Kin Folkz (born Monica Anderson): Equity-seeker, visual and sculptural artist, author, devout house head, ardent art activist, and a deep believer in the power of collective self-care.

Founder and Executive Director of the Queer Healing Arts Center, Kin Folkz, deconstructs the Digital Divide while elevating the voices of QTBIPOC creatives, tech mavens and artivists. As a black and indigenous autistic, disabled, queer NB being, Kin uses their platform, Spectrum Queer Media, to obliterate biased views of marginalized QTs and the oppression of black and indigenous people everywhere. Recognized worldwide for their uplifting social justice and cultural impact, Kin was chosen 2018 SF Pride Grand Marshal by the global community and is featured in the award-winning documentary “State of Pride.”

 

Kin’s multimedia art centers Artivism (the intersection of Art and Activism), collective self-healing, and the importance of the senses, memory, and emotion in creating change. 

 

Kin's artwork includes: “Leaping Forward and Back” (photography) at the Betty Ono Gallery, the 2022 Dias de los Muertos ofrenda Oakland Museum of California exhibit “Leap At The Sun” honoring LGBTQIA+ youth of color whose lives were shortened by trans/bi/homo/queerphobia; "Marsha, Marsha, Marsha!" an interactive art exhibit honoring Marsha P. Johnson; “The Daughters of Henrietta” interactive exhibit uplifting the life of Henrietta Lacks, the story of her powerful HeLa stem cell line, and the genius of black female and NB geneticists; "Henrietta's Garden" an interactive articultural garden art exhibit; “From South Africa to Oakland with Love” a report back cross-cultural exhibit featuring the works of South African artists alongside Kin’s “4 Chambers” artwork and sculptures; the 7-block-long “All Black Trans Queer Non-binary Woman Disabled Imprisoned Lives Matter” extending from Oakland’s Children’s Fairyland to the Lake Merritt Boathouse; and the commissioned Black Trans Lives Matter mural in the SF Transgender District.