In this special episode of ARTdusty, today’s guest is a New York City-based poet, Anacaona Rocio Milagro. Anacaona has been writing poetry before most kids know how to write their own name. She obtained her MFA in Poetry from NYU’s Poetry program in Paris and holds a Masters in Public Health from Columbia University, and a BA with a double major in Social Anthropology and Journalism/Creative Writing. Her poetry has been published in The BreakBeat Poets Latinext Anthology, Narrative Magazine, LitHub, Oh Dear Magazine, and Raising Mothers. Her “Nine Eleven Poem” is among the Smithsonian Museum’s 9/11 archives. In 2021 she released “Stillmatic,” a spoken word/Hip-Hop/Jazz single, and in August 2024 she released her first full-length spoken word album, “To Make an Island of A Street Corner." Available on all streaming platforms.

Check out her album and book here: https://bit.ly/to-make-an-island

Follow Anacaona Rocio Milagro @poet.anacaona
Follow Substantial Art & Music: https://bio.site/subartandmusic

Today's guest is Hadiya Williams, a decorative artist and surface designer based in Washington, DC. She is the founder and creative director of Black Pepper Paperie Co. What started as a hobby-based clay business in 2017 evolved into a full-time decorative art and design studio, specializing in hand-made ceramics, surface pattern design, and wall art. Hadiya has collaborated with a variety of companies all over the world, including F. Schumacher Co., Lulu, and Georgia, Brewster Home, Best Buy, WALPA (Japan), AARP, Meta, and Target. Her design work is also a part of the National Museum of African American History and Culture's permanent collection. Hadiya's work brings art, traditions, and stories together through patterns and handmade techniques that represent her cultural influences across the African diaspora, from past, present to future.

Follow Hadiya Williams at https://www.blackpepperpaperie.com/ | @hadiyawilliams

Follow Substantial Art & Music: https://bio.site/subartandmusic

Today's guest is Opie Snow, a visual artist from Ashland, Oregon. She studied fine arts at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon, and the University of Oregon in Eugene. After receiving her Bachelor of Fine Arts with a painting emphasis from the University of Oregon, she traveled to Europe to research master painter techniques. In 2000, she co-founded Nuwandart Gallery in Ashland, Oregon. Opie has created costume designs, installation work, and performance art/dance with El Circo, an Art/Performance Collective based in San Francisco from 2001-2007. In 2007 Opie Snow joined forces with Micah Blacklight and moved to Brooklyn, New York to further her art career. In 2009 she and Micah created the collaboration called BlackSnow, a fine art, couture fashion, and multi-media company. BlackSnow had their debut show at IcoSa-hedron Gallery in New York City in 2010. Her work has involved mythical figures, and explored the experience of the feminine through the evolution of sexuality, power, demonization, oppression, liberation, and redefinition. Currently, Opie Snow lives between New York and Oregon with her family. She is immersed in two very different series, Steadfast – her figurative work which explores the complexities of being a woman in today’s times, and Black Ochre – which is a new and passionate realm of expression for her where she is experimenting with emotive and design oriented abstracts.

Follow Opie Snow at https://opiesnow.com/ | IG @opie.snow.art
Follow Substantial Art & Music: https://bio.site/subartandmusic