PAST PROJECTS
PAST work
FUTURES OF REPAIR
Commissioned by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
A dreamspace at the intersection of art, community, and imagination. A future world where a culture of repair is flourishing.
ARCHIPELAGO
Commissioned by Race Forward.
A manifesto for movement, where Blackness is an Archipelago.
AFROCOSMICMELATOPIA
Commissioned by Carnegie Hall.
A future world of infinite possibilities for liberation, inclusion and empowerment for all people.
FELLOWSHIPS & RESIDENCIES
Venice Immersive XR Residency, Agog, 2026
NY Mural Arts Residency, SVA, 2026
XR Creators Lab (Agog & New Inc.), 2026
Collective Acceleration Horizon Storytelling Fellow, 2026
More Art Engaging Artists Fellowship, 2025 (Intelligent Mischief)
NYFA Executive Leaders of Color Incubator, 2025 (Terry Marshall)
Real Time and Space Residency, Oakland, CA, Spring 2025 (May) (Aisha Shillingford)
Santa Fe Arts Institute, Sovereignty Artists in Residence, Spring 2024 (May) (Terry Marshall/Aisha Shillingford)
World Building Artist in Residence with SoCal Grantmakers, Fall 2023 (Terry Marshall/Aisha Shillingford)
NYU Tisch ITP/IMA Project Residency, Fall, 2023 (Aisha Shillingford)
Laundromat Project Create Change Artist in Residence, 2023 (Aisha Shillingford)
Kripalu Center Artist Residency, 2023 (Aisha Shillingford)
Kolaj Institute, Collage as Street Art Residency, 2023 (Aisha Shillingford)
Kolaj Institute, Collage Lab New Orleans Artist in Residence, 2022 (Aisha Shillingford)
BLKSPACE on Ryder Farm, Inaugural Artists in Residence, 2022 (Terry Marshall/Aisha Shillingford)
Race Forward Chrysalis Lab, 2022 (Terry Marshall)
Race Forward Butterfly Lab Narrative Strategy Fellow, 2021 (Aisha Shillingford)
USC Annenberg Innovation Lab, Civic Media Fellow, 2020 (Terry Marshall)
New INC. Incubator,Year 7 Cohort, 2021 (Terry Marshall/Aisha Shillingford)
Laundromat Project Creative Change Fellowship, 2019-2020 (Terry Marshall/Aisha Shillingford)
EXHIBITIONS / INSTALLATIONS /socially engaged work
Rest Life, at Museum of Disability History, 2025
Ecologies of Care @Satellite Art Fair, Miami Art Week 2024
ALHAMDU | MUSLIM FUTURISM, Fine Arts Center in Colorado Springs, CO. (August 2024 - January 2025)
In Flow, WITNESS, Photoville, 2024
Anchorage Museum, How We Survive, October 2023 - January 2025
Beyond Prisons, We Breathe, The Breathe Act Art, 2020
Betti Ono Gallery, 2020
We Are Their Wildest Dreams, Who Owns Black Art, Miami Art Week, 2019
Black Body Survival Agency, Survival Pending Renaissance, Occupancies, Boston University, 2017 Futures of Repair: A Social Dreamspace, 2025
Mural Art at Santa Fe Art Institute, 2024
Sonic Experience, Archipelago: A Sonic Manifesto, Queer Crescent, 2024
A House On Boundless Land, with United We Dream, SXSW, Austin, TX, 2024
What if ______ was a Black Utopia street signs, 2020 - ongoing
HOME, collaboration with Christopher Cozier, commissioned by Design Studio for Social Intervention, 2017
Curatorial work
ARCHIPELAGO: An Immersive sonic experience, 2022, Memphis, TN
Afrocosmicmelatopia, Carnegie Hall, 2022
NationX, interactive online immersive art experience, 2021
Black Utopia World-Building Project, 2020 - present
LIME - Artist of Color Dinner Series, 2016 - 2017
Fete Forward, 2016
ARTS ACTIVISM & CULTURAL ORGANIZING
Chorus Foundation Sunset Creative Action & Experience Design, 2023
DesignTeam,Constellations Artist Disruptor Fund, 2020 - 2022
Dream Lab/Creative Activism, Atlantic Fellows Gathering, 2018
Afro-futurist Design Labs Facilitation, Law For Black Lives, 2016 - 2019
Design Research, FundingBostonMovementBuilding, 2015
Narrative Strategy Design,UjimaBoston, 2016
Advanced Training, Center for Story-Based Strategy, 2013 - 2019
Board Member, Center for Artistic Activism, 2011 - present
Narrative Design & Cultural Organizing, MYTOWN, 2014
Affiliate Trainer, BeautifulTrouble, 2013-present
Co-founder, Blackout Collective, 2014
Creative Action Planning,YouthJobsCoalition, 2014
Narrative Design, Missourians Organizing for Reform & Empowerment, 2014
Creative Community Engagement Action Design, Future Boston, 2015
Creative Action Design Labs, 2015
PUBLIC WORKSHOPS, performance, & SPEAKING
Keynote, RE: Conference, Portland, Oregon, 2026
The Oracle, Secret Loft Show, Montreal, 2026
Keynote Social Dreaming, Immersive Public Futures, Bristol, UK, 2026
Better Worlds Ahead, GRIST, at NY Climate Week, 2024
World building as Fugitive Practice, Ujima Boston, 2024
A House On Boundless Land, with United We Dream, SXSW, 2024
Civic Imagination Gathering, Kentucky, 2023
Building Black Utopias, Blackspace, 2021
Giving Birth to the Future Beyond Apocalypse: Worldbuilding from the Black Imagination in the Time of Corona, 2020
Designing Wakandas, Immersive Design Summit, 2019
Black Spaces & Real Wakandas, Maryland Institute of Contemporary Art, 2019
Afro Comic Con, Wakanda Dream Lab, 2019
Black Portraitures, Critical Race Design, 2018
WakandaConNYC, 2018
Comics, Pop Culture & Activism, New York Comic Con, 2018
Contending for Dreamspace, Open Society Institute 2017
Opportunity Agenda, Creative Change Retreat, 2017
Globalization of Blackness & Black Music, Black History Month Panel @ Spotify, 2017
Shape of an Absence, SXSW.edu, 2017
Shape of an Absence, AIGA Design Education Conference, 2017
PUBLICATIONS
Yes Magazine, Murmurations: https://www.yesmagazine.org/opinion/2023/08/29/black-imagination-murmurations
Stanford Social Innovation Review, Cultural Strategy
The Black Body Survival Guide, forthcoming
Black Freedom Beyond Borders: A Wakanda Immigration Anthology (w/Wakanda Dream Lab), 2018
Contending for Dreamspace, 2017