Discipline: Folklife/Traditional Arts

As much of their work focuses on reclaiming their identity as a natural being, Syon is largely inspired by biomimicry – they experience plants, animals (including humans), arthropods, & fungi as mirrors and opportunities for reflection. Syon’s oeuvre is made up of artifacts from their decolonization process – an intentional practice of shifting away from anti-black, patriarchal, cis-heteronormative, & human-supremacist ways of being and moving towards behaviors and patterns rooted in pleasure, balance, acceptance, interdependence & reciprocity. Syon is a neurodivergent artist for which sticking with any one medium sounds tedious and impossible. In their current iteration, they are exploring the aforementioned ideas through film, movement, collage, textiles, & the written word and at the intersections of those things. Syon was raised in Pomona, CA and currently resides in Portland, OR.

Unguwat Program Coordinator, Alaska Native Heritage Center

Theda Sandiford is an award winning self-taught fiber and installation artist hailing from St Croix USVI.

Drawing inspiration from the profound impact of racial trauma, Theda melds various fibers with an array of found materials through the art of free form weaving, coiling, knotting, and jewelry-making techniques. Her meticulously gathered materials, combined with community contributions, serve as a testament to collective memory, transforming into “social fabric.” This intertwines contemporary issues and personal narratives, fostering a rich tapestry of interconnected stories.

At the core of Theda’s creative process lies community art-making. She orchestrates multi-disciplinary experiences that unite individuals, sound, and artistry to cultivate a sanctuary for exploring themes of equity and inclusion, sustainability, and personal well-being.

Theda’s artistic footprint extends globally, in venues such as World of Threads, Expo Chicago, Untitled Art Fair, SPRING/BREAK ART SHOW, Governor’s Island NYC, New Jersey Arts Annual, and American Contemporary Craft: National Juried Exhibition. Her work has received acclaim in Excellence in Fibers VI and Fiber VIII from Fiber Art Now, earning her the 2020 Jersey City Arts Visual Artist Award, the 2021 Fellowship in Craft from the NJ State Council on the Arts, and the 2022 Jersey City Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship.

Commercial Support Coordinator, Kenan Advantage Group

My name is Timothy L. Johnson and I am the Commercial Support Coordinator at the Kenan Advantage Group with social media, marketing, communication, management and customer service experience with a technical degree in Radio & Television Broadcasting, an Associate degree of Arts and a Bachelor degree of Communication.

Discipline: Visual Arts

Tony A. Diego
Losfaz50@gmail.com

I am a local artist that has live and worked in Colorado for nearly 50 years. I have facilitated and directed youth Art and restitution programs in Denver and rural Colorado. My passions are art, travel, culture, and long hours listening to amazing music while working in my studio. I practice, and live a life that promotes connections and respect of our mother earth and the ancestors who have come before us and left a loving and healing legacy.

I am also passionate about facilitating art classes with youth and their families. Witnessing how art can literally brighten a room and experiencing firsthand the connection art inspires has been incredibly uplifting and rewarding to me in so many ways. Over the years I have curated art exhibits at several galleries in Colorado, organized and developed City Beautification projects in small rural towns such as Trinidad Colorado all while feeling the connection to community these projects promote. Colora

Triza Cox is a producer, director, playwright, screenwriter, and actress who is currently Director of Outreach and Engagement for Hedgepig Ensemble Theatre and Artistic Director of The Drama Lady Theatre Group. She has worked as Associate Artistic Director of Theatre for Change at Imagination Stage and was the recipient of the 2022 South Carolina Art Commission Screenwriting Fellowship. She serves as an Ambassador for the Dramatists Guild, is an Associate member of the Society for Stage Directors and Choreographers, and is an Actors’ Equity Association member. Her research and creative work center on playmaking using Jungian archetypes, motifs, and symbols of the collective unconscious. Much of Triza’s work has been producing and directing professional tours of classic plays to Title I Schools and other efforts to democratize arts access. Triza holds an MFA in Theatre Performance from the University of Louisville and has trained with Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre and the Mandala Center for Change as a Theatre of the Oppressed Facilitator. Directing credits include Macbeth, Julius Caesar, Miss Julie, The Stone Host, and more. Her original plays include A Last Supper, Meritocracy, Melodies in E, God in the Midst of it All, and Lil’ Bard.

