, and All Faux Everythings. His work is inspired by elder knowledge, complex science, 90s underground hip hop, punk aesthetics, and science fiction. He is an associate professor at Wayne State University and splits his time between Detroit, and Stockholm Sweden where he is a fellow in the OPI (Of Public Interest) Lab at the Kungl. Konsthögskolan.

MARKETING DIRECTOR

Andrea Cardinal is a disabled experience designer and social practice artist originally from Flint, Michigan. She aims to reveal unrealized potential by mobilizing people and their resources to create justice in our communities. Her artwork is the design and management of immersive engagements, where new skills are discovered, camaraderie is built, and joyful labor is abundant. Her work focuses on building beloved community through disability justice, working-class ethics, and interrogating vulnerability and violence.

She holds an MFA in 2D Design from Cranbrook Academy of Art, a BA in the History of Art, and a BFA in Graphic Design from the University of Michigan. Cardinal is Assistant Professor of Design at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio, and Co-Director of Talking Dolls Studio in Detroit, Michigan.

The mission of Talking Dolls is to empower our northeast Detroit neighborhood through justice-focused initiatives. We create a nexus of progressive art and community-led activism through access to our shop facilities & use of our infrastructure for performances, celebration, and experimental art workshops.

In addition to this work, Cardinal is the sole proprietor of Tooth & Rag, LLC, a freelance design company with 20 years of experience designing and concepting for clients at various scales. Clients include The Detroit Institute of Arts, The Museum of the American Indian in New York, The Seidman College of Business, and Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum. She has designed and developed across all aspects of print, packaging, web, publication, exhibition, and user experience design.

YOUTH ORGANIZER

Khalfani is a Southfield, MI rapper and graduate of Howard University who cites Toni Morrison and Ta-Nehisi Coates as the forebears of his own creativity. He writes to connect those dots where Hip-Hop and rap relate to African-American literary tradition. He is an artist in residence at Talking Dolls Studio in Detroit where he serves as a board member for The Potluck Detroit festival and curator of The Corner, a showcase of young rappers and poets. His leadership and passion for community show up when he uses his voice for campus and community organizing through the Black Convergence.Description goes here

PHOTOGRAPHER/DOCUMENTARIAN

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