Azuah
Azuah, a queer Latinx musician native to the Bay Area now based in Oakland, has enchanted audiences across the globe for over a decade with their unique blend of alternative soul and folk music. Their music delves deep into themes of identity and queerness, creating a powerful and resonant experience that celebrates self-discovery and acceptance. Azuah’s sound combines the rhythms of their Latinx heritage with contemporary influences, resulting in a mesmerizing journey of sound and self-exploration.
Youth Speaks
We create spaces that challenge youth to develop and amplify their voices as creators of societal change. Through our Public Poets Fellowship, we innovate and create new poems, ensemble performances, digital films, and PSAs that connect individual voices to collective stories
Gretchen Carvajal (she/her) [Youth Speaks Sr. Manager of Digital Pedagogy] is an interdisciplinary Filipina artist from the Bay Area. She currently works as a teaching artist at the leading youth spoken word organization in the world, Youth Speaks, teaching high school spoken word at local San Francisco public schools. When she’s not in the classroom, she designs, manufactures, and promotes her laser-cut earring brand BRWNGRLZ. When she’s not making earrings, she’s making prints, bending neon, or making films.
Gretchen’s work revolves around her journey as an immigrant who came to the US at the age of 7. Her different art forms (printmaking, neon, film, poetry, jewelry) serve as languages that are able to convey her story past the tongue she was born with and the language she was forced to learn. When she’s not hustling multiple jobs/art forms to sustain living in the ever-gentrifying Bay Area, she’s talking about love or astrology, listening to I’m Still In Love With You by Sean Paul, taking care of her 5-year-old niece Leila, and cooking extremely large meals for her family.
Ariana Lee (she/her/她) [Youth Speaks Public Poet] is a Taiwanese and Chinese American writer from Houston, TX. She is the 2022-2023 Houston Youth Poet Laureate and two-time member of Meta4 Houston, the #1 ranked youth slam poetry team at Brave New Voices 2023 (the first Houston team to win the title).
A YoungArts winner in both poetry and spoken word, Lee has opened for U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón and performed original work for NASA; Stop AAPI Hate; the NCAA Men’s Final Four Legacy Project presented by Degree; the Aspen Institute; the Houston Mayor’s Office, and more. She has collaborated with and performed for Get Lit – Words Ignite, The Battery SF, Children’s Museum Houston, Anderson Collection at Stanford University.
As a 2022-2023 Youth Fellow for the International Human Rights Art Movement, she curated an international, multimedia anthology highlighting youth voices and international solidarity.
Pte San Win Little Whiteman [Youth Speaks Public Poet] is an Oglala Lakota poet who uses poetry for advocacy and healing. Most of their poetry highlights mental health awareness, environmental, racial, and social justice, land/body relationships, and language revitalization. They are Brave New Voices alumni and have experience performing on stages such as The Kennedy Center, Native Pop, Black Hills Artist Market, and Poetry Out Loud. They were interviewed for Teen Vogue and Indian Country Today, and they won a publication with the Tribal College Journal for AIHEC’s creative writing contest in August 2023. Pte San Win is a youth coordinator for NDN Girls Book Club and has experience facilitating writing workshops, poetry slams, and open mics. They hope to inspire others to read, write, and perform poetry as it is an act of oral & aural tradition. A practice that has kept many cultures alive today.