Aisha Tandiwe Bell, a multidisciplinary artist inspired by the fragmentation of our multiple identities. Belle was a mentorship resident at Indigo Arts Alliance. Inspired by the fragmentation of our multiple identities, Aisha painted figures trapped within the canvas, eventually incorporating clay, sculpture, and performance into these pieces as a way to invade the viewer's space. Her work explores the individual burdens, insecurities, and self-prescribed traps carried out of habit, comfort, fear, and shame. While emphasizing our ability to transform, resist, and escape these traps. She has had multiple residencies, including her commissioned community-based arts project, SUSU with The Laundromat Project. Please enjoy.

Stephen Hamilton, a mixed-media artist, an arts educator and Ph.D. Candidate in Harvard’s African And African American Studies program. During his residency at the Indigo Arts Alliance in June 2025, he primarily worked with natural dyes and textiles, incorporating traditional West African techniques and materials. He blends these techniques with figurative painting and woodcarving. In this interview, he discusses how traditional West African textiles, and materials shift and change within the modern world, but still hold intimate connections to past generations of African and African American artisans.

Thania Petersen a multidisciplinary artist who had a residency at Indigo Arts Alliance. They do any and everything that the budget will allow them. Because of that, they force themself to be creative. Their work is about storytelling, investigating and uncovering histories from their community.

Today we will hear from Rachel Elizabeth Harding, a mentorship Resident at Indigo Arts Alliance in April 2025. Rachel takes on many roles as a poet, historian, and scholar of religions of the Afro-Atlantic diaspora. Rachel writes about religion, creativity, and social justice within communities of African descent in the US and Brazil. Coming from a family of writers and activists, her poetry conveys her spiritual leadership and social justice. Rachel is the author of numerous essays, poems, and scholarly articles. Particularly two books: A Refuge in Thunder, a History of the Afro-Brazilian Religion, Candomblé; and recently, Remnants: A Memoir of Spirit, Activism and Mothering. Please enjoy.

In this episode we welcome Anna Tsouhlarkis & Shane Perley-Dutcher, both artists in residence at Indigo Arts Alliance in July 2024, were commissioned to produce a permanent sculpture on the grounds of Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens (CMBG), and that was unveiled during our second symposia entitled, Deconstructing the Boundaries: The Land Fights Back. The first of its kind at the Gardens, this program brings together community members of all backgrounds to ground ourselves in difficult conversations, creative expression and the power of being together. Please enjoy their words, recorded by Nolan Atvater.

Today we will meet Minoo Emami, who was an artist in residence at Indigo Arts Alliance in June of 2024. Emami is an Iranian multidisciplinary artist and brings over three decades of experience to her rich artistic journey and is deeply committed to art practice, teaching, and exhibition. In this interview, Emami talks about her current project while at Indigo Arts Alliance, which is related to Persian domestic culture and how the materials she uses are all from home spaces.

Today we will meet CC Paschal who was an artist in residence at Indigo Arts Alliance in May 2022. CC, who is an award -winning audio journalist and experimental documentary artist led the editorial vision for NPR's critically acclaimed narrative series Louder Than a Riot. In 2017, she was a lead producer of Gimlet Media's Peabody award-winning production Uncivil. CC studied aesthetics, earning a B.A. in Art and Philosophy from Hamilton College in Clinton, NY in 2010.

Today we will hear from Raquel P Miller who was a Black Seed Studio Resident in January 2024 at Indigo Arts Alliance. Born and adopted from Cuenca, Ecuador, Raquel is an emerging artist from Biddeford, Maine. From painting to drawing, her work is focused on the confrontations and expressions of identity, experiences, and emotions. She was the recipient of a 2022 BIPOC Fellowship at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, and in 2023 was awarded a residency at SPACE Gallery’s Residency Room in Portland, Maine. Her work has been displayed online, in New York at Collarworks (Troy), Deanna Evans Projects (NYC), SOIL Gallery (Seattle)and throughout Southern Maine at the Harlow, the Buoy Gallery, New System Exhibitions, Alice Gauvin Gallery, and Engine.