LOTUS BOY is an unapologetically disabled, neurodivergent, and chronically illUSTRIOUS Chinese-American transgender drag king based in Oakland. Ze recently won San Francisco Drag King of the Year 2023, and is on the Board of Directors for Oaklash (the Bay Area's Drag Festival) and SPM Disability Justice Fund, which funds disability justice projects led by disabled BIPOC. King LOTUS BOY is currently the production manager for the THEYFRIEND Nonbinary Performance Festival, where he was a featured artist in 2021

IG: @kinglotusboy
tiktok: @lotusboydrag
FB: King LOTUS BOY

Kim Requesto is a Philippine born, Mission District raised Cultural Worker and Interdisciplinary Artist based in unceded Ramaytush Ohlone Territory also recognized as San Francisco, California. With an artistic foundation in Philippine folk dance, Requesto has dedicated herself to cultural expression and advocacy through movement, photography, and community outreach. Requesto has been part of the Philippine Folk Dance community since 2005 and is currently with Parangal Dance as part of their Artistic Team.

kimrequesto.com
IG: @kimrequesto @pangalaycircle

We are SF Adavu, a group of young women in Sf and surrounding areas who aim to preserve the cultural arts practice of Bharatanatyam beyond our formal dance education. Through developing new work, we hope to explore themes and stories that are important to us while finding the connections to the traditional stories of our past. Beyond our commitment to dance, we are committed to a justice-oriented practice of the arts. We believe it is critical to reckon with the casteist history of dance in order to responsibly practice the form. Along with amplifying Bharatanatyam in the SF dance space, we hope to provide an environment for learning and engaging with the history.

Marwa Doost was born in Arizona, and raised in the SF Bay Area. She has worked alongside Global Advocates for Afghanistan to co-organize and lead demonstrations that amplify the voices and poetic expressions of Afghan women and students on the ground. Marwa's spoken-word poetry blends the linguistics of Afghan poetry with contemporary influences to address themes of identity, preservation, and community ties. She recently performed at the Afghan-American Community Conference based in Washington, D.C., and she strives to continue releasing poetry into the community and educational landscape.

IG: @marwadoost

Meghana Ravikumar (she/her) is a multimedia artist, dancer, machine learning product manager, and early venture advisor based in the SF Bay Area. Her movement practice honors and interweaves various dance lineages of Contemporary, Bharatanatyam, Bollywood, and Afro-Brazilian, with joy, power, and play. Meghana’s artwork as a whole is inspired by her Indian-American experience in the United States and her search for home. Through a mix of memoirs, short stories, dance and film, she focuses on unraveling and understanding her journey and using story-telling as a form of activism. To say, I am here, we are here, and we matter.

Substack: https://meghanaravikumar.substack.com/
IG: @the__notorious_m_e_g
Website: https://www.meghanaravikumar.com/