Recession Pop
Mama Celeste & KaiKai Bee Michaels
During our time as Community Engagement Residency Lead Artists with Bridge Live Arts, we will create and present RECESSION POP, a site-specific immersive Drag installation that seeks to reclaim the revolutionary nature of Drag performance and create a safe and accessible space where folx can freely express their gender and sexuality. For RECESSION POP, we will curate an evening-length series of durational movement pieces that invoke the historical legacy of queer community organizing during times of economic turmoil and political upheaval.
RECESSION POP will transport audiences to past eras in history where people living outside gender binaries found ways to resist waves of conservatism and authoritarianism. We will curate a celebratory atmosphere that centers on mindful joy as a tool for liberation. Through and alongside performance, RECESSION POP will serve as space to educate our community on queer and trans history, provide direct access to resources in partnership with local community organizations, and facilitate skill sharing for revolutionary action. We are committed to developing programming that better represents our diverse community of queer and trans artists, centering and prioritizing individuals with unique intersecting identities. At a time when Drag performers and trans people are increasingly being villainized and facing violence by the extremist alt-right, we feel a spiritual urgency to remind our communities to honor our queer and trans ancestors who fought hard for our continued existence.
Mama Celeste
they / she
Mama Celeste (they/she), is the co-founder and Executive Director of Oaklash, a queer arts nonprofit that hosts large-scale events, facilitates mutual aid, and provides mentorship for emerging queer and trans leaders in nightlife. They bring their experience in theatrical production to elevate the art form of Drag outside of typical club settings, and have performed in New York, Florida, Texas, Louisiana, Virginia, Nevada, and all across California.
Photo by Dominic Saavedra.
Image Description: An orange-skinned drag performer with long-red-hair wearing an ornate red corset, hat, and gloves and silver jewelry smiles brightly back arched looking downward.
KaiKai Bee
Michaels
they / them
KaiKai Bee Michaels (they/them) is a Bay Area Drag performer and cosplay artist with a passion for social justice and community care. They specialize in performances that are often fun yet thought-provoking and they delight in always bringing something new and refreshing to queer art motivated by engaging in the art of storytelling.
Photo by Sloan Kanter Photography
Image Description: Image is of KaiKai who is black, wearing a black jacket cinched with a black leather belt of many straps. Hands are lifted above the head with long filigree points on the fingertips, elbows bent and wrists resting on long lilac purple hair. Wearing glasses that are triangles pointing downwards and tall thigh high black shiny pvc boots.
Video by Pseuda. Footage from The Oaklash Festival 2023 featuring a performance by Miss Bea Haven & dancers with cameos by Mama Celeste, Major Hammy, Violex Hex, Blossom Drearie, Carla Gay, Janpi Star, Evian, Rosie Petals, Brixton at Large, Folclorico Colibri, Kaikai Bee Michaels, Cheese Outtacontrol, Girlfriend with a Cookie, House Bizarre, Laundra Tyme, Nicki Jizz, Kitty Litter, DJ JEN DM, Phoebe Cakes, Helixir Jynder Byntwell, Beverly Chills, & Interrobang the Dragon.
Photo by Brandon Roberts. Image Description: Mama Celeste & her fans at The Oaklash Festival 2025.
Video by Ned Henry. Video Description: KaiKai lipsyncs to two songs by Megan thee Stallion first expressing anxieties and frustrations transitioning into a representation of hope and joy with backup dancers that are black and indigenous.
Radical South Asian Poetry & the Body
Preethi Ramaprasad & Nikhil Mandalaparthy
We, Preethi Ramaprasad & Nikhil Mandalaparthy, will launch a series of workshops for South Asian dance and movement artists in the Bay Area titled Radical South Asian Poetry and the Body. Through this workshop series, we will build a community of justice-oriented South Asian dance and movement artists in the Bay Area.
Many practitioners of South Asian dance traditions in the US rely on a limited canon of poetic works for performance, largely authored by dominant-caste elite male poets. The voices of women, LGBTQ+ people, working-class, and oppressed-caste poets are largely missing from this canon. As a result, a set of limited attitudes about bodies are passed on into dance, from patriarchal depictions of “ideal” women’s bodies to ideas surrounding purity and pollution, elevating some bodies over others. Many South Asian American dancers who seek to challenge this status quo by diversifying their poetic repertoire find it difficult to do so, due to a lack of accessible resources that include English translations and the original text in South Asian languages.
Our workshop series will introduce South Asian dance and movement artists in the Bay Area to the long history of radical South Asian poetry that celebrates the body, with an emphasis on women, caste-oppressed, LGBTQ+, and working-class poets. In addition, our workshops will include critical conversations on themes such as religion, nationalism, and the connection between art and social justice. Artists who attend the workshops will have the opportunity to receive additional financial support to create an original work inspired by one of the poems from the course. These original works will be shared as part of our ongoing “Performing Voices of Bhakti” series.
Preethi Ramaprasad
she / her
PREETHI RAMAPRASAD is a dancer, curator, musician, and researcher. Ramaprasad has a doctorate in Critical Dance Studies from UC Riverside. Her research focuses on representation and the performance of myth among transnational Bharatanatyam practitioners. Her journey teaching and performing Bharatanatyam has led to artistic community-building endeavors across India, Europe, and the United States. Ramaprasad’s choreography seeks to ask how Bharatanatyam can address contemporary politics especially through theatrical and expressive techniques of the form. She co-runs the Varnam Salon, When Eyes Speak Choreography Festival, and Performing Voices of Bhakti, which aim to create safe spaces to share South Asian expression in the diaspora. More at preethiramaprasad.com.
