Meet your Community Members!
sprinkling stardust around: A'RI
sprinkling stardust around: A'RI
sprinkling stardust around: A'RI
A'Ri (they/them) is a Licensed Creative
Arts Therapist and Board Certified Dance/Movement Therapist with a private practice supporting TSGNC youth and adults. Of Bantu, Mohawk and Cherokee descent, they combine ancestral healing remedies with their wisdom as a Certified Aromatherapist, Reiki I and Reiki II practitioner, and Vinyasa Yoga i
A'Ri (they/them) is a Licensed Creative
Arts Therapist and Board Certified Dance/Movement Therapist with a private practice supporting TSGNC youth and adults. Of Bantu, Mohawk and Cherokee descent, they combine ancestral healing remedies with their wisdom as a Certified Aromatherapist, Reiki I and Reiki II practitioner, and Vinyasa Yoga instructor. A'Ri has created and implemented an art-based healing curriculum for ART & ABOLITION - female sex youth survivors of sexual trauma, and for AER AFRICA - street performers experiencing poverty.
A'Ri is a professional dancer with over 20yrs of experience, the last 14yrs specializing in Circus Arts: Aerial Dance. They currently teach and perform Hammock, Hoop/Lyra, Pole, and Silks/Tissu. Sick and tired of being sick and tired, they founded ANKOLE in 2023...creating a world for their people to thrive in a white-bodied dominant,
hetero-normative field.
In only 3 years, ANKOLE has self-produced 4 full-length productions, hired a total of 24 BIPOC Queer Artists, and held fundraisers for the Sudan Famine Crisis and
Trans Asylum Seekers.
Cohort 1 : UGBA
sprinkling stardust around: A'RI
sprinkling stardust around: A'RI
UGBA ('oog ba') (he/they/all) is a certified Reiki Practitioner and founder of his own school: THE UNGRATEFUL BLACK ARTIST INSTITUTE. UGBA hosts weekly donation based SUNDAY RITUALS for BIPOC Queer creatives in Prospect Park and free writing workshops - BROTHER TO BROTHER - for Black Men of both cis and trans experience.
UGBA is the Great
UGBA ('oog ba') (he/they/all) is a certified Reiki Practitioner and founder of his own school: THE UNGRATEFUL BLACK ARTIST INSTITUTE. UGBA hosts weekly donation based SUNDAY RITUALS for BIPOC Queer creatives in Prospect Park and free writing workshops - BROTHER TO BROTHER - for Black Men of both cis and trans experience.
UGBA is the Greatest Writer of All Time | or | the GWOAT.
A jack of all trades and a master of many, UGBA is a Black Queer HIV+ Man. A Poet. A Rapper. A Dancer. A Waacker. A Painter. A Collager. An Essayist. A Playwright. A Curator. A Professor. A Dean. An Actor / & / An Activist. UGBA got bit by the Circus bug in 2025; Aerial Silks is now in his bag of tricks.
Credits include Poet Laureate for Tony Award Winning Director Zhalion Levingston, Program Director of NY Writers Coalition, DOVE in Maleek Rae's BODYCOUNT, THE MODERN POETS - Jamal Pedro & Michelle Ortiz, and EARTHCAT in ANKOLE's NFRW/T.
Cohort 2 : DEZ
sprinkling stardust around: A'RI
Cohort 2 : DEZ
Dez (Dez/they) uses play as a therapeutic tool to address navigating life's challenges while building one's self-worth and self-confidence. Dez specializes in the Queer+Black+Latine` disco dance style called Waacking/Punking, teaching this style at THE LGBT CENTER and the ALI FORNEY CENTER, to assist BIPOC Queer youth in finding authentic
Dez (Dez/they) uses play as a therapeutic tool to address navigating life's challenges while building one's self-worth and self-confidence. Dez specializes in the Queer+Black+Latine` disco dance style called Waacking/Punking, teaching this style at THE LGBT CENTER and the ALI FORNEY CENTER, to assist BIPOC Queer youth in finding authentic expression and processing distressed emotions.
As a competitive freestyle dancer, Dez has made top brackets in NYC, Atlanta, San Jose, Chitown, and Philly in 1-on-1 Waacking Dance Battles. Dez is the co-founder of the underground NYC artist collective: PUNK SOMETHING whose dance battles raised funds to support those suffering from the War on Gaza, Palestine and the US Embargo on Cuba.
Credits include PRINCESS LOCKEROO’s FABULOUS WAACK DANCERS, KEEP RISING to the TOP DANCE, and ANKOLE. Dez credits ANKOLE for knowing how to fly; Hammock is apparatus of choice.
