VOL. 24 STRANGE

Kiana Estevez is an Afro-Latina entrepreneur, educator, and wellness advocate whose story celebrates the beauty of meaningful connection through food, movement, and culture. A first-generation college graduate with a Bachelor’s degree in Hospitality Administration from Boston University, Kiana began her career breaking barriers as the first minority department head at Fenway Park. There, she led a $1 million account and managed a team of 40 union employees in a space steeped in history and tradition.

Guided by her passion for community, Kiana transitioned to a path rooted in empowerment and education. At Cooking With Kids, she brings families and children together around the table, using food as a vehicle to foster healthy eating habits through hands-on cooking experiences. Kiana’s approach reflects her belief that food and beverages can be much more than a form of nourishment—they are bridges that connect people and perspectives.

Since making Santa Fe, NM, her home in 2021, Kiana has embraced a multifaceted lifestyle that reflects her adaptable spirit. From training for her sixth marathon to leading rhythmic cycling classes that feel like celebrations in motion, she infuses energy and purpose into everything she does. Her kombucha business, Last Call Kombucha, draws on her Caribbean roots to create bold, tropical flavors that invite her community to experience a taste of culture and creativity.

Kiana’s journey is one of ambition, exploration, and dedication to making a difference—proof that extraordinary things happen when we step outside the expected. Whether mentoring, teaching, or creating spaces for joy and connection, she inspires others to embrace their own unique paths with courage and authenticity.

 Born in 1983 in Santa Fe of Chicano and Ute descent, John Paul Granillo. (“JP”) coped with the inner and outer chaos of his childhood by immersing himself in his art. He was convicted of New Mexico’s largest bank robbery in 2004 and spent the entirety of his 20s in maximum security federal prison, including 18 months in solitary confinement. While incarcerated, he honed his craft as an artist, infusing his drawings with bold, Latino, South American, Chicano, and Indigenous American tribal iconography and symbolic imagery of his family roots.  

Upon his release from prison in 2013 and while still on parole, JP began organizing and leading community based mural art projects. His work today is largely concerned with elevating marginalized voices, in particular, youth and young adults seeking hope and direction and to use collective mural art as a conduit for healing. His vast range of artistic practice (mural art, stone sculptures and individual acrylic and oil paintings) all seek to give life to under-represented historical narratives and perspectives and to foster pride in ancestry culture.

JP’s work has been exhibited at El Museo Cultural, El Museo de Los Americas, and in galleries across the United States. Countless walls in city parks and buildings across Santa Fe are adorned with his murals. For two consecutive years, JP was awarded First Place in Best of Show at the Spanish Contemporary Hispanic Market. He is a Philadelphia Mural Arts awardee for climate activism. 

His community building work includes his former role as the Chief Operations Director of ¡YouthWorks!, empowering underprivileged youth and advocating for social change. He is a co-founder of Latino Small Business Association, Alas de Agua Art Collective, and Full Circle Farm. JP has served as a member of the City of Santa Fe CHART Review Commission, the Santa Fe Housing Trust Board, Monte del Sol Board President (2024), the Santa Fe City Council Advisory Board. In 2023, JP received the “40 UNDER 40” Award from the Santa Fe Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. 

JP’s work is currently on view at the International Folk Art Museum in Between the Lines: Prison Art & Advocacy exhibit through November 5, 2025.

Nicholas King’s unconventional journey—from high school dropout to sailor, academic, and business owner—has always been anchored by one passion: photography as art.

For Nicholas, creating a photograph is a meditative process to reveal the beauty and spirit of his subject. His compelling work engages the viewer’s heart and mind, inspiring visceral response. 

While drawn to the solitude of photographing landscapes and the natural world, he finds deeper fulfillment in the collaborative nature of portraiture. Each session becomes a sacred space where his subjects become his collaborators, co-creating images that reveal unique aspects of their spirit through Nicholas’s lens.

Nicholas’s work has been exhibited in galleries in San Diego and Santa Fe. Notably, 26 portraits from the prize-winning book BURNERS were featured at the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery, the Cincinnati Art Museum, and the Oakland Museum of Art.

