ART ECOSYSTEM
a bit about us
our collective is made up of a small group of QTBIPOC friends and co-organizers (bio's below)
meet the collective
Lexi Mellish Mingo (she/they) is an artist and community worker on unceded and unsurrendered MST territories. Their work strives to generate liberatory joy through art, community care, celebration, and unbound expression. They are a songwriter, musician (@apoca.lilex), visual artist, and future filmmaker. Lexi follows the work of art-based movement leaders before her, weaving artistry into their work as a youth programmer, community member, friend, and family member.
“The Role of the Artist is to make the revolution Irrisistable”
-Toni Cayde Bambara
karmella benedito de barros (they/them) is a tired 2S afro-brazilian & mistawasis nêhiyawak plant lover, youth worker, community weaver, sporadic artist and collaborative organizer. they are a co-founder of the art ecosystem collective and member of the indigenous brilliance collective.
born and raised in diaspora as an uninvited guest on stolen & unceded Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh territories, karmella’s practice is informed by the land, displacement and a desire to heal through perennial creative dialogue, cultivating a sense of connection and belonging.
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Milan Franco Orosco (he/they/siya) is a multidisciplinary artist living on the stolen and occupied lands of the Musqueam, Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh nations. Milan’s art practice explores altar-building as spaces for gathering, storytelling, and building relations with land. Drawing from complexities of the Filipinx immigrant experience, Milan’s determined to bridge anti-colonial and anti-capitalist teachings to counter western hegemony amongst their Filipinx community and beyond. Through trauma-informed care, they believe that community art-making and outreach can play a role in multi-generational healing.
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Adonis Critter King, is a multi-disciplinary artist, writer, theatre creator, director, and dramaturg living on the stolen and occupied lands of the Musqueam, Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh nations. Their arts practice is rooted in social justice as daily practice, revolution as habit that starts in the home, and QT2BIMPOC safe space curation. Their work uses afro-surrealism, speculative fiction, and The Poetic Surreal to explore the difficult choices we must make to transform ourselves and liberate our futures.
Adonis was the 2016 Youth Poet Laureate of Victoria, the 2017 recipient of the VACCS Community recognition Award, and 2020 recipient of the Witness Legacy Award for Social Purpose and Responsibility Through Art.
Junie Désil is a poet, facilitator, and convener of people. Born of immigrant (Haitian) parents on the Traditional Territories of the Kanien’kehá:ka in the island known as Tiohtià:ke (Montréal), raised in Treaty 1 Territory (Winnipeg). Junie’s debut poetry collection Eat Salt|Gaze at the Ocean (TalonBooks, 2020) was a finalist for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. Junie currently lives on the traditional territories of the Homalco, Tla'amin and Klahoose where she is currently working on a novel and a poetry manuscript.
Maymoona Gaid is a Yemeni and Fijian artist born and based out of the unceded traditional territories of the xwmÉ™θkwÉ™yÌ“É™m (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and sÉ™lilwÉ™taɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations; also known as Vancouver BC. In her practice she likes to explore the interchanges between different cultures and uses her observations to tell stories through visual, culinary, agricultural and comedic mediums. Maymoona would describe her perfect day to consist of sandwiches on the beach, collecting rocks for her ever growing rock collection after a day of nature swimming. All in good company of course.
nina joon (she/her) is an anarchist youth educator, dream pop singer, and humorist writer living on the stolen and unceded lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tslei-Waututh nations. nina merges art, education and community gathering as a form of joyful resistance through consciousness raising and pleasure. her practice is informed by anti-capitalist, de-colonial frameworks that re-position dialogue and embodiment as sites of liberation. nina loves making and sharing zines, short fiction and non fiction writing as well as dancing and eating in abundance with others.
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Emma Jeffrey (she/they) is a writer, artist and community facilitator based in Vancouver, Canada, on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh nations.
She holds a diploma in Arts & Entertainment Management from Capilano University and has experience in community arts facilitation across a variety of disciplines, including music, theatre, and literary arts. With a lived experience approach, their practice as an artist and facilitator is focused on building networks of community care.
