dorchester industries

Tolu Coker is a British-Nigerian Fashion and Textiles Designer, Multi-Disciplinary Artist and University Lecturer based in London. Flirting with the boundaries of contemporary art and fashion, Coker’s eponymous brand, TOLU COKER, explores the politics of identity, culture, social and environmental climates. With collections focused on championing sustainable practice and cultural exchange, her work is a marriage of innovative textile and print solutions, artisan craftsmanship and silhouettes which flatter the body. TOLU COKER boasts a global client base and roster of supporters including high-profile names such as Rihanna, Rita Ora, Emeli Sande and Lianne La Havas.

Kyle Abraham is a dancer, choreographer, teacher and the Founder and Artistic Director of A.I.M. by Kyle Abraham, a NY-based dance company that creates work dance-based work that is galvanized by Black culture and history with a strong emphasis on music, text, video, and visual art. Recently featured in both Kinfolk and O, The Oprah Magazine, 2018 Princess Grace Statue Award recipient and Lincoln Center Education Artist in Residence, Kyle Abraham is a 2013 MacArthur Fellow and a 2016 Doris Duke Awardee who began his dance training in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania before receiving his BFA from Purchase College and his MFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Abraham is in his fifth year as a Visiting Professor in Residence at UCLA.

Germane Barnes is an architect and designer from Chicago whose award winning research and design practice investigates the connection between architecture and identity, examining architecture’s social and political agency through historical research and design speculation. Mining architecture’s social and political agency, he examines how the built environment influences Black domesticity. Barnes is an Assistant Professor and the Director of The Community Housing & Identity Lab (CHIL) at the University of Miami School of Architecture, a testing ground for the physical and theoretical investigations of architecture’s social and political resiliency. Barnes received a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Master of Architecture from Woodbury University where he was awarded the Thesis Prize for his project Symbiotic Territories: Architectural Investigations of Race, Identity, and Community. 

Kendall Reynolds, the Founder and Design Director of Kendall Miles, is a Chicago-based luxury footwear designer. After learning how to design footwear on her own, she immersed herself in her craft by receiving formal design training at the world-renowned accessories design university, Ars Sutoria in Milan, Italy. Kendall established Kendall Miles in 2015. As a luxury designer who designs for women in a male-dominated industry, building a team composed of all Black women was a high priority. Since 2015, Reynolds has remained faithful to only manufacturing and producing internationally in Florence, Italy. She is intentional about partnering with family-owned vendors to ensure her products are handcrafted using only the finest ethically sourced, sustainable materials.

Yemi Amu is the founder and Director of Oko Farms, New York City’s largest and only publicly accessible aquaponics farm, where she manages the cultivation a variety of freshwater fish, vegetables, herbs and flowers in a closed loop aquatic ecosystem.

Yemi turned her sights to food production as a direct response to the limited availability of fresh food in the communities where her clients lived. She has since co-facilitated the creation and maintenance of over 20 edible spaces at schools and community organizations including a 400 square foot solar-powered aquaponics greenhouse farm at The Campaign Against Hunger (TCAH) and a demonstration garden at The Brooklyn Children’s Museum.

Yemi is passionate about Urban Farming because she grew up in Lagos, Nigeria, a densely populated city with a strong tradition of agriculture and abundant access to fresh fruits and vegetables. She has a Masters Degree in Health and Nutrition Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. She was awarded Hunter College NYC Food Policy Center, Rising Star in NYC Food Policy (2016).

Kenturah Davis is an artist working between Los Angeles and Accra, Ghana. Her work oscillates between various facets of portraiture and design. Using text as a point of departure, she explores the fundamental role that language plays in shaping how we understand ourselves and the world around us. This manifests in a variety of forms including drawings, textiles, sculpture and performances. Davis was commissioned by LA Metro to create large-scale, site-specific work that was permanently installed on the new Crenshaw/LAX rail line. Her work has been included in institutional exhibitions in Africa, Asia, Australia and Europe. Davis earned her BA from Occidental College and MFA Yale University School of Art. Davis was an inaugural artist fellow at NXTHVN in New Haven, CT.

Maya Bird-Murphy is a designer, educator, and the founder and Executive Director of Chicago Mobile Makers, an award-winning nonprofit organization bringing design-focused skill-building workshops to underrepresented communities. Maya believes that the design field must expand to include more people and perspectives through teaching and community engagement. She is also a faculty member at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Boston Architectural College. Maya was recently featured in Dwell Magazine, was named in Newcity Magazine’s List if 50 people who shape Chicago, and was a recipient of the AIA Alan Madison Award.

Brandon Breaux is a fine artist and designer working out of Chicago. His creative experience consists of painting, sculpture, web, video, print, and interactive projects. Widely known as the artist behind all 3 of Chance the Rapper's iconic album covers, Brandon continues to meet the demands of the evolving market by understanding what inspires audiences and moves the culture. His primary goal is to produce creative solutions with authentic sensibility and aesthetic.

Summer Coleman is an award-winning graphic designer from Riverdale, Illinois dedicated to building branding for all, with clean, crisp and consistent graphic designs. Summer began her career as an artist and designer for the City of Chicago, its organizations and artists. Summer has designed for the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), University of Chicago, the Tracers Book Club, South Shore Chamber of Commerce, and The Silver Room, to name a few. Summer has also exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago with Kerry James Marshall’s “Mastry” exhibition, in collaboration with the Tracers Book Club. Summer received her BFA in fine arts from the University of Illinois of Chicago.

Chef Damarr Brown is Chef de Cuisine at Virtue Restaurant based in Chicago. His culinary focus at Virtue draws from familiar flavors he grew up with, pairing them with his learnings and takeaways from past kitchens. Brown spent two years at Roister, the Alinea Group's hearth-focused concept, before further honing his craft as sous chef under the tutelage of Michelin-starred Chef Andrew Brochu. Chef Brown reunited with Chef Erick Williams to open Virtue in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood with the mentality that food connects people from a variety of backgrounds.