APAture 2019: Living as an Artist Panel

Join Kearny Street Workshop for a panel on the experiences of living as a professional artist, featuring Weston Teruya, Terisa Siagatonu, and DJ Umami, and moderated by Jason Bayani!

Free and open to the public with priority given to artists participating in APAture 2019: DECLARE.

Weston Teruya was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawai‘i and currently resides in Oakland, California. As an artist, he has exhibited at the Mills College Art Museum (Oakland), Commons Gallery at the University of Hawai‘i, Mānoa (Honolulu), Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Southern Exposure, Chinese Culture Center, and Kearny Street Workshop (San Francisco), Longhouse Projects & the NYC Fire Museum (New York), Hiromi Yoshii Gallery (Tokyo), the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center (Atlanta), and the Palo Alto Art Center (Palo Alto). He has received public art commissions from the Alameda County and San Francisco Arts Commissions.

Terisa Siagatonu is an award-winning touring poet, teaching artist, and community activist born and rooted in the Bay Area. Her voice in the poetry world as a queer, Sāmoan woman has granted her opportunities to perform in places such as the White House (Obama administration), the UN Conference on Climate Change in Paris, the Asia Pacific Triennial in Brisbane, Australia, and the SF Women’s March. One of the most memorable moments in her career was receiving President Obama’s Champion of Change Award for her activism as a poet/organizer in her Pacific Islander community. With numerous viral poetry videos garnering over millions of views collectively, Terisa’s writing/teaching blends the personal, cultural, and political in a way that calls for healing, courage, justice, and truth. A 2019 Yerba Buena Center for the Arts 100 List Honoree, Terisa’s work has been published in Poetry Magazine and has been featured on Button Poetry, CNN, NBCNews, NPR, KQED, Huffington Post, Everyday Feminism, The Guardian, and Buzzfeed.

Bay Area born DJ Umami – a rotating DJ for the Golden State Warriors, Nike, Q102.1fm (Bay Area), and female group Peaches Crew. She is known to rock the party outside of The Oracle Arena at Golden State Warrior post-season games. These parties have been broadcasted on ESPN, CSN, and ABC. She has open for acts such as Metro Boomin, John Legend, Big Boi, Just Blaze, Tuxedo, Talib Kweli, DJ Maseo (De La Soul), Tokimonsta, Holy Ghost, Chromeo, and more.