Artists + Practitioners + Organizations

Berenice Badillo

San Diego County

Berenice is a Spanish-speaking Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, illustrator, muralist, and multimedia artist. She is an immigrant from Mexico and has straddled intertwined cultural and subcultural identities her entire life. She illustrated an award-winning book, "Am I Blue or am I Green?" that explores the identity and impact of a boy's life with undocumented parents in the United States. Berenice strives to document and encourage the creation of communal cultural wealth through murals, sculpture, pop-up art galleries, and the co-creation of counterstories. Berenice believes that representation is important and sees art expression as a means to amplify the voices of BIPOC and disseminate the stories of their community where it can be witnessed on a grand scale. Berenice is a Chicano Park muralist with a doctorate in art therapy and a social-emotional learning consultant.

Trixi Agiao

San Diego County

Trixi Anne Balinggan Agiao’s first experience dancing was with traditional Igorot dance she learned from the Northern California chapter of BIBAK. Her first ties to dance were about heritage, community, and joy. Trixi is a socially conscious performer, choreographer, and filmmaker using the digital guise of The Thoughtful Beast. Trixi creates work centered on fighting the stigma against mental illness. Utilizing her visual storytelling experience, Trixi sets out to make work that kinesthetically and mentally connects with her audience. She is a company dancer for Visionary Dance Theatre, where she also runs their educational training company, V2. 

Trixi is also an active volunteer. She is a lead volunteer for the San Diego, Filipino Cinema, United AAPI Artists and Mental Wellness for Artists. Agiao co-founded The Filam Film Collective which focuses on Filipino American representation in the media, and they also provide free affinity spaces for AAPI artists and actors.

Eric "EV93" Vargas

Imperial County

Eric Vargas, aka EV9thr33, lives and works in the Imperial Valley. He is passionate about creating and producing music and has produced, mixed, and mastered thousands of solo and collaborative projects for over ten years. He has recently expanded to work with more genres and networks with different outlets such as record labels and A&Rs. Since opening a studio in the area, Vargas has also pursued his artist development.

Ciara Dominique Gutierrez

San Diego County

Ciara Dominique is a multi-disciplinary artist but a storyteller at her core. Wearing many hats as an award-winning documentarian, published author, working producer, and festival DJ, she aims to revolutionize the conventional pathways of artistic practice and success. With a heightened focus on community engagement and tangible results, she works primarily with under-represented and under-funded communities to make joy, art, and understanding accessible.

Maxx Moses

San Diego County

Maxx Moses, an international muralist, is also known as Pose2, a world-renowned graffiti writer. His distinct style in urban art and corporate commissions and inspiring messages that connect to communities worldwide have garnered him global recognition from South Africa to South America. His projects promote an environment of longevity, growth, wholeness, and spiritual well-being. Awareness centers, therapeutic facilities, and spas embellished with this artist's work have received awards for beautification, experienced increased enrollment, and inspired several published articles. As a professor, his curriculum is innovative, engaging, and geared toward student success. Moses' insightfulness inspires young minds, while his experience motivates people to act. His encouragement sustains the discouraged and guides them toward achievement.

Kendrick "Mr. Lyrical Groove" Dial

San Diego County

Kendrick Dial, also known as Mr. Lyrical Groove, is a renaissance man with a mission to blend mental health and social justice art. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Africana Studies/Psychology from San Diego State University and a Master's in Social Work from the University of South California. Dial is an accomplished spoken word artist who published his first poetry book, Da JOYNT, in 2005. He has worked with the poetry collective Collective Purpose for over ten years, hosting one of Southern California's highest-attended open mic events, ELEVATED. He has collaborated with several arts-based organizations to perform and produce shows that inspire, challenge, educate, and entertain, including BkSoul, Playwrights Project, and Ira Aldridge Theatre. He is also a teaching artist with the Old Globe and recently completed a veteran playwriting workshop with the La Jolla Playhouse, where he is working on his two-person production.