
Meet our Festival Guest Artists






























Our festival features San Diego-based QTBIPOC artists, wellness advocates, and healers who inspire the work we do here at Soultry Sisters Arts + Wellness Collective. They will lead arts and wellness workshops, performances, culinary features, and art installations centered around creative expression,
collective healing, and mindful movement.
This year we are asking each guest artist to create an offering or activation
in response to our festival theme, Healing Nature of PLAY.
Melissa Barayang
Sunny Soto-Briscoe
Nicole Damiba
Kelsey O. Daniels
Ciara Dominique
Alyssa "Ajay" Junious
Toni Lynn Junious
Che Che Luna
Theena Nguyen
Ianne Rivera
BJ Robinson
Katie Ruiz
Emm Ruiz
Frankie Simone
Learn more about our workshops!
Our festival includes arts + wellness workshops centered around creative expression, collective healing, and mindful movement. We asked each guest artist to create a session in response to what "Healing Nature of PLAY" means to them. We are excited to feature QTBIPOC artists, wellness advocates, and healers who inspire the work we do here at Soultry Sisters Arts + Wellness Collective.
Saturday Workshops

"Explorin the healing nature of PLAY" • Soultry Sisters ( Ajay & Toni Lynn Junious ) • Saturday • 10:30am-11:30am
“As we search for pathways to a liberated future, PLAY is a vital practice.” - Soultry Sisters
Play is natural and connects us to our humanity. It has roots in being a pathway to reclaiming our collective liberation. Play is different for all of us. There is no right or wrong way to play. Whatever it is, it often helps us relax, invites us to be curious, and find our flow. It’s an opportunity to explore new ideas and tap into our imagination.
​
What does "Healing Nature of PLAY" mean to you? In this workshop, we will discuss the origins of play and reflect on what it means to cultivate and create a personal play practice. – how play intersects with our relationship to one another, to community, to the land/Earth Mama, and to self. This session is a space for us to connect to our earliest memories of play, create a play book of inspiration, and explore a play practice together.

“Wild & Sacred Play” • Makhosi Foundation ( Nicole Damiba )
Saturday • 11:45am-12:45pm
A dedicated space for PLAY - offering intentional ways to story-tell about the trickster energy, act out emotions + ancestral cosmologies, move through interactive communal activities to break the inner and outer ice
.jpg)
"Doorway to the Imaginal Realm" • Kwentuhan ( Melissa Barayang )
Saturday • 2:30pm-3:30pm
In workshop, Mel will be guiding folks through the process of tapping into their mythic imagination. The belief in mythology is that everyone has a gift to offer and contribute to the collective. My hope is that in these devastating times of crisis, we might find ways to remember how the mythic stories of our ancestors were once used as maps for survival and can guide us on how we might resist empire today.

By connecting with these stories, we can begin to tap into the beauty and the grief, enchantment, and ecological wisdom that they hold and develop a capacity to imagine new possibilities for the future.

This workshop will include grounding, active imagination practice, and writing prompts to uncover your unique mythic story within the collective.
​
Important Reminder: This offering will not be held in a clinical capacity. However, care is available <3 Liberatory Wellness Network Mango Tree Counseling Axis Mundi Center for Mental HealthS uicide and Crisis Lifeline: 988 Suicide Prevention Hotline: 1-800-273-8255 Domestic Violence Hotline: 888-385-4657 Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741

"Embracing the Pleasures of Imperfection" • Che Che Luna
Saturday • 3:45pm - 4:45pm
A sensual movement workshop to unlearn perfectionism and return to the liberatory and connective power of play. In this container, we will wiggle, giggle, feel and shape-shift. We will observe where internalized perfectionism has been creating stuckness in our bodies, and we will bolster each other's courage to lean into the glorious gift of messiness and authenticity.
Sunday Workshops

"Lullabies of Liberation" • Ianne Rivera
Sunday • 11:30pm - 12:30pm
Rest is the sacred act of softening. A yielding of the body to a space of receptivity where dreams and reality blur lines so we may play in the infinite possibility of our Divinity. Through the use of song, sound, and sacred storytelling, “Lullabies of Liberation” will draw your mind and body into a harmonious state of rest. Here you’ll be guided to imagine and play as you allow your dreamscape to become a lived experience. As a community we’ll reflect on our dance within the imagination through artistic expression and communal sharing.

"Soulscape: a movement playground" • Soultry Sisters ( Ajay & Toni Lynn Junious ) • Sunday • 12:45-1:45pm
“As we search for pathways to a liberated future, PLAY is a vital practice.” - Soultry Sisters
Play is natural and connects us to our humanity. It has roots in being a pathway to reclaiming our collective liberation. Play looks different for everyone. There is no right or wrong way to play. Whether it helps us relax, sparks curiosity, or invites us into flow, play opens the door to explore imagination, joy, and healing.
​
SOULscape is a guided movement experience rooted in play, expression, and embodiment. Together, we’ll journey through playful movement and breathwork, using visualization and somatic practices to reconnect with our bodies and creative spirit. This is a soft space to come home to yourself, to find freedom through self-expression, and to explore what liberation feels like in your body.
​
This session fosters a sense of belonging and creative flourishing—inviting you to connect with others while tapping into your own unique creative playground.

"Simple Songs: Mantra Melodies & Musical Mad Libs" • El Studio del BJ (BJ Robinson • Sunday • 2:00pm - 3:00pm
Songwriting can warm your funny bone and soothe your soul! In this workshop, participants will play with words and sounds to create songs that can impact your everyday life as easy tools for comfort & consolation, as well as energy & inspiration!
Learn more about our
Community Mixer guest artists
Our festival will have 2 community mixers that include an art installation, live performances, music, food, local vendors, and dancing. The mixer is a great opportunity to connect with other festival participants & guest artists. We love creating opportunities for folks in our community to socialize &
make meaningful connections with one another.

Katie & Emm Ruiz •
Festival Art Installation

Live Performance • Frankie Simone
Opening Mixer

Ciara Dominique • PLAY Station:
The Silent Disc0 & Closing Ceremony DJ
The Silent Disc0 is a San Diego based sensory experience that allows for attendees to curate a one of a kind experience. With 3 music channels and headphones capable of tuning into them all, YOU can play DJ and give yourself the night out you've always wanted!

Theena Nguyen • PLAY station: "Whim & Watercolor"
Let your inner artist play! In this lighthearted watercolor station, you’ll be gently guided through the basics of watercolor painting—then encouraged to toss perfectionism aside and let your brush follow the flow. Choose your own canvas, follow your curiosity, and create a one-of-a-kind masterpiece to take home. No pressure, just puddles, color, and a little bit of whimsy.

Live Performance • Kelsey O. Daniels
Closing Celebration Mixer
Kelsey O. Daniels will open the closing ceremony with a 30-minute performance engagement designed to guide participants into a collective dreamspace. Blending spoken word, breathwork, sonic invocation, and ritual storytelling, they will create a soft landing where imagination becomes sacred practice. With their signature mix of spiritual depth and playful ease, Kelsey will lead the room into reflection, release, and renewal—honoring the wisdom stirred throughout the festival. This will not be just a performance, but a portal. Attendees will be invited to arrive as they are, carrying what they’ve gathered, and step into a shared field of dreaming.

Culinary Artist • Sunny Soto-Briscoe
Opening Mixer, Saturday Lunch &
Closing Celebration Mixer