I am a jazz musician and multi-genre composer who seeks to remediate musical influences from American and European classical music, American and Indigenous folk music, as well as Black American music or Jazz in order to highlight the collaborative, relational nature of music, culture, and nature. As a composer, I am primarily influenced by the work of artists within my community and lineage of jazz, but have also worked to incorporate the harmonic complexity developed through a distinct lineage of Baltic composers into my writing for jazz orchestra and beyond. My storytelling is derived from Afrofuturist and Indigenous authors such as Octavia Butler as well as Robin Wall Kimmerer, centering on themes of identity, family, and relationships with the land. This combination of influences reflects my wide range of interests, which I have come to appreciate as a means of connecting with more people through music. It is my hope that my art helps everyone living among this land to see how similar we really are, in that our stories may incorporate the same themes of ingenuity, loss, perseverance, and appreciation for the land and for each other. With some of my newer works, I wish to create a microcosm of “American” art and life in a way that only could be done through my perspective as a Black American from the Midwest with ties to Native communities. I also hope to inspire a renewed sense of environmental stewardship by having our relationship with the land and other living beings be a central theme explored in my research-based art.