Contributors
33 authors and artists across New Mexico imagining our collective future
authors
Alison Dale [ she/her ]
Alison is an artist, somatic facilitator and astrologer based in the unceded ancestral territory of the Tewa and Tanos people, or current day Santa Fe, New Mexico. Born and raised on this land, between the Tesuque Valley and Arroyo Calabasas, Alison spent most of her childhood hanging out in forts under piñon trees, making potions out of juniper berries, and befriending baby horny toads. Her paintings, mixed-media collages and writings focus on the interconnected human experience with the natural world, as we strive to reconvene with the earth and learn deep lessons from our recently self-imposed ‘separateness’. You can check out her current work at alisonmariedale.com, and read more of her writings at astrosomatics.substack.com.
alma valdez-garcia [ they/them ]
alma is a trans latine poet and herbalist from the northern new mexico mountains of san miguel county. Their life has been stimulated by the high desert sun and piñon trees leading to a need for embracing desires. They write sexy poems on plant connections, land knowledge, and dream weaving. Catch them making medicine, foraging, oiling up and trying to dig themself into the dirt.
Avery Armstrong [ she/they ]
Avery is a Santa Fe-based educator and writer. In both their career and free time Avery endeavors to bring more magic into the world. Enjoying Larp and playing Dungeons and Dragons, Avery strives to incorporate group storytelling into the lives of themself and others. As a writer, Avery prioritizes uplifting the presence of marginalized individuals in fantastical and surrealist settings. She identifies as an Afro-surrealist but aspires to contribute to the rise of African American narratives in high fantasy settings. You can find them @deviantacademia on Instagram.
Brianna Reed [ she/her ]
Brianna is a Diné writer currently attending the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. When she isn’t studying, she visits her family in Albuquerque. She has authored various short stories, essays, and poetry that have appeared within Leonardo and the Tribal College Journal. She now heads her own column, “Moccasin Millennial” which can be found at tribalcollegejournal.org.
Carolyn Shayte [ they/them ]
Carolyn is an artist, poet, art therapist, counselor, and avid nature lover living in Pojoaque, NM with their very fluffy cat, Jewel. Carolyn moved to Santa Fe, NM in 2019 to begin their M.A. in Art Therapy and Counseling at Southwestern College and completed the program in 2022. New Mexico was the first place they felt the true awe, power, and spirituality of nature. The land has shown them that having a relationship with nature is important for everyone’s mental health, and is how community is co-created. Their poetry has appeared in multiple zines, The Purple Poetry Book, HYRSTERIA, and The Poetry and Fiction Issue of Baltimore City Paper.
Curtis Mueller [ he/him ]
Curtis was raised by two loving parents: one talker and one ornithologist. He grew up in the American South with a considerable amount of social privilege as a white, cisgendered, heterosexual male. In 2013, he obtained a BA in Creative Writing and Literature from Santa Fe University of Art and Design. He currently resides in Santa Fe, NM, with his dog, Hippo, and works as a reading specialist.
Doug Bootes [ he/him ]
Born in Pewee Valley, Kentucky, Doug currently lives in New Mexico and teaches at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe. His work has been included in Poetry Northwest, On the Run Contemporary Flash Fiction, The Closed Eye Open: Maya’s Micros, World Literature Today, New Limestone Review, The Santa Fe Reporter, and others. Check out Doug’s new poety book Heliotropic here https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/heliotropic-by-doug-bootes/
Dryland Wilds
Dryland Wilds is a bioregional wildcrafted perfumery based in Albuquerque that uses unwanted wild plants to create skincare and perfume. Traveling across the state for their harvests, Cebastien + Robin distill fire-prunings from high desert forests, enfleurage invasive flowers and upcycle waste aromatics into the real smells of New Mexico’s wild places. They also teach classes on sustainable desert foraging, focusing on how to identify, harvest and prepare edible invasive plants.
