Simone Cottrell
Founding Member
Simone Cottrell (The Deep South) is a multi-hyphenate creative and owner of Rachhana Creative Consulting, LLC. Her durational protest performance art Where is Justice enters its fourth year of exploration in 2025. Simone’s projects have included the 2023 Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Jonathan Gonzalez’s Perejil, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art’s Creating Connections, Arts for Everybody - Phillips County, and Theatre Squared’s Cambodian Rock Band. Simone is the recipient of the Arkansas Arts Council Individual Fellowship Award - Community Engagement, Sipp Culture’s Rural Creative Award, Artists 3 60 Grant, Interchange Grant, and Innovation Grant.
I create ephemeral works with rural Southern communities, rooted in my experience as a mixed-race Khmae American woman from the Deep South. Guided by dreams and memory, my practice draws from Khmae diasporic traditions, the rituals of whiteness, and Black social justice wisdom. Using recycled fabrics, found objects, and storytelling, I transform community pain into soft power protest. Recent collaborative and individual works include Now Think About Numbers, Blue Hole Homecoming, and Where is Justice: The People’s Rug.
