STAFF
Keimi
veto
Semillites
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(all pronouns)
CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR
Keimi Nakashima-Ochoa/KNO is a racialized immigrant settler. He was born on the lands of the Pur’hépecha, the Coca, and the Tecuexe, with ancestors from what is colonially known as Mexico, as well as Japan. She is a Disabled, bilingual worker, learner, and artist whose practice incorporates a variety of creative avenues, like reading, writing, weaving, printmaking, and more. They spent most of their youth in Amiskwacîwâskahikan, and are now building their life on the occupied ancestral territories of the Skwxwú7mesh, Xwməθkwəyə̓m, and Səlilwətaɬ peoples.
Keimi’s previous work includes being a support worker and arts educator for Autistic folks of all ages, a library research assistant with a collection of artist books, communications and marketing coordination for multiple arts organizations, and being the co-manager of the Accessible Exhibitions and Programs department at grunt gallery. As a worker at WePress, their work includes things like grant writing, managing budgets, building an archive, and developing programs to support artists, makers, and neighbours in the Downtown Eastside.
His work and worldview have been shaped through his learning of Disability Justice, and Black Feminist theory. They are interested in anti-colonial research and learning, accessible spaces, and liberated futures.
Keimi is a racially ambiguous short person with a round face and a soft fat body, with skin the colour of an almond milk latte. Her hair is the colour of dark-roast coffee beans, and is usually in some form of messy, buzzed-sides mullet formation. He has a loud (sometimes disruptive) laugh, and a voice that ranges from frilly and flowery to sharp and stony.
They like to wear bold earrings, a gold hoop on their septum, and they have a scattering of tattoos across their body. Their overall style prioritizes comfort in their body, which experiences chronic pain— usually their clothes are oversized and soft, with a nice drape or a sturdy structure.
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(they/them)
Artistic Engagement Director
Vitória Monteiro, more often known as “veto” (they/them), is the Artistic Engagement Director of WePress. veto is a Brazilian immigrant settler who was born in Belém do Pará and grew up between Recife (in the Northeast of Brazil) and Turtle Island. They have been building roots on ancestral lands of the Skwxwú7mesh, xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, and səl̓ilwətaɁɬ nations for the past 9 years. veto works as an artist, facilitator, and arts worker, focusing on creating gentle and joyful spaces that prioritize care.
veto brings extensive experience in program development, community facilitation, and accessibility-centred cultural work from their various roles at the Contemporary Art Gallery, Simon Fraser University and grunt gallery alongside their work in grassroots organizing. Building on their artistic practice, veto likes to work collaboratively to challenge traditional power structures and create alternative and creative ways of sharing knowledge and resources. Their approach is informed by experimental pedagogy, rhizomatic theory, and Disability Justice frameworks.
At WePress, they co-lead organizational development while working closely with peer workers, the board of directors, and community partners. They are working towards creating lasting, accessible opportunities for creative and artistic expression for the neighbours of the Downtown Eastside.
veto is a short human with a fair olive complexion. They have wavy shoulder-length dark brown hair that is shaggy and messy (in a cool way) and is often up in a clip or hat. They have various piercings around their head, which include one in their septum and five in their ears, all of them gold hoops (think “pirate”). You will often encounter them with a hat on, wearing well-loved black Dr. Martens, headphones around their ears, and a knitting project on the go.
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(he/him)
Communications and Outreach Manager
Semillites is a brown, trans visual artist and graphic designer based in Vancouver, Canada, on the unceded territories of the Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh, and Musqueam Nations. Born in Roma Norte, Mexico City, Semillites migrated north at the age of nineteen. His artwork primarily focuses on self-portraiture that celebrates imperfection and is driven by in-depth research into the cultural and social associations of color. His artworks are love letters to himself, his ancestors and every person, flower and grasshopper that has ever crossed his path
As an arts worker, his goal is to foster collaborations, share skills, and listen to and learn from the communities he serves. At WePress, his focus is on using his skills to facilitate more accessible communication with artists/ crafters and organizations.
Some of the organizations he has proudly collaborated with are: Vancouver Foundation, Watari, Ignite! Youth Fest, Vancouver Latin-American Film Festival, Vines Art Festival, YouthCO, among others.Semillites is a brown-skinned man, he is short, has a fluffy build and his hair is short and dark. He has a slit on his eyebrow and he always wears a silver or gold chain around his neck. During the winter, he is wearing either a beanie, bandana or cap and during summer he loves showing his skin. Most days, he’s seen with a backpack and a wide, bright smile that reveals his sharp, pointy front teeth.
OUR BOARD
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Interim President
Tajliya Jamal is a printmaker and illustrator based in Vancouver, BC.
