Deanna Emmons

Deanna Emmons is an interdisciplinary teaching artist, drag performer and organizer based in Philadelphia. Deanna envisions art making to serve as a proactive tool for self and community advocacy through cultural immersion, universal learning, and trauma informed practice. Their work utilizes storytelling and radical imagination to build collaborative conversations while strengthening the overall health ecologies of communities.

With the support of the Art and Change Grant, Emmons will continue project based work that asks, “How does inequality within systems of care directly affect one’s agency, identity, and personhood? What are the measures needed to ensure individuals and communities have opportunities for self advocacy, and how can the arts facilitate those opportunities?” This work entitled The Keeping and Caring of Us aims to connect Philadelphian voices and care networks through an interactive website, anonymous storytelling, virtual public conversation, and QR code listening installations.