TREK TABLE GUESTS

Black benatar aka beatrice thomas

GUEST

( She/They)

Beatrice Thomas, star and creator of Black Benatar’s Black Magic Cabaret and principal of Authentic Arts & Media, is a national multi-disciplinary artist, cultural strategist, social justice drag queen, and creative producer. Whether through creative production; consulting; or equity, diversity, and inclusion workshops, Mx. Thomas' focus is on uplifting and centering queer, transgender, and POC voices, with special attention to creating queer-inclusive family programming. They also serve on the national board of directors for the Association of Performing Arts Professionals and have been named a Kennedy Center Citizen Artist for 2020.

Sarah guerra

GUEST

( She/Hers)

Sarah Guerra is a queer native Tejana who has dedicated her life to supporting and leveraging the arts as a tool for education, political and social justice. A Bay Area resident since 2001, she is a seasoned program manager that has overseen the creation, implementation, and evolution of commissioning programs and artist residencies focused on uplifting Black and Brown queer and trans people for Brava!, Women in the Arts, Queer Cultural Center, and La Peña Cultural Center. She has provided direct support and feedback for eight Natural Queer Arts Festivals and is currently, the Production Manager for the Queer Cultural Center.

claire light

GUEST

( She/Hers)

Claire Light has worked in San Francisco’s arts and social justice communities for over two decades and will publish her first novel, MONKEY AROUND, written under the pen name Jadie Jang, comes out August 2021.

Latisha Jones

GUEST

( She/Her/Hers)

Latisha Jones is a screenwriter and podcaster with over a decade of experience in theater and multicultural education. As a speaker, she had presented her lecture, "Women of Color in Sci-Fi Television" as several conventions including Awesome Con, BlerDCon, Virtuous Con, HBCU Con and Dragon Con. As a guest and panelist, she has been tapped for several presentations and podcasts for her experience in anti-racism education and critical media analysis. Currently, she has used her unique combination of tv/film education and diversity training in her podcast, Interspectional, which focuses on having introspective, intersectional conversations about speculative media.

anupama jain

GUEST

( She/Her/Hers)

anupama jain: PhD. Newbie painter. Mostly unwavering utopianist. anu has been a professor at Union College (NY), Colby College (ME), and the University of Pittsburgh (PA). In 2015, anu launched Inclusant, a consulting agency that helps to take the mystery out of DEI. Since running a business and teaching seemed like under-achieving, from 2017-2021, anu also served as the inaugural Executive Director of Pittsburgh's Gender Equity Commission in the Mayor's Office.

Hazel lozano

GUEST

( She/Hers)

Hazel Lozano (she/siya) is a 1.5-generation Filipinx-American teaching artist currently working on being a better human and advocate for representation. She produces the podcast Intimacy Choreography In Conversation, hosted by Ann James and Carly D. Weckstein, and scrolls IG too often @atypicalhaze. Hazel has had the honor of playing on LA stages previously as Administrator in America Adjacent at the Skylight and Iago in Othello at Griot Theatre, among other fun roles, and is currently on stage at the Fountain Theatre in An Octoroon. Love to her many plant-children (Saru is goals).

Aliza pearl

GUEST

( She/Hers)

In addition to playing heroines, villains, love interests, and rebels with Ripley Improv, Aliza Pearl is an actor, writer, Trekkie, gamemaster, and content creator originally from Newark, NJ. Of African-American, Puerto Rican, and Afro-Caribbean heritage, Aliza explores identity and split cultural ties through scifi, comedy and genre storytelling. Having gotten her start in musical theater, she regularly performs narrative improv with Ripley Improv, and the improvised Star Trek inspired show “The Improvised Generation”. She's a co-host of the Star Trek podcast "Women at Warp," and a pro gamemaster-- in addition to running and playing in multiple streaming D&D 5e campaigns on Twitch, she also runs a monthly Klingon ttrpg show called "Blood of the Void." On-screen acting credits include: Showtime's "House of Lies", "Days of Our Lives", recurring guest on BYUtv's "Show Offs!" feature films "Newly Single" "Darkness Falls" "Everything Before Us" and "Faith Based," award winning indie feature “Something is Killing Tate” (Starz), plus various short films ("Beached" with Nic Collins, "The End" with Matthew Philip Smith) and viral videos with YouTube giants WongFu Productions, Black and Sexy TV, and Comediva's popular webseries "BAMF Girls Club.” (alizapearl.com/acting) As a writer, Aliza has a sketch comedy background, and received the Best Teleplay writing award at the Urbanworld Film Festival for TV pilot “Whitehall.” (alizapearl.com/writing)

Rose Portillo

GUEST

( She/They)

Rose Portillo is a renowned theater artist - actor/ writer/ director/ collaborator/ educator; A 40+ year veterana of stage and screen (large and small); a community-builder; an art- maker of altars and mosaics (rosaics); an innovator, initiator, intuit; a maverick; dedicated to breaking new ground and smashing stereotypes. Follow her at @Roseportillohere on Instagram

Dr. Malika jeffries-el

GUEST

( She/Her/Hers)

Dr. Malika Jeffries-EL is a professor of chemistry at Boston University studying organic semiconductors. Specifically, her research focuses on developing organic semiconductors that take advantage of the processing power of polymers and the electronic properties of semiconductors to create innovative electronic devices. She was elected as a Fellow of the American Chemical Society in 2018. Prior to joining the BU Department of Chemistry in 2016 she was an Associate Professor at Iowa State University, most recently serving as a Martin Luther King Jr. Visiting Professor at MIT.