Bianca Nozaki-Nasser (she/they) is an artist, designer, and educator working with visual and interactive media to understand, critique, and reimagine social systems of power. Born to a Syrian-Lebanese father and Japanese American mother, her creative practice and research often investigate transnational culture, material language, and the politics of artifacts. Currently, Bianca is the Strategy & Creative Director at 18MR. She is also an assistant professor at the ArtCenter of College and Design and has guest lectured at Duke, Harvard, CUNY, The New School, and elsewhere. She has held artist residencies in Los Angeles and New York and has worked as a consultant and facilitator for various organizations. Her writing has appeared in Disegno Journal (London) and Het Nieuwe Instituut (Rotterdam).

Through his work with experimental film and installation, Los Angeles-based artist and Art, Media, and Design assistant professor H. Leslie Foster II (he/him) uses experimental film, object-making, and installation art to create fleeting pocket universes and contemplative ecologies that explore Black and queer futurity through the lens of dream logic. Leslie completed his MFA in Design | Media Arts at UCLA in 2022 and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture the same year. Leslie’s four-channel installation Heavenly Brown Body won Outfest’s documentary Grand Jury Prize and has also been exhibited at the Torrance Art Museum and Hammer Museum, as well as two solo shows.

Umi Hsu (they/them) is a public humanist and digital strategist, currently working as the Director of Content Strategy at One Institute. Previously, Hsu led design strategy and digital initiatives at the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. Hsu has received fellowships and awards from National Endowment for the Arts, American Council for Learned Society, Shuttleworth Foundation, GovTech, and LA Metro. With a PhD from the Music Department at University of Virginia, Umi Hsu is also a sound artist and audio producer with works featured in LA Weekly, KCET, MIT Arts, Giant Robot, KCHUNG Radio, and Dublab, and presented by the Rubin Museum, Japanese American National Museum, CTM Festival in Berlin, Tuesday Night Cafe, 18th Street Arts Center, ONE Archives at the USC Libraries, and MIT Community Innovators Lab. They also play in their ghost pop band Bitter Party. https://beingumihsu.org.

Monica Bailey is a cultural producer based in Los Angeles. Her work focuses on culturally conscious community building through the arts in poetry, live performance, radical fashion, storytelling, pedagogy and organizing. She has worked with numerous organizations and collectives, including Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, Pan African Film Festival (PAFF), New Hood Order, Abantu Audio, Project Knucklehead, Afro Unidad, and others. She has provided research and consultation for several creative projects that bring cultural history and relevance to the forefront such as Roots (TV Miniseries, 2016) Episode One. Since 2018 Monica has worked at the William Grant Still Arts Center, in the historic West Adams neighborhood, as the Educational and Community Outreach Coordinator. This has allowed her to serve and connect with families, community leaders and local organizations, while discovering ways to bridge the generational gap and give back to the community that has solely shaped her vision to pass the torch.