KUUMBA Academy Creative Lab

Founded in 2022, KUUMBA Academy is a 9-month fellowship offering artistic & professional development to people of color in the creative sector (culinary arts, fashion & style, glamour, interior design, healing arts, literary arts, media arts, performing arts, visual arts and the like). #TuitionFree

Comprised of 20 dynamic creative artists of color, the Class of 2026 KUUMBA Fellows presents...

KUUMBA Academy Creative Lab
🗓 Saturday, April 25 & Sunday & April 26, 2026

🕐 1:00 PM – 5:00 PM | 4 workshops per day

📍NINE EIGHTEEN NINE | 700 N. Tryon St.

Charlotte, NC 28202

NineEighteenNine.com

🎟 ADMISSION

• $20 per individual workshop

• $70 One-Day Passport

• $150 Two-Day Passport

Come for one workshop—or stay for the full immersive weekend experience!

🛒 KUUMBA Marketplace

Retal - Food - Wellness Vendors

FREE & Open to the Public to shop

$40 Vendor fee per day

On Saturday April 25, 2026
(1PM) UNSHAKEN:
A Confidence-Building Workshop Intensive

Lead by KUUMBA Academy Fellow, Latonya Lewis

UNSHAKEN is a confidence-building workshop intensive designed to help participants confront and move through stage fright with intention, courage, and self-trust.

Centered on the understanding that nerves are not weaknesses but sources of energy, this interactive experience invites participants to reframe fear as a pathway to presence, power, and authentic connection.

Through a supportive and affirming environment, attendees are encouraged to meet vulnerability head-on and discover the strength that lives on the other side of it.

Led by KUUMBA Academy Fellow Latonya Lewis, the workshop blends live exercises and guided performance moments that allow participants to practice showing up fully in real time.

Participants will gain practical, transferable tools to manage anxiety, ground themselves in their bodies, and command space with confidence. UNSHAKEN equips attendees to claim the room, trust their voice and step forward boldly—whether onstage, in professional settings, or in everyday life.

(2PM) ART IMITATES LIFE

A Creative Writing Intensive

Presented by Delilah Montalvo, KUUMBA Academy Fellow

ART IMITATES LIFE is a reflective, generative writing workshop that invites novelists, playwrights, and screenwriters to look inward and recognize lived experience as a vital creative resource.

Grounded in the belief that personal truth fuels the most resonant stories, this workshop creates space for writers to examine memory, emotion, and real-life moments as raw material—transforming the everyday into narratives that are honest, layered, and dramatically compelling.

Presented by KUUMBA Academy Fellow Delilah Montalvo, participants will engage in guided prompts and intentional creative exploration designed to help shape lived experience into structured literary work for both the page and the stage.

Writers will experiment with voice, perspective, and form while learning how to translate personal insight into universal storytelling. ART IMITATES LIFE empowers participants to write with clarity, courage, and purpose—honoring their own stories as meaningful acts of creation.

*ALL participants receive a complimentary souvenir KUUMBA journal.

(3PM) THE SOUL OF R&B

An interactive performance-demonstration for lovers of R&B music

Lead by KUUMBA Academy Fellows, Taqiyy Ludd and Jayden Hollins

THE SOUL OF R&B is an immersive, interactive performance-demonstration designed for lovers of Rhythm & Blues and the stories it carries. Rooted in history and culture, this workshop explores the genre’s deep emotional resonance—how R&B has long served as a vessel for love, resistance, joy, heartbreak, and healing within Black communities and beyond. Participants are invited to actively engage with the music, not just as listeners, but as witnesses to its power to reflect lived experience and collective memory.

Led by KUUMBA Academy Fellows Taqiyy Ludd and Jayden Hollins, the workshop blends live musical examples, guided discussion and participatory moments that trace R&B’s evolution from its roots to its contemporary expressions. Together, they unpack how the genre continues to influence sound, storytelling, and artistic identity across generations. Equal parts education and experience, THE SOUL OF R&B offers participants a deeper appreciation for the music’s legacy—while celebrating its ability to adapt and endure.

*The experience will conclude with one lucky participant winning a complimentary $50 iTunes gift card via raffle!

(4PM) BUTTER & BALM
A beauty & wellness-centered workshop

Lead by KUUMBA Academy Fellow, Ashayla Patterson

Butter & Balm is a sensory, hands-on wellness experience designed to slow you down, reconnect you to your body, and remind you that care can be both practical and luxurious.

Set within the spirit of the KUUMBA Labs Creative Workshop Series, participants are guided through the process of crafting rich, all-natural body butters and moisturizers using simple, nourishing ingredients that honor ancestral practices of self-care and restoration.

