GUIDES
Aaron Santiago is a van-dwelling Jack-of-all-trades. He has a wide range of experience in Early Childhood Education for both hearing and Deaf children, psychiatric and medical facilities, cannabis and food service industries, as well as music and video production. He is a poet at heart and has a deep love for street art.
Aaron lives an equally-balanced, active and relaxed lifestyle. He finds peace taking road trips to beautiful places. He appreciates people, nature, and the world around him.
Che Sehyun is a multi-faceted artist, entrepreneur, and culture-bearer of his family’s Corean soul food. With growing plans to reach the world via the internet and airplanes, Che loves to create stunning videos and photos and share original songs and stories to reflect the beauty, integrity and relevance of our ancestors and elders, including his own Ancient Corean culture. While Che directs his public art and culture-based work through his non-profit, Experience Education, he also supports his family through his boutique video, photography, and design company, Medium Medium. Che is the recipient of prestigious awards, such as Washington’s largest visual arts award, the “Neddy”, and has served his community through multiple fellowships and residencies, including curating public programming for the Seattle Asian Art Museum.
Erik Gonzalez has been an active aerosol artist for over fifteen years and has had his work profiled on both national and global media outlets that include newspapers, magazines, web media, television and radio interviews. Erik is also a member of various professional urban marketing collectives. As a professional graffiti artist, Erik has been successful in utilizing his work for alternative marketing to appeal to the younger generations.
In addition to recreational painting, Erik is also passionate about delivering positive and meaningful messages to young people through his work such as the importance of art and education, youth empowerment, risk behavior prevention, and more. Erik has been working in partnership with various organizations to deliver creative outreach and other programs.
In January 2012, Erik founded the Urbanists, Urban Art Collective, an art group with a focus to serve the community through art and public engagement.
King Khazm is a multifaceted artist, educator and community organizer who has become a prominent figure in the Hip-Hop community within Seattle and around the world. His work to engage and empower communities is demonstrated through over 25 years of art and community service.
Khazm serves as a board member of paralysis support organization The Here & Now Project, commissioner of the Seattle Commission for People with disAbilities, board member of King County arts funding agency 4Culture, manager of the historic venue/community space Washington Hall, Executive Director of record label Fresh Chopped Beats, and Executive Director of community organization 206 Zulu.
Rohena is a Seattle-based multidisciplinary artist.
Born and raised in Dhaka, Bangladesh, she studied Journalism and Fine Art during her undergrad years at Winthrop University in South Carolina. Upon embarking on a career as a copywriter at McCann Erickson, she completed another degree in Graphic Design from Raffles International College in Bangkok, Thailand.
Rohena’s love for news permeates all facets of her creative practice. Her work has a deeper focus on social issues plaguing the universe and can take the shape of a news story, documentary film, advertisement or painting. Her painting style varies from abstract expressionism to narrative storytelling. Rohena’s paintings have been exhibited in galleries of America, Thailand and Bangladesh. She often explores layers of a life of migration, war, patriotism, pop culture, psychology, and politics.
As one of the founding members of the By Any Means Crew, SireOne has been committed to representing the elements of hip hop for 28 years. He believes that knowledge is wasted unless it is passed on to others. Working with the community and participating in multi-generational dialog allows for knowledge to flow in both directions. By sharing his experience of graffiti art and hip hop, he hopes others are inspired to create beauty in this world and become the best versions of themselves.
A Seattle native, Ben Wheeler has worked as a secondary school educator and administrator. Ben gave the keynote and endnote at the 2008 Global Citizenship Summit in Bali, Indonesia, and was the World Affairs Council’s 2009 World Educator. He authored the high school textbook It’s All Connected – a Comprehensive Guide to Global Issues and Sustainable Solutions.
From 2012 to early 2020, Ben taught Geography and Civilizations courses for middle schoolers at The Bush School in Seattle, and also taught a wide-range of elective and experiential courses, including the following: Art in Public Places, Sustainable Design for Urban Living, Seattleness, Urban Forest Stewardship, Food Awareness, Oral History with Elders, Backpacking the Olympic Coast, and Stehekin Multi-Adventure.
Ben loves running, biking, fly-fishing, jazz and classical guitar, cross-country skiing, and backpacking. In addition to guiding numerous wilderness adventures in California and Washington, Ben has led international tours in Italy and India, most recently two weeks of cultural immersion in Ladakh, India, on the Himalayan Plateau.
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