We Are Multitudes
Converge Collaborative members embody an expansive range of lived and labor experiences. While we refer to ourselves as a POGM-led co-op, we actively center resisting and disrupting anti-Blackness as a crucial part of our anti oppression work. The co-op and the collective are designed to be spaces of mutual support that serve to soften and subvert the blows of capitalism which often hit communities of color the hardest. Our co-op structure also intentionally leaves space for each member to cultivate their own personal artistic, creative, and expressive practices as we recognize the right to creativity should be available as a freedom practice to us all.
Members
In alphabetical order by last name
Louis Bryant III
he/him
Photographer + Visual Storyteller
Louis Bryant III (he/him) is an international photographer and filmmaker based in traditional Miwok and Nisenan territory (Northern California). Louis refined his talent as a self-taught photographer through immersive travel expeditions to over 15 countries, years of artistic collaboration, and incredible freelance photography opportunities. He filmed a documentary in Ghana to promote support for a nonprofit children’s home. Along with his partner Amayah Harrison, Louis directed and filmed the visual EP 19Seventy-Free, which was a 2021 Tribeca Film Festival Selection. Since the start of his career as a travel photographer, Louis’s passion has been to see the world and build cross-cultural bridges. This calling to be a bridge-builder inspired the creation of the photography workshop Open Exposures. Aside from having his camera with him 90% of the time Louis loves thrill seeking adventures, dangerous heights, long motorcycle trips, backpacking and wandering the world. He graduated from the University of Maryland with a B.A. in Criminology and Social Sciences.
Katie Giritlian
she/her
Artist + Small Press Publisher
Katie Giritlian (she/her) has been a book maker and designer since she made her first scrapbook at age 8. She currently lives in traditional Munsee Lenape territory (New York, NY). Katie’s toolbox of learned skills are education design, visual design, writing, and visual critical studies. She has worked with cultural centers, artists, community organizers, educators, and young learners to design settings—publications, workbooks, public programs, and workshops—so learning will thrive and critical thinking will strengthen. Her imagination is indebted to SWANA (South West Asian + North African) cooperative photo studio practices established in homelands as well as in the scattering of diaspora. Katie is the organizer of paper cameras press, a publishing platform for developing experimental curricula to study photography practices. She was raised in Tovaangar territory (the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles). Katie then moved to receive her B.A. in Art History from Barnard College, and her M.A. in Visual and Critical Studies from School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is heavily taught by her community of friends.
Specializations: Education Design and Visual Design
Personal Site: papercameras.co
Social: @paper.cameras.press
Pat McMahon
he/him
Illustrator + Musician + Audio Design
Pat McMahon is a digital marketing expert, sound expert, and illustrator based in traditional Ohlone, Ramaytush, and Muwekma territories (Bay Area, California). Pat brings expertise in digital strategy, search, social, video, and web analytics from his time in the world of performance marketing agencies. His passion for radio and podcasting spans twelve years of on-air programming, editing, production, and recording. His audio and visual arts practices aim to recontextualize sound and sight by stitching together source materials with original compositions to build works that both receive and create. He grew up in Chicago, Illinois, on the traditional unceded homelands of the Council of the Three Fires: the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi Nations. Pat graduated from Boston College with a concentration in Marketing and a minor Film Studies, and received Bachelor’s of Science from the Carroll School of Management.
Specializations: Marketing, Strategy, Sound
Social: @patmxman
Michelle McCrary
she/her
Storyteller + Shaper of Change
Michelle McCrary (she/her) is an earthling, daughter, grandchild, mother, friend, and partner born under a Scorpio moon, with Virgo rising, and her sun firmly in Aries. She makes her home as a guest in occupied Duwamish territory (in Washington state). Communications, strategy, and design are part of her repository of practiced skills. She is also a writer, a storyteller, family history keeper, and host of the podcast Curious Roots which is both a labor of love and a deep part of her generational healing praxis. Work on the podcast combines her love of history, research, and archives. In another timeline, Michelle spent more than fifteen years in communications for a large entertainment corporation. She graduated from Vassar College with a B.A. in American Culture and is making her way toward completing her LIFT Economy: Next Economy MBA.
Specializations: Communications, Design, Strategy
Personal Site: curiousrootspod.com
Social: @curiousrootspod
David Rios
he/him
Artist + Educator
Rios is an artist and educator working with physical and digital media who lives in traditional Canarsee and Munsee Lenape territory (Brooklyn, NY). He uses sound, lighting, programming, and various fabrication techniques to make devices, installations, and interactions. He is interested in exploring expressive applications of technology, examining the physical relationships between people and machines, and using art and technology to foster collaboration.
Amy yoshitsu
she/they
Sculptor, Designer + Conceptual Artist
Amy Yoshitsu is a designer, engineer, and artist who was raised in traditional Ohlone, Ramaytush, and Muwekma territories (Bay Area, California) where she still resides. As someone with over a decade of experience in software, web and system design, Amy approaches all of their work with empathy and respect for the technical and social complexity present in every project. Amy’s sculptural practice focuses on deconstructing the interconnections between power, economics, labor, and race to illuminate their foundational impact on individual schemas and interpersonal relationships. Amy received an A.B. in Visual and Environmental Studies from Harvard University and then attended the MFA Art program at California Institute of the Arts.