STAFF PROFILE: is

FreeQuency: Tell me a little bit about yourself, whatever you’d want people to know about who you are and how you show up in the world. 

is: There’s this numerologist, Andrew Gabelic – he said write down your mission statement and read it every day. The mission statement that stood out at that time was, “I’m here to help people express their inner and outer realities”. Being at Antenna and working at Paper Machine helping bring others’ books to life feels like it’s definitely a place where that’s able to happen. 

There’s a poster we have around here that I think Jessica Peterson may have printed up, but it says “freedom of the press belongs to those who have one”. [I’m] constantly in that mind state of knowing the privilege of being able to be in a space where there is no cap on words, where people can express whatever they want.

I was fortunate to get introduced to Paper Machine when I moved here because I was working on these zines. My plan then was to live in all these different black port cities – New Orleans was my first of 16 cities – and I was doing independent journalism where I was taking pictures and making journals that I wanted to only be shared with Black people. When I was at Kinko’s, making these on my own, just like spraying paper and cutting them, they looked rather janky, but it was okay. Then I stumbled onto Paper Machine and it elevated the zines to this other level and I was so excited! When I expressed to (former Antenna staff member) Jessica that I didn’t want my work to be on display at Antenna because the intention was that it’d be for Black communities, she was really open to that. I felt like a need could be shared and the people that were working at Antenna would roll with it. The second zine I made at Paper Machine, I tried the gold foil and sticker paper, and it was just amazing…it was like all my dreams were surpassed just because of being able to make a book in this particular space. From then on, I was a total Paper Machine fan, then in 2020, I got a residency at Paper Machine. There was, of course, so much going on in the world, and I didn’t really feel like being out in the streets was my place or my comfort zone, but I recognized writing and making books as a way to respond, to talk about possibility [as my contribution to protest and resistance]. I don’t know how it happened, but I was able to finish two books in one month with the amazing support of Jessica Peterson and the Paper Machine staff.

During that time, Antenna was also preparing  Creative Response kits with volunteers. Since I was staying in the residency space, I got to come downstairs and help out. We were stuffing envelopes with drawing kits and creative manipulatives for youth that were out of school due to the pandemic. Every week, boxes of these kits were brought to schools to get kids whatever that week’s special crafts were… stickers or paint or glitter, special drawn activities and coloring pages…I was also a volunteer with Draw A Thon and I just really fell in love with Antenna at that time. When the opportunity came to apply for a Printing Specialist position here, I was like, that’s my dream, you know what I’m saying? It was fully aligned with my purposeful work, which is to assist in some way – not just artists or creative people – but help anybody express what they got going on inside and be able to share that with other people and be able to receive that. 

FreeQuency: Tell me a little bit about who you are as an artist and how you show up in the world. I want to hear more about this purposeful work you see yourself doing, what brought you to New Orleans? back to New Orleans? What keeps you here to do the work that you’re trying to do?

is: I’ve considered myself an integrated artist. When I lived in Atlanta, being a musician was the thing that I “was”. When I moved from Atlanta, I didn’t want to perform anymore. I was searching for my purpose and feeling lost in that regard. That’s when I wrote ‘Book of Tomorrows’ as a way of thinking about where I want to be in 10 years. It basically became a workbook for figuring out my purpose. Through that book, I decided I had this big goal of taking a shipping container and somehow stuffing it with regional black art and culture and then sending it to all these different Black port cities in the US, the Caribbean, Europe and Africa.

At some point, I realized how hard it is to get a shipping container and do all this, so I started rethinking it in different ways. I was still fixed on the idea of a portable, shippable, malleable container, and settled on the book as the easiest way to do it for the moment. 

My family is all from Central Louisiana, and most have never left Louisiana. I was wondering what it feels like to be in this state and understand more of my heritage and lineage by being in the geographic space. So I came to New Orleans and then the pandemic hit right before it was time to make moves to the next port city. After the Paper Machine residency in 2020, I still made it to Harlem and Charleston, before deciding to end the Black Box goal. My daughter was graduating college and it just made sense to just sit down for a minute and I moved back to New Orleans. 

