Legacy Awards
At the Frogtown Arts Festival, we're don’t just celebrate local art, music, and culture. We're celebrating the people who grow flowers in our neighborhood (literally and figuratively), whether they just started or whether they've been working for 40 years!
Desdamona
Desdamona is a hip hop and spoken word artist, educator, and community leader in St. Paul. As former program lead and current program staff with TruArtSpeaks' Re-Verb Open Mic, she has helped create space for artists and community members to share their voices across the Frogtown and Rondo communities. From 2024–2026, she co-produced and co-hosted Re-Verb Radio on WFNU, spotlighting local artists alongside hip hop teaching artist MaLLy. Her new show, Ultrasound, continues that work of amplifying what makes the community vibrant. A performing teaching artist, Desdamona has earned grants from the Knight Foundation and the Minnesota State Arts Board. She uses poetry, storytelling, and Hip Hop culture as vehicles for self-expression, trauma healing, and transformation, facilitating workshops and residencies in more than 300 schools, prisons, and community spaces across the U.S. and France, with work centered on voice amplification, collaborative songwriting, and healing-focused programs within the correctional system. Desdamona has mentored generations of poets and writers through after-school programs in the Twin Cities and has been and still is influential to the Rondo and Frogtown communities for years.
Elder Mahmoud El-Kati
Mahmoud El-Kati is a Black educator, activist, lecturer, writer, and commentator on the African American experience. His articles and essays have appeared in the New York Times, St. Paul Pioneer Press, Star Tribune, and other publications, covering the “myth of race” Ebonics, and African Americans and sports, among other issues. He taught courses on Black history, American social movements, the social history of jazz, and Afro American folklore at Macalester College, as well as at Metro State University and North High School in Minneapolis. Now Elder Professor of History at Macalester, El-Kati has spent decades safeguarding the history of Minnesota’s Black civic life and the legacy of Rondo, the thriving Black commercial and cultural district severed by the construction of Interstate 94 in the 1960s. He provided commentary and context for preservation projects like the Voices of Rondo oral history collection, and his mentorship helped build the foundation for African American Studies across Minnesota. In recognition of his contributions, the Saint Paul City Council co-named the corner of Iglehart Avenue and Milton Street, in the heart of Rondo, in his honor.
Maria McCoy
Maria Morin McCoy, also known by her Spirit name Mooshkenay Waase Binesikwe Indigo (Filling Up With Light Thunderbird Woman), is a mother of four, grandmother of eight, and a member of the Bear Clan from the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa in North Dakota. She lived in Frogtown’s Wilder Square Co-op for 28 years, raising two sons and finding deep community there. Maria has served the American Indian community in St. Paul since 1995 and has worked at the American Indian Family Center since 2006. She also runs her private practice, Mashkikike (Making Medicine), offering Indigenous wellness services as a Therapeutic Life Coach and bodyworker, integrating Reiki, Polarity, Chakra Balancing, and art, centered on collective and ancestral healing. She helped establish the Eagle and Condor Native Healing Center. A core part of her work is Spirit Doll making, a healing ritual linking past, present, and future generations, rooted in the belief that we are the living prayers of those who came before us. Maria has spent decades supporting women in Frogtown and surrounding neighborhoods through her healing work.
Damian “Daylight” Day
Damian “Daylight” Day is a multidisciplinary visual artist and internationally recognized B-Boy whose practice explores movement, perception, geometry, memory, and time, developing a visual language rooted in abstraction and kinetic energy across three decades. Known as Bboy Daylight, he is a legendary pioneer in the Minnesota breaking community and a prominent member of the historic Self Xplanatory (Self-X) Crew, established in 1996. Emerging as a powerhouse in the mid-to-late 1990s hip-hop scene, he became widely known as a “90s Freeze King” for his gravity-defying freezes and technical style, touring, battling, teaching, and judging elite breaking events worldwide. His presence in the Twin Cities scene dates back to at least2003, when the Star Tribune featured him demonstrating freezes during regional hip-hoprehearsals. Beyond breaking, Daylight runs Daylight Customz, his custom painting practice. Locally, he’s been a foundational mentor, teaching young dancers in after-school programs at Frogtown’s Center for Hmong Arts and Talent and across Minnesota, carrying his global influence back into the community that shaped him.
