Artist Council
The Artist Council is a flexible, collaborative structure comprised of select artists from the community. The purpose is to invite new perspectives, experimental practices, and cross-disciplinary projects through shared curatorial power.
The Artist Council program aligns with B.L.A.’s mission to center artists and our commitment to distributed leadership. During their one-year term (October 1, 2021 - September 31, 2022), B.L.A.’s first Artist Council supported three main projects:
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Light It Up! Lighting Design 101 For QTBIPOC And Friends, Weaving Spirits Festival of Two-Spirit Performance (San Francisco)
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Ecotones, a free public art event featuring dance, music, and art performances by artists of color in nature (Oakland)
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Artist Wellness Day, a facilitated day of practices and discussion focused on rest, wellness, and healing, for a small, intimate group of BIPOC Artists (Oakland)
The inaugural Council received 30% of the organization’s curation budget to implement their curatorial visions. In addition, Council members were paid hourly for ten work hours a month at the same rate as B.L.A. staff.
Thank you to our 2022 Artist Council members:
Rashida Chase is an Oakland native, vocalist, and culture & wellness advocate who recognizes the power music and culture hold and strives to create experiences that soothe, heal, and inspire. A proud advocate for Oakland artists, Rashida worked with local activists to increase cultural funding and reinstate the Cultural Affairs Commission, and is the Director of AMP Oakland, a curated busker series piloted in Downtown Oakland showcasing more than 170 performances and over 300 artists.
Rashida believes in the importance of creating pathways for emerging artists and is excited to be on the Advisory Board for her alma mater, Skyline High School's, Visual and Performing Arts Academy, Oakland Youth Chorus’s Alumni Task Force, and a community partner with School Partners USA, a Thrive Collective initiative. In 2019, Rashida founded Liberated Culture, a cultural enterprise that supports local artists, works to repair intergenerational gaps, and uplifts the authentic culture of Oakland.
Rashida Chase
Photo courtesy of the artist
Audrey Johnson is a queer Black mixed-race movement artist with roots from Detroit and Plymouth Michigan, currently rooting in Oakland, CA. Audrey’s work explores Black and queer time travel, joy, and resilience through the mediums of body, land, and story, and emerges from a lineage of queer Black feminist praxis. Her performance work has been presented at FRESH Festival (San Francisco), The Arab American National Museum (Dearborn, MI), Sidewalk Arts Festival (Detroit, MI), FROLIC Queering Dance Festival and 2727 California Street (Berkeley, CA). She has collaborated and performed with artists such as Jennifer Harge (Detroit), Biba Bell (Detroit), Gerald Casel (San Francisco), and Stephanie Hewett (Oakland).
She is a co-founding member of Collective Sweat Detroit, an organization holding space for dance in Detroit, and holds a BFA in Dance with Honors from Wayne State University.
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Audrey Johnson
Photo by BMBO Creations
Dazaun Soleyn, artistic director of dazaun.dance, graduated as the University of South Florida’s Outstanding Graduate with a BFA in Modern Dance Performance and Choreography. Upon graduation, Dazaun was accepted as a Trainee at the Alonzo King LINES Ballet Training Program (LBTP). With an intention to create holistic art that aims to illuminate the dynamic fullness of soul, Dazaun has been sharing work in the Bay since the Fall of 2014. His teaching credits include the Alonzo King LINES Ballet Training Program, University of South Florida, Cal-State University East Bay, Alonzo King LINES Ballet BFA Program, Dance Mission Theater, and ODC Commons.
Currently, Dazaun is an Adjunct Professor at the University of San Francisco Performing Arts and Social Justice Program, a certificated Gyrotonic Instructor, Level 2 Reiki Practitioner, and Energy Worker. He is also a candidate for a Master's in Architecture Degree at California College of the Arts.
Dazaun Soleyn
Photo courtesy of the artist
Javier Stell-Frésquez (Piru & Tigua, two-spirit, mixed race, Xicanx; originally from El Paso, Texas) serves Indigenous communities of the Bay Area with the Bay Area American Indian Two-Spirits (BAAIT-S) Powwow. She received a B.S. in Environmental Science with honors in Chican@ Studies from Stanford University. With lifelong experience in many dance forms and performance art, she has competed in the voguing House Ballroom Scene.
Her current multimedia performance projects include Chaac & Yum, a Two-Spirit Dance Project, and Mother the Verb. As the San Francisco region’s California Arts Council Arts Administrator of Color Fellow, she works closely with Anne Huang at World Arts West to produce panels at national arts conferences including APAP. In partnership with Counterpulse and BAAIT-S, she co-produces and co-curates the Weaving Spirits Festival of Two-Spirit Performance.
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Javier Stell-Frésquez
Photo courtesy of the artist
