Maka/Keixe Yaxti, a Tlingit woman from Yaakwdaat, carries a rich heritage rooted in her clan’s migration along the Copper River from the North. Based in Southeast Alaska, Yaakwdaat is where her ancestors have lived and stewarded the land for hundreds of years.
Monture belongs to the Raven moiety of the Copper River Clan, the House of the Owl, and she is a child of the Kanien’kehá:ka people. Her early education was shaped by the land itself, with her maternal grandparents serving as interpreters. Her understanding of humanity has been profoundly influenced by traditional practices, including harvest, song and dance, language, ceremony, and genealogy.
Maka’s creative work stems from the intersection of storytelling and a vision for radical abundance. She remains a lifelong student of Tlingit history and art.
Mallika Singh is a poet, farmer, and cook based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Their chapbook, Retrieval, was published in 2020 by Wendy’s Subway. This season, they are growing okra, marigolds, hibiscus, and more alongside their coworkers at Ashokra Farm.
You can find them out in the field or by the river.
Malosi Tanielu Lui is happy to communicate with the community with his talent. Growing up, music was instilled through church choir, youth, and Sunday school. Started playing piano at the age of 10, and since then he was able to use the God given talent in high school choirs— Leone High Taumafai Swing Choir & Samoana High Tautua Choir. He was also blessed with the opportunity to play for American Samoa’s Choir at the Festival Arts of the Pacific this past summer.
Marcella Fitisone, a proud daughter of Samoa, is the visionary owner of Sinavemafiti Photography and Creative Studios. Her creative work is a tribute to two core values that define her life: family and culture. Through her lens, she captures the essence of the Samoan way of life and strong bonds of family, creating timeless photos that tell stories of heritage and love. From birthdays to weddings, family faalavelaves, and the beautiful landscapes of American Samoa, Fitisone believes that preserving these moments through photography is a gift to future generations and a tangible documentation of living narratives.
Executive Director and Curator, Coleman Center for the Arts
Dr. Marguerite Hinrichs is an innovative, energetic leader with over 20 years of experience as a higher education administrator, public relations/marketing consultant, and social media marketing professor before relocating to the Black Belt from Oakland, California to serve as the Executive Director of the Coleman Center for the Arts. Dr. Hinrichs brings with her a wealth of arts and entertainment, public relations and marketing, and community engagement experience. She She holds a B.A. in Communication, an M.S. in Recreation and Tourism, and an Ed.D. in Education, with an emphasis in Educational Leadership for Social Justice. A lifelong performing artist with an art-centered family, Dr. Hinrichs is committed to empowering and transforming the community through arts education and admmistration.
Mari Griffin is an artist, spoken word performer, and entrepreneur dedicated to uplifting Black and BIPOC creatives. As the founder and event director of Black Night Market, she curates cultural experiences that celebrate art, music, and community.
Through her leadership, Griffin has produced events such as the Soul Food Festival, Poetry After Dark, and the Black Art Soiree, providing platforms for artists to thrive. Her work empowers emerging talent while promoting economic and social equity.
Griffin was honored as a recipient of the Creative West Artist Fund in 2025. She continues to inspire through storytelling, event production, and artistic expression.
Maria “”Lia”” Barcinas is an indigenous Chamorro fiber artist from the Mariana Islands. Her art seeks to celebrate the Oceanic legacies of utilizing the environment for both sustainability and art.
Maria Nancy Thomas is a photographer born in Zacatecas, Mexico, and based in South Phoenix, Arizona. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in photography from Arizona State University’s Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts.
Thomas’ photographs reflect the acculturation of her Mexican and American experiences. Focusing on portraiture, her work examines gender roles, stereotypes, cultural parallels, and social issues.
Her artwork has been exhibited at Arizona State University’s Gallery 100, the New School for the Arts and Academics, Yuma Art Center, Phoenix Center for the Arts, the Arizona Latino Arts and Cultural Center, the Alice Gallery in Washington, and other venues.
Benito is a member of the Houpolowat clan and canoehouse, Utt Wenimai. He also belongs to Utt Hopweilal. Benito was educated in the Weriyang school of navigation and as a child studied under some of the most famous and revered old-time navigators from Polowat, including Hipour Edward and Manipy Rapung. As an adult, Benito studied with the late Teo Onopey and Rainam Edward.
