A DC native writer and performer, Bria has been in the DMV comedy scene for over six years now. She’s been a regular at the DC Improv, opened for Becky Robinson, Brent Pella, and Dan LaMorte. She’s performed all over the country and you can catch her touring with Blaire Postman’s Lady ADHD. She produces shows of her own and embraces black and lgbtqia+ communities. She loves art and artists and has recently relaxed her “I don’t date comedians” stance. She has lofty goals, and plans on meeting them all.

Rose Dallimore is a multi-disciplinary artist, educator, health equity advocate, and restorative practitioner based in Washington, D.C. She lives with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome and several other overlapping chronic health conditions. Her writing has appeared in Rough Cut Press, Anodyne Magazine, the Wild Umbrella, and the B’K, amongst other publications. Rose was a member of the 2020-2021 Emerging Playwrights Roundtable at Arena Stage and has had her plays presented at The Quickening Room in NYC and at Georgetown University.

She is the co-founder of Our Body Justice Project, a mutual aid and resource collective for women with complex pelvic pain, endometriosis, fibroids, PCOS, and other related conditions. Rose also operates a small clothing upcycling & art business called Rose’s Thingies from her living room. She is a graduate of Georgetown’s Walsh School of Foreign Service and currently works in restorative practices at Georgetown. She is originally from New York City and Chattanooga, Tennessee, but D.C. has her heart. You can find her on Instagram @dose.rallimore and follow her work @ourbodyjusticeproject and @rosesthingies.

Illinois native, Aarron Loggins, didn’t allow being hard of hearing to
limit him from learning American Sign Language by the age of three.
His ability to tell stories with his hands and body led Aarron to join
and perform with several groups such as, Wild Zappers, National Deaf
Dance, Gallaudet Dance and Theater Company, and become the founder of a deaf step team called, Da Jump Back. He has also blossomed as an
actor and has been featured across theater, television, and film.

He is a premier entertainer and advocate/activist for the deaf and
hard of hearing community. In 2019, he performed the National Anthem
during Super Bowl LIII with Grammy-Award Winner, Gladys Knight, along
with popstar duo, Chloe X Halle. Also, he performed alongside other
well known Travis Scott and other artists.

In 2014, Aarron won Mister Deaf United States and went on to become
the first African- American to win Mister Deaf International. He has
two nicknames called as “Deaf King” and “Mr. International”.

He’s now working to form a future foundation called Believe In
YOURSELF to encourage people around the world.

Aarron holds a degree in Theater Arts from Gallaudet University.

Karen Krolak (she/her – prounounced Care – wren Crow- lock) is a free range collaborator who lives with a dynamic disability and an infectious laugh. She’s a midcentury Euro-mutt with an unruly silver mane, a futuristic tripod walker and an expansive definition of dance. She is the Founder/co-Artistic Director of Monkeyhouse (/www.monkeyhouselovesme.com), an award winning nonprofit that connects communities with choreography. Her ongoing project, the Dictionary of Negative Space (DoNS) (www.DictionaryofNegativeSpace.com) holds space for the words that the English language lacks for grief, trauma, and repair. DoNS offers refuge for mourners grappling with complicated grief and became even more relevant as the COVID 19 pandemic rewrote rules about death, dying, and mourning. karen is a co-producer of NACHMO Boston, co-director of aMaSSiT at The Dance Complex, a Humanities Advisor to The Black Arts Sanctuary, a Board member for the The Flavor Continues and Boston Dance Alliance, a Sustainability Advisor for Subcircle, Minister of Pom Poms and Big Ideas for the Clary and Cimermanis Little Free Library, a dramaturg for Jessica Roseman, Human Movement Project, Simon Montalvo, and a freelance audio describer [Pause to catch my breath.] She holds a BA in Linguistics from Northwestern University and an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Sierra Nevada University.

José André Montaño is a self-taught musician who delights listeners across the Americas. His compositional versatility embraces Jazz, Rock, Blues, Bossa Nova, Latin American Folklore, and World music.

