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VJ Um Amel is a poet, activist, and digital artist. Her work critically examines the nature of digital information and cyber existence in a post-9/11 world. She is primarily concerned with digital compositions, particularly in Arabic. Previously, she has co-founded media and art collectives in Washington, DC including the Guerrilla Poetry Insurgency and Word of Mouth. She was awarded the 2009 Jack Shaheen Media Scholarship by the American-Arab Anti Discrimination Committee (ADC). Her work has been exhibited and performed in international festivals, galleries, and museums – including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History. Presently, she is lecturer and research associate at UC Santa Cruz.
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Angela Liou is currently pursuing a B.A. in Sociology at UC Santa Cruz. She is also a talented painter and sketch artist along with some digital media course training. Her interests are in fantasy genres and reflects this in her subversive art style.
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Brian Alexakis holds a B.S. in Computer Science and Game Design from UC Santa Cruz. His studies include object oriented programming and scripting languages, game design, user interface design and software engineering. Brian interned at Cisco Systems where he used Adobe Flash and Actionscript to build rapid prototypes of embedded systems.
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Juan Bayardo recently graduated from UC Santa Cruz with a double major in Film & Sociology. He illustrates, rotoscopes, and builds 3D animated models.
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Lena Seikaly, award-winning vocalist, is the regular singer for several traditional jazz, swing dance, straight-ahead, Latin jazz and fusion groups in the D.C. area, and has appeared at numerous national and international festivals and venues. She has had the pleasure of working and studying with some of the world’s top names in jazz, as well as classical voice (she is a classically trained mezzo-soprano) and Arabic music. In 2009, her first solo album, "Written in the Stars," a collection of standards and original compositions, was released to the public.
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Lucxke is a mad beat conducter, classically trained in aural demolition and spectral retexturing.
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Miki Foster is a digital artist interested in creating interactive pieces that discuss the politics of violence, issues of embodiment, and technology and globalization. She has produced several collaborative performances and installations around Queer People of Color identity and politics. She holds an M.F.A. from UC Santa Cruz in Digital Arts and New Media.
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Shahid Buttar is a civil rights lawyer, hip-hop & electronica MC, independent columnist, non-profit leader, grassroots community organizer, singer and poet. Professionally, he leads the Bill of Rights Defense Committee as Executive Director. He also serves as co-Director of the Rule of Law Institute, a U.S.-based organization supporting international efforts to defend or restore the rule of law.
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v:shal kanwar has been a fixture on the Asian electronica scene, first as a live installationist and for the past many years as a DJ and tabla player. His performances alongside acclaimed artist-producers Karsh Kale, Janaka Selekta, Radiohiro, Cheb i Sabbah, MIDIval Punditz, DK a.k.a. Bollygirl, dimmsummer, Zakhm, Dhakfu, and numerous others have made an indelible impression in the world of global electronica.
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Zeina Azzam Seikaly is an educator, editor, and poet living in the Washington, DC area. She works as Director of Educational Outreach at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, Georgetown University, where she is also pursuing an M.A. in Arabic literature.