Their practice prioritizes accessibility and collaborative processes, leading often to projects that are print-based, community-responsive, have an interactive element, and/or are created with other artists. In 2023, Taj began Go够(gou) Studio, a screenprinting space that prioritizes slow-production and collaboration. On top of providing screenprinting services, the studio collaborates with local artists through “The 50/50 Project”, an accessible system that helps introduce artists to the medium of screenprinting while encouraging experimentation in the process.
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Interim Vice President
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Treasurer
Asumi Oba (AH-SUH-mi Ow-bah) is a shin-issei (new first-generation Japanese immigrant) currently based in BC. Sharing a somewhat similar educational and vocational background with the WePress staff, as well as a passion for access and equity work within the DTES community, Asumi contributes the HR, finance, and operational knowledge gained through her professional career to WePress as its Board Treasurer. Asumi obtained a Master of Arts degree from UBC’s Art History, Visual Art and Theory Department. She is forever grateful for the research and hands-on learning opportunities she had regarding the history of Powell Gai and the multi-layered activism of Japanese Canadian and Japanese American artists and cultural workers.
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Secretary
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Director at large
Clyde Richard Brittain, or just “Richard” (sometimes “Rich”) is a Director at Large with WePress. Richard is a disabled settler of European ancestry who was born in what is currently called Prince George on the unceded lands of of the Lheidli T’enneh First Nation, part of the Dakelh (Carrier) Peoples' territory. He is a postal worker and artist, whose practice focusses on the medium of wood in various ways. He is currently particularly interested in woodcut printmaking. Richard has a BFA with an emphasis on printmaking and has trained in commercial printing and cabinetmaking.
Richard joined WePress because it spoke to his combinedpassions for art, social justice and disability rights.
Richard is 192cm tall, with short-cropped grey/white hair and beard and heavy-lidded, dark brown eyes. He has long, thin features, often wears plastic-framed glasses and has a predilection towards shirts with horizontal stripes. He is often dressed in dark, muted earth colours, denim, tweed, flannel and corduroy. Richard also walks with the assistance of a cane.
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Director at large
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Director at large
Monique Francis is a post-menopausal queer cis-woman of French Canadian, Ojibway, and German heritage. She grew up surrounded by crafters, artisans, writers, poets, and all-round bad-ass political activists. From that foundation she devoted her professional life to contemplative arts and community care. Monique’s been a hospice chaplain, third-order monastic, counsellor, somatic therapist, and housing advocate. In her early 50s, due to worsening dynamic disabilities, she reluctantly retired from all work and now focuses on her art making practices.
Her art is an invitation to witness the beauty that abounds in day-to-day simplicity. She draws from traditional handicrafts and works with mundane upcycled materials as an act of resistance against a society which discards the inconvenient and as a rebel yell for those of us who feel discarded.
As a life-long fibre aficionado, who always had knitting needles or a spindle in her hand, visual arts is a new adventure. It all began with a second-hand gel plate during that liminal season of Spring 2020. She fell hard for printmaking and enjoys exploring related arts such as paper making, ink distilling, and book binding.
What made you become part of the board at WePress?
Volunteering with WePress aligns well with Monique’s core value that creativity is key to radical community care with its problem solving and alternative perspective taking. She appreciates the culture of stewardship at WePress that honours its past while planning for the future. Quite simply, she’s chuffed to be participating on the board of an organisation that actively seeks to resist and shake up the status quo, which is pretty much the root ethos of printmaking, isn’t it? Ink up, comrades.
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Director at large
Justinne Ramirez is a first generation immigrant from what we colonially know as the Philippines to the unceded territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, Səl̓ílwətaɬ Nations. She is a water-loving human being who is learning to resist the exceptional, colonial, and perfectionist conditioning meant to uphold hierarchies.
Art is a cultural expression from the moment she dabs glitter to punctuate her eyeshadow, to crafting political poetry and personal essays, making colourful greeting cards and stickers that punch-up, oh yes, and jumping into improv theatre.
What made you become part of the board at WePress?
Dean Spade has expressed: “We are only supposed to pursue creativity if we can compete in the corporate market. Exploring creativity and expression can feel taboo and even shameful, but if we can find a way into art practice, we experience ourselves differently.” ← THIS is why Justinne is for WePress.
Tajliya Jamal - Interim President
Karina Villada - Interim Vice President
Asumi Oba - Treasurer
Joni Schinkel - Secretary
Clyde Richard Brittain - Director at large
Jana Ghimire - Director at large
Monique Francis - Director at large
Justinne Ramirez - Director at large
COLLABORATORS
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Jessica Fletcher
ARCHIVAL WORK
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Dan Pon
ARCHIVAL WORK