A long time cameraman, photographer, and archivist of Polowat images based in Saipan, Benito was the lead photographer for the documentary “Sacred Vessels: Navigating Tradition and Identity in Micronesia” (1997) and shot for many visiting documentary teams over the past two decades. Benito serves as an informal ambassador of Polowat seafarers in Saipan, served as one of the coordinators and translators in the building of the Lien Polowat in 2012 and its sail to Guam and final resting place at the Oceanic Culture Museum in Okinawa in 2013. In 2016, Benito was one of five navigators ordained by Grandmaster Navigator Rainam Edward of Polowat.
In 2023, Benito sailed from Palau to the CNMI and in 2024, in Hawaiʻi during the Festival of the Pacific Arts and Culture. Benito teaches Basic Traditional Navigation at 500 Sails in Saipan.
Marissel holds a Ph.D. in Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Studies from The Graduate Center, CUNY. She is a Black Puerto Rican Independent Scholar and Afrofeminist currently serving as a Senior Program Associate at the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute (CCCADI). Marissel is one of the recipients of the prestigious 2022 Soros Equality Fellowship for her project Saberes Afrorriqueños, a digital project that seeks to advance racial equity through art and culture She is also the founder and coordinator of the projects De coco y anís. Proyecto Cortijo Marissel has presented her work in Latin America and the Caribbean, including Cuba, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Brazil and the United States. She also relates to a general audience through op-eds published in the newspapers Claridad, Revista Marea, Afroféminas y Afrocubanas, and La Revista, addressing issues of racism and anti-racism and Blackness in Puerto Rico. Among her passion for music, food, Brazilian literature, and sci-fi, is her activism to eradicate racism by dismantling the established narrative.
Mary Elizabeth is an employee at the Rota Mayors office under the leadership of Mayor Aubrey M. Hocog. She is the supervisor under the hospitality division, they are responsible for maintaining and cultivating traditional chamorro medicine at the “Hatdin Åmut CHamorru”.
She and her team facilitate demonstrations in the islands of the CNMI and the island of Guam. She and her team also work together to provide demonstrations for the students at PSS events and accept requests to make chamorro medicine for the community. She thanks her grandparents for providing her the knowledge about chamorro medicine and how to make them.
Mary Welcome is a multidisciplinary cultural worker and rural avant-garde artist based in Palouse, Washington. Born into a military family, her upbringing across the American landscape shaped her as a keen observer of people and place—how communities are built, broken, made, and unmade. For more than two decades, she has developed art projects that nurture local culture, reflect a sense of place, and deepen community relationships.
Welcome’s work explores the rural condition, addressing both the challenges and assets of place while advocating for diverse, resilient, and culturally rich shared realities across the rural-urban divide. As an artist-organizer, her projects are rooted in community engagement and the creation of intersectional programming that addresses equity, cultural advocacy, visibility, queerness, and imagination. She brings a nuanced perspective to the contemporary arts field, working as an organizer in service to small towns, a cultural producer across American geographies, and a facilitator of place-based arts programming.
Welcome is the founder of More Parades, a nonprofit cultural incubator dedicated to sustaining artistic practice in rural and under-resourced communities.
Mary Zhang is an accomplished artist and cultural enthusiast residing in Spokane, Washington. Over the past eight years, she has served as Director of the Spokane Chinese Dance Group (SCDG), where she has exhibited exceptional artistic skills in Chinese dancing, as well as leadership and organizational abilities in community service. She has organized and coordinated over 48 cultural exchange events with various local organizations, including senior centers, schools, libraries, cultural fairs, and holiday celebrations. Under her guidance, the SCDG has performed over 150 diverse dance performances, including Classical Han Dynasty dance, Qipao Dance, Tibetan dance, and Mongolian dance. Mary has been a Vice President of the Spokane Chinese Association since 2014, contributing significantly to the organization and the Spokane Chinese community at large. In recognition of her artistic talents, Mary was awarded the Spokane Arts grantee of Mary’s Chinese Dance Studio for the year 2022-2023.
Matauaina Gwendolyn To’omalatai Whitcombe is the President and Creative Director of Teine Lalelei Dance Academy, which she co-founded with her husband, Terrence Whitcombe, in August 2019 in American Samoa. The academy has grown to include around 80 dance students. Whitcombe established the academy with a heartfelt mission: “to preserve our culture one siva at a time.” Having studied dance in O’ahu, Hawaiʻi, under the guidance of many skilled kumu (dance instructors), she draws from her rich experience in various Polynesian dance styles. Teine Lalelei Dance Academy offers a diverse range of dance lessons on the island. Over her six years in American Samoa, the academy has aimed not only to teach dance but also to enlighten young women about the diverse cultures of the Pacific, helping them cultivate an appreciation for their heritage and cultural values.
