Mister Welfare

A kind gesture that doesn't go as planned, as told by the anonymous giver.

Ely Battalen is a Sustainability Consultant, Educator, and founder of EWB Consulting, specializing in organic textiles. He has a decade of experience creating standards, consulting and performing audits of sustainable programs around the world. Working with textiles, biofuels, seafood and recycled commodities in a wide spectrum, he has been engaged in over a dozen programs and is a member of the International Organic Inspectors Association. https://www.ewbconsultingllc.com/

At the tail end of Mr. Welfare’s residency at SPACE on Ryder Farm, he gets to sit down with Farm Director Julie Noble. They discuss her role on Ryder Farm, her journey through various types of farms over the past 8 years, seed varieties, goats and much more! https://www.spaceonryderfarm.org/

LaTonia Allen is a Painter and Graphic Designer. Originally from Phoenix, Arizona, she attended Texas Southern University, in Houston, and graduated with her BA in 2015. After working for various small businesses as a graphic designer, she decided to become independent, and created her own design business, called Allen Illustrations. LaTonia was recently accepted into the School of Visual Arts MFA Fine Arts program. She now lives in Brooklyn and works out of Chelsea in Manhattan, NYC. http://latoniaallen.com/ Instagram: @latoniashanee

Pena Verde is from Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. He started playing Capoeira when he was 15 years old with Mestre Sabia, the coordinator of The Association of Ginga Mundo Capoeira. Pena has been teaching Capoeira to adults and children for over a decade. Pena believes that Capoeira has been responsible for transforming the lives of people all over the world. For this reason, he is thankful for the opportunity to teach Capoeira in New York City. http://www.penaverdecapoeira.com/

Kathy Thornton-Bias is the recently appointed President & CEO of Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee. Thornton-Bias is a highly respected executive in the business and retail space with a career that spans almost three decades. During that time, she has held senior leadership roles for more than 15 years in large organizations and possesses a wealth of fundraising experience. After graduating from the University of Virginia with a degree in Rhetoric and Communications, she joined Saks Fifth Avenue in New York, where she would eventually become the first African American to hold the title Vice President for Divisional Merchandise. She then served as the President of the Retail Division for New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), where she doubled revenues and tripled profits. After 11 years at MoMA, Thornton-Bias became Bang & Olufsen’s President of North America, launching a new revenue stream which would ultimately produce 30 percent of the overall sales for the company. She later moved to Milwaukee to b

Nestor Leon Fortanel is the owner of El Kallejon, a Mexican fusion restaurant in East Harlem. El Kallejon is exactly what you would expect of its name, except this is New York City and the experience of El Kallejon is anything but traditional. Here, you will enjoy the rich flavors of fresh Mexican ingredients with twists that are reflective of this diverse city. Latin, Mediterranean, Japanese and French culinary influences all shape the menu that their guests love. The wine bar has a special selection of wine and sangrias, and in the warmer months, the backyard becomes the setting for live world music and grilling. https://elkallejonlounge.com/

This week, Mister Welfare sits down with Drea Cofield and Gaby Collins-Fernandez, the Co-Directors of BombPop!Up, an artist-run initiative that seeks to bring together artists of all walks in the creation of dynamic art events and spaces. They chat with Mr. Gandy about the beginnings of the collective, its DIY ethics/attitude, and its accomplishments thus far. http://bombpopup.com/

Alice is the Chief Curator and Museum Director for 21c Museum Hotels. She curates exhibitions and oversees commissions, cultural programming, and museum operations for 21c’s multiple venues, in addition to collaborating with Steve and Laura Lee on art sourcing and acquisitions. Prior to this role with 21c, Alice was Director of artwithoutwalls, Adjunct Curator for the Speed Art Museum, and has served in various editorial roles for ARTnews, Contemporanea, and Art & Auction.

Christophe Roberts is a Brooklyn-based multidisciplinary artist working in sculpture, painting, design and installation work. Coming of age in the bloom in hip-hop, Roberts’ early practice was influenced by music and salon culture. His designs and figures acknowledge his own fraught relationship to capitalism, while his practice explores complex masculinities, rebel origin myths, and the commodification of identity through meditations on mass culture iconography. The larger project of these pieces considers the impermanence of physical artifacts and the fluidity of identity. Roberts remains committed to found and footprint-free pieces, communal healing through public beautification, and participatory art. www.christopheroberts.com

This week, Mister Welfare sits down with Chef Selassie Atadika, ahead of her participation at the James Beard House's Iconoclast Dinner, which serves to honor a global group of trailblazing chefs of color. The conversation ranges from her food enterprise Midunu, her passion for sustainable eating, and her menu for the Iconoclast Dinner, which will be happening Saturday, June 8th.

David Anthone is an artist whose practice focuses on painting, conceptual work and readymades. He and his partner, Ron Norsworthy, make art as DARNstudio, exploring themes of institutional racism, as well as the many facets of their life together. His work has been exhibited in solo and group shows. He received a B.A. in Architecture and Art History from University of Nebraska as well as attended Columbia University, Graduate School of Architecture with a focus on Planning & Historic Preservation.

Mr. Gandy met Tommy Mintz exiting his former professor, Maureen Connor's, talk on Race and Revolution: The Speculum Project. While looking for the B/Q/A/C train, they walked and talked together. Tommy is an artist, professor of photograpy, husband, and father. When Mr. Gandy mentioned "A New York Minute," Mintz was excited, and asked if he could tell the story of one specific, and historically significant, 6th Ave apartment. "I am interested in the rapid pace of construction, displacement, and efforts of preservation, both in the physical world and the digital world, where there are interesting parallels in our anxiety of the increasing amount of information being retained or, possibly worse, lost." - Tommy Mintz

Renee Cox is one of the most controversial African-American artists working today using her own body, both nude and clothed to celebrate black womanhood and criticize a society she often views as racist and sexist. No stranger to controversy, her 2001 piece "Yo Mama's Last Supper," which featured Cox herself in the seat of Jesus, and a cast of Black disciples (with one white Judas) sparked outrage from Catholics and then-mayor Rudolph Guiliani. Cox continues to push the envelope with her work by using new digital photography technologies, working from her archives and shooting new subjects in an effort to "unleash the potential of the ordinary and bring it into a new realm of possibilities." Learn more at https://www.reneecox.org/ and see her work featured in "Beyond the Cape! Comics and Contemporary Art" at the Boca Raton Museum of Art from April 16-October 6 https://www.bocamuseum.org/exhibitions/beyond-cape-comics-and-contemporary-art