APAture 2025 Artist Bios

Performing Arts Showcase

Coraza is an Oakland-based feminist indie folk-rock project featuring Claire Calderón, Gem Datuin, Luna Fuentes Vaccaro, and Gabi Díaz-Hernández. Their sound blends powerful storytelling with evocative melodies, electric distortions, and delicious harmonies. In January of 2025 they released their debut EP, A New Color, which is available on all major streaming platforms.

Megan Lowe is a Chinese and Irish American dance maker, performer, teacher, singer-songwriter, and Artistic Director of Megan Lowe Dances. She creates powerful multidisciplinary dance works that transform spaces with dynamic place-making, playful partner-work, and daring aerial/vertical dance. She’s a two-time Izzie Award winner, with recent work presented at Legion of Honor, ODC, Fort Mason, and de Young, as well as in USAAF, SF Aerial Arts Festival, SF Trolley Dances, and on KQED Live.

Cristina Edwards is a multidisciplinary artist, writer, educator, and musician based in Oakland, CA. Born in England to a Filipina immigrant and a U.S. Navy officer, her work explores identity, belonging, impermanence, and the convergence of multiple cultural origins. Her current projects can be found cristinaedwards.com.

Renuka Garg is a fat queer Indian American artist and community organizer born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. As a dancer, essayist, and poet, Renuka uses language — spoken and embodied — to face painful truths about the world we live in and sustain the difficult work of liberation. She is a company dancer in Duniya Dance & Drum Company and engages art as political storytelling most recently as part of Nava Dance's 2025 Unrehearsed Artist Residency Program.

Raychel Hatch (she/her/any) is a Bay Area movement artist of Asian American mixed-race descent. Her creative world explores interconnectedness, identity, mental health, and community building. Her dance style is rooted in contemporary movement –drawing inspiration from street style forms. She holds a B.A. in Performing Arts & Social Justice and a B.A. in Psychology, from USFCA. She’s worked with the First Voice, dNaga Dance, Tracey Lindsay Chan, SanSan Kwan, and ODC's Pilot program.

Eve’s Heaven (Esther Young) has always been fascinated with parables and cultural folklore. Raised in the East Bay but proud to call San Jose home, she is a story seeker and writer at heart. Eve's Heaven is a new vehicle for her songwriting, which continues to draw from her life chapters and the myths that have helped her along the way. Esther is a cultural community worker by day and received the Content Emerging Artist Award in 2024.

Zoe Mueller (she/her) is a Chinese adoptee from Santa Fe, New Mexico. For her solo project on Natalie Junio-Thompson, she will probe at the often uncomfortable but necessary labor in rebuilding oneself. To attend to our own Jungian shadows, we must confront the unconscious, rejected, and repressed parts of us.

Noah Ramos is a dancer and artist based in San Francisco who grew up in Manila. Noah is fascinated with decolonizing mental health and well-being, and is passionate about challenging conventional Western medical understanding of what healing should look like. They strive to both tell stories through movement and explore the healing processes embedded in artistic creation and exchanging with others.

Art Fair Vendors

Eva Agus (b. 1978, Jakarta Indonesia) is an Oakland-based multidisciplinary artist with a civil engineering background. Her work explores the intersections of science, memory, and cultural identity, blending technical precision with emotive storytelling. Her original small works as well as archival prints and vinyl stickers are featured in various Bay Area art markets and at Stuff vintage store in San Francisco.

For Ina Jewelry is a small capacity business by artist Malaya Tuyay. Malaya Tuyay started For Ina in 2018 as a way to create lightweight and unique designs. She originally made the jewelry just for herself and friends and then community started supporting her as well. Thank you all for helping me be where I am.

godz rising highlights, uplifts, and supports queer asian artists and artwork through quarterly printed newsletters. each issue of godz rising features works from various artists with across chosen mediums, from comics to photography, poetry to illustration!

Isabel 玥 Li is a Kiwi artist, writer, and creativity researcher with roots in Kunming and Guangzhou. Their work invites joy and colour into themes of queerness, memory, and distance; their writing and illustrations can be found in Sine Theta, The Seventh Wave, and The New River. While primarily a digital illustrator and oil painter, they have recently been exploring comics and zines! Learn more about their work at isabel.li/ or @ilyues (everywhere).

Live Slow Collective by Nicole Shek “Slow fashion for the environmentally conscious. Art for the curious.” Each piece is hand-dyed, painted, and upcycled, blending Nicole’s distinct and unique psychedelic artistry with streetwear influence. Using ethically sourced natural, organic fibers, 100% recycled cotton blanks, and thrifted or second-hand finds, every garment is transformed into wearable art that celebrates sustainability, comfort, and creative expression. Nicole is a multi-disciplinary artist well versed in (live) painting, drawing, photography, textile arts & more, creating out of her private Oakland studio and beyond. She is known for her distinct psychedelic abstract style drawing inspiration from street art, nature, and intuition.

