2024 Emerging BIPOC Arts Leaders Lab Speakers

Tanvi Bhatia is a screenwriter whose background spans multiple genres and industries. For years, she was heavily involved in migrant justice and anti-oppression organizing, earning her a nomination for the YWCA Young Woman of Distinction award in 2018. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia, and is a former editor of PRISM international and Geist magazine. Her non-fiction and comics, which explore themes from her activist work, have been published in the Toronto Star, the Tyee, Maisonneuve and elsewhere. In 2023, Tanvi transitioned into television and was awarded a residency with the Pacific Screenwriting Program’s Scripted Series Lab. She has since worked on HEARTLAND (CBC), ALLEGIANCE (CBC) and shows in development, all while carrying out her commitment to change-making as the Outreach Strategy Lead for Women in View.

Chiara Lucchetta (she/her) is an independent dance artist, writer, movement instructor, and arts organizer. Chiara’s artistic journey has led her down many paths, including art curation, dissemination, presentation, production, and performance in commercial and fringe settings. She is the Creative Producer of F-O-R-M and the founder of Purple Glow Collective. Enamored by the interconnective flow of the cosmos, Chiara’s creative practices and daily ruminations are driven by a curiosity to explore how her facets can exist together and inform one another. She draws on the experience and knowledge she has cultivated from her space-holding roles to facilitate community programming that provides supportive and empowering spaces for emerging artists. Chiara believes that simply existing is a creative act and lives, works, and plays from this ethos

Shristi Uprety (she/her) is a Nepali writer and editor from Kathmandu, living and working on the unceded territory of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples in Vancouver BC. She has an MFA in creative writing from the University of British Columbia, and she is the managing editor of ROOM Magazine, as well as the internship coordinator at MagsBC.

Winnie Tam is the Executive Director of The Starfish, a national organization that supports youth environmental leaders and amplifies their voices as changemakers. With her 20+ years experience in program and administrative management in non-profit arts and education sectors, Winnie is a community builder, change activator, and systems disruptor committed to creating equitable and inclusive workplaces through social justice and intersectional lenses. As a longstanding champion of youth leadership, Winnie has focused her work on youth-centred organizations that nurture and harness young people’s innovation, creativity, and energy to address the important environmental and social issues of our time.

Kareen Wong (they/them) Hi there, I’m Kareen. I’m a mixed-race, queer, gender non-conforming settler living and working on the unceded and ancestral lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish) and sə̓ lílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. I offer heart-centered coaching and facilitation that challenges the status quo both inside you and out in the world. I know I thrive in spaces that see and centre all of my intersecting identities and I aim to cultivate this in the spaces I design, create and hold for others to show up with their wholeness. My approach is gentle, focused, and holistic. I bringa trauma-informed, intersectional and anti-oppression lens to my work and integrate somatic practice – including the body in what we do.

Areas of coaching focus include: confidence, connection, clarity and authenticity. I work with people one-on-one to show up for themselves and in the world the way they feel called to.

As a facilitator I work with organizations, groups and teams to deepen connection and relationship, shift internal culture, move through change and transition and bring clarity to collective identity and future-focused strategy.

Visit me online at kareenwong.com and connect with me on LinkedIn.