Vic is an artist originally from Michigan who moved to Vermont in late 2021. They have been involved in performing arts since their youth – ranging from dance, choir, band, theater and
DJing. No matter where they are located, Vic always strives to be a part of the community in some capacity through performing arts. Vic works as the Music Program Manager at BarnArts in Barnard, VT where they arrange a summer music series, music residencies, and school programs for rural schools. When not working, they enjoy attempting to teach themself instruments, crochet arts, and connecting with the land through gardening and communing with plants.

Arts Manager, Cheyenne River Youth Project

An enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. During the Indian Relocation Act, his Até (father) was sent to California, where Wakinyan was born and raised — and where he learned the art of graffiti, which inspired him to experiment with multiple disciplines, mediums, and styles. Over the years, Wakinyan has participated in multiple art shows and graffiti jams, taught graffiti workshops, designed and sold his personal art, and worked as a commissioned artist. He continues to enjoy painting graffiti and creating multimedia art.

In 2016 Wakinyan moved back to South Dakota to dedicate his life to the betterment of the Lakota people. For two years, he worked as a youth mentor with Generations Indigenous Ways, a year-round Lakota youth camp that strives to educate and empower Lakota youth with the knowledge and skills their ancestors possessed, incorporating those traditional ways and teachings with western science methodology. Wakinyan also has worked with the Oglala Lakota Cultural & Economic Revitalization Initiative, which hosted the Indigenous Wisdom & Permaculture Skills Convergence in Slim Buttes on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

As CRYP’s arts manager, Wakinyan is responsible for leading operations at the Waniyetu Wowapi Institute & Art Park, a multidisciplinary, community-based initiative that seeks to strengthen the connection of Lakota youth and the Cheyenne River community to traditional culture and life ways through art. The institute incorporates the Lakota Art Fellowship program, the Teen Art Internship program, the award-winning RedCan invitational graffiti jam, the free public art park, and a variety of community classes and events. Wakinyan has also led CRYP’s Food Sovereignty, Native Wellness, and Lakota Culture Internship.

Visual Artist, Curator, and Artistic Director, InterUrban ArtHouse

I am a mostly self – taught artist born and raised in Kansas City, MO. I come from a creative family on my father’s side. He, his mother, and all of his 4 siblings are / were visual artists or musicians. I attended the Kansas City Art Institute briefly, found that it wasn’t for me, and went on to create and participate in the arts on my own terms. Much of my early work was afrocentric, focusing on masks, adornment, and the diaspora, while still remaining largely abstract. I showed in mostly Black spaces or in spaces that centered people of color, as the more mainstream venues seemed so out of reach. I worked retail, went to culinary school, and became a chef, all while trying to keep up my art practice. I participated in, and eventually became Director of GLOW, a body painting company of painters and models. About 6 years ago, I received a call from the Founder of the Interurban ArtHouse. I’d produced a show for her in the past and she was looking for someone to help her run the organization. I am now the Artistic Director for the InterUrban ArtHouse and in charge of exhibitions, programming, and off site corporate curation.

A native of Bamberg, SC, Xavier Blake earned a Bachelor of Arts in Communication from Newberry College and a certificate in Diversity and Inclusion from the University of South Florida. He spent over two decades at South Carolina Educational Television, working with creatives and communities creating and amplifying representative content, leading to important community conversations.

Driven by his passion to infuse diversity into leadership and content creation spaces, he most recently held positions as the Community Programming & Engagement Coordinator at Nickelodeon Theater and the Content and Engagement Manager at WMHT. He also serves as a creative mentor for the South Carolina Arts Commission, The Art of Community: Rural SC, which helps advance creative placemaking initiatives in rural South Carolina.

Blake believes that centering historically marginalized voices is imperative to build the kind of society where everyone is able to thrive.

Currently, he serves as the Executive Director of One Columbia for Arts and Culture, the city’s local arts agency. Xavier is committed to collaborating with citizens, the cultural community, and city government, with the mission of enhancing the quality of life for all residents, attracting tourism, building sustainable and equitable pipelines for artists, and connecting our diverse cultural community.

