Platforms Fund Artist Grantees 2024-2025

Culture Bearer Implementation

Black Masking Indian Suit- Uptown Warriors Flagboy: Cardell “Tank” Patterson

The concept of my Black Masking Indian suit for 2025 is paying homage to the New Orleans Babydolls. The story of my suit is a continuation that started with my tribute to Congo Square. It is made from ostrich feathers, beads, stones, and fabric which take a year to sew. 

Big Chief Victor Harris 

Big Chief Victor Harris of the Mandingo Warriors Spirit of Fi Yi Yi will lead a series of educational lectures and hands-on beading workshops focused on the Mardi Gras Indian tradition. Over six months, the project will cover the history, cultural significance, and intricate costume-making techniques of the Mardi Gras Indians. This initiative aims to preserve and celebrate this unique New Orleans tradition, engage the community, and inspire future generations. Participants will learn directly from Harris’s 48 years of experience, culminating in a community showcase event. 

Colectiva Manos: Andrea Narno, Angel Perdomo, Arlyn Jimenez, Basqo Bim, Karla Rosas, Marcus Chapa, Maya Pen, Sydney Calderon, and Tania Vidal

Colectiva Manos hosts its second annual Día de los Muertos Community Altar at Happyland Theatre, November 1-3. Influenced by Latine diasporic traditions, this event celebrates life and death, creating a space for our communities to gather and honor their loved ones that have passed on. It will feature a large-scale multimedia community altar and traditional and contemporary musical performances. We welcome public contributions of mementos, and will offer on-site scanning and printing of photographs of loved ones. This event fosters a sense of community and connection, celebrating our shared heritage and creating a vibrant, inclusive space for reflection and remembrance.

Theresa Crushshon

Black Masking Indian Queen Theresa Crushshon will create a new suit for Carnival 2025, celebrating the rich cultural heritage of New Orleans’ Black Masking Indian tradition. The Platform Grant will fund materials, labor, and community engagement activities, ensuring the suit’s creation and its cultural impact. Her work not only honors the past but also paves the way for future generations to engage with and cherish this invaluable cultural tradition. Theresa’s legacy is one of artistic excellence, cultural stewardship, and unwavering dedication to the vibrant heritage of New Orleans. 

Visual Arts Implementation

Denisio Truitt

“Threads of Resilience” is a visually captivating short fashion film that explores themes of sustainability, resourcefulness, and cultural heritage through the lens of fashion. The film will feature a capsule collection of clothing crafted from recycled and repurposed materials, highlighting the importance of sustainability in the southern region of Louisiana.

Jordan Koppens

The Yes Mama Portrait Series is an interactive art experience showcasing portraits and interviews of mothers in the New Orleans community. It celebrates maternal wisdom, creative expression, and community care, addressing vital topics like postpartum health, invisible labor, and single parenthood, aiming to bridge gaps and uplift mothers in their journeys.

Marion Forbes

FIELD CONDITIONS explores the relationship between sound, storytelling, and how we interact with our environment. This sound installation asks visitors to navigate a space of overheard conversations and sound dislocation – a space that is familiar and new, a space that lives somewhere in between.

Research and Development

Kelsey Scult

I will conduct oral interviews with elders aged 75+ exploring: what intimacy means to them, how grief feels in their bodies, and their relationships with sensuality. I will create plaster casts of their mouths (approximately 100) and cover them in gold foil as an act of veneration that will be suspended from the ceiling, and create a soundscape composed of sound bites from each interview. I have so much reverence for the elderly, but find we do not create enough spaces to explore the nuances of their interior worlds, or allow them to continue to be sensual beings.

J. Mack 

“Resonance Across Ages” is a captivating short film that bridges the gap between modern and traditional music and dance. Through the connection of a contemporary DJ and dancer with an ancestral drummer and traditional dancer, the film highlights themes of cultural heritage, respect, and universal expression. Featuring renowned talents like DJ Felice and a master drummer, the project authentically blends contemporary beats with ancient rhythms. Showcased at film festivals and community events, “Resonance Across Ages” aims to educate and inspire, celebrating the timeless power of music and dance to connect us across generations.

Maisha Joshua, New Orleans Clay Collective

A safe, supportive environment for African American women with past trauma to practice and learn pottery together. Led by an African American female potter, it employs the therapeutic nature of hand-building and wheel-throwing to foster healing and mindfulness, offering a nonverbal, physical outlet for those healing from domestic abuse trauma.

Caitlin Ezell Waugh

Caitlin Ezell Waugh is a sculptor, preserver, and historical restoration artist based in New Orleans. She explores decay, vulnerability, growth and time through the treatment of glass, found objects, light, and plant material. Relationships between plants and people, especially in the context of ceremony, birth and abortion are central to her studio practice, research, and civic engagement. The Platforms grant is supporting her research of the history of abortifacient use in the Gulf South.

Angela Lynn Tucker

“Another Word For Resilient” is a five-minute Afro-surrealist video in development questioning if the perceived “resilience” of Black women excuses societal neglect. By projecting it onto buildings that no longer care for Black women, it places our narratives in public spaces demanding acknowledgment and action.

Raina Benoit 

In the era of the abolishment of Roe vs. Wade when the female body has been reclaimed as a property of the nation and the source for New Orleanian drinking water, the Mississippi River, is flowing with petrochemical pesticides, this project seeks to compare the link between the environment and women’s bodies. By highlighting the positive environmental and feminist actions of women in New Orleans and drawing a connection between the two, landscape and female, the research for this project culminates into an individual site-specific artworks incorporating interviews of local eco forward thinking women who are saving our city.

Dow-Dance Company

‘Nana Benz: Reimagining The Black Feminist Future’ is a dance performance work surrounding a group of visionaries in Western Africa known as the Nana Benz. The Nana Benz were/are a group of women who dominated the exportation and importation of Dutch wax fabrics in Togo. They rose to prominence during the 1970s, and this piece is a comparative analysis of Nana Benz’s and the stories of African American women in the 7th ward of New Orleans during the 70s. This research is the foundation of ‘Nana Benz: Reimagining the Black Feminist Future,’ a dance performance work by Dow-Dance Company.

Jaime Bird

Ripple Effect is an immersive art installation that explores local waterways and ecosystems, from swamps to the deep ocean. Highlighting ancient creatures like the chambered nautilus and modern Gulf fish such as catfish, this exhibit traces the evolutionary journey of aquatic flora. Mirrored sea creature sculptures, reflective surfaces, fabric stalactites, and dynamic lighting will create an engaging environment. Collaboration with a local sound artist will provide an audio component. The grant will fund research on materials, lighting, projection mapping, and support location scouting. Ripple Effect aims to inspire and educate the public about Louisiana’s aquatic habitats, promoting their preservation.