Derrick Belcham is a Canadian filmmaker based out of Brooklyn, NY whose internationally-recognized work in documentary and music video has led him to work with such artists as Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Laurie Anderson, Paul Simon, Yo Yo Ma, Ryuichi Sakamoto and hundreds of others in music, dance, theater and architecture. He has created works and lectured at such institutions as MoMA PS1, MoCA, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, The Whitney Museum Of American Art, Musee D'Art Contemporain, The Philip Johnson Glass House, Brooklyn Academy of Music and The Contemporary Arts Center of Cincinnati. His work regularly appears in publications such as The New York Times, Vogue, Pitchfork, NPR and Rolling Stone as well as being screened at short, dance and experimental festivals and retrospectives around the world.

Shira Kagan-Shafman is a New York–based dancer, choreographer, and producer. Her work has been presented at Baryshnikov Arts Center, Poster House, Arts On Site, Spring for Spring Dance Festival, Triskelion Arts, Green Space, Ki Smith Gallery, and Barnard College’s Movement Lab. She is a recipient of the 2023 B. Wilson Foundation Grant, was a 2023 artist-in-residence at Mother’s Milk, and is a 2024 LEIMAY Incubator artist.

Kagan-Shafman has performed in works by Joanna Kotze, Mariana Valencia, Ohad Naharin, Noa Zuk, Roni Chadash, Peggy Florin, Caitlin Corbett, Kelley Donovan, Rose Pasquarello Beauchamp, Dean Moss, Rebecca Stenn, jess pretty, and with the Aston Magna Music Festival.

Alongside her creative practice, she collaborates with opera singer and creator Davóne Tines and composer/multi-instrumentalist Tyshawn Sorey. She is the founder and producer of Artist Afternoons, a multidisciplinary performance series, and has produced projects throughout the United States and Europe, including at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Bozar, and the Barbican Centre.

Her choreographic work often involves multidisciplinary collaboration, partnering with visual and sound artists. Kagan-Shafman has guest lectured at Columbia University and is currently in residence at the Barnard Movement Lab, developing a new work with composer Ihlara McIndoe.

MT Laaperi grew up dancing in Portland, OR where they trained with the Jefferson Dancers. While creativity and art remained at the forefront of their world, MT felt a distance begin to grow in their relationship to dance as they worked to fi nd ways to navigate the dance community as a trans, autistic, queer artist. They found themselves working in special education where their creative problem solving and passion for equity found them in many district leadership groups seeking to change how students access and interact with the often rigid systems within schools. MT currently resides in Los Angeles where their enthusiasm for aesthetics, history with dance and performance, past work in education, and lens for equity, is ever present in the work that they do.

Marques Hanalei Marzan is a Hawaiian fiber culture bearer and contemporary visual artist raised in Kaneohe, Hawaii. His skills recognized throughout Hawaii and the Pacific where he serves as a mentor and advocate, promoting sustainable gathering practices, perpetuating Hawaiian fiber techniques, and instilling indigenous values in each of his students. Marques broadens his understanding of indigenous Oceanic perspectives through active cultural exchanges where he strengthens his commitment to his culture and champions the ideals of continuity and innovation.

Being a practicing artist for 30 years, Marzan’s work has been exhibited and collected by many prominent local, national, and international venues. When attending cultural and artistic gatherings, he regularly complements his visual art form with his cultural training in Hawaiian ceremonial protocol, dance, and chant. These activations contextualize Marzan’s work within the community and in doing so emphasizes the importance of function and intentionality.

Joan Osato is an award-winning visual and projection designer known for her innovative work in theatre and public art, often integrating technology to create dynamic, immersive experiences. Her notable collaborations include The Travelers, and Aztlán with Luis Alfaro, The River, Nogales and Translating Selena with Richard Montoya, We The People Before with Roberta Uno and First Peoples Fund, Last Days at Pu’unene Mill, and rasgos asiáticos with Tanya Orellana and Virginia Grise. She was the inaugural recipient of San Francisco Artist and Communities Grant, Theater Bay Area Award for Excellence in Video Design for Tribes, at Berkeley Rep, and the Surdna’s Artists Engaged in Social Change Award. Plays and films for Campo Santo include Garuda’s Wing and Richard II by Naomi Iizuka, Josephine’s Feast and Side Effects by Star Finch and Dirty White Teslas Make Me Sad by Ashley Smiley. Producing for The Living Word Project includes premieres and tours of Try/Step/Trip by Dahlak Brathwaite directed by Roberta Uno, and Word Becomes Flesh, Scourge, the break/s, red, black and GREEN: a blues and peh/LO/tah by Marc Bamuthi Joseph. Current work includes EARTH SEED by People’s Kitchen, Life is Living, and Waihona Kino.