loteria

Project Director – Devika Ranjan (she/her) is a writer, ethnographer, theater-maker, and educator who tells stories about migration and technology. She specializes in devised immersive performance and has facilitated workshops with refugees and migrants internationally. Devika is currently studying the performance of “data doubles” at the Performance Studies PhD at Northwestern University. vAs Associate Director of Albany Park Theater Project, Devika worked with immigrant and first-generation youth to create ethnographic immersive theater about community issues like family separation, labor rights, and deportation. She has taught classes about migration, performance, and cross-cultural practice at Georgetown University, the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama, King’s College London, Syracuse University, Northeastern Illinois University, and Illinois State University. Previously, she was an Inaugural Fellow at the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics from 2017-2019. As a Marshall Scholar alumna, Devika holds a distinction from the University of Cambridge for her MPhil research on the electronic tagging of asylum-seekers, and an MA in Applied Theatre from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.

Project Director – Miguel Angel Rodriguez (he/him/his) is an artist, comedian, and educator. Hailing from Chicago, he began his career in education in the South Bronx. In 2016, Miguel was one of 12 recipients to be awarded the Harriett Ball Excellence in Teaching Award. He served as the assistant principal of KIPP Bloom College Prep in the Englewood neighborhood from 2017-2021. Miguel has a performing arts background and is passionate about increasing arts access for students of color. Over the last 10 years, he has created two performing arts programs in schools where he was a teacher. Miguel is a member of the 2020-21 Surge Fellowship cohort, which unites, accelerates and empowers emerging leaders of color in education. On the weekends, Miguel performs comedy. Miguel holds a BA in Dance and Chicano/a & Latina/o Studies from Pomona College, and MA in the science of education from Pace University. Miguel was a teen ensemble member with APTP from 1999-2003 and is a graduate of Volta Elementary and Roosevelt High School, both community public schools in Albany Park.

Graphic Designer – Kelly Hisaji Rickert (he/him/his) is a mixed-media visual artist who works with mediums that include painting, sculpture, found objects, epoxy resin, video and photography. As a graphic designer and creative director who simultaneously maintains a studio practice, he has lectured on the cross polonization of applied art and fine art and how it has influenced his work in both disciplines. As a designer/creative director, Kelly has worked with a number of arts institutions including: Albany Park Theater Project, Second City, CHARTOR Entertainment, The Los Angeles Inner City Cultural Center, Raven Theater and Goodman Theatre. As Creative Director for Goodman Theatre, he was responsible for the signature imagery and promotional materials for the institution. He has exhibited his work both locally and abroad. With his wife Sarah, Kelly runs Watershed Studioworks, an art gallery and artist studio space in Chicago’s Avondale neighborhood.

Lead Artist & Illustrator – Chantala Kommanivanh is an award-winning Lao American visual artist, educator, and musician. He has years of experience in writing, producing, and performing on-stage as co-founding member of the independent hip-hop duo Maintenance Crew. Under the moniker Chantalism, Kommanivanh wrote and produced alongside long-time collaborator Diego “Ubiquity” Prieto, releasing five full-length albums. (Eternal Sunshine of the Simple Mind  2005, Simple is the Way it’s Spoken 2007, Plain & Simple 2010, The Collapse of a Mcdonaldlize Society 2012, Educated Fools 2017). The rap music he’s produced with Maintenance Crew and the visual components of Kommanivanh’s artwork have areas of overlap in their meaning and content. He is interested in creating new memories by “sampling” from past events. Through painting, his works are a reinterpretation of memories documenting his personal history. Raised with traditional Lao customs at home and active in hip-hop culture outside of home, Kommanivanh’s work investigates cultural hybridity and tensions of identity, as he and his family were refugees from the unfortunate outcomes of the 1964-1975 Secret War in Laos. His collection of paintings derive from personal and found photographs representing pivotal moments in his life. His visual works have been displayed in seven major solo exhibitions in Chicago-area and Midwestern art galleries, and have been included in numerous group, invitational exhibitions across the U.S. and included at 8th Beijing International Art Biennale at the National Art Museum of China. Kommanivanh earned his bachelor’s degree from Northeastern Illinois University in 2008, and a Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Peck School of the Arts in 2012. He has since found his way back to his hometown of Chicago and is an arts professor at his alma mater, NEIU.

Illustrator – Carolina Ibarra (she/her) is an artist and visual arts educator from the Southside of Chicago. She earned her Bachelor’s from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a dual degree in Painting and Art Education. She has taught in Chicago Public Schools for 10 years and is currently teaching at Von Steuben Metropolitan Science Center in Albany Park. She is a proud first-generation Mexican-American whose teaching philosophy is geared toward empowering the voices of our youth through artmaking. www.instagram.com/howtobeanartexplorer

Illustrator – Gabriel Mejia (he/him) is a visual artist/ educator/ activist/ spoken word coach. With his art practice, he explores the action/reaction dynamic between individuals who share politically-charged physical space such as protests, schools, mosh pits, and other crowded public spaces. Through the meticulous construction of these images, Gabriel attempts to deconstruct the crowded chaos and forced cohabitation of urban life. He earned his Bachelor’s at Northern Illinois University, and an MFA from the University of Wisconsin- Madison. He has exhibited in Chicago, Wisconsin, Toronto, and Southern California, and has taught in Chicago Public Schools for 14 years. He currently teaches at Von Steuben Metropolitan Science Center in Albany Park.

Illustrator – Regin Igloria is a multidisciplinary artist and educator based in North Chicago. His drawings, artists’ books, sculptures, and performances portray the human condition as it relates to the natural environment and inhabited spaces. In 2010 he founded North Branch Projects, an organization that builds connections through the book arts. He works with various communities to create crossover between disparate populations and cultures, aiming to broaden the roles of both artists and non-artists. Igloria has taught at places such as Marwen, RISD, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Snow City Arts, and Carthage College. He received a 3Arts Next Level Artist Award as well as local, national, and international grants, support through artist residencies, and has exhibited internationally. He received his MFA from Rhode Island School of Design.