Liyang is a local to global advocacy network that amplifies the calls to action of grassroots communities in the Philippines. We started in the Philippines at the request of Lumad indigenous communities in Mindanao who wanted a network to bring together their allies from the Philippines and beyond to help promote their calls to action. In 2020, we expanded our advocacy work to include land and environmental defenders and other grassroots communities throughout the country.

New Moon Massage provides therapeutic massage and body work by Halla Hammoudeh. Trained at San Francisco School of Massage, Halla brings a passion for healing through many modalities and specializes in manual lymphatic drainage, with a focus on women's health and wellbeing.

Jenny Situ is an San Francisco based watercolor and concept artist. She loves creatures big and small and wants to highlight them as much as possible and how important they are in the world as well as the world around us. She's had work held in the San Francisco Mayor's office and the Captiol Building in Washington DC.

In 2022, five years after the launch of our first literary magazine, Slant’d embarked on a new adventure to redefine our purpose and north star. In 2023, Slant’d received 501(c)(3) nonprofit designation and became an independent publishing house dedicated to celebrating the inherent creativity in the AAPI community. Built off our original commitment to create safe spaces for AAPIs to use art and the written word to explore their truths, our dream is for Slant’d to become the creative home for AAPIs to experience personal growth, creative expansion, and meaningful connection.

Stir Fry Stories is VC Tang's interdisciplinary creative practice in which she weaves stories of tea, cooking, martial arts, spirit, and pottery. With irreverence and adoration, her stories make old Asian practices appetizing.

Film Showcase

Kyle Casey Chu (AKA Panda Dulce) is a San Francisco born-and-raised Screenwriter, Author and Drag Story Hour founding queen. In 2022, far-right extremists stormed her reading in San Lorenzo to silence her. Instead, she gained a global platform. Her writing has earned awards from the Sundance, SFFILM, the American Booksellers Association and Lambda Literary, and has appeared on Vogue, VICE, MTV and more. In 2025, her films have been programmed in 6 Oscar-qualifying festivals. HarperCollins published her debut novel, "The Queen Bees of Tybee County" in April 2025.

Lark Chang-Yeh is a stop-motion and scratch film animator. They are Taiwanese-Chinese American, but were raised by parents who grew up bouncing around rural America—much of their culture and language lost along the way. Their work reimagines and restructures their childhood’s rigidity—grasping at lost memories and connections to heritage, and 

simultaneously pushing forward into new, queerer territories. They are currently a Curatorial Intern at 500 Capp Street and Stephanie Syjuco’s studio assistant.

Laura Dudu is an interdisciplinary artist whose work bridges moving image, installation, and social practice. Their work was supported by exhibitions and fellowships with the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, BRIC Lab (NYC), the Chicago International Film Festival, and the Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibition. Engaging diasporic and queer feminist perspectives, their practice centers on grief, memory, kinship, and resilience and is the co-founder an co-director of Chinese Artists and Organizers(CAO) Collective.

Julia Nacario is a Bay Area Bisaya filmmaker invested in the cultural revitalization of Pilipinx communities. Her debut short “PAINTED ONES” won Best Documentary at London International Film Festival and was a finalist for CAAM’s Loni Ding Award in 2025. Julia is a festival coordinator at the International Queer Women of Color Film Festival and is a Netflix-sponsored apprentice with Descriptive Video Works to become a professional audio describer for film, television, & new media.

Chey Yen (they/he) is a queer & trans Chinese-Vietnamese American, born and raised on Ramaytush Ohlone land (present day San Francisco). Their short films have been featured in various film festivals, including the International Queer Women of Color Film Festival and Viet Film Fest. Their work explores themes of community, belonging, connection, and friendship.

Ginger Yifan Chen (they/them) is examining structures of power through politically-conscious sci-fi and queer immigrant narratives. They are a writer, director, and community organizer from San Francisco by way of Shanghai. Currently, they work as a director, assistant director, and script reader in the Bay Area. Find them online @gingerychen or gingerychen.com

