Participants of the Asian Arts Initiative workshopped on belonging, safety, and identity for (im)migrants in the aftermath of election 2016 and the resurgence of racist, misogynist, and xenophobic forces in the United
States.

Cynthia Dewi Oka is a poet, immigrant, and author of Nomad of Salt and Hard Water (Thread Makes Blanket, 2016). A two-time Pushcart Prize nominee, her poetry has appeared in publications such as Guernica, Dusie, Black Renaissance Noire, The Blueshift Journal, Kweli, Apogee, As Us, Painted Bride Quarterly, and others. She has received the Fifth Wednesday Journal Editor’s Prize in Poetry, scholarships from the Vermont Studio Center and Voices of Our Nations (VONA), and the Leeway Foundation Art and Change Grant. Her next book of poems, Salvage, is forthcoming in 2017 from Northwestern University Press.

Katherine Sarwopeni Antarikso was born in Jakarta, Indonesia, moved to Pennsylvania, which motivated her to explore ideas of home and identity for displaced people.

Rommy Driks, although better known as a math and science nerd, has always loved words and been fascinated by the art of crafting them.

Meera Jayaraman is a queer South Asian femme dedicated to living in radically vulnerable ways. She writes because she reads, and reading has shaped her into being.

Karla Maria is an afrolatiñx writer from the south. She pulls from all of her lives and emotions to make poetry pour out.

Quinha is a mixed kid living in South Philly who likes to dance and play soccer. She also works in the ER and is a member of Put People First!