"Looming Stories of Islanders in the Diaspora" examines the profound histories of island populations scattered throughout. It explores the experiences of these islanders as they navigate life away from their country, weaving ideas of identity, cultural preservation, and the problems of adaptation. The title emphasizes the perseverance and inventiveness of diaspora individuals via personal narratives, demonstrating how their distinct histories shape their new lives while preserving ties to their history. This collection represents a dynamic array of perspectives that encapsulate the challenges and victories of islands in a worldwide context. I will participate in the theatrical production "Nothing Micro About Micronesia," which weaves narratives about the impact of climate change on the inhabitants of Micronesia's islands. I may organize a panel during the event, inviting individuals who have seen the play and the director of the theater production to engage in a Q&A session.

ImPACt aims to up-cycle teflon-coated utensils, old dance shoes and old clothes by collaborating with RSOs, USC Hospitality, and NGOs in the broader LA region. imPACt is divided into two main branches: Happy Hands Pots & Pans (H2P2) and imPACt: Reimagined. H2P2 upcycles environmentally-hazardous teflon-coated utensils by mentoring specially abled children to convert these utensils into home-decor items. Given the therapeutic nature of art, H2P2 not only addresses environmental sustainability, but also uplifts the mental health of these children.

imPACt: Reimagined brings together RSOs from fashion and dance to upcycle clothes into costumes and worn-out dance shoes into abstract art pieces (which would decorate empty walls on campus). At the end of the year, we will have one showcase, where we put up the up-cycled pans for sale. We will also have improv performances, where members from PAC-affiliated Theatre RSOs would be wearing the up-cycled costumes.

The St. Francis Center is a nonprofit organization that serves homeless and impoverished locals. The Community Harvest Mural will beautify the entryway to the St. Francis Center's new building. It will depict people of all ages and identities coming together over food and will prominently feature the importance of community support and service. Volunteers distributing bags of donated groceries will be portrayed, alongside others eating around a shared table.

The Community Harvest Mural will give those seeking the St. Francis Center’s services a more welcoming space to access essential resources and interpersonal connection. People facing homelessness and poverty deserve beautified spaces. Public art has been shown to positively impact levels of stress, and it is also a powerful tool in community building. By drawing more people into the space, the mural aims to broaden the reach of the nonprofit’s impact and improve the experiences of existing clients. Enabling the St. Francis Center to help more people will aid in their mission to combat food insecurity and homelessness in LA, creating better health outcomes for locals, interrupting cycles of poverty, and reducing food waste for a more sustainable future.

Urban Oasis is an architectural project focused on combating the Urban Heat Island (UHI) Effect, as well as food insecurity by curating produce green roofs made from recycled materials. The project features utilizing sustainable roof panels in scaled gardens for heat resistant/water absorbent produce, and mini colored models of its implication in low income housing. It showcases food insecure areas in Los Angeles, and reflects where exactly the roof gardens would be situated for optimal assistance. In total, it incorporates growing food on sustainable panels, building scaled models, and research on the different types of potential community impact.

“A Musical Tribute to Endangered North American Birds” is a collaborative and educational project combining music, wildlife conservation, and climate conversation. The ultimate goal of this project is to use music as a language to communicate the importance of protecting critically endangered North American birds. Through a performance of new compositions written by a group of composers in different styles, each piece honors a unique bird, incorporating its call as a central motif. This immersive experience aims to raise awareness and funds for the American Bird Conservancy and provide an educational opportunity for students in local schools.

An audio-based game/installation for 3 players! Players must listen, learn and communicate to respond to the whale’s calls carefully in a physical environment to complete their mission.

In a bizarre faraway galaxy, play as a crew of scrappy hunters for hire hoping to make a quick buck hunting a mysterious Radiowhale for your shady contractors. Together, your task is to disguise your ship as a fellow whale and manipulate its actions by splicing together audio tracks to communicate with it. But the closer you get to completing your mission, and the more information you receive about the whale, you begin to wonder: is it really worth killing the Radiowhale for your own benefit?”

Through a metaphorical sci-fi world, Mission Whailure attempts to highlight the reality of the complicated ethics surrounding whaling.With a unique, interactive approach directly engaging players in the stakes of a difficult decision, to hunt or to spare, we can teach more about the kinds of challenges faced by environmentalists than afforded by non-interactive media. Accessibility, education, engagement and humor are the project's founding principles.

