Sharmi Basu (they/them) is a multimedia performance artist, curator, composer, activist, and arts organizer born and based in the unceded territories of the Chochenyo Ohlone peoples (Oakland, CA). They create expansive textural sound and performance pieces investigating resistance and organizing strategies through decolonial worldbuilding and interactive sculpture. Sharmi’s performance project, Beast Nest, transmutes experiences of trauma through complex sonic textural layering. Sharmi received their MFA from Mills College and hosts international workshops that center on sound, somatics, decolonization, conflict, care, and accountability.

Sharmi currently serves as the Executive Director at Vital Arts where they advocate for housing justice and artist self-determination. They also serve on the board of Bay Area Girls Rock Camp, California FM, ComptonsxCoalition, and Safer DIY Spaces, and are a commissioner for District 5 of the Alameda County Arts Commission. They are a life long punk and believe all movements build through solidarity.

###Grantee: Sharmi Basu

###Grant Fellowship: Beast Nest

###Year Awarded: 2025-2026

###Location: Oakland, CA

KC Canton (they/them), based on Huchiun (occupied Lisjan Ohlone land/Oakland), was raised on Yelamu (occupied Ramaytush Ohlone land/San Francisco). They are non-binary, queer, detribalized GuateMayan, a student of backstrap weaving, a cultural organizer, caregiver, and a facilitator of magic. KC started their career in youth development over 15 years ago and have practiced shared leadership with Emerging Arts Professionals SF Bay Area, Arts for a Better Bay Area, Housing Rights Committee of San Francisco, and LeaderSpring Center. They are also the co-founder of the Oakland Creative Neighborhoods Coalition which in 2015 launched an effective community-rooted advocacy campaign to integrate equity measures into the Downtown Specific Plan. In 2023 they guided their mother’s end of life journey, deepen their multigenerational death work practice. In May 2024, they completed their spiritual herbalism apprenticeship under the guidance of Empress Karen Rose, and launched their death & grief rooted herbalism brand, Crowfriend. They envision a (re)indigenized world, one that centers the liberation and self-determination of all two spirit, queer, trans, black, indigenous, people of color. Thank you benevolent ancestors for guiding my steps.

###Grantee: KC Canton

###Grant Fellowship: Oakland Creative Neighborhoods Coalition

###Year Awarded: 2025-2026

###Location: Huchiun, California

Lori Herrera (she/ella/wahine) Born in the chicano resistance of The Mission District of San Francisco (Yelamu) and raised in the calles of Vallejo (Sogorea Te) Lori Herrera is a Mixed Brown Artist, Mother, Daughter, Grandmother, Culture Bearer, Organizer, Event Producer, Arts Administrator, and Consultant for the People.

With over two decades of unwavering commitment to uplifting and empowering Vallejo's creative community, Lori has dedicated her life’s work to supporting the growth and development of independent artists, creatives, small businesses, and grassroots organizations, helping them scale and sustain their creative, entrepreneurial, and social endeavors, while advocating for equity, cooperation, thriving wages and inclusion, in the Bay Area and beyond.

Lori's artistry spans mixed media, special effects, stage makeup, event production, storytelling and people gathering; she is a poet, writer, musician, actor, producer, street historian, and is also known and loved by many as Bubbles the Clown. She is a founding member of MixedKollective and a revolutionary writer and journalist for POOR Magazine.

In quieter moments, Lori enjoys reading and writing revolutionary works, love letters, stewarding land, saving seeds, and studying ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi. In more spirited times, you can find her producing live music concerts and community events, singing loudly and off-key, clowning around - literally, fighting for clean water, landback and our collective liberation, and spending time with her large familia/ohana in Karkin Ohlone lands, near the Village of Sogorea Te', also known as Vallejo in the SF Bay Area.

