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Mango Tribe is a multi-city Asian/Pacific Islander American (APIA) women and genderqueer interdisciplinary performance ensemble. Through collaborative artistic work we develop our creative voices & skills, and we engage in ongoing cultural resistance to oppression in our communities. Mango Tribe believes that collective creation is a powerful force for social justice.

Tribe Vision
With joy, magic, and passion we transform, heal, and liberate ourselves to reach our full potential as politically conscious artists.

Community Vision
Valuing ongoing histories of resistance we use creation as a form of shared power and provide space for communities of color's multiple truths.

World Vision
We envision a world liberated from poverty, violence, borders, and global colonization where all people's bodies, creativity, spirits, and desires are free.

Meet New York Mangoes:

Kay Ulanday Barrett was one of the most involved people in Chicago's spoken word & activist community, and has recently moved to the east coast. s/he works to support artistic expression as a means to understanding social justice and community. A spoken word performer, poet, speaker, and shaker, kay connects life as a filipina/pinay-am queer navigating struggle, resistance, and laughter in the U.S. Recently published in We Got Issues! a Young Woman's Guide to Living a Bold, Courageous, & Empowered Life edited by Rha Goddess & JLove Calderón, as well as Mother Tongues edited by C.C. Carter. More honors include: a finalist in the gwendolyn brooks open-mic awards 2005 & windy city times "30 under 30 awards". branching love from dublin, ireland's lesbian arts festival to chicago's hothouse, protests & benefits, universities freckled about the u.s. empire and back again, kay has shared stage with the like: tara betts, m. evelina galang, anna fermin's trigger gospel, & various other conspirators. kay has founded Gabriela Network's National LGBTQ Caucus & currently is a coordinator of GabNet, Chicago. currently kay is a member of APIA womyn's interdisciplinary theater ensemble Mango Tribe; and is a co-host for chicago's longest running womyn's open-mic womyn outloud!, "as the one with good hair." kay's self-published chapbook, for^in was proudly released 2006. Read kay’s chapter in the Book of Voices at Book of Voices. On the daily, kay diligently works on cooking ma’s recipes, learning and resisting struggles of homeland, bicycle repair, & taking damn good care of the self. see kay's website here: kaybarrett.net

Allison Joy Faelnar recently celebrated her year anniversary with the tribe, and takes road managing seriously! Place "fierce" + "kind" in the same sentence & you'll probably find allisonjoy. Her continuous work is a demonstration of her passionate commitment to social justice, whether it was as National Recruiter for ACORN, Co-Founder of NYC-based media justice coalition R.E.A.C.Hip-Hop, organizer for Gabriela Network NY/NJ, or currently organizer & touring member of We Got Issues! & Mango Tribe. She has organized, created events, and facilitated trainings and workshops with youth, women, & people of color all about north amerika. Sista sings hard from the heart, knits&crochets when she's on the train, & offers healing as a Reiki Master Practicioner to her communities. This queer pinay-amerikan believes in the strength of her sisters, community building, art as activism, grassroots organizing, loving honestly, linking arms with all oppressed peoples, and manifesting visions of liberation!

Kai-Ti Kao was born and raised in Tapei, Taiwan. She came to the States in 2000. She was one of the first members of a theatre group called TCP (The Conciliation Project) in Seattle. The Conciliation Project's mission is-"To promote, through active and challenging dramatic work, open and honest dialogue about Racism in America in order to repair its damaging legacy." She was the assistant stage manager for Mango Tribe's "Sisters in the Smoke" at Here's Arts Center. She was also the co-director of Mango Tribe's "Creation Myth Project" at Abron Arts Center. She is blessed to be working with so many talented sisters.

Varuni Tiruchelvam is a Tamil Sri Lankan American Queer Woman cellist and educator. She teaches high school in Brooklyn at El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice and runs the community garden. She also performs with Stone Forest Ensemble, a hip-hop/ classical/ afro-beat band, and Vidia, a women of color band.

Meet Chicago Mangoes:

filipina genderqueer visual artist, elisa armea, can bne found creating for many movements throughout the nation. lover of fonts, colors, and building things, elisa uses these skills as tools for social justice..

