This is the fourth installment of the panel series that began in fall 2016 and drew in upwards of 250 students and community members for the first event alone. Until Black Trans Women Are Free, None of Us Are Free will both build upon the previous panels and encourage attendees to further their roles in the Movement for Black Lives.
Artists Bios
Edxie Betts is a Black BlackFoot Filipina/Trans/Queer liberation artist, writer and autonomous organizer based in Los Angeles. Their work is centered around advocating for queer and trans communities, bringing support and attention to political prisoners and restorative-mediation work. They emphasize art as cultural production for the sake of inspiring healing, bringing awareness, counter narrative, oppositional alternatives, collective liberation through self-organizing, and direct action.
Hari Ziyad is an artist, the author of Black Boy Out of Time: A Never Coming of Age Story (Little A, 2019) and the Editor-in-Chief of the digital publication RaceBaitR. They received their BFA from New York University, where they concentrated in Film and Television and Psychology. Their work is informed by their passion for storytelling and wrestling with identity as a Black, non-binary child of Muslim and Hindu parents while growing up in Cleveland. Hari primarily creates art engaging with identity, race, gender and sexuality, ally politics and the arts.
Leah Ann Mitchell, also known as #lamfemmebear, is an independent Bay Area music producer, songwriter, engineer, vocalist, and live performing artist. Additionally, she has worked with major label talents in various capacities including Sony, Sony Red And Massenburg Entertainment. She has engineered for Grammy Award winner Le’Andria Johnson as well as Eric Dawkins of the Grammy Award winning production team, The Underdogs. Moreover, she produced and wrote with Grammy Award-winning songwriters The Jackie Boyz. She’s influenced by the works of Imogen Heap, Ellie Goulding, Kate Havnevik, Dr. Dre, Brandy, Timbaland and Salem Al Fakir. #Iamfemmebear’s new music is an experiment in soulful and rhythmic afro beats mixed with hip-hop jazz, combining and transcending genres.
Davia Spain is a performing artist and scholar who was born and raised in the Bay Area and is currently based in L.A. She formerly worked as one of the SF LGBT Center's Trans Employment Program Associates and recently graduated from San Francisco State University (SFSU) with a BA in Visual Anthropology. During her time at SFSU she worked at two local non-profits, LYRIC and BAVC, where she strengthened her skills as a facilitator and educator.
Support for this event was also generously provided by the Ahmanson Community Charitable Trust; the Office of the Dean of Students; Delta Omicron Tau sorority; the Diversity & Equity Board; the Marie Young Fund; the Arts and Urban Experience grant funded by the Andrew Mellon Foundation; and Oxy AWARE.