James Gould [ he/him ]
James is a Creative Practitioner who has lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico for over twenty-eight years. His workspace is known as the Trapezium, so named for its shape wherein no two surfaces are parallel. His efforts encompass writing, sculpture, painting and assemblage affairs with found objects.
Marissa Aurora [ they/them ]
Marissa was born in an old garage beside the Galisteo River in Cerrillos, NM and spent their childhood covered in dust, head low to the ground, investigating wildflowers and insects. After finding many homes around the globe, they now live in Madrid, NM. Their art spans many mediums, from film and textiles to sculpture and poetry. The work in this collection reflects on Marissa’s decade-long career as a restoration ecologist, and the knowledge that humans can predict very little and control even less.
Rae Miller [ she/her ]
As a multi-faceted creative, Rae’s work is a reflection of an evolving inner dialogue and desire to find calm amongst the noise– anxious energy soothed through ritual and connection to self by exploring creative practice and nature. Since finding strength in her personal practice, she has continued to grow through community engagement, teaching and collaboration with others. Rooted in a motivation for systems change, Rae loves to dream big while carefully tending to the little threads that make up the larger picture.
Simon Walker [ he/him ]
Simon is an environmental and social philosopher completing his PhD at the University of New Mexico. The central concern of his research is how to think through the liberal paradox in the age of the Anthropocene where freedom has become coded as consumption, and yet it is energy consumption that is burning our planet. He believes that to unweave this paradox we need to rekindle a sense of freedom as belonging with-the-world and with-each-other, crafting new forms of meaning outside of the myth of the isolated individual. He is grateful to live in New Mexico, on the ancestral lands of Tewa people, where he spends his free time following the trails of waterways and deer, occasionally stumbling across a pretty rock.
Sirena Rayes [ she/her ]
Sirena was born and raised under the Albuquerque sun on a street called Esperanza. She has worked in warehouses and libraries. She has been an ESL teacher and a caregiver. She has mixed concrete in wheelbarrows and has translated scientific research articles. She is very grateful for all of this and also for having been called a poet along the way.
Susan DeFreitas [ she/her ]
An American of Guyanese descent, Susan is the author of the novel Hot Season, which won a Gold IPPY Award, and the editor of Dispatches from Anarres: Tales in Tribute to Ursula K. Le Guin, a finalist for the Foreword INDIES. Her work has been featured in the Writer’s Chronicle, LitHub, Story, the Huffington Post, Daily Science Fiction, Oregon Humanities, and elsewhere. An independent editor and book coach, she divides her time between Santa Fe, New Mexico and Portland, Oregon.
Téo Montoya [ he/him ]
Téo is a mixed heritage (Lipan Apache, Spanish, Scottish, French) writer, and Indigenous futurist residing on the lands of the Tewa Peoples in O’ga P’Ogeh, currently known as Santa Fe, New Mexico. His work focuses on how myth and Indigenous knowing can support an emerging world in crisis through story, ecological literacy, and reciprocal worldviews. He is currently working on his Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the Institute of American Indian Art.
artists
Amara Szrom [ she/they ]
Amara is an ecological educator, designer, and event organizer whose work explores and encourages a joyful reconnection to our life support systems. She is the founder and director of the IWPS Convergence, a camp dedicated to food sovereignty and cultural preservation in Oglala Lakota Territory, South Dakota. She lives within the Rio Grande watershed, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Bailey Steele [ they/them ]
Bailey is a graphic designer, social worker, and prison abolitionist residing in Santa Fe, NM. They believe that graphic design is most powerfully leveraged to unite and strengthen social movements, and they draw inspiration from liberatory organizing efforts, long illuminating talks with loved ones, and moments of shared joy. The uncertainty of climate change has prompted them to explore how deeply we are interconnected with all forms of life, and how urgently we rely on one another’s well-being. Community care is self care, and to choose interdependence is to choose hope in the face of despair.
Cameron Rogers [ he/him ]
Cameron is a percussionist and screen printer recently relocated to Santa Fe from the Midwest. After traveling for years with different music projects he currently finds permanent residency in northern New Mexico. Inspired by the layers of history not only in the soil but the space itself he has found not only a home but inspiration for creation.
