Jasmine Hearn, born and raised on occupied lands now known as Houston, TX, is an interdisciplinary artist, teacher, doula, performer, and organizer. They are a recipient of a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists award (2023), Cynthia Hazen Polsky and Leon Polsky Rome Prize in Design with collaborator Athena Kokoronis of Domestic Performance Agency (2023), a Creative Capital Award (2022), and New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Awards for Outstanding Performer (2021, 2017).

Balafon West African Dance Ensemble is a dynamic performance company celebrating the cultural contributions of women. Born out of a passion for African dance and community engagement, Balafon was founded by the late Mama Kadiatou Conte in 1997. Formally established as a Pittsburgh-based nonprofit in 2010, Balafon offers vibrant dance and music classes and is excited to create more enriching opportunities to experience the joyful spirit of traditional West African dance at KST’s Alloy Studios.

taylor knight (they/them) & anna thompson (they/them) are co-founding artistic directors of slowdanger, a multidisciplinary performance entity based in Pittsburgh, PA. slowdanger uses choreographic, improvisational and contemporary dance/performance frameworks to create work at the intersection of movement, sound, technology, physiological centering and ontological examination.They were 2022 NEFA NDP Grant and NPN Creation and Development Fund awardees, and 2024 inaugural New Work Development Artists in Residence at Texas A&M’s College of Performance Visualization and Fine Art.

Jesse Factor trained at the Martha Graham School and danced with Graham II and the Martha Graham Dance Company. Born in Sharon, PA, Jesse grew up in Quito, Ecuador and Bangkok, Thailand before earning a BFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Factor’s work has been presented at the Boston Contemporary Dance Festival, Harvest Chicago Contemporary Dance Festival, OUTsider Festival (Austin), Milton Art Bank, RADfest (Kalamazoo), and more. Factor holds an MFA from the University of Iowa and completed additional studies at the American Dance Festival and 92 St. Y’s Dance Education Lab (DEL). Jesse currently serves in the Modern Dance Unit at Point Park University’s Conservatory of Performing Arts.

KST is leading a groundbreaking national symposium that aims to reshape the future of accessible, equitable cultural spaces owned and anchored by BIPOC communities.

Guided by our vision “Owning Our Future. Thriving Where We Live.,” this three-day gathering in May 2025 serves as a platform to catalyze a critical national dialogue and chart a path forward.

Collaborating with an advisory committee of national and local colleagues, KST curates a cross-industry program that features discussions, performances, and celebrations with leaders in art, activism, urban planning, philanthropy, and government. Together we imagine new financial, operational, and physical structures for BIPOC-owned arts spaces, addressing the structural inequities that the pandemic laid bare.

The symposium spotlights organizations employing new strategies to safeguard culture in their communities. It engages forward-thinking stakeholders invested in emergent models. Look forward to thought-provoking panel sessions, inspiring keynote addresses, and dynamic performances by Pittsburgh and national artists.

symposium pass

FIND FULL SCHEDULE HERE