Profiles - Artists, Organizations, and Projects

As an actress. singer, composer, choreographer, director, and published author I have had fun with recreating the human condition. Satirically speaking Comedy has been my biggest joy and release when it comes to some of the pain that this beautiful existence can foster. My work is focused now on the human race being the only one of all relations that's lost the inner knowing of it's purpose. OUCH!  It hurts. Egoistic Growth does not create social justice! Only the Ego benefits and the Ego never gets enough.The lost trust in human relationships is hurting us and the enviroment.

If life were a photo, then my artwork would be its negative, seeking to explore those aspects in our society that have been ignored or forgotten such as history, lynching, misogyny, slavery and suicide. By printing these forgotten negatives, I give voice to the marginalized people and disregarded aspects of our society. For me art is my form of social work and I use it to open doorways to community dialog, which is the first step to healing, which in itself leads to wider social change.

Through a collaborative thesis effort with colleague, Cinnamon Janzer, we are working on exploring the intersection of social design and the social sciences. Currently, we are in the process of developing a research model for design within the social sector that compiles current best practices within the field but also adopts methods from other disciplines such as sociology, anthropology, and macro social work. The hope is that such a model can contribute to more culturally relevant, sustainable, and responsive social design work.

Lee Lee attained her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, and has spent time in over 40 countries. These experiences have led her to develop a wide range of painting styles in response to the diverse conditions of our world. Her work is informed by several movements through art history including the feminine expressionist drawings of Kathe Kolwitz to the actions of the 1970s which embraced processes using a shotgun or fire. Rich textures developed through destructive means speak to socio political situations imposed on people as well as environmental degradation.

Leila Buck is an Arab American playwright, actress, storyteller and teaching artist. Her award-winning solo show, ISite, about growing up between the U.S. and the Arab world, has toured the U.S., Europe and China. Her second play, In the Crossing, about her experience in Lebanon with her Jewish husband during the Israeli-Hezbollah war of 2006, and the challenges of telling that story, was first performed in the Public Theater's New Work Now!

Leyla Rzayeva lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area. Rzayeva combines personal and collective memory, and investigates the stories that shaped her family and transnational history. Her research interests include the contemporary culture of West and Central Asia and the experiences of appropriation and erasure. In her current body of work Rzayeva presents the principal themes of memory, movement, the use of fabric, thread and transparency to critique her relationship with history and constructed self narrative.

Light / The Holocaust & Humanity Project is a multi-arts initiative, with an original ballet by Stephen Mills of Ballet Austin at its core. The somber and thought-provoking ballet serves as a vehicle for evoking the events of the Holocaust and celebrates the legacy of its survivors. The project in its entirety is a multi-dimensional arts and education collaboration that aims to generate civic dialogue on prejudice and hatred, and to provoke public commitment to action against bigotry in any form.