Rice Street Study Community Liaisons
The Rice Street Visioning Study community liaisons are local artists who will help lead engagement projects throughout the study.
Johanna Keller Flores
Johanna Keller Flores is a Peruana American theatre artist who tell stories close to her heart for her queer and trans Black and brown familia. She was born on the Dakota Land of St. Paul, Minnesota with roots in Chimbote, Peru.
She has written the short plays ANGELITA, Marixa y La Depre, ceviche con cancha, Mal Ojo and other pieces. Flores’s writing exists in the spaces where queerness, mixed Peruana identity, magic and spirits come together across time.
She is a 2022-23 Many Voices Mentee with the Playwright’s Center. She has had the sincerest pleasure of creating in her Twin Cities home in recent years; assistant stage managing, writing, directing and performing with Pangea World Theatre, Twin Cities Media Alliance, Teatro del Pueblo, Full Circle Theatre, Lightning Rod at Pillsbury House Theatre, 20% Theatre, Gadfly Theatre, BareBones Productions, Exposed Brick Theatre, Threshold Theater and Alliance for Latinx Minnesota Artists.
Kazua Melissa Vang
Kazua Melissa Vang is a Hmong-American multidisciplinary artist, filmmaker, photographer, and cultural producer based in Minnesota. Vang has exhibited her photography at In Progress, Second Shift Studio Space, Indigenous Roots, Quarter Gallery at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities, The Catherine G. Murphy Gallery, The Gordon Parks Gallery at Metro State University, and Minneapolis College of Art and Design.
Her current photography work, PRESERVES, focuses on the grief and loss of her father and her reflection as a caregiver for over 21 years.Vang co-founded the Asian Pacific Islander American (APIA) Minnesota Film Collective to create, promote and empower underrepresented MN filmmakers. Vang has worked as a production manager for an independent pilot titled NICE, an independent pilot, an official selection under Indie Episodic Category at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival. Her first short film, RHAUB, was an official selection at the 2018 Qhia Dab Neeg Film Festival in Saint Paul, MN.
Vang has won multiple grants and fellowships from the Jerome Foundation, Saint Paul Foundation and more. She is producer for the comedic web series HMONG ORGANIZATION and has recently produced THE WIND ALWAYS STRIKES THE HIGHEST MOUNTAIN, a Yeej Moua film that was featured at the 2021 Northern Spark Festival. Currently, she is developing a feature film documentary and portrait series, HMOOB DUBBERS. She is in pre-production for the documentary, a working title, HMONG FUNERALS. Vang was a Forecast 2019 Early Career Project Grantee for her experimental short films project, Hmong Ephemera.
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Krista Beier
Krista Beier is a creative who uses art as a voice for social change and a means of self-exploration through altering space. Librarian by day, artist by night, her work focuses on her relationship both with the community and the earth. She is inspired by her cultural heritage and draws deeply upon the imagery of her ancestors.
She dabbles in a variety of mediums, including mandalas, sculpture (especially with unusual materials!), puppetry, textiles and more. She considers herself a public artist, and loves creating interactive pieces to connect with others. She has created work for the Art-Shanties and Made Here MN, and has been a Minnesota State Arts Board grant recipient.
Krista lives in the North End, a few blocks off Rice Street, with her husband, her dog, cats and ducks. She’s an avid gardener, reader and explorer!
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Kyle Voigtlander
Kyle Voigtlander is a North End-based visual artist, curator, illustrator, concept artist, designer and environmental activist.
Voigtlander believes that art can serve as a strong indicator of a society's value system.
He creates with this in mind, satisfying an inner calling to create by sharing relevant parts of his experience with the world through visual, pictorial means.
In an effort to combat negative culture by contributing his own, positive culture, Kyle's work continues to adapt to his surroundings through continually sharpening his perspectives on topics such as worldview, art, truth, philosophy, current affairs and the human condition.
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Melvin Giles
Melvin Giles is a Community and Global Peacemaker and a Bubbling Artist. He incorporates Peace Bubbles, Peace Messages and the International Peace Pole to create places/spaces of peace. He is known for his signature style of blowing and sharing peace bubbles.
He started using bubbles to bridge a gap and distrust between the Black community and the Saint Paul Police Department in the late 1990s by offering police officers bubbles for their domestic calls to give kids when investigating domestic violence in residential settings, in order for the children to have a healthier perception of police officers in general.
Giles recently worked with two other artists on an exterior face-lift of the Rondo Library and received a 2020 Forecast mini-grant to promote hope during Minnesota’s COVID-19 sheltering-in-place.