MAYDA
MAYDA is an internationally touring singer, musician, and lyricist from St. Paul, MN. With a decade-long career, she is more than a singer, she's a force in the theater scene, collaborating with artists and advocating for social justice. She has performed throughout Europe, Asia, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Guam, blending her musical influences and theatrical approach into a sound that takes audiences on a journey. A St. Paul-based pop-rock and funk musician, Mayda has performed regularly at First Avenue and built her early reputation at South Minneapolis coffee shops during Jim Walsh’s Mad Ripple Hootenannies. She has shared stages with Minnesota-rooted acts like Soul Asylum, Doomtree, and Dessa, and became the first artist signed to Sonic Matrimony Collective, run by former Prince drummer Michael Bland. She has also performed in productions with Theater Latté Da and The Jungle Theater, including “Cambodian Rock Band.” MAYDA gives back to Korean adoptees, she shares her journey through outlets like MPR News and The Current. A St. Paul Central and University of Minnesota graduate, she represents St. Paul globally while giving back locally in Frogtown-Rondo.
Kao Lee Thao
Kao Lee Thao's journey began as her mother crossed the Mekong River while pregnant with her, fleeing Laos. Her family arrived in America in 1976 with $5 to their name, settling in Minnesota. Her childhood at Liberty Plaza Townhomes in the Rondo and Frogtown neighborhood still echoes through her creativity, and her expressively fluid style carries folktales and patterns passed down through generations. Community has driven her public art, which she sees as a reflection of a neighborhood sharing the voices of everyone who calls it home. A muralist with extensive commissions, she has collaborated with Metro Transit, the St. Paul Winter Carnival, the Minnesota Humanities Center, and the Center for Hmong Arts and Talent, creating murals for the Little Mekong Cultural District in Frogtown-Rondo and the Tuj Lub Hmong sports court at Keller Regional Park. She went on to co-found Folklore Studio, a 3D animation company producing work for television and film, blending visual art with storytelling. Kao Lee has inspired generations of artists across Frogtown and beyond.
Legacy Awards
At the Frogtown Arts Festival, we're don’t just celebrate local art, music, and culture. We're celebrating the people who grow flowers in our neighborhood (literally and figuratively), whether they just started or whether they've been working for 40 years!
Desdamona
Melvin is in a class of his own; his impact on our neighborhood was vast, and there are few people in Frogtown and Rondo who can't name some way he changed their lives. Community gardens, peace poles, and bubbles carry his memory here forever. For this reason, he is the only person nominated in the "Eternal Impact" category.
Elder Mahmoud El-Kati
Melvin is in a class of his own; his impact on our neighborhood was vast, and there are few people in Frogtown and Rondo who can't name some way he changed their lives. Community gardens, peace poles, and bubbles carry his memory here forever. For this reason, he is the only person nominated in the "Eternal Impact" category.
Maria McCoy
Melvin is in a class of his own; his impact on our neighborhood was vast, and there are few people in Frogtown and Rondo who can't name some way he changed their lives. Community gardens, peace poles, and bubbles carry his memory here forever. For this reason, he is the only person nominated in the "Eternal Impact" category.
Damian “Daylight” Day
Melvin is in a class of his own; his impact on our neighborhood was vast, and there are few people in Frogtown and Rondo who can't name some way he changed their lives. Community gardens, peace poles, and bubbles carry his memory here forever. For this reason, he is the only person nominated in the "Eternal Impact" category.
