Kresge Arts in Detroit and WDET present the 2023 virtual artist salon series featuring the 2022 Kresge Artist Fellows and Gilda Awardees. This nine part series includes never before seen video presentations by awarded metro Detroit artists, filmmakers, musicians, dancers, and performers followed by a public Q+A and conversation.

This salon was moderated by Bridge Detroit's Orlando P. Bailey.

Razi Jafri is a visual artist, documentarian, and social activist based in Hamtramck. His work focuses on ethnicity, religion, immigration, democracy, and the changing cultural landscape in America. As a Muslim immigrant, his own community is of particular interest to him as it vies for a voice in the American cultural, economic, and political arenas amidst a climate of Islamophobia and anti-immigrant sentiment. Jafri’s documentary films include, “Hamtramck, USA,” which made its world premiere at the SXSW Film Festival (2020), “Ashura in Detroit,” which premiered at the Freep Film Festival (2021), and “Loyalty,” a 2022 Independent Television Service grantee currently in post-production. Razi holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering and an MFA from the University of Michigan.

Jhayla Mosley is an emerging narrative and commercial director in the Detroit area, has a passion for using her voice to move mountains within her community through the art of storytelling. Born in Nebraska, her family relocated to the city of Detroit, where she fell in love with cinematic arts. Mosley’s goals include directing creative narrative films that feel nostalgic and reflective of the Black experience, as well as directing more commercials for minority-owned businesses, aiming to make commercial filmmaking a more inclusive environment not only for local filmmakers, but also local businesses.