Penina Meisels started her professional photography career in California helping companies such as HP and Motorola sensually showcased their electronic products in product catalogs. Educated as an illustrator from The School of Visual Arts and found her way to the New School For Social Research and their photography department. During the course of her career, she has redefined still life photography into a lifestyle genre, where color, texture, and lighting draws in the viewer. Her love for food led her to become the go-to photographer for Williams-Sonoma and produce cookbooks for Jacques Pepin, Julia Child, Joanne Weir (A James Beard Award for “Weir Cooking in the City” ) Weldon Owen publishing, and graphic designer Michael Cronan.

Her work is in the permanent collection at the Smithsonian, Library of Congress and The National sporting Library in DC. She has guest lectured at University of California, Santa Barbara, The academy of Art, San Francisco and Kodak, Rochester NY.

Erica Nguyen is a grassroots documentary filmmaker who collaborates in mutual self study. Her interdisciplinary background combined Ethnography and Sociolinguistics. As a Vietnamese American, her work centers the outsider experience. In order to transcend otherness she celebrates tactile forms of communication that speak to the human experience. She locates sources of joy as sites of enduring catharsis. Often asking: how do we recognize ourselves while moving between spaces authentically? When does estrangement from our origins manifest in our bodies?

Erica has developed audiovisual programs by engaging in Peruvian documentary activism along fishing villages, archiving Pueblo traditional skills in Nambe, teaching filmmaking in Española schools, and partnering with outsider artists through community cinema in Oakland. She directed/ produced/ edited her first feature film Shadow Weavers in 2020. It was included in numerous international festivals and awarded Best NM Documentary Feature at SFiFF.

She doubles as a traditional rock climbing instructor and therapeutic adventure facilitator. The field of outdoor behavioral health enriches her filmmaking ethics. Climbing, Buddhist insight practices and harm reduction acupuncture were amongst her modalities. Erica envisions her creative practice as a bridge between land based experiential learning and regenerative storytelling.

Hisa Ota was born in Tokyo and moved to the U.S. over 50 years ago, when he was 17. He earned a B.A. in Studio Art at Drew University and a Master of Architecture at Columbia University.

During the 1990s, Hisa’s life took an unusual turn when he created a 100,000-acre Colorado bison ranch, managing the third largest bison herd in the U.S. He designed the humane bison-handling facilities with animal behaviorist Temple Grandin. He created and managed the Inn at Zapata Ranch, as well as an eco-conscious 18-hole championship golf course. At the turn of the century, Hisa and his wife, Kris, sold the ranch to The Nature Conservancy, eventually relocating to Santa Fe.

Hisa had his own architecture practice in Colorado and New Mexico, designing private residences, including his own award-winning off-grid home; commercial buildings; religious structures; and art studios. He has also designed and fabricated custom light fixtures and furniture. 

Today Hisa creates sculptures in steel and wood that balance his original Japanese frame of reference, based on simplicity and order, with the sense of freedom that abounds in his vast adopted home.

Charles Philipp has a deep passion for making knowledge and creativity accessible to everyone. Driven by curiosity and a commitment to social innovation, Charles turns bold ideas into tangible, impactful experiences that bring people together. A natural storyteller and collaborator, Charles is always seeking new ways to connect science, art, and education with diverse audiences around the world.

Sofia Salazar was born and raised in Coyote, NM. They come from a tradition of oral storytelling in northern New Mexico where their family has lived for 6 generations. They are the descendants of Pueblo Native American people, Spanish conquistadors, and Sephardic Jews who escaped Spain during the Inquisition. Unearthing, facing, and healing the painful history of generational trauma influences Sofia’s writing. Sofia’s first published poem appeared in a national Anthology of Young Poets when they were 17. That year, Sofia won a writing contest, earning a place at the 2002 Telluride Film Festival as part of the City Lights Program. Sofia’s latest poem, “Compost”, appeared in the zine “Prairies Over Lawns”, which was exhibited at CAKE (Chicago Alternative Comics Expo) in 2024. Their short story, ‘Clyde’ will be published in the international literary magazine, Beyond Words, in April, 2025. Sofia currently resides in Santa Fe.