Photo by G Ramaprasad. Image Description: Preethi, a South Asian woman with medium length hair below her shoulders, is in a striped top with her arms crossed. In the background you see leaves in different shades of green.
Nikhil Mandalaparthy
he / they
NIKHIL MANDALAPARTHY is a researcher, writer, and curator. He is currently a PhD student in the Department of Religion at Emory University. Nikhil curates Voices of Bhakti, a digital archive showcasing over 500 translations of South Asian poetry on religion, caste, and gender from 40 languages. As a 2024-25 Luce Scholar, he spent a year conducting research and working in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Previously, he worked with several nonprofits promoting human rights and social and environmental justice. As a journalist, Nikhil has reported from India, South Africa, and the United States, and his writing has been supported by the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting. He has been quoted and interviewed by publications including BBC World Service, Al Jazeera, and the Huffington Post. He is a student of Carnatic music. More at nikhilmandala.com.
Photo courtesy of the Henry Luce Foundation. Image Description: Nikhil, a South Asian man with short hair and glasses, is facing the camera, wearing a dark blue shirt and a grey suit.
Photo by Leia Devadason & Barnali Ghosh. Image Description: A dancer (Barnali Ghosh) wearing a purple salwar kameez, posing on a path in Land’s End.
Photo of Masoom Parmar, courtesy of the artists. Image description: A dancer (Masoom Parmar) wearing black, kneeling on the ground and facing the sky, in a garden surrounded by trees.
Photo of Akhil Joondeph, courtesy of the artists. Image description: A dancer (Akhil Joondeph) wearing a green kurta, dances in a grassy field.
Home Bass
Aya Eid, Byron Wong, & Gunny Jy Liu
Our project, Home Bass, explores community-building as a creative process. Since our start in September 2024, we have co-created a home where we have hosted traveling artists from around the world and curated offerings ranging from intimate concerts and film screenings to weekly dance sessions and healing circles. Rooted in the joy and liberating power of soulful house music and dance, our mission is to provide a space where a spectrum of artistic and healing practices can flourish, ensuring artists—particularly those from Black, Latinx, and Asian communities—can express their authentic selves and forge genuine connections.
Our work is driven by the need to build resilient, artist-led models for community care rooted in mutual aid and reciprocity. With funding for the arts in decline, we see the creation of a safe, accessible community space as an act of resistance and a necessary redirection of resources. The residency will allow us to experiment with different modes of operation with an eye towards sustainability. Our goals are to activate more community members to use our space for authentic expression, deepen our practice of co-creation by engaging local artists to transform our physical environment, and establish a consistent, visible calendar of offerings to strengthen our community's self-sufficiency.
AYA EID is an Egyptian-American woman working as a scientist and pursuing creative projects in music, dance, painting, and their intersection. Aya has been dancing in salsa and house styles for several years, painting portraits in acrylic, and focusing her creative outlets as a musician, playing bass, singing, and producing house music. She is most excited about bringing people together in creative communion, whether that is to share in the co-creation and co-learning of music, dance, or visual arts or to simply build the space to allow each to inspire, motivate, and support one another in their creative pursuits. Ultimately, she envisions establishing an artist collective that is able to sustainably raise funds for community food and housing assistance.
Aya
Eid
she / her
Photo by Mitchell. Image Description: Aya, a carmel complexion woman with long brown curly hair, in a yellow shirt and teal background, looking at the camera with a gentle smile.
BYRON WONG is a Chinese-American artist working primarily in photography and filmmaking. His work is characterized by a reverence for nature, capturing expansiveness and the inevitable march of time. Through his art, Byron advocates for a slower, mindful, and less wasteful lifestyle, believing that happiness comes not from material pursuits, but from being present in the moment. Beyond visual art, Byron explores dance and music as creative outlets, focusing on flow, vulnerability, and the joy of communal expression. In 2023, he traveled internationally, with house dance culture as his mode of inquiry. Inspired by the hospitality he received, he returned home to California with a desire to give back and foster community through creativity.
Byron Wong
he / him
Photo by Ryan Lecluyse. Image Description: Byron, a Chinese-American man with a wide smile, and long black hair tied back in a bun, stands outside in his forest green jacket in front of a soft sunset.
GUNNY JY LIU is a Singapore-birthed, Oakland-raised creative. He works in the tech industry by day and explores the depth of individual and collective liberation through dance by night. Since the start of his dance journey in Spring 2022, Gunny has helped found and run the dance battle organizer Hella House Collective, contributed to long-running local productions such as Heart Space and Days Like This, and played a part in uniting the house dance community around higher embodiment of authentic shared values. On the floor, he espouses an energetic school of the house dance lineage in the style of his mentors Rama Hall and Michaela Hlinkov. For Gunny, liberation is a necessary and universal ethic that has found full shape and meaning in the cradle of his beloved community. There’s nothing that fills his heart more than a deep dance exchange with an old friend.
Gunny Jy Liu
he / him
Photo by Byron Wong. Image Description: A Singapore-American man smiles and looks at the camera as he lays a plank of laminate flooring onto a sprung dance floor that’s under construction. The setting is a sunlit loft apartment in an urban center.
Video by Byron Wong. Video Description: A group of people dancing and socializing in a loft community space, the jazz band Bohrer Brothers Trio plays live music in the background. Others are seated on couches having conversations. The atmosphere is casual and relaxed.
Video by Byron Wong. Video Description: Brazilian samba instructor Mayombe Masai guides a group of students through choreography in a dance studio as music plays in the background. The students are arranged in rows and dance with intricate footwork. The studio is decorated with large plants, hanging fabric, and natural materials.
Video by Aya Eid. Video Description: A crowd sways and sings along as a band and singer Odette Bradbury perform a song in an intimate concert in a loft community space.
