Presenters
Hai-Wen is an artist living somewhere beneath the sky. Their work explores constructions of the body and the attunement of oneself to the environment. Lin is a 2025 Luminarts Visual Arts Fellow, a recipient of the Hopper Prize, and has exhibited work at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, the Chinese American Museum of Chicago, and Hyde Park Art Center.
Hai-Wen Lin
Jerald, or “Coop,” is a multidisciplinary artist, designer, and founder of Hood Century, a media agency that researches, documents, and educates the masses on the relationship between the Black lived experience and modernity. Coop's work promotes the discovery of Black Modernism, focusing on language, popular culture, and the Ghanaian tradition of Sankofa.
Jerald Cooper
Leah is a Carrier Bag architect, educator, game designer, digital puppeteer, and occasional writer. Trained as an architect, they assemble hybrid virtual and physical spaces to prototype new relationships between technology and nature, as well as challenge normative ideologies often reinforced by technology and architecture. Leah is a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Utah.
Leah Wulfman
Tonia is an architect, memory worker, builder, and design activist based in Oakland on Ohlone land. In her design practice, Peripheral Office, she weaves together storytelling, place-based building practices, and collective approaches to architecture and preservation. She co-founded Nááts’íilid Initiative, is a core organizer with Dark Matter U and Design as Protest, and in 2022 launched Storytelling Spaces of Solidarity in the Asian Diaspora.
Tonia Sing Chi
Ayesha is a designer, researcher, strategist, engineer, and hopeful visionary born and raised in Chicago. Through active listening and empathy, her work has brought to light the changes healthcare and civic programs need to serve the people equitably. She is currently working as a senior design researcher with ChiByDesign.
Ayesha Rahman
Martellus is a creative entrepreneur, author, former NFL tight end, and Super Bowl champion. He played for several teams, including the Chicago Bears. Martellus created the moniker “Mr. Tomonoshi" to represent his expanding identity and creative pursuits, particularly in children's literature and design. He operates from a studio in Houston called TOMONOSHi! I+d LAB.
Martellus Bennett
Cruz is a Puerto Rican designer, artist, curator, educator, author, and theorist. He is the co-founder of WAI Think Tank and an Associate Professor at Iowa State University. WAI Architecture Think Tank is invested in the development of design experiments and new curricula that support public engagement with the built, destroyed, and imagined environments.
Cruz Garcia
Curry is a transdisciplinary designer, visual artist, and educator exploring Black relationships to land, media, and memory. A Farmville, Virginia native, his work spans scales and mediums to speculate on the aesthetics and ecologies of the American South. Hackett’s work has been featured in The New York Times and exhibited at the Smithsonian Design Triennial, the University of Tennessee–Knoxville, and Pratt Institute.
Curry Hackett
Monica is a visionary architect with over 30 years of experience, known for her innovative approach to community-focused design. As the founder and principal of Civic Projects Architecture, Monica has transformed the Chicago-based firm into a leader in social impact design with a focus on high quality design and long-term strategic thinking. Monica's dedication to community engagement, innovative design, and mentorship has established her as a leader in social impact design.
Monica Chadha
Michele is an interdisciplinary designer whose work meshes design, curation, research, writing, Black memory, archiving, and academia. She has served as co-curator and researcher for "Designer’s Choice: Norman Teague’s Jam Session" at MoMA in New York City and has consulted on Push Pin Graphics and "Branding Black Power" at the Poster House Museum. Her other projects include civic design work with Coforma and nonprofits such as A Long Walk Home, the Romare Bearden Foundation, Medgar Evers College, and City as Living Lab.
Michele Y. Washington
Michael is a former NFL defensive end, designer, and outspoken advocate for social justice. He played for several teams, including the Seattle Seahawks, with whom he won Super Bowl XLVIII. Bennett founded Studio Ker, a sculptural furniture design practice that explores themes of intersectionality, segregation, and the American ghetto, while celebrating African American and diasporic identities.
Michael Bennett
Nathalie is a French designer, artist, curator, educator, author, and poet. She is the co-founder of WAI Think Tank and an Associate Professor at Iowa State University. The work of WAI Think Tank has been featured in the Chicago Architecture Biennial and exhibited at the Centre Pompidou Metz, MoMA, and more. Nathalie and Cruz practice with their child, Ema Yuizarix.
Nathalie Frankowski
Ann is a founding principal of Future Firm, a Chicago-based architecture and design research practice, and an assistant professor of practice at the University of Michigan. Lui’s work explores the intersection of professional practice and social justice, examining access to design services, the equitable enforcement of building codes, and co-authorship of the built environment.
Ann Lui
Cody is an artist, designer, educator, and co-founder of Redemptive Plastics. He serves as a part-time faculty member at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Cody works with both digital and analog fabrication processes to transform recycled and bioplastics into functional art objects. He designs, builds, and creatively misuses his own tools, such as the handheld plastic extrusion gun, which melts recycled plastic into improvisational organic forms.
Cody Norman
Lauren is a conceptual artist and cultural practitioner born and raised on Chicago’s Southwest Side. She is the Co-Creative Director of the Chicago Humanities Festival and co-founder of Slow & Low: Chicago Lowrider Festival. Her practice critically engages with urban space—examining how place and memory intersect with questions of justice.
Lauren M. Pacheco
Maya is a designer, educator, and founder of Mobile Makers, a nonprofit making design education accessible to all. She believes architecture should be a tool for liberation, not exclusion. Her new initiative, Alternative Practice, chronicles nontraditional practice methodologies. She was named a 2024 United States Artists Fellow, 2023 Harvard Wheelwright Prize Finalist, and has been profiled in Dwell.
Maya Bird-Murphy
Vanessa is an award-winning social impact urban planner, educator, and co-founder of Open Design Collective, Oklahoma’s first Black and women-led design firm. Through her practice, she works to strengthen the connection between the built environment, lived experience, and the cultural legacies of place. Vanessa is a Professor of Practice at the University of Oklahoma's College of Architecture.
Vanessa Morrison
Jordan is the driving force behind Alt Space Chicago, a thriving hub for artists, entrepreneurs, and visionaries alike. As one of the founders of Redemptive Plastics, Jordan has pioneered an initiative that merges sustainability, art, and community empowerment. By repurposing plastic waste into functional art pieces, Redemptive Plastics exemplifies how innovation can shift community culture, fostering environmental stewardship and creative collaboration.
Jordan Campbell
2023 Presenters