Visual Arts Showcase

Asma Ghanem is a Palestinian artist, experimental musician, and writer. She was born in Damascus-Syria in 1991. Asma has two degrees in audio-visual arts from the International Academy of Arts in Palestine in 2013 (BA) and a master's degree (M.A) from the University of Fine Arts in Toulouse-France (ISDAT) In 2016. She participated in numerous exhibitions, art residencies, and workshops worldwide. She won a Special Mention in The Palestin' & Out competition in Paris for her photography project “Bodies with notes” in 2015, She also won the 3rd prize in The Young Artist Award/The Hassan Al-Hourani Prize in 2016 for her experimental music project "Homeland is...".  In 2024, she gave lectures at Cornell University in New York and CalArts University in California on her life and art practice as a Palestinian artist, and art from the Arab World. Asma received two production grants from “AFAC” The Arab Fund for Culture and Arts, for her first experimental music album entitled “At Land” which got published in 2017, and for her first publication (a book including a music album and notation scores) which was based on field research in all refugee camps in the West Bank, entitled "Damaged Brains Music". “Wall Piano” a short documentary film (2020) in collaboration with Alexia Webster (director from South Africa) and Christopher Marianetti (director from USA/Italy) has been selected for numerous awards and special mentions at film festivals worldwide. In 2022, Asma collaborated with Disney & Marvel co. in which she created a series of paintings for the production of  the movie “Iron Woman” as yet to be released. The works of Asma Ghanem are inspired by the imaginative nature of narrating the personal experience of the occupation in Palestine. 

Her artistic and musical works are connected to her childhood and are centered around essential components such as the concept of homeland, the sonic experience under occupation, the world of imagination, and love stories in an occupied place. Asma employs research and content using different artistic techniques such as painting, experimental music, writing, photography, and video art. She currently lives and works in Oakland, California.

Eva Agus (b. 1978, Jakarta Indonesia) is an Oakland-based multidisciplinary artist with a civil engineering background. Her work explores the intersections of science, memory, and cultural identity, blending technical precision with emotive storytelling using painting, textiles, and floral design. Her award-winning art has been featured in group exhibitions throughout California and beyond, as well as in permanent collections of Santa Clara County healthcare. She serves in the de Young Museum Flower Committee.

Jess Cabuag is an emerging visual artist born and raised in San Jose, California. She is a self-taught artist who began her art journey in 2023, but has been drawing since a very young age. Jess practices creativity as a means to express, connect, learn, and understand herself and the world around her. Her work is emotionally driven—many of her drawings explore and reflect raw emotions, curiosity, and vulnerability.

Theresa Calpotura is a multidisciplinary artist who has performed across the US and the Philippines. As a recording artist she has produced three albums of her own work, including Musikang Halo-Halo: Starting to Mix—a musical storytelling project based on Filipinx folklore, her mixed heritage, and her grandmother’s life. In 2024, she participated in With A Twist: Stories of Her Own, which featured works by Asian-American women retelling folklore from their heritage.

Serena Chen is a Taiwanese American multidisciplinary creative passionate about art direction, photography, illustration, and graphic design. She finds inspiration in the subtle interplay of light and shadow. In her spare time, she enjoys observing the little things and practicing urban sketching to ignite her creative spirit and reflect the delicate rhythms of daily life.

Diana Yi-Yi Chen is a filmmaker, video editor, photographer, and emerging multidisciplinary artist. She was raised in Taiwan and resides in Berkeley, California. Having received her BA from SFSU’s cinema program, her passions involve experimental films, which inspire her to explore art through different mediums. Her works explore the theme of gender expectations of women.

Cristina Edwards is a multidisciplinary artist, writer, educator, and musician based in Oakland, CA. Born in England to a Filipina immigrant and a U.S. Navy officer, her work explores identity, belonging, impermanence, and the convergence of multiple cultural origins. Her current projects can be found at cristinaedwards.co.

Bushra Gill, born in Karachi and raised in Houston, is an artist inspired by Islamic geometry and everyday life. Her BFA in sculpture from Pratt Institute informs a process-driven practice encompassing printmaking, collage, and glass, exploring themes of connection and identity. She has been awarded residencies at Pilchuck Glass School, Kala Art Institute, and Jen Tough Gallery. Based in northern California, Gill also curates, leveraging her teaching background to be a visual storyteller.

Thad Higa is a Korean-Okinawan American language worker. He works with artists' books, concrete poetry, printmaking, collage, typography, graphic design, and living rooms. His practice investigates the intersections of language, technology, capitalism, white supremacy, and their roles in controlling perceptions of reality, value, and legibility.

Cole Lata is a Bay Area native from Milpitas, now rooted in Oakland, California. Originally a chef, inspired by her late mother and a deep love for food, she shifted toward photography as a form of resistance—reclaiming culture, honoring the past, and envisioning a more just and sustainable future. Her work explores food through a political and cultural lens.

Isabel 玥 Li is a Kiwi artist, writer, and creativity researcher with roots in Kunming and Guangzhou. Their work invites joy and colour into themes of queerness, memory, and distance; their writing and illustrations can be found in Sine Theta, The Seventh Wave, and The New River. While primarily a digital illustrator and oil painter, they have recently been exploring comics and zines.

