Jessie Quantrille is a 24 year old artist originally from Baton Rouge who lives in Lafayette, LA. A multi disciplinary creative, Jessie is a dancer, choreographer, and graphic designer by trade. She was a competitive dancer from age of 4 to 18 and has trained in New York and Los Angeles on scholarship under some of the best instructors and professionals in the dance industry. After graduating high school, Jessie eventually ended up in Lafayette where she enrolled as an art student at UL, and started her first job as a fitness instructor at Basin Arts. While studying visual arts...

Michelle Colón, known artistically as Malentina, is a singer-songwriter, stage and film actress, producer and writer from Ponce, Puerto Rico. She completed her bachelor’s degree in interior design at Louisiana State University in 2013 and has lived in Lafayette, Louisiana ever since. Lafayette, renowned for its cultural celebration, inspired Michelle to dig into her own culture. In seeking connection with local Latin communities in her area, she found that bridging cultures was harder than she expected. This new perspective has fueled a life-changing passion to become a performing artist to highlight her culture in her region, and also to inspire...

My name is Paul Kieu, and I’m a photographer based right here in Downtown Lafayette. I’m originally from Vermilion Parish, and these days I primarily work in editorial and commercial photography. Through that work, I’m able to travel around the state to photograph a wide variety of things from obvious subjects like Mardi Gras to obscure small-town museums and single day festivals.  After spending the formative years of my career (and my early 20’s) in photojournalism, I naturally see the world through that lens, constantly curious (or nosy?) and drawing inspiration from the people and places of Louisiana. I’m constantly...

Lafayette, Louisiana native and Boulder, Colorado transplant, Helanius J. Wilkins is a choreographer, performance artist, educator, and innovator who lives in a country where, not even for a moment, is he allowed to forget he is Black. Wilkins’ creative research and projects are rooted in the interconnections of American contemporary performance, cultural history, and identities of Black men. His projects examine the raced dancing body and ways ritual can access knowledge. He uses remembering to piece together and liberate Black identity through performance. Having choreographed 60+ works, honors include Pola Nirenska Award for Contemporary Achievement in Dance (DC’s highest honor, given by...

Madison Graves is a performance artist and educator based out of Lafayette Parish. She has been studying and performing different styles since childhood and received her BFA in Dance from UL in 2020. Most recently, Madison performed in Paige Barnett’s A Song of Visions, a site-specific work in Washington, LA, and José Limon’s A Choreographic Offering, a classic modern work restaged by Alex McBride. When she isn’t preparing for a performance, Madison works as a teaching artist and dance educator across Acadiana, teaching for the PACE program, Louisiana Dance Powerhouse, Morgan Street Dance Studio, and Basin Arts. Madison is looking...

Since 2008 Kristie Mayeaux has been a working artist, academic and contemplative. She has foundations in painting with a growing interdisciplinary investigation on the intersections of the Anthropocene and Spirituality. With this work she hopes to provide insight to our interdependence with one another and the natural world, and to deepen her own connection to her interior and exterior worlds.  Kristie holds an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpelier, Vermont and her BFA in Painting from The University of Louisiana at Lafayette. She has participated in several of Lafayette’s most exciting public arts events such as Project...

Terrance Morgan began training as a self-taught dancer doing mostly free-style (improvisation), which is when he first was introduced to the hip hop dance style of B-Boying. This led to him becoming an original member of a local dance group called Kabuki Kru.  Terrance began traveling throughout the U.S. to participate in underground B-Boy Battles, where he continued to learn about a variety of dance styles.  The more he learned, the more his passion grew.  He saw the impact that dance had on the communities he visited and knew that he wanted to do more than simply entertain. He wanted...

I call myself the Freelance Cajun, Seemed like a good ear-catching name that serves as an umbrella title for some of the things that I do. My passions lie in music, photography, and sharing food from southwest Louisiana. I have a deep connection and sense of place in south Louisiana through its music, culture, and access to the natural world.  As time has gone on I’ve managed to turn my passions into business ventures. I am a traveling musician playing cajun music in many places across the country and internationally. I’ve been fortunate to explore the professional photography world as...

I’ve always loved to move. Being a kinesthetic learner, I’ve always relied on movement to help me improve both mentally and physically. I definitely did the ballet-tap-jazz thing when I was younger but it wasn’t really until high school that I learned how to channel my emotions through dance. This made dancing almost hypnotic for me – it was my therapy. Being in touch with my movement allows me to be in touch with myself, and that mind-body connection teaches me how to listen.  I’m a movement artist based in Lafayette, LA. I studied dance at the University of Louisiana...

Emily Spikes is a painter born, raised, and working in Lafayette, Louisiana. Her work is influenced primarily by the sights, sounds, and traditions of Louisiana culture. Her biggest goal with her work is to remind the viewer that even the most simple elements of our culture are filled with beauty and intrigue. She spends most days creating new paintings in her home studio and documenting the process on social media. Some of her special projects include 30 original paintings commissioned for Children’s Hospital in New Orleans, as well as a children’s book, “Rise and Shine, Sweet Child,” by local author Taylor Curry....