ON THE RADAR

Twin Cities hip-hop and R&B duo iLLism have spent years blending music, storytelling, partnership, and purpose into a sound uniquely their own. On this episode of On the Radar, Emmanuel Duncan and Fancy Lanier-Duncan of iLLism share their journey through music, marriage, creativity, and community building. From performing on stages across the country to co-founding initiatives like The Legacy...

On this episode of On the Radar, the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder's series highlighting Black Minnesota creatives, host Damenica Ellis sits down with Esther Callahan, a Minneapolis artivist, curator and co-founder of the BLK Collectors, whose work spans art direction, curation, consulting, activism and community building all in service of one mission: ensuring Black artists are seen, supporte...

On this episode of On the Radar, the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder's series highlighting Black Minnesota creatives, host Damenica Ellis sits down with PaviElle French, an Emmy-winning interdisciplinary artist, musician, dancer, writer, composer and arts educator whose decades of work have made her one of the most celebrated and deeply rooted artists in the Twin Cities. French grew up in the Ro...

On this episode of On the Radar, the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder's series highlighting Black Minnesota creatives, host Damenica Ellis sits down with Kprecia Ambers, a Minneapolis-based visual artist whose vibrant figurative work is built around a simple but powerful intention: putting love into the world. Ambers describes herself first as a child of God, and that foundation shapes everything...

This episode of On the Radar features Sayge Carroll, co-founder of Mudluk Pottery Studio—a grassroots ceramics space redefining what it means to create in community. Rooted in South Minneapolis, Mudluk is more than a studio—it’s a sanctuary for expression, healing, and connection, built as a Black, queer, woman-owned space where artists of all backgrounds can come together.   Sayge shares their jo...

On this episode of On the Radar , we sit down with Minneapolis-based multidisciplinary artist Antione Jenkins, whose work spans from custom sneakers to large-scale community murals. From early beginnings doodling in school to creating powerful public art across the Twin Cities, Jenkins shares how he turned his passion into a full-time creative career. We talk about his journey building Skntones, c...