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Stephanie Graham | Multidisciplinary Artist

@stephaniegraham

4.3K

followers

2777

following

I make photos, films,and spaces.
Based in Chicago
’25 @chicagodcase recipient + @chngecollective fellow
📧 [email protected]

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

✨ Praise Report ✨

I’m excited to share that noseyAF (@noseyafpod) has been selected as one of the recipients of the 2025 Artists Run Chicago Fund from @hydeparkartcenter.

It’s an honor to be included among such a thoughtful and inspiring group of artist-run spaces, festivals, publications, bookstores, labs, and community builders across Chicago. I’m looking forward to learning more about each of your projects, connecting, and seeing how we might support one another. And yes… a few podcast invitations may be coming soon 👀.

Congratulations to all the 2025 grantees —
nonationartlab
@chicagofirstchurch
@blancgallerychicago
@chuquimarca.artlibrary
@fourtunehouse
@ingabooks
@jupiter.magazine
@flvchicago
@lmrm_chicago
@mayfieldartspace
@tala.chicago
@terrainexhibitions (the homies)

Thank you to @hydeparkartcenter, the Good Chaos Foundation, and the Local South Foundation for supporting artist-run projects and investing in our creative ecosystem. I’m grateful, excited, and ready to keep building. 💛
#ArtistsRunChicago #ARCFund #ChicagoArts #noseyAFpod by @stephaniegraham

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10 months ago

This is a photo of me and my studio mate, Queen and legend Diana Solis, from when I was a resident at CAD. She heard all my secrets… the rest went to my studio newsletter, Good Stuff Only 👀✨

I’d love to send YOU Good Stuff Only, so please subscribe today💌

✨ Fresh art ✨ Ideas ✨ Neighborhood gossip + goings-on ✨ Studio secrets

It’s where I share the projects I’m making, the ideas I’m obsessing over, and the stories that never stay in the studio.
I send it 0–2x a month — only the good stuff. If it’s not good, it’s not going in 💅🏾

🤞🏾 Join me there! taken in Chicago Art Department by @stephaniegraham

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a year ago

Whew! ✨ I received an Individual Artists Program grant from the @chicagodcase! IA dream!

Thank you, City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, for supporting independent artists.

#DCASEgrants #ChicagoArt #Chicagogrammers #SupportArtists #EnjoyIllinois by @stephaniegraham

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a year ago

🎙️ TODAY ON noseyAF!

Rayviation is pulling up to the studio LIVE! 👀 We're talking about his work, including the Loving Men series, which celebrates Black men and their stories, and his upcoming feature documentary, The Call to Harper Studio.

Tune in and get a little nosey with us!

📻 WLPN 105.5 FM and Live on Lumpenradio.com
🗓️ Today, Saturday, October 10
⏰ 2 PM CT

#noseyAF #LovingMen #ChicagoArtists #ChicagoRadio by @stephaniegraham

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8 days ago

✨ New Episode! ✨ What if you didn’t have to wait until everything was perfect to begin? In this episode I talk with Chicago-based artist, filmmaker, and @noseyafpod podcast host, @stephaniegraham , about creativity, entrepreneurship, and the freedom to experiment.

Stephanie shares how starting messy helped her grow as an artist, build meaningful connections, and make room for new possibilities.

Whether you’re launching a creative project, exploring a business idea, or juggling multiple passions, this conversation is a reminder that you can learn as you go and change direction without shame.

Some of what we explore is:
• Overcoming perfectionism and starting before you feel “ready”
• Creating art from curiosity, personal observation, and lived experience
• Building spaces where people can connect and feel welcome
• Treating business as an experiment and giving yourself permission to make changes

Find it on your favorite listening platform or through the link in my bio. by @stephaniegraham

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11 days ago

🎙️ Today on Lumpen Radio

Today at 2 PM CST, I’m sitting down with Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Barbara E. Allen for a live conversation on Lumpen Radio 105.5 FM.

Barbara has spent decades documenting Black history, culture, and Chicago through film. From *DuSable to Obama: Chicago’s Black Metropolis to House Music: A Cultural Revolution*, her work asks us to think about **who gets to tell the story, what gets remembered, and how we tell it.

And she’s not afraid to experiment. Documentary, immersive journalism, VR, television… we’re talking about the whole journey.

I’m especially excited to get nosey about how she approaches documenting Chicago, what she’s learned along the way, and what stories she’s still trying to tell.

📻 TODAY September 26th
⏰ 2 PM CST
📍 Lumpen Radio 105.5 FM
🎧 Listen live on LumpenRadio.com

#noseyAF #noseyAFLive #LumpenRadio #ChicagoFilmmakers #ChicagoArtists #BlackFilmmakers #DocumentaryFilmmaker #ChicagoHistory by @stephaniegraham

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22 days ago

A series of portraits as I hold the ladder, spotting Brother @rolandbatrouni while he works above. Generally, a photo shoot isn't recommended during ladder work, but when the light is doing that? Come on.