Noise pollution, compared to other forms of pollution (air, water, light, nuclear, etc), is under researched and their adverse effects should not be overlooked. For humans, unhealthy auditory exposure has been linked to increased stress, high blood pressure, delayed speech development, and hearing loss. Additionally, not pollution has dramatic effects on local ecological systems such as bird communication and mating or the disorienting of whale’s echolocation. Noise also directly effects the natural environment: In oklahoma, fracking in the pursuit of fossil fuels has influenced earthquake frequency and intensity; dramatically shifting earth’s seismic waves; i.e. earth’s natural sound.

Sound as relief, Noise as pollution will be a trio musical composition accompanied by a long form 3 part digital essay. The musical component will have three movements, focusing on humans, wildlife, and geological activity. The piece will be actualized through field recordings, acoustic instruments, cassette loops, and synthesizer sound design through open-source audio coding languages like PureData and Supercollider. The essay will be comprised of scholarly research, interviews, poetry, field visits, and images. The final version will be a digital monograph where you can read, scroll, and listen at the same time on a computer or cell phone.

Eco-Play: Empowering Sustainability Through Games and Imagination aims to transform the USC Sustainability Hub into an interactive space where students can engage with climate and sustainability issues through gaming. By integrating educational video games like Minecraft (with sustainability mods) and Climate Cooldown, alongside sustainability-focused board games such as Terra and The SDGs Card Game, this project fosters creative problem-solving and collaboration. The initiative will also feature ongoing game jams, where USC students, alongside local high school students, design their own sustainability and social change games.

Through hands-on learning, Eco-Play encourages students to explore real-world environmental challenges in a virtual setting and develop tangible solutions for the future. Partnerships within USC departments like the Radical Play Lab and environmental NGOs will support game development and enhance engagement. The project also emphasizes inclusivity, ensuring that sustainability education is approached through an intersectional lens, taking into account marginalized perspectives, particularly in communities most impacted by climate change. By combining play, imagination, and sustainability education, Eco-Play empowers students to take creative action in addressing the pressing climate issues of our time.

My project is a large-scale, ethnobotanical installation of plants known to heal and nourish in folklore, especially from Eastern Europe. Natural and handcrafted materials shape an immersive, vegetative environment that engages the senses—touch, smell, sight and sound. The exhibit invites viewers to reflect on their relationship with nature and contemplate a harmonious, climate-conscious future.

"Revibin' the Salton Sea" is a unique multimedia project that blends music, storytelling, and environmental activism to raise awareness about the ecological collapse of the Salton Sea and its widespread impacts. Once a vibrant vacation destination, the Salton Sea is now on the brink of drying up, threatening nearby communities with toxic dust storms filled with harmful chemicals. This project aims to spark urgent dialogue about the environmental and public health crises already affecting areas like Yuma, El Centro, and Mexicali, which could soon impact millions in Los Angeles, Orange County, and the Inland Empire.

The project features three DJs performing live sets at key locations impacted by the drying sea, including the abandoned pier at the Salton Sea, Northern El Centro in the Imperial Valley, and a green outdoor venue in Los Angeles. These performances will be recorded and shared online in a popular DJ set format, enhanced with informative text and b-roll footage. Additionally, a cinematic vlog-style documentary will capture the DJs' journey, highlighting the environmental and health challenges facing local residents.

By connecting with young adult audiences through music and storytelling, "Revibin' the Salton Sea" seeks to inspire action and advocate for proactive solutions to protect vulnerable communities and prevent further environmental damage.

Fifteen years ago, on June 5th, 2009, El Baguazo erupted, marking the bloodiest socio-environmental conflict in Peru’s history, where indigenous Awajún and Wampis communities defended their ancestral lands against exploitation by international corporations. As a recipient of the Macomber Travel Award from the School of Roski Art and Design, I traveled to Bagua to explore the conflict through conversations with the community. This exploration will culminate in a show scheduled to open on February 5th, 2025, at the Lindhurst Gallery.

The show aims to center on Indigenous communities and argues that embracing their cosmology, culture, and approach to caring for and protecting nature is essential for rethinking sustainability and conservation. As a result, I wanted to create an artwork that was the active result of collaboration. In Bagua, I had the privilege of visiting the first School of Art in the region where I was inspired by student’s murals reflecting their indigenous culture. As an extension of this show, I am proposing a collaboration with artists from Bagua’s School of Arts. Together, we will create a portable mural that answers the question “How can the resilience of Awajún culture inspire contemporary movements for environmental justice?” This mural will be integrated into the exhibition, adding a new layer of cultural exchange and dialogue.

