Welcome Iya Adetoyesi!
Image: Courtesy of the Ritualist.
Jupiter Performance Studio is pleased to announce Iya Adetoyesi as the 2026 Elder Ritualist in Residence.
Biography: Iya Adetoyesi Adebanjo aka “Mama Nia” is the daughter of Ronald [Iba aiye]and Elmira and the mother of Heather and Paul. Raised on Connecticut saltwater air, concrete stairs, crab cakes and Campbell's pork and beans, Iya Ade is a gifted healer, story weaver and cultural alchemist, as well as the co-author and producer of the SpiritHouse Inc original production “Collective Sun-Reshape the Mo[u]rning.” She is a practical nurse who specialized in pediatric and psychiatric nursing, but found a much stronger calling working with Black youth and their families strengthening and amplifying the power that exists in their bones. Iya Ade has been building community in Durham North Carolina, since embracing it as home in 1998, and is the Founder and Founding Strategist of SpiritHouse South Inc, where she works with fellow artists, organizers, ritualists, healers and community members to create and sustain the world we all deserve.
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About the Program: JPS’ Ritualist in Residence program is a critical component of its Watering (W)hole Engagement Cosmology. Residents are chosen by nominations only and receive a rest retreat with housing, stipend, food, field excursions and support with a project that centers ecowomanist praxis.
JPS’ Ritualist in Residence program is a critical component of its Watering (W)hole Engagement Cosmology. Watering (W)hole is rooted in cultural magic, community organizing, social rituals healing, remembering, and creative emancipation. The cosmology advances movements for climate reparations and ecowomanist visions for planetary thriving. Designed as an in-person and virtual experience, Watering (W)hole is based in dreaming, devising, relationship weaving, resource-sharing, and creative emancipation. Watering (W)hole’s goal is to creatively, spiritually, and intellectually invest in impactful movements climate reparations and environmental justice for, with and in Black, Indigenous and global majority communities.
