Olayami Dabls is a storyteller, museum curator, art collector, educator, lecturer, African Art Dealer, Founder of MBAD/ABA African Bead Museum in 1998, and is the Co-Founder of Dabls Perrett’s African Bead Gallery. He is a founding member, curator and artist-in-resident of the African American Sports Hall of Fame museum; Wayne county building, and has created over 5,000 works of original arts. For more than 20+ years, he has focused African Material Culture.

Etta Adams was born in Detroit when street cars ran along cobbled stone roads. She grew up in historic “Black Bottom”. She was the 4th child in a family of five. She attended Central State University, a HBCU with post graduate work at The University of Cincinnati. In 1983 in Ohio, Etta was introduced and interacted within a traditional Yoruba household. This sacred household embodied traditional African concepts reflecting the way of living before the influence of Islam and Christianity. The shrine provided an understanding of the psycho-social journey of African Americans who were pulled out of Africa and introduced to this new world.

Etta is both mother and grandmother using her intuitive gifts to teach Detroit Public School children (2001 – 2010). For 13+ years Etta was also a social worker using the light of God to help reunite families. Etta is completing her first publication, Adewale and the Thunderkings. In the 1980’s she wrote a rap song, called “The Pioneers of Inkster”, honoring those contributing to the development of Inkster, Michigan.

Giizhigad [Christy B.] (she/her/they/them) is an Anishinaabe artist, filmmaker & cultural producer based in Detroit. As a storyteller through the main medium of film, she is building a practice of filmmaking that actively embodies liberation by utilizing a creative process that is participatory, organic and emergent in how the stories and people on the other side of the lens are in active engagement, dialogue, dance and solidarity with the creative concepts conveyed. Her cultural work and organizing has included Anishinaabe based storytelling, language revitalization, environmental justice and healing justice work. Her praxis in storytelling is rooted in her ancestral knowledge systems as an Anishinaabe person, where stories travel through spacetime and their meanings and lessons are multidimensional; stories have the capacity to heal, educate, as well as spark creativity, movement, and change.

Charles Cross, ASLA is the Director of Landscape Architecture at the Detroit Collaborative Design Center and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture and Community Development. The focus of his work is grounded in community engaged design. He believes design is an act of social justice, and that all people deserve good design. His research interests include historic African American settlements, Underground Railroad heritage sites and cultural asset mapping in Afro Brazilian and Afro Cuban communities. Charles holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture from Western Michigan University, a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture degree and Master of Urban Design degree from The City College of New York. Charles is a 2018 Fulbright-Hays Fellow."

Born in Northwest Detroit, Fai developed her passion for sustainable development while serving in the Peace Corps as a small business advisor in the Republics of Guinea and Mali, West Africa. She now leads new green infrastructure projects and business development The Greening of Detroit.

Creating and implementing community-based green projects is at the core of Ms. Foen’s work at The Greening of Detroit’s. From moving the needle on the city’s tree canopy, to providing Detroiters skills training to green careers, Ms. Foen successfully translates environmental initiatives into action. Fai received her graduate degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of Michigan.

Efe Bes is a Central /West African native born in Detroit, Michigan. He is a founder and lead musician for iBm and Bambuti drum and dance groups. The music is a fusion of African and American rhythms with the focal point being the Dun Dun playing up to 25 at one time. The Kora Balafon and Tama are also part of Efe Bes arsenal as is mask making, storytelling and toy and clothes designer as well.

Imani Ma'at AnkhmenRa Amen is a healer, visionary, artist, drummer of the African Diaspora, dancer, choreographer, filmmaker, photographer, dance educator from Norfolk, VA. She has studied multiple dance styles including improvisation, experimental, hip-hop, modern, contemporary, and traditional West African dance. Her primary focus in dance is West African dance and its transformative culture, music, and traditions. Through these dance practices, she produces many works with the intention of developing safe spaces while unifying the community and helping others develop higher consciousness through the performing and visual arts. Healing, the understanding of vibration through rhythm, social justice, and honoring ancestry is deeply embedded in her framework, curriculum, and community structure. Her goals are to bring forth spiritual healing and to encourage others to feel free to unmask themselves through dance, art, culture, and music. Motivated by her travels abroad Imani has studied with profound dance artists around the world including Moustapha Bangoura, Youssouf Koumbassa, Alseny Soumah, Mouminatou Camara, Makeda Kumasi, Colette Eloi, Marwan Amen-Ra, and Penny Godboldo.