Susan Kitazawa is a lively 78-year-old woman living with increasing blindness and now a rare kind of cancer. Still dreaming, dancing, making art, writing, and being part of community, she hopes others, too, will keep going after whatever they love to do.

Nicole Shek is a Cantonese American multidisciplinary nomadic artist based in Oakland, California, with a B.A. in Fine Arts from UC Santa Cruz. She is often seen live painting at Bay Area events and music festivals across the country, engaging audiences through her immersive, experiential process. Nicole approaches art as a way of being: an act of resilience, freedom, and emotional release. Her ever-moving lifestyle informs a practice rooted in transience, fluidity, and presence. Working across painting, photography, textiles, and mixed media, Nicole’s work channels intuition and emotional rawness into portals for connection, healing, and transformation.

Sam Soon (they/them) is an artist, writer, and designer based in Oakland, CA by way of Chengdu, China. Soon’s work has been shown at the DeYoung Museum, the Asian/Pacific/American Institute at NYU, and SUN Studios in Australia. They hold a BFA in Photography & Imaging from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, as well as an MFA in Fine Arts and an MA in Visual & Critical Studies from California College of the Arts.

Jun Yan is a sculptor based in the San Francisco Bay Area who draws inspiration from his Buddhist background to create art that goes beyond the surface. His works focus on nature forms, expressing internal strength. Using bronze, ceramic, and other materials, he sculpts a diverse range of subjects that embody a philosophy of stillness and connection among all natural forms of life.

Yuting Wang is a multidisciplinary artist specializing in figurative watercolor painting. Born and raised in Beijing, China, she moved to the U.S. in 2014 and became a full-time artist in 2023. Her work has been exhibited at venues such as Mills Station Arts and Culture Center, Oakland Asian Art Center, Brea Gallery, and Pacific Art League. In 2024, she received honorable mention at the Women in Watercolor International Competition and held her first solo exhibition at Lindsay Dirkx Brown Gallery.

Zhang Luochen was born in Guangdong, China, and is currently an undergraduate majoring in oil painting at California College of the Arts. He recently held his first solo exhibition in China.

Literary Arts Showcase

Nicola Andrews (ia/she/they) is a member of the Ngāti Pāoa iwi, and is of Māori and Pākehā descent. They currently work as the Open Education Librarian at the University of San Francisco, on Ramaytush Ohlone territory. OVERSEAS EXPERIENCE is their debut full-length poetry collection, published by Āporo Press.

Mahru Elahi is a queer Iranian American femme. They live in Oakland and have received support from Black Warrior Review, Foglifter, Lambda Literary Emerging LGBTQ+ Writers Retreat, Tin House, Hedgebrook, and VONA, among others.

Sabina Khan-Ibarra is a Pakistani Pashtun American poet, writer, and educator whose work explores inherited trauma, language, and identity. Her work appears in Rising Phoenix, Anomaly, and more. She lives in Northern California and is working on her novel and poetry collection a new vocabulary, which was selected as a semifinalist for the 2024 Philip Levine Prize for Poetry. Additionally, her work was recognized as a strong semifinalist in the University of Wisconsin's poetry contest.

Ashley Sojin Kim’s poems appear or are forthcoming in 32 Poems, Literary Matters, Gulf Coast, Raleigh Review, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA from the University of Florida and a BA from Johns Hopkins. She has received a Pushcart Prize nomination and fellowships from Kundiman and the Napa Valley Writers’ Conference.

Linette Kingston is a Tamil Indian American writer focused on giving shape to the ever-present, permeating weight of the dissonant past, diasporic belonging, and the tendrils of imperialism. She grew up in Maryland and is an incoming epidemiology graduate student at UC Berkeley.

Grace Z. Li is a fiction writer from the Bay Area. She was a PEN America Emerging Voices fellow, and her work has been supported by the Tin House Workshop, Kearny Street Workshop, and the San Francisco Writers' Grotto. She is also an arts journalist and critic. Her bylines appear in USA TODAY, Vulture, the San Francisco Chronicle, and elsewhere. Grace is at work on her first novel and a collection of short stories.

stevie redwood is a disabled toisanese jewish neuroinsurgent introvert homotrash littledreamer bigmouth bitch living & dying in frisco. they’re unimpressed by scene queers, artifice, & pacifism. they’re fond of shittalk, porchsitting, leaflitter, & riffraff. they dream (of) a liberated palestine, maps without borders, and a different end of the world.

Danielle Shi is a writer of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry who works to uplift Asian American worlds through autofiction and hybrid narratives. She creates in order to draw readers toward the resolution and catharsis the autobiographic form offers for specific audiences when met with models of identification and resemblance. Her novels The Shelter and Pandopticon have received support through funded residencies at Vermont Studio Center, Prelinger Library, Winslow House Project, and PLAYA Summer Lake.