Meet the Huggable Loveable Uterus Team
Here are the collaborators who are working to bring the Huggable Lovebale Uterus project to life.
Have an idea? Want to collaborate on The Huggable Loveable Uterus? Please reach out! Send an email to huggableloveableuterus@gmail.com.
Heidi Wiren Kébé
Graphic Design & Print Production
Heidi Wiren Kébé is a transdisciplinary performance artist, designer, and director from the Great Plains. Her work examines the portrayal, oppression, and subversive existence of women in America today. Her work has been presented nationally and internationally at venues including the Banff Centre, Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Grace Exhibition Space, the Wassaic Project, and La Ville en Mouv’ment in Dakar, Senegal. She has received support from the MAP Fund, National Performance Network, United States Artists International, and the Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry. Kébé is co-founder of Propelled Animals, an art collective, and Associate Creative Director for Distinctive Collections at Carnegie Mellon University.
heidiwiren.com + @heidiwiren / propelledanimals.org + @propelledanimals
Hilt and Helm Pittsburgh Fencing Club
Hilt and Helm Pittsburgh Fencing Club has, since its inception, stood up for women, the black and brown communities, the queer community, immigrant communities, and anyone else who would be othered because of their differences. Together with the Huggable Lovable Uterus Project, we will aid in creating a demonstration where our members will literally shield a uterus using historical African shields and weapon replicas. Although historical African martial arts and uteruses are rarely depicted in flattering lights (if at all) in American culture, we aim to correct this underrepresentation of both subjects with this demonstration of historical African arms and our solidarity with those with uteruses.
Chris Shelton
President and Founder, Hilt and Helm Pittsburgh Fencing Club
President and founder of Hilt and Helm Pittsburgh Fencing Club, Chris combines the dedication that comes with over a decade of historical fencing experience with a passion for fun and whimsy to create a diverse and inclusive environment that takes fencing seriously enough to consistently win medals but not so seriously that we forget how to have a good time. He coordinates the volunteers from the Hilt and Helm to create the shields, supply the shotels, and choreograph the shield law demonstration to show Hilt and Helm’s solidarity with those who wish to express their reproductive freedoms in the state of Pennsylvania.
Saoirse Nies
Co-Vice President, Armorer, and Gender Minority Coordinator, Hilt & Helm
Saoirse Nies (She/It) is the Co-Vice President, Armorer, and Gender Minority Coordinator of Hilt & Helm. A self-styled jane-of-all-trades and lifelong maker, she contributes a well-rounded skill set in woodwork, metalwork, and fiber arts as well as historical craftsmanship, and is spearheading the making of the Nguni-style shields representing PA’s abortion shield laws. Outside of her work teaching and practicing swordsmanship, Saoirse is an avid leathercrafter and occasional sewist, a history enthusiast specializing in material culture of the 14th-15th centuries, and a fan of local ambient/synth/hardcore music.
Allie Wimley
Photographer
Allie Wimley a visual journalist for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. She was honored to be a member of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize winning staff for breaking news for the compassionate coverage of the massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue that took 11 lives.
Previously, Allie was a visual journalist with USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin, based in Stevens Point, where she focused on the statewide issues of addiction and youth mental health. Prior to that she worked in Chicago as a photo intern for the Chicago Tribune in the summer of 2017 after graduating from Boston University with a degree in journalism and a concentration in photojournalism.
Emily Hughes
Emily Hughes is a STEM educator who works across informal and formal learning. Within the Kamin Science Center BNY Fab Lab, she guides learners of all ages through designing and fabricating with both filament and resin 3D printing, from first sketch to finished print. Across Washington, Greene, and Fayette counties, she supports teachers in bringing STEM into their classrooms, inspired by learner curiosity and genuine human connection. She believes making and doing are the best ways to learn.
Dawnita Spencer
The Uterus, mascot
Dawnita Spencer is a Pittsburgh-based writer whose work explores love, relationships, and the unexpected ways people navigate life. She is the author of Dating Deeper, a collection of books designed to spark honest conversations about trust, compatibility, and what people want in love.
Under the pen name Aurora Nitali, she writes romance novellas, including Almost, Always Christmas, and is developing Steel City Love Stories, an anthology following the messy, hopeful process of falling in love.
Dawnita co-wrote the play Confessions of a Serial Dater, presented at TADA! Theater in Manhattan. As a screenwriter, she has completed over a dozen screenplays and is seeking management. She also has on-set experience as a script supervisor through the University of Pittsburgh’s PITTch 2.0 program.
As an empty-nester, Dawnita continues to expand her creative journey. Her participation in The Huggable Lovable Uterus allows her to step from behind the page and onto the stage.
May Day Marching Band
May Day Marching Band formed in 2009 as part of the first annual May Day Parade in Pittsburgh’s Polish Hill neighborhood. Our aim is to transform and reclaim public space; to add energy, build or break tension, express grief and radical joy, support community causes, and raise morale.
Mingsi Ma
Marketing
Mingsi currently works for a local theater in Pittsburgh as an arts administrator and marketer, where she collaboratively envisions, actively contributes to, and effectively implements the theater’s marketing and press strategies. From brochure design that goes to over 10k households, large-scale PR campaigns targeting regional and national press, outdoor advertising, to social media shoutouts for artists, she creates a 360-degree experience that draws audiences through the door and elevates artists’ presence.
Lindsay Patross
Digital and Social Media Strategy
Pittsburgh-born and raised, and founder of iHeartPGH, Lindsay has been writing about the people who love Pittsburgh since 2008.