A celebration is due. I concluded the 31 Days of Black Business series. I did it. We did it. And I am so proud.�

Thirty-one interviews, thirty-one intros, thirty-one sets of show notes, and I edited every single episode myself, all while working a demanding, nearly impossible, still fun, nutritious yet savory film gig.It's been an honor. All 31 episodes are up wherever you listen to podcasts. ��Thank you so much 🖤

📸: @ladygra_gra by @stephaniegraham

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2 months ago

He trained 33 people last Saturday.�

Started at 4 in the morning.
�Sean Armstead is a former Marine Corps infantry officer who served in the Persian Gulf, and he’s been running Phenomenal Fitness since 1997. Same slogan all along: serious training for everyday people.

In this episode:�
💪🏾 Successful aging and why he’s training you for the body you’ll have at 70, not the one you had at 25
💪🏾 The five pillars he builds every program around
💪🏾 What actually happens on your first day—and why getting sick 20 minutes in is the trainer’s fault
💪🏾 Why almost 30 years in business has come entirely from referrals. He calls it “old money”—relationships built over time that keep paying dividends.
💪🏾 Starting with no certification, no plan, and a mentor telling him to burn the ship

Chicago!!, he’s in the South Loop. Episode Link in bio. 🖤 by @stephaniegraham

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2 months ago

What do you do when you want the shop but you're too scared to sign the lease?

You buy a short school bus and you paint it pink.

Jennifer Kelly spent years as the logistical backbone at Chanel, Tiffany's, and Neiman Marcus before burning all the way out. Now she runs Vintage Frills, a Chicago boutique organized entirely by color. A red room. A blue room. A neutrals room she called the dungeon in her business plan.

People fly in from other countries to shop it. The bus is still out here doing pop-ups.

In this episode:
💗 what luxury retail taught her about making people feel taken care of
💗 where she actually sources, and it's not the thrift store
💗 her honest take on everybody opening an online boutique
💗 why moving slow is the reason she's still open five years later
💗 and yes, there are plus sizes

Ep. 147, wherever you listen. Then go be somebody's first customer.
🖤 31 Days of Black Business by @stephaniegraham

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2 months ago

What if the thing making your business hard isn't your business?

Dr. Kristi Bishop is a PhD economist who spent over a decade doing this work across the federal government, including the CDC and Social Security. Last fall she started Verity Consulting because she was tired of watching businesses make decisions she could plainly see were going to hurt them.
She was going to call herself the corniest economist. Her friend said no, you're the baddest economist I know. She was terrified to use it.

Her friend said do it scared.

In this episode:
📊 what an economist actually does for a small business
📊 why there's no wrong time to call one, whether you're starting or something just feels off
📊 what supporting Black business actually means, economically
📊 why she started making Hump Day Economics, and why nobody was explaining the eggs
📊 the thing she says she is not, and why that makes her better at her job

Ep. 146, wherever you listen.

🖤 31 Days of Black Business by @stephaniegraham

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2 months ago

What does it cost to care about your work?

For a lot of people, everything. Janelle Alba Garner spent years watching founders and nonprofit leaders do genuinely great work while running themselves into the ground to do it. She doesn't think that's the deal.

She's the founder of Tanglaw Advisory. Tanglaw is a Tagalog word. It means guiding light.

In this episode we talk about:

🕯️ what regenerative leadership actually means
🌿 why your staff will tell an outsider things they'll never tell you
🕊️ how hard it is to slow down when everybody looks like they're moving faster
🌱 building a business that doesn't require you to sacrifice yourself
🕯️ the Monday that made her rethink the whole business

She also runs Tanglaw Collective, offering pro bono support to community organizations on the South and West Sides. Office hours, workshops, volunteer days.

Ep. 145, wherever you listen. If your mission has outgrown the structure holding it, start here.

🖤 31 Days of Black Business. Link in bio by @stephaniegraham

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2 months ago

What do you do when nobody is coming to motivate you?

You stay focused.

Rob Marley built Stay Focused Society from two words he kept telling himself during one of the hardest periods of his life. No funding, no cosign, no fancy setup. He painted the words on t-shirts by hand.

Then came the computer he had to figure out how to get, the art school he found his way to, the family and friends who didn't buy, and the strangers on Instagram who did.

One thing he said stuck with me: you have to use what you got at the time to do whatever it is you need to do.

That is entrepreneur shit. 😂

Ep. 144, wherever you listen. If you're building something without a roadmap, this one's for you.

🖤 31 Days of Black Business. Link in Bio by @stephaniegraham

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2 months ago