Community Connections
Additional Wisconsin Artists and Community Events
Aja St Germaine
A fourth-year student passionate about communication in social equity issues, focusing particularly on LGBTQ+ activism. Being a Critical Studies English Major and Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies minor, I strive to create safe, strong, revolutionary spaces during my time at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, and continuing forward into my career. I am currently collaborating with Dr. Jonathan Rylander, focusing my undergraduate research on Trans Praxis in the Writing Center.
April Harris
Art By April is original artwork created by me April Harris. I discovered my love of art at a young age. Throughout the years, after going through some dark, challenging and difficult times I found it to be very therapeutic and healing. I feel blessed to have this God given gift. I'm still growing in art and I'm looking forward to sharing it with the world! Some of my artwork is available for purchase in numerous forms including pillows, tote bags, cards, and more!
Art Fu Yung
My dedication to the queer population has led me to become a highly invested intern in the Gender and Sexuality Resource Center program, as well as interning in the inaugural FreaQweek program, Out. Zine Coordinator, Q'nnect Coordinator, the Chippewa Valley Writer's Guild, and the Center for Writing Excellence on campus. I pride myself in strong writing skills and programming skills to elevate anti racist and pro queer systemic changes.
Byada
My artwork, I guess it takes a side-view of social, political and cultural issues.  I don't really like to point a finger and blame or pick a side and argue indefinitely.  Rather, I try to explore the varying relationships between internal people and our external world.  While I remain open to use a variety of materials and processes in each project my methodology is consistent (usually!).  Although there may not always be subjective similarities between the different projects, they are linked by recurring cultural concerns, the patterns of everyday life, and all the interesting things that are available in each encounter if we remain open to them.  The subject matter of each body of work kinda determines the materials and the forms for itself.  Often, projects consist of multiple works, in a range of similar media but different 'scenes' (like different snapshots in the same city), grouped around specific themes and meanings.  During progress and production of the present work, new areas of interest pop up and lead to what happens next.  I love it!
LaNia Sproles
Her body of work spans several disciplines including: printmaking, drawing and collage. The philosophies of self-perception, queer and feminist theories, and inherent racial dogmas are essential to Sproles’s work. She examines the works’ of feminist artists and writers such as Octavia Butler, Kara Walker and Rebecca Morgan
Mi Salgado
Mi’s work is a collection of images inspired by the interrelation between nature, human life, sentiment, and at times referencing her cultural roots. Expressed with creatures and floral interpretation, her work is fused with color transition, stroke motion, line and sketch work rendering palettes and textures that live in the natural world with the purpose to bring elements that people can experience and resonate with.
Mikey Cody Apollo
Mikey (pronounced my-key) Murry, also known as Mikey Cody Apollo, is a Black queer writer, filmmaker, educator, and feminist killjoy from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Most of their work explores themes such as race, gender, sex, and religion. Mikey is the author of the self-published collection of poetry titled Black Girls, Silence, and Other Things Made of Gold, which has been used in classrooms, workshops, and book clubs across the United States. Mikey currently works for UBUNTU Research & Evaluation, a team of unapologetic Black women, femmes, and non-binary folk committed to disrupting systemic oppression through strategic evaluation, facilitation, and education
Natalia Moryns
Natalia is an artist of all trades; with a focus on acrylic paint and poetry. A free spirit connected to her creator, she curates pieces derived from her emotions and lived experiences. A bad bitch through and through so expect the material to be just as real. A seed that sprouted on the south side, Natalia currently lives on the east side continuing her mission to create from pain and passion.
Rosy Petri
I am a mother, artist, and multimedia storyteller from Milwaukee, WI. As a woman of color making art, creating work is one of the few areas in life where I am able to freely name, embrace, and honor my own identity. Using photographs, mixed media, textiles and storytelling, I hope to contribute to the creation of long-term social equality and a truly free society. I am proud of my diverse background, as well as the gifts and traits passed down to me though traditional and non-traditional avenues. Walking a blurred line between sacred and profane, beauty and utilitarianism, warrior and lover —I’ve come to know it as balancing my Malcolm out with a little bit of Martin. I create work that conveys and celebrates the complex nature of human life and relationships while further exploring my own personal spiritual journey and commitment to community. I stand in solidarity as and with the oppressed people of the world and hope to use my work as a respectful way of sharing valuable stories and lessons brought to the table.
Sarah Jo Ferraro
Bedroom installations, sexual sorcery, revolution from the shackles of shame. My work is about survival, healing, thriving: decriminalizing, collaborating, challenging censorship, investigating violence. Sovereignty. I analyze touch/translucency, pray upon geology. Painting with mesh, sun printing: the sound of wind on grass, lace, body. Hair covering face, movement blurring, people looking like ghosts. Designing light/lingerie/altars. Overlapped prose combined into camera, projection, distortion & sculpture made of invisible scripture.
Yessica Jimenez
My work focuses on different aspects of my identity. Some of them include my culture, being a Woman of Color, the daughter of Mexican Immigrants, being Bi/Pan-Sexual, some personal trauma and my forms of spirituality. While my illustrations and paintings are reflections of myself, I look to create images with the hope that others in my communities can also relate to.