This is an important initial component of the larger research project I am conducting for my PhD in Anthropology at USC. The overall project will look broadly at Climate Labor and Migration in Mediterranean Climates. This initial component will entail the making of photo-diagrams and multimodal, multi-species ethnographic materials.

The promontory of Portofino National Park, in Liguria, Italy, is one of Europe’s most diverse natural botanical environments. Southern California coastal parks such as Will Rogers State Park in Santa Monica, Malibu Bluffs Park, and the recently landslide-affected Palos Verdes share a similar landscape, plant species and concerns with weather extremes of landslides, fires, floods, and seismic activity. 

This project makes a visual comparison of how similar landscapes have been approached differently from a cultural and multi-species lens with a look at historical and current interventions dealing with our shifting climate. This project intervenes at a critical stage in the anthropocenic acceleration of climate change by creating photo diagrams of plant species over temporal intervals alongside multimodal ethnography to make a longitudinal tracing of patterns in climate change and multi-species (re)actions.

An exploration and illustration of the relationship between environmental pollution and self pollution due to the production and collection of material things, and the psychological experience of choice overload that results from this will be presented as a live performance event incorporating elements of dance, choreography, music, and more. Themes of problematizing and exhibiting overconsumption in relation to its effects on pollution to the environment and humanity will be addressed through displays of everyday tasks that involve decision making; ultimately exhibiting how excessive choice can lead to dissatisfaction and mental paralysis. The work will explore strategies of interaction with material items collected from the streets of Los Angeles and from the lives of the artists in the work. The choreography will be a research and exploration of how the dancers’ interactions with these items can physicalize and visibly display the weight of overconsumption. Piles of clothing and other material items or waste will be utilized as a representation of the clutter in individual lives, society, and in nature. The work leading us to question: what happens to us when we must carry the weight of all we collect? Further, what is happening to the Earth as a result?

Green South Central is a long-form web series that puts curiosity, comedy, and optimism at the center of climate solution explainer videos. Follow the host as they scratch their curiosity itch every episode, introducing local climate questions and attempting to find solutions in research-backed and attention-span-keeping episodes.

All while set against the backdrop of South Central, a community in Los Angeles that is one of the most glaring examples of environmental INjustice - so if stories of hope can make it there, if climate problems can be fixed there, well, they can make it anywhere.

Concepts include:

Figuring out where LA’s trash goes while riding in a garbage truck

Talking to city leaders about transportation areas for improvement while biking in South LA

Figuring out what the hell a “climate job” is while learning how to install solar panels at LATCC

"Voices From the Garden" is an anthology of poems, short stories, and visual narratives exploring the connection between childhood, heritage, and the land we inhabit. This project weaves together personal reflections, particularly from BIPOC queer individuals, who have often become the caretakers of gardens throughout Los Angeles and beyond. By documenting their stories and the gardens they nurture, the project will highlight the role of nature in shaping our identities and our capacity for environmental stewardship. Through interviews, photography, and creative writing, "Voices From the Garden" will capture the unique ways in which marginalized form bonds with the natural world. The aim is to underscore the critical role these personal relationships with nature play in the larger battle against climate change. The project will explore the childhood connections to nature, particularly in urban spaces like Los Angeles, and reveal how these early interactions shape our present-day environmental consciousness.

A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense community of trees. Around Los Angeles, this forest is fragmented into street trees and cultivated specimens planted in parks, on university campuses, and in backyards. Our human communities have been fragmented in the same way— from the earth and from each other. In the spirit of environmental justice, this project puts climate activism on a community level.

Reforestation is a literary magazine supplemented by writing workshops and outreach that will publish creative writing from USC students and the surrounding community. Creative writing is not only a powerful medium through which to address the climate crisis, but also a way by which to create community. The working title for this magazine is Reforestation, a word that reflects our commitment to both environment and community. We look to the natural world for examples of interconnected, non-hierarchical care.

Creative writing has a unique potential to illustrate the climate crisis. This publication will publish poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction that responds to our changing relationships with the nonhuman world and depicts our place in urban nature. We are interested in writing that reimagines and redefines, writing that world-builds, writing with affective strength. This publication will solicit writing from USC students and the surrounding community.