This Virtual Artist Salon series was designed to showcase and advance the 2020 Kresge Artist Fellow's creative practices, provide space for an exchange of ideas and perspectives among all participants, and further the connection between Kresge Artist Fellows and the wider arts community.

Ajara Alghali A Detroit native, Ajara Alghali is a performance artist and thought leader at the intersection of dance and representation. Her artistic practice is in the classical West African discipline, blending her cultural grounding with expressive body movements. Alghali believes that music and dance are important modes of communication needed to nurture individuals, disseminate knowledge, and advance the culture. Through her artistry, she engages in the vital work of cultivating dancers and culture-keepers to create a community of stewards of the rich bodily history of West African dance. She is co-founder of TeMaTe Institute for Black Dance and Culture, which is actively re-framing traditional African dance as part of the classical dance canon. Alghali, holding a Master of Urban Planning from Wayne State University, is a cultural worker, urban planner, and anthropologist all in one. Her work is a fusion of life experiences from her Sierra Leonean-American roots and focuses on the connection between African people throughout the diaspora. Her cultural identities and perspectives define her guiding philosophy: there is inherent value in traditional practices and the informal ways people build community and share their history.

Karilú Alarcón Forshee was raised in Juárez, México. She began her artistic education at a young age at La Academia Municipal de Arte and has been performing ever since. Forshee is an interdisciplinary performing artist with a degree in theater arts and English-Spanish translation from the University of Texas (2009). She has been a Detroit-based performer and teaching artist since 2011, and a member of A Host of People theater company since 2013. Forshee currently works as a teaching artist for Living Arts Detroit, University Musical Society, and Mosaic Youth Theatre of Detroit.

Michael Manson is a teaching artist, dancer, and choreographer specializing in the street dance forms of popping, locking, house, and Detroit Jit. In 2015, he was a featured dancer on the television program So You Think You Can Dance, which showcased his jit expertise. Manson was the primary choreographer for the Detroit Pistons dance crew, D-Town, and his teaching credits include master classes at Arizona State University, the Columbia College Chicago Dance Center, and Broadway Dance Center. He has taught workshops and performed internationally in Paris, France, and La Paz, Bolivia.

Debra J. White-Hunt A Detroit native, Debra J. White-Hunt has danced all of her life–socially, spiritually, professionally, and purposefully. She has traveled the world teaching, dancing, and choreographing works for all ages and many cultures to express passion, artistry, and emotion–with a message. White-Hunt has choreographed at least 50 ballets and produced and directed more than 100 dance concerts. She has also created educational tools used for the training of dance students. White-Hunt has been commissioned to create her works on stage, television, film, and video, and she has received numerous national and local awards for her excellence in the arts and education. She is co-founder and artistic director of Detroit-Windsor Dance Academy.