| About the 2025 award: $50,000 to support genealogical research, ancestral veneration, collaborative artistry linking the diaspora and Africa through adornment, sound/film and ceramics, alongside tea rituals and exhibition. |
yvette is a mother, daughter, and friend, born on Siouan and Iroquoian land (also called Fairfax, Virginia) and now resides on the ancestral lands of the Haudenosaunee, Lenape, Osage, and Shawnee peoples (also called Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania). She comes from a proud line of innovative folks who endured harm, need healing, and deserve rest. She is a conduit, bringing people together to navigate cultural differences manufactured by colonization.
yvette holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Communications and a Master of Social and Public Policy, Conflict Mediation and Peace Studies. She is now enrolled at OneSpirit Interfaith Seminary to deepen her spiritual practice and leadership, with the intention of becoming an ordained interfaith minister in 2024. Forever a student, she is certified as a yoga and mindfulness instructor, a mediator, and a facilitator. yvette fosters collaboration and builds relationships and generative spaces rooted in compassion and care for healing and transformation to happen.