Arts & Culture Manager

Yasmin Ruvalcaba is a Portland-based director, writer, consultant, and arts advocate. She centers her work around advancing equity, honoring mentorship and education, and promoting community outreach and engagement. Yasmin is currently working at Centro Cultural as the Arts & Culture Manager. Previously, Yasmin has worked with Advance Gender Equity in the Arts as the Grants Program Director and Bag&Baggage as the Problem Play Project Manager. She is also honored to be a co-founding member of Moriviví Theatre.
Yasmin has also engaged with her community through directing. Through her time at Williams College she directed El Nogalar and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. In Portland, she has directed The Tempest (Bag&Baggage). She was also honored to be the assistant director of Wolf at the Door (Milagro), La Ruta (Artists Repertory Theatre) and La Isla En Inviero/The Island in Winter (Bag&Baggage).
Yasmin is also an active writer in the community. Two of her monologues, Carmelita and Ruega Por Mi, were featured in Theatre Diaspora’s Here on This Bridge: The -ism Project. Yasmin has also had the opportunity to workshop her work with the Northwest Theatre Workshop. Yasmin also premiered a Dia de los Muertos performance, EL JIMADAOR, in partnership with Bag&Baggage and Centro Cultural in 2020.

Discipline: Multidisciplinary

Yumi Janairo Roth’s research-based practice includes projects built around social engagement and site-specific installation. She has produced and exhibited works in the US, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Philippines. She has engaged Manila-based artists, call center agents, jeepney drivers, and artisans in projects that explore labor, creative exchange, and cultural translation. Since 2017, she has worked closely with professional sign spinners in southern California, Las Vegas, and Denver and developed collaborations between sign spinners and professional dancers, conversations between sign spinners and contemporary art curators, engagements with audiences, and participation in professional sign spinning competitions. More recently, she and Emmanuel David have developed, “”We Are Coming,”” which unearths the stories of a group of Filipinos, known as the Filipino Rough Riders, who performed with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show in the 19th century.

Grants and Services Manager

Yurika Isoe is the Grants and Services Manager at the Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona. Yurika partners with executive leadership, including Executive Director Adriana Gallegos to administer transformative grantmaking to excel recovery, innovation, and growth of the artistic sector to the highest potential in Southern Arizona. Yurika has managed the equitable distribution of over $2.3M of Federal CARES funds in the COVID-19 pandemic and advocated for increased direct investments to artists resulting in a 20% increased investments in artist-led community initiatives. By spearheading applicant service initiatives, Arts Foundation’s grantee profile averages 75%, non-white grantees.

Prior to joining Arts Foundation, Yurika served on the Board of Directors of Warehouse Arts Management Organization (WAMO) as Vice President- a creative spacemaking organization overlooking the acquisition and renovation of commercial property into artist studio spaces and galleries. As an artist, she works in sewing/embroidery through a circular economy lens and organized art events by participating as a cooperative member of SUBSPACE Arts Collective. Yurika has a BBA from the University of Arizona- Eller College of Management. Yurika holds space in an intersection of identities as a Japanese-Okinawan Muslim born in the settler-colonial United States.

Discipline: Interdisciplinary

Yvonne Onakeme Etaghene is an Ijaw Urhobo Nigerian dyke poet, performer, author, dancer, playwright, visual artist and fashion designer. Etaghene is the author of For Sizakele, a novel that addresses African lesbian/bisexual identity, love, intimate partner violence, and gender. Yvonne’s writing is published in five poetry chapbooks; and her poems, essays and fiction featured in various journals/anthologies.

Etaghene has shared her visual art in five solo art exhibitions. Etaghene created Ankara Queen by Yv. Etaghene, a fashion line exploring the nexus between Nigerian aesthetics, gender expression and self-acceptance. Yvonne hosts the NIGERIAN DYKE REALNESS Podcast.

Yvonne received a B.A. from Oberlin College, a Master’s degree from New York University and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Antioch University. Etaghene is a Svane Family Foundation Inaugural Artist in Headlands Center for the Arts’ Bay Area Fellowship. www.myloveisaverb.com, www.nigeriandykerealness.com