There’s these longer projects where I’m working on/thinking through things over 10 years, all with this grounding of having some type of interaction with land that helps calibrate the collective traumas and collective joys we’ve experienced in different spaces. I’m trying to take things and think about how to respond to them in a space that is wholing. I’ve been thinking about making of “wholing centers”, physical spaces where a person can go and have a meditative or  redemptive moment, even in moments of collective trauma or loss that we see across like the Black diaspora. It doesn’t always look like art, but that feels like the work that I am called to do now.

FreeQuency: You kind of talked about this a little bit earlier, but, what is the specific work that you do here at Antenna?

is: One thing I feel very fortunate to be doing now is working with artists who are creating their exhibition publications. They’re creating publications, books, posters and more that accent what they have going on in our gallery spaces. To be able to be a sounding board for artists as they work out a publication – this feels in direct alignment with my purposeful work. We also have done some different outreach initiatives to connect more deeply with our surrounding environment – whether it be by opening our physical spaces for events or the Antenna Book Boxes we bring to community spaces which allow us to make use of older books that would usually be considered refuse and putting them back out in the community. 

A lot of my work is also just loving the space, loving the people that come into it, loving the work that we get to do here and the effect that it has as the books circulate and ripple out. 

FreeQuency: so what is Paper Machine? Please explain the difference for folks who might not know what a book arts center is – what’s the difference for instance between Paper Machine and an Office Max? 

is: There’s a quality to the printing here. It’s economical, but there’s also care and a personalization that exists here that you don’t necessarily get at an Office Max kind of space. We get to see a lot of people who come in and want to talk about their project or talk about paper options and then take things on independently. We ask people to come with files finalized when time for printing, we don’t really work on adjusting or laying out that much, but the process is much more personal. It’s something that you’re not just walking in and walking out with on the same day. You want your book to look a certain way? To feel a certain way? To reflect how much love you’ve put into it? Then come print at Paper Machine. There’s so much more we can do or decide with the paper, the binding, the spirals, the foils – it’s more of a “Books as Art” vibe than printing at Kinkos.

FreeQuency: You’re a member of The Front (a local artist collective), and you’ve talked a little bit about your creative practice – is there anything you’re working on these days or thinking through or moving through or whatever stage of the creation process you’re in that you want to share? 

is: I have a few shows coming up next year and at the beginning of 2027 at The Front. Part of what I’m thinking about is working with family. I have a cousin who’s an amazing artist who lives in Texas, and then my daughter, who is finishing up her Masters Degree in Linguistics. I’m thinking about how we can work and create together and looking at resources for people that are interested in genealogical research. [I want to explore] working together as a family to celebrate our shared lineage as well as recognize the places where it diverts, like if my daughter focuses on her father’s side. I’m saying this now, it’ll probably change next week (laughter).

I’m also contemplating how to use this trash collection I’ve been accumulating. I’ve been considering a lot what it means to live with blight, especially living in the Lower Nine and watching as the train tracks are being prepared for the grain train and seeing the way trash is weaponized…I’m thinking about what I’ve learned from living in different peripheral spaces around cities, and how you can almost read the city. I’m thinking about how to transform these spaces and what unifies us as humans and how we convert the things that are facing us that feel a bit more daunting into something that feels like we can come together and work through together. 

FreeQuency: in your time at Antenna, have there been any particular publications or projects that especially excited you? Or anything you want to spotlight for people who may not be as familiar with the organization. 

is: I appreciated the short moment of time where I was part of the Antenna Collective. There were some experiences that felt really cool like going through exhibition selection process.

Right now, I’m looking at Leviathans and I really dig that book. It’s an Antenna Press book where they did all these amazing illustrations and there’s all this incredible information that’s synthesized into a really small book. I’d highlight the Antenna Press Awards and generally, I think Antenna is amazing in sharing resources like Platforms…I can’t pinpoint more specific things right now, but every opening feels exciting. 

FreeQuency: you mentioned earlier you were an integrated artist. what does that mean to you in your art practice? 

is: Integrated artist just means all mediums. I think we term “art” as something to separate but everybody’s an artist, everybody is creative, but lots of times we break it down into, “what are you? I’m a musician, I’m a writer, I’m this and the other.” 

I used to consider it multi-disciplinary then it was like, “no, all of these things are working together”. In advertising school, they focus on the big idea, and it’s similar for me – the idea (what’s being articulated) comes first or the idea is the most important thing, and then any medium that can be used to articulate it, is up for grabs.