###Grantee: Lori Herrera

###Grant Fellowship: MixedKollective

###Year Awarded: 2025-2026

###Location: Vallejo, California

Natalia Neira is a cultural worker, strategist and curator based in Huichun, Ohlone Territory (Oakland, CA). She is a Chilean immigrant of Mapuche, Andean, and Spanish heritage. Her artistic and advocacy work centers on cultural revitalization, healing, and systemic change. She collaborates with cultural bearers artists and the ecosystems that uplift them, fostering movements for liberation. She envisions a future where culture keepers receive the sustainable investments and recognition they deserve, ensuring their invaluable contributions continue shaping our communities.

As a Fellow with Creative West’s Greater Bay Area Arts Coalition (GBAC), she supports the coalition to advance its mission to build regional power for the arts & culture ecosystemby co-designing strategies for outreach, processes and engagement, including project lead for the forthcoming GBAC website.

Natalia is also a Fellow with Californians for the Arts' Grassroots Artists Advocacy Program (GAAP), developing strategies to secure more funding for the arts and culture sector in Oakland and San Francisco. 

Natalia is the founder of Caracol Collective, a framework and network that emphasizes healing ourselves to heal society and Mother Earth. Working closely with Indigenous and traditional arts cultural bearers, she creates gatherings that revitalize ancestral wisdom, lifeways, and language for collective well-being.

She previously served as the Executive Director of La Peña Cultural Center (2016-2024), where she deepened her commitment to supporting BIPOC artists and communities. She also co-chaired the Berkeley Cultural Trust’s Equity & Inclusion Committee (2019-2023), leading advocacy efforts that centered racial justice and increased funding for BIPOC artists.

###Grantee: Natalia Neira Retamal

###Grant Fellowship: Greater Bay Area Arts and Culture Advocacy Coalition

###Year Awarded: 2024-2025

###Location: Oakland, California

Arturo Méndez-Reyes is a performing arts producer working in areas of development/fundraising, communication, event production/curation, community organizing, and cultural diplomacy in the Mission District of San Francisco, California, and Puebla, Mexico, for over 10 years. His work strives to curate and preserve spaces for political empowerment and community healing through cultural equity and intersectional representation. “La Cultura es una herramienta indispensable para la Dignidad de los Pueblos” He is the creator and current Executive Director of Arts.Co.Lab, ‘La Diáspora Festival’ and a curator of the ‘Mission Arts and Performance Project’, formerly working at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts. He has produced shows for Harvard and Cornell University and the United Nations, as well as the Mexican Consulate in SF and the Secretary of Culture of Puebla, Mexico. He has participated in different Fellowships such as the Policy Fellowship with WESTAF (’24), the Advocacy Leadership Institute (’23), the Intercultural Leadership Institute (’22), and the Arts Leadership Institute (’21) by NALAC, Emergent Arts Professionals of SF and Seeding Reciprocity with the San Francisco Arts Commission (’20). His commitment to telling stories about immigrants and underrepresented groups is an endless source of inspiration in the search for justice and dignity for all. “Culture is an essential tool to grant dignity for all people”.

###Grantee: Arturo Méndez

###Grant Fellowship: Greater Bay Area Arts and Culture Advocacy Coalition

###Year Awarded: 2024-2025

###Location: San Francisco, California

Dr. Anne Huang is the Executive Director of World Arts West, a 46 year old arts organization that supports cultural artists sustaining the world’s diverse dance traditions. In 2019 Dr. Huang was appointed the first person of color and cultural artist to lead World Arts West. Under Dr. Huang’s equity and inclusion focus, World Arts West has undergone a transformative equity journey. Huang is the former Executive Director of the Oakland Asian Cultural Center (OACC), one of the largest pan-Asian cultural centers in the U.S. During her tenure, she transformed OACC from an organization in financial crisis into a thriving cultural institution serving 50,000 people per year. She has supported many key cultural institutions in California and beyond, such as Parangal, Cuicacalli, Arenas Dance Company, Afro Urban Society, Diamano Coura West African Dance, and others. As a thought leader with deep knowledge of challenges and solutions for cultural artists in the 21st century, Huang has presented for Grantmakers in the Arts, National Association of Latino Arts & Culture, Arts Administrator of Color Network, Northern California Grantmakers, International Association of Blacks in Dance, and other convenings. She is a NALAC Advocacy Leadership Institute Fellow, an Organizing Fellow for the Greater Bay Area Arts and Cultural Advocacy Coalition, and a member of the Dance/USA Board of Trustees.