MAYDA
MAYDA is an internationally touring singer, musician, and lyricist from St. Paul, MN. With a
decade-long career, she is more than a singer, she's a force in the theater scene, collaborating
with artists and advocating for social justice. She has performed throughout Europe, Asia,
Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Guam, blending her musical influences and theatrical approach into a
sound that takes audiences on a journey. A St. Paul-based pop-rock and funk musician, Mayda
has performed regularly at First Avenue and built her early reputation at South Minneapolis
coffee shops during Jim Walsh's Mad Ripple Hootenannies. She has shared stages with
Minnesota-rooted acts like Soul Asylum, Doomtree, and Dessa, and became the first artist
signed to Sonic Matrimony Collective, run by former Prince drummer Michael Bland. She has
also performed in productions with Theater Latté Da and The Jungle Theater, including
"Cambodian Rock Band." MAYDA gives back to Korean adoptees, she shares her journey
through outlets like MPR News and The Current. A St. Paul Central and University of Minnesota
graduate, she represents St. Paul globally while giving back locally in Frogtown-Rondo.
Kao Lee Thao
Melvin is in a class of his own; his impact on our neighborhood was vast, and there are few people in Frogtown and Rondo who can't name some way he changed their lives. Community gardens, peace poles, and bubbles carry his memory here forever. For this reason, he is the only person nominated in the "Eternal Impact" category.
Past Awards
Eternal Impact: Melvin Giles
Melvin is in a class of his own; his impact on our neighborhood was vast, and there are few people in Frogtown and Rondo who can't name some way he changed their lives. Community gardens, peace poles, and bubbles carry his memory here forever. For this reason, he is the only person nominated in the "Eternal Impact" category.
Living Legend: Dr. Darlene Fry
Dr. Fry is a Rondo Transplant by way of Chicago. She has had the pleasure of working with over 10,000 young people with the Irreducible Grace Foundation since 2012. Making the community a safe place for youth is her life calling!!!
Living Legend: Jan Mandell
Jan is a teacher, artist, activist, yoga instructor, mother and partner. Her passion is fostering youth voice through the arts. Jan taught theater for nearly 40 years at Saint Paul Central High School, where she worked in partnership with young people to devise original social justice plays that toured locally and statewide. Jan retired in 2015 from Saint Paul schools
Currently, Jan works with Irreducible Grace at BYHAC as program director where she mentors young people into leadership positions and co-creates youth-driven pop-up performances with poetry and healing tools as outreach and community engagement.
You will often see Jan biking though the neighborhood, connecting with community or writing in poetry lab with Danez Smith, in yoga class with Hope Lockett or with sister Patrica in Afro fusion dance class. This is what brings her joy, the arts, community, and family!
Living Legend: T Mychael Rambo
T. Mychael Rambo is a 3-time Mid-West Emmy Award winning actor, vocalist, arts educator, author, community organizer, and public speaker, who has made an indelible mark here in the Twin Cities performing principal roles on virtually every main stage on both sides of the Mississippi. Nationally and internationally his stage credits include Carnegie Hall and performances abroad in Africa, Europe and South America. He has appeared in local and national television commercials, feature films, HBO mini-series and other television programming. T. Mychael has embarked on a new project. His most recent endeavor has been a collaboration with New York Times Best Selling Author, Resmaa Menakem to co-author, a companion children’s book to Mr. Menakem’s book “My Grandmother’s Hands” entitled “The Stories from My Grandmother’s Hands.” Rambo, is also an accomplished auctioneer/emcee, recording artist, residency artist and affiliate professor in the College of Liberal Arts, Theatre Arts and Dance at the University of Minnesota.
Legacy Builder: Davu Seru
Davu Seru is an improvising musician, composer and scholar known primarily for his work on drums. For the past 20+ years he has worked with musicians such as Milo Fine, George Cartwright, Nirmala Rajasekar, Douglas R. Ewart, Michelle Kinney, Dean Magraw, Paul Metzger, Evan Parker, Didier Petit, Babatunde Lea, Nathan Hanson, Mankwe Ndosi, Rafael Toral, David Boykin, Donald Washington, Guillame Seguron, Tony Hymas, David Boykin, Chris Bates, Catherine Delaunay, and Nicole Mitchell Gantt. Davu is a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) and is Curator of the Givens Collection of African American Literature at University of Minnesota. You can find more of his work at https://davuseru.com/
Photo taken by by Seitu Jones
Legacy Builder: Tish Jones
Tish Jones is a poet, emcee, and Hip Hop Theater artist from Saint Paul, MN, with a deep and resounding love for Black people. Her work explores themes of Black love, liberation, politics, and Afro-Futurism. She has exhibited her work throughout the United States and abroad as a public performance artist committed to the power of narrative change through the arts. Tish is currently serving as a Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, as well as the Founding Executive Director of TruArtSpeaks. You can find out more about her work at tishjonespoet.com.
