ABOUT LEAH

Leah Xiuzhen Rathe was adopted from China and raised in the US. She grew up with her mom and adopted brother in Montana and Minnesota, and calls Brainerd her home. She also attained a Bachelor’s Degree in Digital Media Arts and earned a Paralegal Certificate from Hamline University. Leah has always shown an affinity for creativity, and throughout most of her life, Leah has cultivated connections with individuals and communities through her artistic and media work. Leah has launched her own media business, Leah XR Creative, which offers videography, graphic design, and photography services. She is very passionate about the impact of art and media and aims to create with meaning and intention. Many of her projects have included topics such as gender equality, the criminal justice system, and social justice.

Through the Ignite Rural Residency, Leah created the short film "CHOPSTICK" as a way to represent her experience as a transracial adoptee and to connect with communities and spark further conversation about transracial adoption and representation. Over the last few years, Leah has dove significantly into her identity as a transracial adoptee, and wants to see more transracial adoptee representation in media, as it is not an experience she often sees represented. The concept for "CHOPSTICK" was based on Leah's experiences of getting chopsticks at restaurants while her white friends would receive forks. The expected ability and familiarity with chopsticks has been a common motif with regard to her racial identity throughout her life, and she wanted to use this idea as a whimsical way of representing race in the short film.

Website: leahxrcreative.com

Facebook: Leah XR Creative

Instagram @leahxrcreative

ABOUT PRISCILLA

Priscilla Gruendemann was born and raised in the Lower Sioux Indian Community, Morton MN. For many years she has found her passion in making and creating art revolving around her Dakota culture for her family and community. She has completed many apprenticeship programs including pottery, beading, horse regalia, regalia and also Dakota floral work.

PROJECT + ARTIST SHOWCASE

Priscilla created regalia during her residency using her own designs and colors with both geometric and floral designs. As a way of giving back to her community, Priscilla presented her finished regalia as a gift to a young girl in her community at a private showcase that took place on Saturday, June 4th, 2022 at the Redwood Area Community Center in Redwood, MN.

ABOUT SUREE

Sureeporn Sompamitwong was born in Thailand and moved to the US at the age of 7. She grew up with a love of reading, writing, music, art, and a dream of becoming a fashion designer. At 18, Suree chased her dreams in California and continued that pursuit for three years. Upon returning to Worthington, MN, Suree’s passion for art and mental health pushed her to start a non-profit promoting art therapy called “Creative Healing Space.”

PROJECT + ARTIST SHOWCASE

During her residency, Suree launched “Art Invasionz,” a clothing brand that features artwork from various community members addressing mental health. A public artist showcase was held on Sunday, June 5, 2022 at The YES! House in Granite Falls, MN.

ABOUT BETH

Beth O’Keefe is an artist who lives and works in the Lower Sioux community (Morton, MN). For the last 7 years, Beth has been studying hide tanning from a master tanner, working very hard to learn the necessary skills to reproduce a Dakota woman’s dress.

PROJECT + ARTIST SHOWCASE

During her residency, Beth studied a collection housed in Brooklyn, New York, worked on producing a Dakota woman’s dress, and honed her teaching skills to continue passing down traditional knowledge. Beth’s artist showcase took place on May 5, 2022, National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, in conjunction with the “Bring her Home” film screening at Pioneer PBS in Granite Falls, MN.

ABOUT ROCKY

Rocky Casillas Aguirre is an emerging, Latinx and LGBTQIA+ artist originally from Tijuana – a border town and the largest city in Baja California, Mexico. From a young age, art has been his refuge for creative expression and de-stressing, and a way to make sense of the world. He is self-taught in comic writing, illustrating, and graphic design.

In 2020, Rocky launched ROKATURAS™ – an art studio, business and brand that gives a home to his world of cartoons and original stories. Since then, he has been self-publishing comics and children's books on the topics of mindfulness and mental health. Rocky’s art is inspired by the vibrancy of his Mexican heritage and personal struggles with identity and anxiety.

Keep up with Rocky and learn more about his creative projects by visiting his studio's website (rokaturas.com). You can also read his comic strips for mindfulness tips on instagram (@twitchandweenie).

ABOUT ALIXENA

Alixena Patnaude is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, and lives on the Turtle Mountain Reservation. She has been beading since her youth, having learned how to bead from her older sister and mother. She is interested in learning more art forms, particularly quillwork, and creating pieces that represent her culture and heritage.

Alixena intends to utilize the Ignite Rural Artist Residency to understand her art from a more nuanced perspective, sharpen networking skills, and to grow as an artist. She envisions starting a beading and craft circle in her community, where they encourage passing on their Indigenous arts to family and other community members, cultivating a safe and nurturing environment in which to engage socially.

