Creative Space for Black Storytelling

Thursday, February 19th 6-8 pm

Facilitator: Stuff Studio

Theme: Community Power

Creativity is not a luxury. Rest is not betrayal. The people are not powerless. But knowing this and feeling it in our bodies are different things.

In this BIPOC open studio, we will take time to create, rest, and embody our strengths together.

Participants will have the opportunity to create meditative paper tiles that represent their strengths. Participants may choose to contribute their paper tiles to a temporary mosaic on the studio table that symbolizes and tells the story of our community power.

*Advanced registration required*

This Open Studio invites BIPOC-identifying participants ages 18+ to make art alongside others. Previous art making experience not required. Learn more about Open Studio here.

As part of Curiosity Studio's Open Studio mission, we are committed to offering these programs for free. To help us reach the greatest number of people, we ask that you do your best to attend the programs you sign up for.

This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

Thursday, November 20th 6-8 pm

Facilitator: Stuff Studio

Theme: Archetypal

In this open studio, a new Black collectivist Archetypal framework will anchor our creative exploration, helping us bring forward creative choices meaningfully.

We’ll discover that Black creative traditions like Jazz aesthetics—the principles of improvisational creativity—and call-and-response aren’t just Black musical forms; they’re technologies for practicing community power, agency, and self-definition. When we freely and choicefully play in a supportive space, we build capacity to carry that same quick-on-our feet, and intuitive decision making into our daily lives.

There are many ways to participate, create, play, and connect at this visual storytelling event using colorful paper craft, beads, yarn, other fiber art, archetypal coloring pages and more. No skill level needed, just your curiosity!

*Advanced registration required*

Click on the BIPOC OPEN STUDIO picture to register!

https://curiositystudioclass.com/classregister/bipoc-open-studio-september

This Open Studio invites BIPOC-identifying participants ages 18+ to make art alongside others. Previous art making experience not required. As part of Curiosity Studio's Open Studio mission, we are committed to offering these programs for free. To help us reach the greatest number of people, we ask that you do your best to attend the programs you sign up for.

This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

StuffStud.io is a Black, Queer, multidisciplinary artist, ancestor in training, and recovering academic. Best known from decades of work in southeast Minnesota as a mentor, an advocate, a grant writer, and a Somatic and Narrative psychotherapist, --she’d just tell you that her advanced degree is in listening to stories and helping them grow feet.

StuffStud.io crafts spaces for untamed imagination and collaborative dreaming.

You can also find StuffStud.io developing video games with trans, queer, neurodivergent storylines, and offering a series of community workshops that celebrate collaborative storytelling, honor oral traditions and the sacred art of call-and-response culture embedded in the Black diaspora.

Black wisdom calls us to transform everything we touch—creating progress, mischief, and magic. Creating something holy out of nothing good. Art is more than a collection of words and technical brush strokes. Our art is the experience of creation itself.

My illustrations preserve the sacred, making fleeting moments eternal in the stillness of the frame. When stillness isn't enough, I allow stories to move through animation and short film. And when the movement is laborious, I facilitate story birth through somatic and collaborative processes.

StuffStud.io honors the spirit of Story in all its forms. The work is a catalyst for venerating lived experiences, reimagining the future, honoring tradition, and forging connections that resonate through generations

Past Events - 2025 Workshop Series: Familiar Unfamiliar
In MAY and JUNE of 2025, StuffStud.io facilitated:
FAMILIAR|UNFAMILIAR: Your Black Identity Gets to Define Itself.

A cohort of 13 Black-Identified participants (The Circle) met weekly to uncover:
- What stories emerge when we stop translating ourselves for others?
- How to shift Black Stereotype to Black Archetype.
We engaged in reclaiming, reaming, and storytelling through guided reflection and call and response.

We identified and investigated 36 Black Archetypes that honor the nuance of Black lives and the communities they create.

JULY-AUGUST
StuffStud.io wrote an interactive tool that featured Black Archetypes from our Circle Discussions. 14 base archetypes that stack, interconnect, and combine to make 37 complete, nuanced archetypes and community roles.

SEPTEMBER -NOVEMBER
A REAL BLACK CONVERSATION
September 26th 2025: Sacred gallery opening and storytelling workshop for Black-identified attendees (Winona, MN) with local Winona, MN Black-owned catering

COMMUNITY OPEN
September 28th 2025: Community open house gallery and community storytelling workshop (Winona, MN)

FAMILIAR|UNFAMILIAR One-month exhibition run Sept 19th -October 19th in Winona, MN

November 20th 2025: BIPOC open studio, interactive workshop, and artist talk (Minneapolis, MN)

November 22nd 2025 FAMILIAR|UNFAMILIAR
Final community event combining gallery, artist talk, and storytelling workshop (Minneapolis, MN)

Upcoming events:

February 7th 2026
FAMILIAR: InFORMATION
In the Gallery: Stuffstud.io
Queermunity - 3036 Hennepin Ave S
Feb 7, 6:00 PM – Feb 7, 7:30 PM

February 19th 2026
COMMUNITY POWER | BIPOC OPEN STUDIO
Registration is required.
The Future We See Ourselves
The Future We See Ourselves is a multi-media interactive vision board that features contributions from contemporary Black scholars and community leaders answering the questions:
1. “If everything that you have been advocating for came to pass, what would the future look like?
2. Who would it benefit, and why?
3. What do you imagine happened for it to finally come true?”
- SIGN UP HERE TO PARTICIPATE OR NOMINATE SOMEONE TO BE INTERVIEWED
In Story Development: Solana.

Solana. A Black coming of age story set in Lowcountry South Carolina.

Genre: Magical Realism

Logline: Captured an eerie sense of familiarity, Solana must push through her timid nature when she discovers three golden skeleton keys that might just be a portal to a beloved place she is told she doesn't belong.

Gameplay is set to be a Dark Souls-lite (sprawling magical narrative with colossal and fantastical creatures, but with adjustable difficulty settings) meets Plants vs Zombies 2 (a strategic interactive combination of magical plants is a large part of the gameplay's defense and combat) meets Dragon Age (fun, chatty party members).
In Story Development: Winhaven

A Black Speculative fiction with a Majority Black cast from across the diaspora

Mosa is a Black 19 year old deaf, AuDHDer, emerging reporter, alternative/punk rock baddie with a life sized mechanical corvid named Raven. Raven is Mosa's personalized disability device.

Setting: Mosa lives in a fictional Northren costal port city, Winhaven, that is ongoingly being gentrified. Mosa, driven to break into 'real investigative journalism' gets way in over her head navigating the underbelly of Winhaven where secrets rule the streets.

Gameplay: Fast paced Life is Strange/Detriot Become Human (choice based narrative) with an ensemble cast, meets Hitman (stealth, exploration and creative multi-solution strategies) meets, oddly enough --The Sims 2 (character stats, emotions, needs are a part of gameplay).

StuffStudio

FAMILIAR: InFORMATION

@ QUEERMUNITY FEB 1st-28TH

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Artist Statement

Current Events

Past Events - 2025 Workshop Series: Familiar Unfamiliar

The Future We See Ourselves

In Story Development: Solana.

In Story Development: Winhaven

Solana

Winhaven.

familiar/unfamiliar

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