Our Collective
Kennedy Arnette (b. 1997, Los Angeles, CA; lives and works in Los Angeles, CA)
Kennedy Arnette (they/them) is an archival worldbuilder, artist, and educator who practices land stewardship through intergenerational care and advocacy of the Black homeplace. As founder and principal organizer of Perennial Memory Lab, Kennedy uses a background in UI design and urban horticulture to develop outra-academic research avenues and accessible programming to support descendants of the dispossessed in generating liberatory counter-histories through their art and life’s work. Perennial’s experimental workshop models and videos are an extension of the resourceful and interactive nature of Kennedy’s efforts as an artist and archival strategist. With over a decade of grassroots organizing experience toward the interconnected struggles of housing, health, and food sovereignty, Kennedy’s multi-disciplinary practice reflects a unifying desire to free the LAnd, us along with it.
Cienna Benn (b. 1999, Altadena, CA)
Cienna Benn is a writer, archival practitioner, and artist from Altadena, CA. Through her scholarship, she cares for Black aesthetic sensibilities by lifting the collections of radical visual artists and art movements ranging from acts of self-fashioning to social activism. Inspired by matters of identity and image-making, her independent research considers the complexities of migration and intergenerational memory expressed through collective cultural work, photography, oral history, and vernacular image archives.
Benn holds a Master’s of Arts in Visual Studies from The University of California, Irvine, and is an Alumna of Howard University, where she earned her bachelor’s degrees in Sociology and Africana Studies. Her archival experience includes the Library of Congress, the University of California, Irvine, and the University of Maryland. She is the 2025 Activist Artist in Residence at Pitzer College and is an incoming MLIS Student at the Pratt Institute.
Kikesa Kimbwala DeRobles (b. 1999, Pomona, CA; lives and works in Pomona, CA)
Kikesa Kimbwala DeRobles is a visual artist, writer, and cultural worker from Pomona, California. As a graduate of Fine Arts in painting and art history at Howard University, Kikesa developed a career in art administration that centers on co-narration, inclusive interpretation models, and art as social and political investigation. In February 2025, Kikesa founded the artist collective Here Lay A Home as a development of her studio practice, in which she explores the intersections of conceptual art and social impact through site-specific artist interventions that prioritize earthen material and found objects, conceptual minimalism, intuitive language, and community-engaged performance. The namesake exhibition, Here Lay A Home at the Armory Center for the Arts, stages a second iteration of the collective’s Altadena Altarvention series, which brings together artists, ecologists, and archivists of color to amplify the conditions of Black and Brown residents of Altadena in the aftermath of the Eaton fires.
Kikesa’s career in arts administration includes the Brooklyn Museum, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art, as well as Pace Gallery and CANADA Gallery. This exhibition marks the artist’s programming debut as an independent curator and the Director of Here Lay A Home.
Mia Glionna (b. 1999, Altadena, CA; lives and works in Playa del Rey, CA)
Mia Glionna is an archivist and artist from Altadena, CA. They have a passion for creative, care-driven, and community-based memory work, keeping their archivist eye on preserving the past, and their artist eye on carrying it into the future. After earning a Bachelor’s degree in American Literature & Culture and African American Studies at UCLA, they received their Master’s of Science in Information and Museum Studies Certificate at the University of Michigan. During their time at UM, they worked with the African American Cultural and Historical Museum of Ann Arbor (AACHM) to develop Family Foundations: Four Stories of Black Washtenaw County Community Building, 1850–1950. This traveling exhibition shared the stories of the first African Americans in the Ann Arbor-Ypsilanti area through records, photos, and oral histories contributed by their descendants. Mia has also consulted on community engagement projects for the Detroit Sound Conservancy, Media Burn Archive, Plymouth District Library, and Pasadena Public Library.
For Here Lay A Home, they contributed their own artwork, created outreach materials, and continue to strategize a long-term preservation plan for the project.
Parker Graffham (b. 1999, Pomona, CA; lives and works in Pomona, CA)
Parker Graffham (he/him/his) is a self-taught visual artist and environmental scientist specializing in data visualization and information distribution. As a Southern California native, the future livability of the area is extremely important to him. His contributions to Here Lay a Home explore the cultural bias surrounding environmental disasters and present a platform for further engagement. He creates objects that encourage viewers to explore patterns and spark interdisciplinary links between art and science.
With a Bachelor of Arts in Science, Technology, and Society and a minor in Botany from California Polytechnic Pomona, his concentration was in dissecting complex systems and how different groups create truth. Consequently, academia lends its rules and aesthetics to create core principles in his visual language. His work is also supported by jobs in ecology, agriculture, and education, creating a dynamic momentum for study.
