ISHRAT ALI
She/Her / Detroit, MI

I am a Bangladeshi-American artist who is from Queens, New York. I moved to Michigan with my family just recently but I hope to move back to New York one day. I am currently a junior at SUNY New Paltz and I hope to get my Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design by the end of next year. Some of my favorite mediums to work with other than digital design are acrylic paint, oil pastels, pen, and watercolors. Growing up, I would never put my pencil down. I drew whenever I had the chance whether that was during recess or in class. I found my passion for graphic design in middle school when I would secretly create book covers for Wattpad users but the funny part is I didn't know the term "graphic design" existed until later in high school. Whenever I would feel down, I would always lean towards art. I didn't feel comfortable talking to anyone about my problems so art was my therapy. Creating art was a way of expressing myself in a healthy way and it will always hold a valuable meaning to me.

ALONDRA M GARZA
She/Her / Minneapolis, MN

Alondra Marisol Garza is a Tejana/Chicana artist. She was born in the Mexican side at the Rio Grande Valley borderlands of Mexico and South Texas.
She obtained a BFA degree in studio art at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Currently, she is seeking her MFA in visual studies at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Her work has been exhibited internationally across the U.S., Mexico, and Italy.

alondramg.com

LIUXING JOHNSTON
They/Them / Belmar, NJ

Liuxing Johnston is a lesbian cartoonist based in New Jersey. They make comics about transracial adoption, butch lesbian romance, and small town life on the Jersey shore. They run an independent publishing business called "Lemon Liu Press'', which specializes in creating, publishing, and distributing comics and novels about butches of color, for butches of color. You can find their work on their website, lemonliuart.com, or on Instagram ( @lemonliupress )

SARA MORALEZ
She/They / Milwaukee, WI

Sara Moralez is a multidisciplinary artist born and currently living in Milwaukee. Drawing inspiration from their Mexican-American culture, queerness, childhood, and gender exploration- she aims to highlight mundane stories of the intersecting identities and communities they're a part of through a fusion of poetry, sculpture, and video.
Sara's work reveals a range of personal memory and narrative as a way to represent the beautiful, fragile, and sometimes difficult process of reflection and growing- as well as the frustration and confusion that comes with self-definition.

saramoralez.com

JOSEF SELMA OLIVIER
He/Him / Chicago, IL

josef selma olivier is a poet + performer living in chicago, illinois (occupied ojibwe, potawatomi and odawa land) he is interested in connecting movement with memory to tell stories for an audience. his work explores trauma, transitioning, causing harm + being harmed, profound love + loss, as it lives in pattern and in memory in the body. his work is also featured in Sixty Inches From Center (chicago, illinois) and Wicked Gay Ways (fall 2020 edition).

SHAVONNE
They/Elle/Yei / Milwaukee, WI

shavonne is a nonbinary creator & multipotentialite residing in minowakiing. they aspire in becoming an art therapist while flourishing in the realms of storytelling, painting, welding, pottery & tattooing. they hold kaleidoscopic fascination for dreamy color palettes (they love cruising down the paint aisle at any home improvement store) & center their compositions on intuitive insights. shavonne delights in visually interpreting dreams, visions & memories into otherworldly, moon-nurtured illustrations. guided by their studies, they utilize the power of art as a catalyst for collective empowerment, healing & resistance.