Heather Mitchell is an African Diasporic Dance performing artist in the Kalamazoo community for over 10 years. Her work also includes Choreography at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo College, and The Civic. She is a Teaching Artist with Education for the Arts, as well as a collaborator with Rootead Youth Enrichment Center, Women Empowering Women, Freedom Schools, Wellspring Cory Terry and Dancers, and the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra.

As a dance artist Heather has facilitated numerous workshops and classes that sought to connect people of various backgrounds, socioeconomic status, and abilities to the cultural knowledge, pure joy, and sense of community that African Diasporic dance brings. She believes that dance is the language of the spirit and is meant to be shared with her community!

Djembe Yaru, Kalamazoo Michigan’s West Afrikan drum and dance group was founded in 2007 by Nathaniel Waller. We are a group of performers and teachers dedicated to the expression of traditional and modern West Afrikan music and dance. We have blended the tradition of West African music and dance and fused it with modern music and culture. We are known to keep the spirit and traditions of West African music alive while continuing to grow in the world we live in today. We have been performing and teaching West African music for over 15 years. We have taught, played, and performed in collaboration with Rootead, Western Michigan University, and The Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra. Our debut album has trended in countries all over the world! Traveling world wide sharing our traditions, music and vision with the world is our passion.

Introduced to music at a young age, Justin always wanted play music. He began playing drums in his church band around age 8. At age 17 he joined his high school drum line, where he contributes his growth as musician and met Nate Waller. Nate soon introduced him to traditional African drumming. Justin has taken his his musical abilities around the world but has back home to continue his growth with friends and his community.

Sajeev Visweswaran is a visual artist/printmaker based in Ann Arbor, USA. While he works in many media and styles, drawing always comes at the center of his work. He has focused on minimalist lines and measures etchings throughout his repertoire. Sajeev’s works draw on the tension between the mundane activities of everyday life and his political sensibilities, between his young life in village India and the world of fine art. He is fascinated by the intersection of the personal and the political, presence and absence, the domestic and the public.

Sajeev received his training from the College of Art, New Delhi, where he received his BFA before completing his MVA at M.S. University, Baroda. His first solo show was held at 1 Shanthi Road, Bangalore, in 2014, and his works have been selected for several exhibitions and group shows across India, as well as in Korea, Romania, and France. He has attended residencies at 1 Shanthi Road, Bangalore, in 2014 and the ‘Residence Price’ at the 13th Biennale Internationale de Gravure de Sarcelles, France, in 2008. His work was also selected for The Fifth Graphic Art Biennial of Szeklerland în Sfântu Gheorghe, Romania, in 2018. Recently he curated a four-person exhibition, ‘Division, Commonality, Encounter’ at Scarab Club, which was well received in the Detroit art community.