ABOUT LETICIA

Born and raised in the desert southwest of New Mexico, Leticia ventured to the Midwest in 1997 to attend the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, where she earned a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism. After college, she worked as an associate producer for a cable television newscast and spent a few years with the Girl Scout Council in Minneapolis in community youth outreach and communications. Leticia has served as an administrative assistant at various non-profits, the Committee Against Domestic Abuse (CADA), and Partners for Housing, which provided Leticia with a new lens for understanding different populations and backgrounds. Those opportunities, coupled with her lived experience of trauma and intimate partner violence, led her to pursue a Master’s in Human Services Forensic Behavioral from Concordia University, 25 years after earning her bachelor’s degree.

Leticia currently serves as the Assistant Library Supervisor at the Saint Peter Public Library in Saint Peter, Minn. where she resides, overseeing the teen and young adult programming and materials. She has made it her mission to engage with her local community and offer programs for marginalized communities. In addition to her role as a librarian, Leticia is a freelance writer for the Mankato Free Press and Mankato Magazine. She has also written two children's books as a contract author for Capstone Publishing and has contributed to pebblego.com, an educational website for youth. During the Ignite Rural program, Leticia worked on writing her first children’s book, based on one of her father’s childhood bedtime stories, with hopes of getting it published.

In her free time, Leticia runs ultra marathons, writes poetry, and reads a copious amount of books. In addition to working on several more picture books to add to the series, she will participate in the Loft Literary Center's 2024 Year-Long Creative Nonfiction and Memoir Writing Project with Author Carolyn Holbrook.

Social Media:

Instagram: lgwriter

Facebook: Leticia Anita

ABOUT ESMARIE

Esmarie is a self-taught artist based in Vermilion, South Dakota; she also is a citizen of the Isanti Dakota people of Santee, Nebraska. Esmarie has been passionate about the arts since she was a youth, participating in programs like Mazinaakizige: Youth Photographers at the Minnesota Historical Society, and the Oscar Howe Summer Institute at the University of South Dakota. Esmarie is a fashion illustrator who enjoys creating pieces reflecting contemporary fashions while mixing them with Dakota contour.

In 2020 Esmarie began her artistic journey by selling original stickers and prints. Since then, Esmarie discovered a passion for her Dakota history through fashion. She wants to see more indigenous representation in the Fashion industry and wants to help create ways to uplift and support her community through fashion. Esmarie is grateful for the opportunity to develop her artistic and leadership skills at Ignite Rural; not only will this program benefit Esmarie but the community she comes from.

ABOUT CECILY

Cecily Rose Engelhart (she/her, Ihanktonwan Dakota & Oglala Lakota) is a Master Certified Life Coach and Indigenous arts practitioner. When it comes to her artwork, Cecily is obsessed with creating functional, everyday use items that incorporate cultural imagery, personal stories, and historical contexts.

She is currently penning her first two books, and in the early development stages of her Native travel show.

ABOUT ANDREA

Andrea V. Duarte-Alonso is a first-generation Mexican-American from the ancestral lands of the P’urhépecha and Nahua people. Andrea grew up in various small towns across the Midwest due to her father's work in meatpacking plants, but has considered Worthington home since she was a second-grader.

Andrea earned her bachelor of arts in political science, English, and women's studies from St. Kate's. In the last three years since returning home, Andrea did community engagement work as a Lead for America Fellow, participated in the 2022 Poetry Apprenticeship with the Loft, and taught Communication Arts at the Worthington Learning Center. Andrea is currently pursuing her juris doctorate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School.

PROJECT + ARTIST SHOWCASE

During her residency, Andrea grew her project “Stories from Unheard Voices,” an online storytelling platform of first and second-generation immigrants in southwest Minnesota. Andrea’s project culminated in an artist showcase titled “Worthington Voices in Creative Writing & Oral Storytelling.” This event was presented in an exhibit format featuring a small panel of young storytellers held at the Worthington Area Learning Center on Thursday, June 2, 2022.

ABOUT LYNNE

Lynne M. Colombe is a digital storyteller, documentarian, and writer from the Sicangu Lakota (Rosebud Sioux) Reservation. A third generation educator, Lynne has previously served Native communities as a: high school teacher, school administrator, volunteer, Tribal School Board President, and editor of her local hometown newspaper and tribal newsletter. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education (Black Hills State University) and a Master of Arts in Language Reading and Culture (University of Arizona).

Lynne is a strong promoter of Arts education to produce authentic, digital media in her community. Lynne aims to create space for digital storytelling by Native peoples and build content platforms. She is currently working on a full-length documentary film titled, "Descendants of the Star People: Lakota Voices, Virtues and Values," and is developing a program to expand arts education to Rosebud Sioux youth. Lynne lives with her two teenagers, also artists. She spends her free-time filming bucking horses and hanging out with her father, Richard, on the family ranch in Mission, South Dakota.

ABOUT OMANI

Omani Luger is a self-taught illustrator of Lakota and Northern Tutchone descent. Inspired by film, comics, and the mortifying ordeal of being seen, Omani is currently developing a graphic novel/webtoon.

Her artistic endeavors are heavily supplemented by an educational background in biology, as well as shounen anime influences. As it stands, there's a story she wants to read and if she has to be the one to tell it, then so it shall be.