Sharmili Majmudar is a queer Chicago-based South Asian artist, social justice worker and daughter of Gujarati Indian immigrants. Sharmili makes trouble and finds community as a member of Mango Tribe as well as doing some poetic rabble rousing of her own on stages and in alleyways and living rooms in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Toronto, Honolulu, Minneapolis and Chicago. Her poetry has appeared in Contours of the Heart: South Asians Map North America, Shakti Kee Awaaz: Voices of Strength and Riksha and she is a past resident at the Norcroft Writing Retreat for Women. Sharmili is a founding member of Khuli Zaban, a West Asian/South Asian lesbian, bisexual,transgender women's network. She has twice participated in Transforming Silence Into Action, a gathering of APIA queer anti-violence activists and allies, most recently in September 2004. Currently Sharmili serves as Women's Program Director at Sarah's Inn, a domestic violence organization based in Oak Park, Illinois.

Sheena Panoor is an Indian American dancer and activist. Trained in Indian classical and folk dance traditions, she has performed across the country and in India. Through her volunteer efforts at several non-profits, her background in social work, and her current day job in public policy advocacy, she strives to strengthen families and communities and promote social justice. She is one of the newest members of Mango Tribe, and she is thrilled with the opportunity to explore the arts as a powerful means for healing and social change, and to grow personally and artistically.

Sarwat Rumi is a bilingual Bengali American Muslim who has been writing since she could read. She has a B.A. in South Asian Languages and Civilizations from the University of Chicago. Sarwat works toward social justice as a vigilante poet, teaching artist, and performance activist. With Mango Tribe, Sarwat has co-written and performed in both the Chicago and NYC runs of the full length production, Sisters in the Smoke (2002, 2003); she also co-wrote, co-produced and acted in Creation Mythology for NYC's Henry Street Settlement (2004). She is the recipient of a Fresh Ink recognition for new music by Serpent Feline, granted by The Chicago Composer?s Forum (2005). Sarwat?s indy features include the Asian American Jazz Festival (2004), Women OutLoud (2003, 2004), Voices of Resistance (2001-2006), and the Guild Complex, where she humbly shared the stage with Adrienne Rich (2003). Sarwat's craft as solo artist, sister in the touring cast of Mango Tribe, and vocalist for Serpent Feline, takes her far from Chicago on a regular basis, but her words can always be found in the anthology Voices of Resistance: Muslim Women on War, Faith, and Sexuality (Seal Press, 2006), and her two chapbooks: the inverted sun, and WAR.

Vivienne Diawara Tan is a filipinachinese american post-post-post-post-feminism feminist born in Chicago, raised on hip hop and adobo, living for herself and her peoples. When she’s not trying to sneak back into the world of higher education, viv masters the of art of escapism through painting, writing, soulsearching, head nodding, selective hearing, jasmine incense burning and Mango Tribe conspiring. vivienne has recently been sighted kicking ass as stage manager and performer for the Chicago premiere of Mango ribe’s “Sisters In The Smoke” as well as the collaborative multimedia project “Register THIS!” for the Asian American Artists Collective-Chicago.

Rominna Villaseñor is a growing Pilipina artist who dabbles with the disciplines of performance poetry and visual arts on occasion. Currently residing in Portage Park neighborhood, she was raised in Quezon City, Philippines and later found home in Albany Park. Gallery 37 generated her initial interests in working with acrylics and watercolor while Young Asians With Power fueled her passion for APIA activism through writing. She has considered these two organizations as second family since the early years of high school. In 2002, Rominna was the spokesperson for the United States nonviolence initiative through writing and delivered a speech in Kuwait to commemorate its tenth year liberation. Rominna is a fourth year Gates scholar and attends the School of Commerce at DePaul University. On campus, she works heavily for two organizations, which are Alpha Kappa Psi (a co-ed professional business fraternity) and DePaul Students Against the Death Penalty. She volunteers often and her background stems from working for and with nonprofit organizations throughout the Chicagoland area. In her spare time, she finds herself yearning for a cup of elotes and Margie’s ‘Bucktown’ ice cream.