Led by KUUMBA Academy Fellow Ashayla Patterson, this intimate lab invites creatives and community members alike to explore wellness as an act of intention and creativity. All supplies are provided, and each participant leaves with a custom body butter made by their own hands—along with practical knowledge, shared ritual, and a deeper understanding of self-care as both art and necessity.

• ALL supplies are included.
• Each guest leaves with a custom body butter made by their own hands
• Along with practical knowledge, shared ritual, and a deeper understanding of self-care as both art and necessity.
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On Sunday April 26, 2026

(1PM) WHAT’S THE TEA? Mind, Body & Libations

An immersive workshop designed for grounding, restoration, and the gentle healing of stored trauma

Lead by Egypt Ray, KUUMBA Academy⁩ Fellow

Breathe. Move. Release. Restore.

Set within a warm, candlelit atmosphere infused with calming aromatherapy, this elevated Breathwork experience invites you to slow down, tune in, and reconnect with your body.
Through guided breathing and intentional movement, participants are supported in reducing stress and anxiety by activating the parasympathetic nervous system—the body’s natural reset button.

This practice helps restore balance by increasing energy, sharpening focus, improving emotional regulation and encouraging physical detoxification.
More than a workshop, this is a pause… a moment to soften, exhale and reclaim a sense of inner steadiness.

To deepen the ritual, participants will enjoy a curated selection of complimentary herbal teas during the session and receive a take-home swag bag of specialty teas thoughtfully prepared by the KUUMBA Fellows.

(2PM) ART WITHOUT URGENCY

An exploratory performance workshop

Lead by SJ Swilley, KUUMBA Academy Fellow

ART WITHOUT URGENCY is a workshop created for creatives who live in the in-between—those who haven’t chosen just one lane because their creativity refuses to be boxed in.

Designed as part of the KUUMBA Labs Creative Workshop Series, this experience invites participants to show up exactly as they are, without labels, expectations, or pressure to define themselves too quickly.
Whether you’re drawn to acting, dance, singing, choreography—or some fluid combination of all four—this workshop honors curiosity as a vital part of the artistic journey.

Led by KUUMBA Academy Fellow SJ Swilley, participants will engage in guided, low-stakes performance exercises that introduce the foundational principles of each discipline while encouraging embodied exploration and self-discovery.
Through movement, voice, text, and improvisation, artists will begin to identify their natural instincts, strengths, and areas of resonance.

The goal is not mastery, but clarity—building confidence, expanding creative vocabulary and empowering participants to embrace a multidisciplinary identity with intention, courage, and freedom.

(3PM) SO YOU THINK YOU'RE A POET?

A Dynamic Poetry Writing Intensive

Lead by KUUMBA Academy Fellow, Ebone’ Lockett

SO YOU THINK YOU’RE A POET is a high-energy poetry writing intensive designed to stretch both the pen and the performer.
This immersive experience challenges writers to move beyond the page, sharpening craft while deepening delivery. Poets are invited to examine not only what they write, but how their words live in the body, the voice, and the room—transforming poems into fully embodied expressions of thought, rhythm, and truth.

Led by KUUMBA Academy Fellow Ebone’ Lockett, participants will explore the dynamic intersection of poetry with movement, music, rhythm, and theatre arts. Through guided exercises and performance-based exploration, writers will strengthen their unique voice, refine their stage presence, and discover new ways to elevate poetic expression.

Whether emerging or experienced, participants leave with expanded tools, renewed confidence, and a deeper understanding of poetry as both literary craft and live art.

*ALL participants receive a complimentary souvenir KUUMBA journal.

(4PM) HEAD OF STATEMENTS

An Affirming Ball Cap Decorating Workshop

Lead by Angela Harvey, KUUMBA Academy⁩ Fellow

Your head holds your thoughts, your vision, your power.

HEAD OF STATEMENTS is a hands-on ball cap decorating workshop that transforms an everyday accessory into a wearable affirmation—part vision board, part personal manifesto.

Participants will design and embellish their own ball caps using patches, pendants, pins, stitching, charms and other found adornments that speak to intention, growth, resilience and self-expression.

Each element is chosen with care, turning the cap into a visual language of who you are becoming—not just who you’ve been.

This workshop invites reflection as much as creation.

What do you want to carry on your crown? What beliefs need reinforcing?

What truths deserve to sit front and center?

Through guided prompts and open creative play, you’ll craft a statement piece that literally sits at the top of your mindset.

These affirming ball caps are designed to function as a vision board for your crown—a daily reminder of purpose, confidence, and self-worth.

Every time you place it on your head, you’re not just getting dressed; you’re stepping into intention and ownership of your narrative.

Come create something bold.
Come crown your growth.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

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