Deaf Artists Residency Capstone

Experience artist talks from five people working at the vanguard of Deaf arts and culture.

The 2026 Deaf Artist Residents are:
Ebony Gooden (Playwright, Canada)
Rachel Kolb (Non-fiction Writer, New Mexico)
Kah Mendoza (Photographer, California)
Rowan O'Bryan (Mixed-media, California)

Deaf Artists Residency Coordinator Daniel Katz-Hernandez (Multimedia visual art, Maryland) will introduce the group and facilitate a question and answer session following artist talks. Anderson Center's 2026 Deaf Artists Residency Program is made possible through support from the Minneapolis Foundation.

This event is FREE and is held in the Tower View Barn at Anderson Center. Registration is requested.

Rachel Kolb (New Mexico) is a writer whose work explores communication, language, and disability as central components of human experience. A graduate of Stanford University, she was the first signing deaf Rhodes scholar at Oxford before receiving her Ph.D. in English literature from Emory University and then completing a junior fellowship in the Society of Fellows at Harvard University. Her work has been published in The New York Times and The Atlantic, among other venues, and she is the author of the recent memoir "Articulate" (Ecco, 2025).

Ebony Gooden (Canada) is a filmmaker, artist, and community builder dedicated to creating what BIPOC Deaf communities need to thrive. As a serial entrepreneur and advocate, she founded Deafinitely Digital and co-founded multiple initiatives including Survivance Collective and Silent Soul Studio, building platforms that amplify marginalized voices. Working across Calgary’s arts ecosystem with organizations like Inside Out Theatre, QuickDraw Animation Society, and Ghost River Theatre, Ebony transforms spaces through bold storytelling and accessibility innovation.

Her recent films “Running Through Her Past” and “Expression Unmasked,” continue her mission of reimagining representation in media. Supported by the Canada Council for the Arts and Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Ebony’s work challenges traditional forms while creating safe spaces for BIPOC Deaf artists to be seen, heard, and celebrated. As a Black Deaf artist in Calgary, her intersectional lens bridges communities and drives systemic change in the arts landscape.

Kah Mendoza (California) is a filmmaker, media specialist, and multidisciplinary artist based in Los Angeles, California. Their work is rooted in creativity, authenticity, and a deep commitment to amplifying Deaf voices, culture, and lived experiences through storytelling, art, and advocacy.

Working across film, photography, and media production, Kah takes on roles as a cinematographer, video editor, and film photographer. Their practice centers on capturing individuality and cultural narratives, creating work that is both intimate and socially conscious.

For Kah, art is both a tool and a weapon: it can heal, disrupt, unite, and challenge. Their work matters because it creates space for stories often put aside, while also reminding us of our shared humanity. That’s the kind of art that can spark movements and that’s why Kah is committed to it.

Rowan O'Bryan (California) is a Los Angeles-based fine artist working in photography and sculpture. She earned her B.A. from UCLA in 2023 in Fine Arts and Disability Studies, graduating with honors. Born with Cystic Fibrosis, Rowan became hard of hearing at 18 as a result of aminoglycoside antibiotics used to treat her CF and has since found community through ASL and connection with other Deaf people. Her practice centers on her identity as a chronically ill and Disabled person, repurposing medical materials such as oxygen tubing, IV bags, feeding tube supplies etc into sculptures, installations, and self-portraits. Her photography is deeply rooted in memory and nostalgia. Living with a shorter life expectancy, she is drawn to memory as a way of cherishing the time she has and honoring significant moments, places and relationships in her life. Her work challenges the clinical lens through which illness is viewed, offering human-centered perspectives that celebrate disability as a site of resilience, beauty, and complexity.

Daniel Katz-Hernandez (Maryland) is the Deaf Artists Residency Coordinator. He is a deaf multiracial artist focusing on interdisciplinary and installation-based practice.

Katz-Hernandez's work combines experimental writings, drawings, painting, sculpture, electronics, animation, and video-mapping projection, to examine how language, especially American Sign Language, shifts when it moves between bodies, mediums, and systems of cultural perception. He has recently exhibited at Annmarie Sculpture Garden & Arts Center at Solomons at Maryland, National Museum of American History and Linda K Jordan Gallery in Washington, D.C.

The event is held in both ASL and spoken English. All spoken language will be amplified via a standard sound system.

The venue is wheelchair accessible via an ADA compliant ramp into the event space. Seating is padded, armless chairs that are not fixed. Any seat can be moved to accommodate a wheelchair. Designated handicapped parking is provided on-site. Please include any additional access requests in your registration (i.e. Protactile interpretation).

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