Detroit Puppet Company was started by Founding Director Carrie Morris in 2015 to create and present awe-inspiring puppetry with artists from Detroit and beyond, using puppets as the vehicle toward a better tomorrow. Since then, it has grown to include multiple arts programs, professional development opportunities for Detroit and Hamtramck artists, and place-keeping initiatives, all part of their initiative to replace vacant spaces with cultural activities and make their neighborhoods more livable. Through artistic excellence and radical performance, DPC strives to give residents access to the arts in inclusive, intimate, and community-centered ways, such as with their core programming initiatives: Presenting Contemporary Puppetry, Commissioning Detroit Artists, Community Collaborations, and Activating Space.

Learn more at detroitpuppetcompany.com

Shazia Omar is a writer, activist, and yogini. She has written two novels Like a Diamond in the Sky, and Dark Diamond, and a mind, body, spirit book Intentional Smile: A Girl’s Guide to Positive Living. She writes a column for Daily Star Magazine, Bangladesh, Kundalini Rising.

When not working, writing, or teaching yoga, Shazia is busy playing with her two beautiful children. Sun Moon Secret is her first children’s book.

Learn more at shaziaomar.com

Sophie Cousinié studied theater, literature, and anthropology and has previously worked as a teacher, social worker, and cultural mediator before becoming a full-time artist.

Her unique drawings, handmade with ink and painted with watercolors, range from animal portraits to representing humans in ordinary life situations.

Sophie has done exhibitions and live drawing events in France and England, and has also taken part in an international artistic residency in Kolkata, India.