StuffStudio
Bio
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.
Artist Statement
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
Current Projects & Events
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Workshop Series: Familiar Unfamiliar
FAMILIAR|UNFAMILIAR: Your Black Identity Gets to Define Itself
What stories emerge when we stop translating ourselves for others?
What happens when Black community creates from lived experience—without compromise?
Made possible by a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, Familiar Unfamiliar is a project at the intersection of Black culture, art, storytelling, technology, identity, self love, and a lot of introspection. This workshop series will span across three phases and culminate in a final project viewable by the general public.
The table is set. Invitations are now open.
The 2025 Cohort circle closes May 15th.
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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:
- “If everything that you have been advocating for came to pass, what would the future look like?
- Who would it benefit, and why?
- What do you imagine happened for it to finally come true?”
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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).
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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).
Collab
Upcoming Workshops
List of Services
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[Phase 1] FAMILIAR|UNFAMILIAR[Complete THIS SHORT FORM] List Item 1
ONLINE | May 2025
A space for Black identity to define itself, without translation.
We'll explore the archetypes who've shaped our lives and collectively identify which resonate most authentically with our experiences. Through guided reflection and meaningful discussion, we'll distill 40 archetypes down to our top ten most powerful.
This is a closed cultural practice for Black participants.
No art or storytelling skills required—just your lived experience.
Not Black and interested in this process? Join us this Fall 2025 for public showings and open sessions to learn how to personalize this practice.
Also STAY TUNED for "Queer and Disability Aesthetics" which will have a similar process and will be open to all queer and/or disabled folx. Coming in 2026.
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[Phase 2] Call&Response: June-JulyRESERVE YOUR SPOT List Item 2
Collaborative Storytelling
HYBRID/ONLINE
We’ll transform our top ten archetypes into grounded, multidimentional characters using interactive storytelling, call and response, craft miniature narratives from the voices of these archetypes with our lived experience. We will discuss how they look, what they sound like, and what their life lessons are to learn and to teach.
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[Phase 3] Celebrations: Sept-NovRESERVE YOUR SPOT List Item 3
GENERAL ADMISSION/PUBLIC SHOWING
StuffStud.io and emergent MN artists from the FAMILIAR|UNFAMILAR cohort will host a live interactive event featuring the characters and narratives explored in the spring and summer workshops. There will be physical pop up events spanning multiple cities in MN, Saint Paul, Minneapolis, Winona, Saint Cloud... So, stay tuned.
Stay Connected
Contact Us
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