Char Klein [ they/them ]
Char Klein is a French/American artist currently working primarily with the mediums of photography, non-fiction writing, and bookmaking. They earned their B.F.A in Photography from Columbia College Chicago in 2017. Char has shown work in small independent galleries in New York, Chicago, London, and Edinburgh. They self-published their first photography book, “Ascension” in 2017 and have had their work featured in online and print publications. Char grew up moving frequently and has lived in a variety of places such as Wyoming, New York City, and Edinburgh, Scotland.
Chelsea Call [ she/they ]
Chelsea is a queer artist, art therapist, facilitator, teacher, creative doula, amateur herbalist, and co-conspirator currently located in O’gah Po’geh Owingeh, the ancestral, unceded land of the Tewa Peoples of Northern New Mexico. Her work focuses on generating kinship between human and the more-than-human in a time of climate collapse. Amalgamating visual, somatic, and ecological processes she traverses the mediums of photography, writing, installation, drawing, and socially-engaged practices. She is currently enamored by explorations existing at the intersections of lichen and queer theory as a pathway to reimagine new futures by breaking binaries. Chelsea received her Master of Arts in Counseling & Art Therapy from Southwestern College in 2018, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Colorado State University in 2013.
Daisy Trudell-Mills [ they/she ]
Daisy (Xicana, Santee Dakota, Jewish descendant) is a queer multidisciplinary artist working in textiles, found materials, and illustrations on fabric and paper, exploring personal, place, and material based narratives. Daisy’s work has been exhibited in New Mexico, Seattle and Chicago. They received the Lorraine Shula Scholarship in 2017, the National Museum of Women in the Arts Scholarship in 2019 and the SURFACE: Emerging Artist of New Mexico Award in 2021. Recently, they were a recipient of the Kindle Project: Makers Muse Grant 2022-23.
Daisy is currently pursuing their Master of Fine Arts in Studio Art with a concentration in Interdisciplinary practice at the Institute of American Indian Art. They earned their Bachelor of Fine Arts with a concentration in Sculpture from New Mexico Highlands University in 2019.
Jackson Mathey [ he/him ]
A child of the southwest who yearns to hear the wilderness whisper its ancient tales, listens with a lens. Through the enchantment of ultra-long exposure, he unveils the dance of motion across time. With his images he seeks to capture the ethereal threads woven by celestial currents under the watchful gaze of Earth herself.
Jakia Fuller [ she/they ]
Jakia is a multi-disciplinary artist who’s living a life full of adventure, creating art and spaces that bring a smile to people’s faces. Jakia was born and raised in Detroit, MI and Rio Rancho, NM, and is currently based in Albuquerque, NM. Through continuous exploration and not limiting herself to one medium or style, she creates work that is accessible to people, work that they can engage with, reflect on, be surrounded by, and lastly, bring a smirk or smile to their faces.
Kat Labate Wright [ she/her ]
Kat has called New Mexico home since 2016. She had not planned on staying in New Mexico, but the land and the community here made it impossible for her to leave. Kat and her husband have since “settled down”, bought a home and after a long effort, started a family. Having a child in lieu of the state of the world feels treacherous, but it also feels like a harbor for hope. This piece, Archetypes for Change was inspired by her daughter Alma, and the plants and animals that call New Mexico home.
Katie Keaveny [ she/her ]
Katie and is an artist in Albuquerque, NM. In a broad sense, her work explores the potential of healing, and thus takes on many different forms and mediums. She loves to use collage, printmaking, stop-animation, and film to explore ideas and create work that has a positive impact. She believes in creating images and experiences that can spark hope and appreciation for our natural world.
Kristin Tera Anchors [ she/they ]
Kristin (American, b. 1987) is a visual artist and emergency medicine doctor based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her current studio practice includes dissecting the textbooks she accumulated in training to develop hand cut collages which aim to heal the fractured relationship between body and mind, human and the more-than-human world.