“I feel happiness and joy when I play the piano because music is life for me.” https://jose-andre.com/

Lee Swanson is a public interest attorney, musician, and performer with physical difference and chronic illness living in Arlington, Virginia. They recently appeared in Dance Canvas (Liberation Dance Project), Seussical (Chalice Theatre), Our Town (St. Mark’s Players), Out/Spoken (Story District), Almost, Maine (The Arlington Players), Mary Stuart (Little Theatre of Alexandria), and Night of One Acts – North (TAP/LTA). Originally from Northeast Tennessee and with hand differences resulting from Amniotic Band Syndrome, Lee plays mountain dulcimer on children’s guitars. Finding an accessible instrument inspired them to begin organizing a Hand & Limb Different Musicians Collective to serve as a resource for connection and learning for people in the DC Metro Area with a hand or limb difference impacting their ability to play music. Find more information on Instagram at @hldmusic_dc or fill out an interest form to connect with the musicians collective.

Fiona Rose Murphey is a queer, disabled, multi-hyphenate theatre artist based in the DMV area. Recent work includes Assistant Director for “Through the Sunken Lands” and Dramaturgy for the “VSA Young Playwrights Discovery Program” (Kennedy Center 2023-24); their cover article “Queering Neverland: A Dramaturgy of Care” (at the American Theatre in Higher Education conference in 2023 & Journal of Consent Based Performance in 2024); Intimacy Choreography and Assistant Direction for “Alice by Heart” (Wildwood Summer Theatre 2024); Script Supervision for “The Art of Care” (Mosaic Theatre Company 2024); Performance for “VIORE: An Adaptation Story” and “Opie and the Open Tent” (National Theatre 2023, 2024); shows at their alma mater, American University, where they recently finished graduate school; and original plays, available via the New Play Exchange. Centering care and learning in their practice, Fiona is a past participant of the Kennedy Center Directing Intensive (2023) and Theatrical Intimacy Education, a lover of collaborative and genre-bending work, and is always looking to broaden their horizons. See more at: www.fionaroserolls.com.
Performers: Myst McCready, Tumanyanelu Agogbuo, Kainoa Sittman, Brianna Rodriguez Day

John Groves (they/she/he) is a lens-based artist residing in New Jersey. They are a graduate from the Fashion Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in photography and related media with a minor in art history. Their current practice explores the relationship between glitch media, chronic illness, and ableism within society. As a chronically ill artist themselves, they question how the body shapes experiences. Through sculpture, installation, and lens-based work- they create pieces that allow the viewer to reflect on the body and examines its place in medical spaces. They have co-curated the show Fresh Meat (2021), which was a group exhibition in New York City. Most recently they were awarded the VSA Emerging Young Artists Fellowship. Along with this award, their work will be a part of a traveling group show starting in Washington D.C., and moving through a few states. John continues to explore how they can combine glitch with various other mediums to discuss disability studies and the impact on one’s environment can shape experiences.

Xang Mimi Ho is a fashion photographer in Virginia area as well as an adjunct professor at George Mason University. Ho received her Bachelor of Fine Art from George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, and her Master of Fine Art from the Maryland Institute College of Arts, Baltimore, Maryland. Her work explores the narratives embedded in portraiture, with a focus on the female body, form, and the connection to landscapes.

Ruby Cromer is a photographer and “medical impersonator” making photographs that ruminate on illness and investigate the power dynamics of patient care. Her recent group exhibitions include Interchange, a traveling exhibition through The Kennedy Center’s Access/VSA Emerging Young Artists Program, Eye to Eye and the bed beside me at Fresh Eye Gallery, DESTROY THE GAP at Bowling Green State University, and the MAD ART EXHIBIT popup in London. Her work has also been published in WMN and Sinister Wisdom. RubyCromer.com

As a “medical impersonator” experimenting with gendered tropes of medical providers in my self-portraiture, I aim to disrupt the power dynamics between photographer and subject and reveal the parallel dynamics in the American medical system that harm both medical workers and patients. I have a particular interest in using self-portraiture to critique the expectation of self-surveillance placed on disabled people and to investigate the elements of performance both in how I navigate an ableist medical system and in the system itself. My work engages with the double-edged privilege of passing or masking—as straight and gender conforming, as non-disabled, as a professional—all within the confines of a photograph. Each photograph requires extensive research and planning, from reading medical journal articles to scouring eBay for antique uniforms. Next, I play with hair, makeup, clothing, props, and lighting to create each highly constructed image alone in my home studio. Being self-portraits, the resulting photographs are also a rebuke of the ongoing history of the often commodified, patronizing, and/or non-consensual disabled image.

