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massq ball
2025 color

Colorful leaves of various hues arranged in a circle

the ARTISTS

For MassQ Ball 2025 Color we have assembled a star-studded lineup of artists, performers, activists and cultural bearers from a wide range of disciplines to create a one-of-a-kind, immersive, multi-sensory experience that represents the beauty, diversity and color of our commonwealth and wider world.

Click on their image for more info on each artists/ensemble.

Anjali Nath, a distinguished disciple of Pandit Chitresh Das, epitomizes a legacy of exceptional Kathak dance for over 26 years. Anjali has graced stages across the United States and India as a cornerstone member of the Chitresh Das Dance Company and is a current faculty member at the Harvard Dance Center and The Dance Complex.

Anjali Nath

Classical North Indian
Kathak Dance

Founded by Afro-Taíno artist Mar Parrilla, Danza Orgánica (DO) is a dance theater company centered around equity, social justice, and decolonization. With dancers from Puerto Rico, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and Spain, DO brings together a multiplicity of experiences, united by themes of a liberated future.

Danza Organica

Social Justice Dance Ensemble

Floor Lords has over 40 years of positive influence in the community. Since inception, they have utilized members to teach and cultivate workshops/performances not only in Massachusetts but worldwide. Every year, they host an annual event and dance competition that attracts over 500 participants from around the globe.

Floor Lords

HipHop Dance Ensemble

Hyde Square Task Force (HSTF) was founded on the belief that communities are stronger when we take care of our youth. By harnessing their potential, we not only help youth navigate adolescence, but support them in becoming the changemakers of today and our future. Join HSTF to dance, sing, and celebrate together.

Hyde Square Task Force Ambassadors

Afro Latin Youth Music, Dance, and Theatre

Jean Appolon Expressions (JAE) blends Haitian folkloric and contemporary dance styles. Founded by Jean Appolon, JAE creates a unique artistic vernacular that educates audiences about Haitian culture, traditions, history, and current issues. JAE’s dynamic repertoire is designed to preserve Haitian folkloric culture.

Jean Appolon Expressions

Haitian Dance Ensemble

Gund Kwok is the first all female and all Asian Lion and Dragon Dance Troupe in the country. Started in 1998, it was started with a women's empowerment vision to provide Asian women with the opportunity to learn and perform an art form that was traditionally unavailable to women because women were viewed as inferior.

Gund Kwok

Chinese Lion Dance Ensemble

Isaura Oliveira was born and raised in Salvador-Bahia, Brazil, one of the cradles of African Brazilian culture, where many African, Amerindian traditions and arts are maintained and nourished. Isaura is a Multidisciplinary Artist of Dance, Theater and Costume. As a Cultural Educator, Isaura’s expertise is African Brazilian Culture, dedicated to studying, teaching and creating ritual performances. Spirituality, History of Liberation Movements, and Ancestors are her guides; thus artistic and educational work is connected with her Ancestrally. Since 2019, Isaura has been developing Power of Skirts, an experimental community group of BIPOC women leadership focused on healing arts, cultural ancestry, social justice through the arts and ritual performances. Power of Skirts is an evolving group of women from diverse places of African and Native Indigenous Diasporas. The visionary and mentor Isaura Oliveira is 2024/2025 grantee of Boston Foundation on both Living Arts Boston and Next Steps.

Isaura Oliveira & Power of Skirts

Afro-Brazilian Indigenous Performance Ritual

Cornell Coley, M.Ed, is an award-winning percussionist, dancer, teacher and public performance artist whose work spans performance, community development, education and health. His major cultural influences include the drum and dance traditions of West and Central Africa, the Caribbean, Brazil and the United States.

Cornell Coley

African Drum Circle

Steph Davis is a marimbist and cultural activist. Their music engages aesthetics from the African diaspora as means for collective liberation. Hailed by The Washington Post as a performer who “is engaged in deep explorations of acoustic and historical resonance,” Steph tours the US as a soloist and chamber musician.

Steph Davis

Ghanaian Gyli

Debra is a steel pan performer, arranger, teacher, and music director. She started playing professionally at the age of 13 with her father, touring worldwide and the US. As a steel band arranger, she has won six times in the panorama competition. Debra is a leader of the multi-award winning group Dis-n-Dat band.

Dis n’ Dat Band

Trinidad & Tobago Steel Pan

Christopher Robinson is the Founder of Think Outside the Vox, Coordinator of Outreach & Training of Disability & Access Services at Boston University, a leader in the field of Disability Access and Equity, and a nationally recognized speaker/trainer for Disability Justice, Deaf Equity and Anti-Ableism Practices.

Christopher Robinson

ASL Spoken Word Artist - Griot

Teen Empowerment engages young leaders to develop and use their voices to tackle critical social issues and create a positive impact. Through innovative programs and initiatives, Teen Empowerment addresses social challenges such as crime, violence, and strained community relationships between youth and adults.

By providing platforms for expression, fostering dialogue, and advocating for policy changes, Teen Empowerment empowers youth to develop skills and positive behavior while building safer, more inclusive communities.

Teen Empowerment

Spoken Word Artists - Griots

Ifé Franklin’s practice involves artmaking inspired by the lives of her ancestry which includes folk tales, slave narratives, dreams, dance, song, culinary arts, varied indigenous African spiritual traditions, photography, and film. Her work is in the D.C. Museum of African American History permanent collection.

Ifé Franklin

African American Ring Shout

Shaw Pong Liu facilitates dialogue and healing through listening-based creative collaborations. From playing music in wintry bus shelters, to inviting people to share their “songs from home,” to creating sidewalk Chinese calligraphy play spaces, she seeks to connect people to one another through embodied practices.

Shaw Pong Liu

Chinese American Installation Artist

Andre StrongBearHeart Gaines, Jr., is a citizen of the Nipmuc people. He serves as a cultural steward for his Tribe, is a father, public speaker, traditional dancer, Indigenous Activist for Indigenous rights, carpenter by trade and educator. With 17 years in recovery Andre is a recovery sponsor and integrated life coach for those in need. Andre's work focuses on sharing his traditional teachings and cultural practices with his peoples in community and sister tribes.

Andre StrongBearHeart Gaines, Jr.

Nipmuc Installation Artist

Crystal Bi is a queer, mixed race, Taiwanese American, multimedia artist working in the public realm. Her participatory art projects explore themes of imagination, creative archiving, and belonging. Her practice includes creating space for dreaming in public and sewing translucent fabrics to float on bodies of water.

Crystal Bi

Taiwanese American Installation Artist

Lilly Manycolors is a mother, mixed media artist, youth arts educator, scholar and founder of AUNTY'S HOUSE, a community arts studio in Providence, RI. Manycolors' works center trans-species kinships, youth arts and literacy justice, and care politics. They are a lecturer and critic at Rhode Island School of Design.

Lilly Manycolors

Installation Artist

Naoe Suzuki is a Japanese American visual artist born in Tokyo, Japan. Her multidisciplinary practice combines research, mapping-based study, community engagement, and movement. Suzuki works with drawing, video, installation, language, and archives to explore the interconnectedness of our world, inviting viewers to reflect on our lifestyles, histories, and relationships to our environment with particular focus on water and land.

Naoe Suzuki

Japanese American Installation Artist

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