Leland Chapin [ he/him ]
Leland is a contemporary graphic artist and arts educator living and working in occupied Tewa, Apache, and Nú Agua-tuvu-pú (Ute) territory also known as northern New Mexico. He passionately believes art has the power to uplift individuals, unite communities, and broaden our human understanding. He is currently teaching seasonal workshops with the Identity Project and the Santa Fe Opera.
Mira Burack [ she/her ]
Mira lives gently in the Ortiz mountains of New Mexico on the unceded land of Pueblo peoples in an earthship home. Her days are engaged by the materials and living beings in her life – plants, textiles, animals and family – and the interior and exterior spaces around her where her most meaningful life experiences take place - the bed, the landscape, the table and the home. How does daily life, living close to the elements, teach intimacy, engage the senses, provide comfort, heal, invite rest and elicit pleasure? Mira is honored to be part of a generation of artists exploring self-care, domestic life and our environment. During this technology-saturated era, and a vulnerable pandemic and social climate, her hope that her work creates memorable ways to re-attune to empathetic, intuitive and sensual ways of being that embody connection to each other and our surroundings.
Monika Guerra [ she/they ]
Monika is a Mexican-American contemporary artist born in Southern California and raised in Southern New Mexico. Guerra’s studio practice explores and creates different planes of existence through painting, photography and print - where she constantly questions her position in this reality and her state of the human experience. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts and Certificate in Business & Entrepreneurship from the Institute of American Indian Arts in 2022.
mallika singh [ they/them ]
mallika is a poet, farmer, and cook who makes work about ecosystems and intimacies. In collaboration with friend and poet Rebeca Alderete Baca, mallika runs OOZE— an event series that celebrates poetry, ritual, and gathering. mallika also facilitates a study and writing group called Rivering Towards: Desert-Water Poetics and Politics. their debut chapbook, Retrieval, was published in 2020 from Wendy’s Subway.
Born in Delhi, India and raised in the Bay Area, CA and Santa Fe, NM; mallika belongs to Sikh punjabi diaspora and the open skies of New Mexico. mallika is currently based in Albuquerque, NM and is growing vegetables, herbs, and flowers with their coworkers at Ashokra Farm.
Natalina [ they/them ]
Known for unexpected transformations and “alchemic upcycling”, Taos-based conceptual artist, Natalina, creates experiences for their audience. Their current body of work, Future Sounds, explores the impact the sounds that surround us and the sounds we project into the world have on our present and our future. Interactive sculptures and tactile experiences engage the audience as co creators of not only the work in front of them but in the future of our lives, together.
Submergence Collective
The Submergence Collective is a mutually obligate, ever evolving, (sometimes decaying) art and ecology research collective co-founded in 2019 by Kaitlin Bryson, Hollis Moore, Mariko Oyama Thomas, and Rachel Zollinger. The collective’s transdisciplinary projects strive to imagine and facilitate more collaborative, radically hopeful possibilities for our human species and the rest of the living and dying world. From visual artworks to written works to interactive workshops, they are focused on generating material that participates with(in) our global ecology and offers healing, reparation and change for more sustainable and interconnected futures among species. As a multidisciplinary team, their members are highly trained in pedagogical theory, qualitative research, studio art practices, and ecological design and restoration. They occupy the terrain space(s) of Taos, Santa Fe, and Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Tucson, Arizona.
Tigre Bailando Mashaal-Lively [ they/them ]
Tigre was an extremely talented, multi-disciplinary artist whose work encompassed many different media and spanned the globe. Born and raised in Philadelphia, they attended Bennington College in Vermont before moving out to the Bay Area and then travelling across several continents. They moved to Santa Fe in 2019 and promptly fell in love with both the city and the enchanted land of New Mexico, itself.
They described their work as: utilizing the body as an altar, a vessel, a conduit for transformation. These transcendent visions both liminal and encompassing, are motivated toward healing and understanding our relationships to ourselves, with each other, and with the world. (Tigre’s bio was written with the help of Linda Marshall, Tigre’s mother.)