My name is DeVante Capers. I create art as a voice, opportunity, and unique perspective to change the world one medium at a time. As an artist with high-functioning autism, visual arts is a way of coping with everyday life. The art I create is expressive to inspire others to overcome their obstacles and life’s barriers using art styles like patterns as a form of expression and discovery. I have created and merged different art mediums to produce various art pieces involving acrylic paint, charcoal, watercolor, colored pencils, glass, recycled materials, digital art, photography, and more.

Art has been with me for over a decade now and has change my life. Art is my world and my future. I’ve stepped into the art world from the early days of high school at Kennedy Krieger where I started painting and drawing. Then, develop my interest in creative writing and dance.

Ten years ago after taking a two year break after graduating high school, I decide to go back to hit the books at Prince George’s Community College. Once I started, I had figure out where type of major to study, and then, they had a field in visual arts and that’s how it all began.

With over numerous pieces of art and endless days of nonstop work, I’m elevating higher and higher in making an impact in the art world. If I didn’t make the choice to continued my education, all of this that and more wouldn’t never happen. Being a full time, independent artist is my job, my procession, and I couldn’t be more happier.

I would like to thank my friends and family who have been supportive in my dream since day one and guide me along the way on how to achieve this goal despite the challenges while having a disability. Art changed my life and keeps me alive. Sharing my art and stories can help make an impact in people’s lives and see them, for whom they really are. In addition, show acceptance that just because we are different, doesn’t mean we don’t exist. Because we do exist. This is more than just a journey or long-term career, this is my legacy. And I’m making a name for myself and building this legacy so everyone will know and remember me.

Anything is possible, now it’s time to do the impossible.

Autism Awareness = Autism Acceptance

Maryam Mustafa (she/her) was born and raised in the Washington, D.C. area, with roots in Sialkot, Punjab, Atlanta, New York City and Huntington, Virginia. She earned a B.A. in Women’s and Gender Studies and Comparative Race and Ethnicity at Wellesley College. Maryam is a community librarian, organizer and performing and visual artist. She’s passionate about universal access, economic justice and increasing access to knowledge, power and resources. Her research and creative work tends to focus on films, sufism and Islamic spirituality, speculative fiction, Punjabi and South Asian history. She is a big believer in truly listening to people’s stories through critical self reflection, cultural humility and healing/trauma work

Devin Hill is a graduate from the University of Central Oklahoma with a B.F.A. in Dance Performance. Their love of dance began at the age of three and has lasted a span of twenty years. Devin set sights on dance as a career during their time at Collin College in Plano, Texas. While at Collin College, they were exposed to: Jazz, Ballet, Modern, Hip Hop, Tap, African, Improvisation, and Latin Ballroom. Devin has had the opportunity of working with multiple artists such: as Christopher K. Morgan, William “Bill” Evans, Clarence Brooks, Brandon Fink, Hannah Baumgarden, Jeremy Duvall, Gregg Russell, Lachlan McCarthy, Kristin McQuaid, and Cat Cogliandro. They were also a member of the 2015-2016 award winning Kaleidoscope Dance Company. Since graduating from UCO, They have continued to further their knowledge of dance by performing, choreographing, teaching, and participating in intensives and workshops across the United States. In 2018, Devin had the honor of performing with Liz Lerman’s Dance Exchange at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. They were also a cast member on the hit Facebook Watch series “Dance with Nia. Mx. Hill currently resides in the Washington D.C. metro area, where they perform, educate, and advocate as a freelance dancer. Devin also serves as a board member for Feel The Beat, an educational specialist for Bodywize Dance, and a dance development team memenber/instructor for Second Skin Society . Mx. Hill strives to use their artistry to create a more safe, equitable, and accessible dance industry for everyone.