###Grantee: Anne Huang

###Grant Fellowship: Greater Bay Area Arts and Culture Advocacy Coalition

###Year Awarded: 2024-2025

###Location: Oakland, California

Shiori Green is a student fellow for Just Cities and the Deeply Rooted Collaborative, currently pursuing a Master’s in City Planning at UC Berkeley. Shiori’s background in architecture combined with her passion for social justice is at the heart of all of her work. Currently Shiori is exploring the intersection of design and public policy through her investigation of cultural community development in Oakland. Using her skills in legal and policy analysis, combined with a desire to find ground truths, Shiori advocates for local governments to take an active role in ending systemic inequity and eliminating disparate harm in communities of color. Shiori’s experience in local government, New York City’s Department of City Planning as well as the City of Berkeley’s Office of Economic Development, informs her belief that local governments have the capacity to bring meaningful change in neighborhoods. Oscillating between work at the local government and work with community advocacy groups, Shiori aims to understand the various systems of power that can be used to bring about change in neighborhoods. Shiori enjoys bringing facets of art and design into all of her work, and believes in the strength of art based advocacy as catalyst for community organizing. Born and raised in Hawaii, Shiori values the strength of tight knit communities, and the joy that comes from sharing individual cultural values with others. Through this fellowship Shiori hopes to further investigate the lack of cultural infrastructure funding seen in Oakland today, and explore meaningful policy changes that are grounded in anti-displacement and community voice.

###Grantee: Shiori Green

###Grant Fellowship: Greater Bay Area Arts and Culture Advocacy Coalition

###Year Awarded: 2024-2024

###Location: Berkeley, California

(Amanalli Lu) was born in Mexico City. Vargas migrated to Los Angeles, California at the age of 11. She then moved to Santa Rosa where she works as a Professional Tattoo Artist. Inspired by Mexican and Native American Culture, she employed a naïve folk art style to explore questions of identity, postcolonialism, gender, and race in American society. Art has transformed her life and has helped her heal her trauma. She hopes to use the same process to help young people. Vargas strongly believes art is one of the best activities for anyone to heal the body, mind and spirit.

###Grantee: Lucero Vargas

###Grant Fellowship: Greater Bay Area Arts and Culture Advocacy Coalition

###Year Awarded: 2024-2024

###Location: Santa Rosa, California

Over the past decade, David Mack (he/him) has managed some of California’s most innovative performing arts organizations, including: Joe Goode Performance Group, Invertigo Dance Theatre, The Industry and Watts Village Theater Company. As a Strategic Consultant, Mack’s clients have included the cities of West Hollywood, Santa Monica and Culver City, as well as Center Theatre Group and LA Dance Project. Mack’s inaugural project as a Producer and Co-Founder was Chocolate City, an industry showcase connecting BIPOC writers and performers from institutions across Southern California to Hollywood agents, managers and casting directors. Since then, he has served on the Boards and committee leadership of several arts organizations, including the San Francisco Arts Alliance and Western Arts Alliance. Mack is currently the Managing Director of the African American Arts & Culture Complex, a member of the Greater Bay Area Arts & Cultural Advocacy Coalition and Co-Founder of Artist Magnet and Artist Magnet Justice Alliance, Oakland-based arts service organizations.

###Grantee: David Mack

###Grant Fellowship: Greater Bay Area Arts and Culture Advocacy Coalition

###Year Awarded: 2024-2024

###Location: Alameda, California