“Tru” Philip Patrick Harper (b. 1997, Leimert Park, CA; lives and works in Leimert Park, CA)
Tru is a first-generation Belizean-American artist from Leimert Park, CA. Drawing from his cultural heritage, Tru’s work intersects sound art, performance, and multimedia installation. He has collaborated with institutions such as Center Theatre Group, USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance, LA Dance Project, Ballet BC, and Netherlands Dance Theatre. His explorations in sound have been featured in major spaces like the Mark Taper Forum, The Greek Theatre, and The Whitney Museum. Tru’s practice centers on the fusion of experimental sound with storytelling, technology, and social history.
David Hines
David Hines has deep roots in Altadena, stretching back four generations. His great-great-grandparents first moved to Los Angeles from Marianna, Arkansas, in the late 1920s, seeking greater opportunity. Searching for a permanent home for their children, the Hines family ultimately settled in Altadena. For many years, Altadena was (and still is) home to David, his parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and many other relatives.
David has long been passionate about community building. While studying Civil Engineering at Northwestern University, he not only learned how communities are physically built, but also deepened his understanding of his own community and its history. This passion for connecting his studies with his personal heritage led David on a remarkable path of discovery.
Many of the works featured in this exhibition come from the Hines family and were gathered through years of David’s dedicated research and preservation efforts.
Allison Zuhura McAdoo
Allison is a Los Angeles-raised cultural worker and community organizer whose work lives at the intersection of art, education, and social justice. As a Community Engagement Coordinator at Young Musicians Foundation, she aims to amplify the organization’s legacy of inclusive and creative programming that centers marginalized people. With her extensive background in socially engaged community-based art education, she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Community Development and Art History from Howard University and later a Master of Arts in Art Education in Communities and Museums from the University of Texas at Austin.
Her professional journey spans roles with organizations like Live Nation Urban, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Aziz Gallerie, and the Studio Museum in Harlem’s Museum Education Practicum. This comprehensive journey has equipped her with the tools of creating engaging educational opportunities, leadership abilities, and facilitating community dialogue surrounding a variety of intersectional topics.
Zuhura is also the co-founder of Houses Of Luv, a national BIPOC-centered LGBTQ+ creative series based in Los Angeles. Her professional mission is to foster cultural equity, cultural re-empowerment, and communal memory through acts of care within the local community.
KJW Praxis™
KJW Praxis™ is an arts consultancy developing models of social engagement to support community liberation. Founded by social practice artist, curator, and community archivist Kiara Walls, KJW Praxis™ centers artist support, cultural organizing, and community archiving. The consultancy builds collaborations between artists, institutions, and communities to facilitate conversations, amplify underrepresented voices, and foster liberatory practices. Walls brings over twelve years of cross-sector experience spanning K–12 art education; the public and private sectors, academic institutions, non-profits, and cultural institutions. Her work consistently centers participation and collaboration, often inviting communities into the creative process. Her research investigates the relationship between reparations and community liberation, developing conversations, films, archives, site-specific installations, and exhibitions both within her own practice and in service to artists, communities, and institutions. Drawing on her background as a social practice artist, curator, former dean, and archivist, she transforms lessons learned from these diverse roles into projects that bridge artistic practice and social impact.
Walls is currently the Community Archivist at the Library Foundation of Los Angeles in partnership with the Los Angeles Central Library, where she is co-developing CommUnity: Your Archive, Your Legacy. Funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Public Knowledge Grant, this collaborative program provides access to archival knowledge and resources at participating libraries across the greater Los Angeles area. Through public programming, services, and pop-up events, Angelenos are invited to contribute personal histories, artifacts, and stories to a growing community-centered archive that will be housed within LAPL’s special collections.
Walls holds a Master’s in Art and Social Practice from Portland State University and a BA in Graphic Design from California State University, Northridge.
Lauren Williams (b. 1997, Oklahoma City, OK; lives and works in Brooklyn, NY)
Lauren Williams (she/her) is a journalist and audio producer. She is a Visiting Scholar at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University, where her reporting is being supported by the Matthew Power Literary Reporting Award. She received a master’s degree from Columbia Journalism School and a bachelor's degree from The American University of Paris.
Lauren has written scripts, scored, and produced episodes for a wide range of award-winning radio programs, narrative shows, and audio documentaries. Most recently, she wrote and produced for KUOW and NPR’s noontime show, Soundside. She serves as a story consultant for Here Lay A Home, helping identify, collect, and archive oral histories from residents in Altadena.