Legacy Builder: MK Nguyen
MK Nguyen is the child of Ong-Ba Phan-Thanh, who were the first of three generations of Viet people who decided to make life in Frogtown. MK is a droplet in the ocean of people, inside and outside of Frogtown, breaking new ground and creating new tributaries for people to return to respectful and loving relationship with Mother Earth and all living relations that share this precious home. MK organizes with other beloved across local ecosystems to center and resource work that stops harmful attacks on our communities, reminds people of their power, and shifts leadership to younger generations. MK strives to abide by the true LAWS of life (land, air, water, soil) and draw lessons from bumble bee, mycelium, and dandelion relatives that invisibly help us all remember our interdependence and natural instinct to return to each other. You may not see these relatives at work, but you feel the impact of their work. MK’s days are filled up baking bread, working as a wellness coordinator at Great River School, teaching at St. Columba Viet school, and living into this directive: keep the babies alive (physically, psychically, socially), help the elders transition with dignity, and love/fight simultaneously (thank you, Dr. Joy James).
Living Legend: Lynn Graham
Lynn Constance Graham-Washington is a 71 year Rondo Resident. She was born September 25th, 1954 on the corner of St. Anthony and St Albans, displaced by the freeway, which is now the westbound entrance to I-94 off of Dale Street. She still lives in the community, on Fuller Avenue. An accomplished musician since age 10, she is a percussionist, playing piano, drums, violin, and guitar, as well as trumpet and trombone.
Her community work sprang from a desire to work with youth in the Rondo community. She started the St. Paul Falcons in 1989, and through collaboration with the 4-H of Ramsey County Extension Services, the Falcons broke the color line in 4-H. After that, “It was no longer was it an organization working with farm youth, pigs, cows, chickens, gardening and cooking. We transformed that organization which now recognizes all of the different cultures.” Through Falcons, she reached over 350 youth in the community, many of whom are now successful entrepreneurs, professionals, and proud parents.
She currently does gardening and video production, and volunteers at the Black Youth Healing Arts Center. She also drums for a new band from the Rondo neighborhood called DECADES. She loves working with elders at the Hallie Q Brown Center, and is always available to help any other group. She also has a 99 1/2 years young mother who knows the history of the neighborhood like no one else, and they are working with MNHS to document pictures and stories to share at the Hallie Q Brown Museum.
Living Legend: Jose Figueroa
Living Legend: Seitu Jones
SEITU KEN JONES is a multidisciplinary artist, advocate and maker based in St. Paul, Minnesota. Working between the arts and public spheres, Jones channels the spirit of radical social movements into experiences that foster critical conversations and nurture more just and vibrant communities from the soil up. He is recognized as a dynamic collaborator and a creative force for civic engagement.
“My work is a testament of radical love for our Beloved Community — the local community, our ancestral community, and the community of innate humanity.”
Living Legend: Metric Giles
Metric Giles is a community pillar, organizing with over a dozen different groups, including the Community Stabilization Project in St. Paul, which advocates for tenants’ rights, the Frogtown Neighborhood Association, the Summit-University Planning Council, the Aurora-St. Anthony Neighborhood Development Corporation, the Jordan Park School, the Dispute Resolution Center, the Circle of Peace anti-violence initiative and the St. Paul Almanac. Giles, also served on the Metropolitan Council’s Central Corridor Community Advisory Committee, joining a coalition of community members and civic groups who successfully fought for additional stops along the Green Line light rail corridor during its planning. Giles, has also been involved with community gardening efforts since 1990, and is a leading contributor to the Oxford Dayton Community Garden at Oxford Street and Dayton Avenue. He has worked with Afro Eco, a group that focuses on connecting African-Americans to land issues, and has helped students at Como Park High School build Little Free Libraries. Through all of this, his work has touched every part of the Rondo and Frogtown Communities.
