2025 BANF Artist Awards
Recognizing that individual artists are essential to Houston’s arts ecosystem BANF is, investing $1M over three years to create transformative opportunities for artists whose artistic practice demonstrates a history of leadership, service, and support for and with Greater Houston’s BIPOC communities.
Meet the 2025 Awardees
Anthony J. Suber
Texas native and interdisciplinary artist, professor at the Katherine G. McGovern College of the University of Houston’s School of Art. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Greece and Project Row Houses in Houston.
Byron Canady
Artist, educator, and entrepreneur. He used his background in the film/entertainment industry and lifelong passion for comics and graphic novels to expand the narrative of marginalized voices everywhere.
Chris Thomas / YungChris
Also known as YungChris, he has been instrumental in organizing impactful and successful street dance events in Texas. In Houston, he established his dance company, Sonkiss’d Dance Concepts. Some of his former dancers now work and tour with artists such as Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Lizzo, and Beyoncé.
Claudia Cepeda
Claudia Cepeda was born in Mexico and raised in Houston. She is passionate about the enhancement of communities and their health through public art projects. Claudia is also a 3D chalk artist and a volunteer for ACE Mentor Houston, Somos Todos, and CRATE Houston.
Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton
An award-winning, multi-hyphenate literary artist, director, performer, critic and the first Black Poet Laureate of Houston. Formerly the No. 2 Best Female Performance Poet in the World (PSI), her work has appeared in Houston Noir by Akashic Press (2019), Black Girl Magic by Haymarket Books (2019), the Texas Observer, and Fjords Journal.
Jorge Garza
Mexican tenor, Jorge Garza, graduate of the Juilliard School and the Academy of Vocal Arts, has sung with opera companies both domestically and internationally including Los Angeles Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Philadelphia Opera, Potsdamer Musikfestspiele (Berlin), Volkstheater (Vienna), among others.
Julia Barbosa Landois
Multidisciplinary artist born in San Antonio and based in Houston. Her videos, installations, performances, and works on paper have been exhibited in the United States, Latin America, and Europe. Her works on paper are in the permanent collections of the City of Houston and Houston Endowment as well as many private collections.
Luana Da Silva
Brasilian multidisciplinary artist and performer, social worker, consultant, cultural worker, and birth worker based in Houston. Luana has been continuously involved in performing, teaching, and organizing cultural events, such as the Houston Brazilian Festival, Houston Pride Parade, Houston Afro-Latin Dance Fest, Houston AfriFEST, East End Street Festival, and others.
Marissa Castillo
Marissa Castillo is from Lubbock, TX and graduated from Cornish College of the Arts with a BFA in Theatre with an emphasis in Original Works. Since moving to Houston, she has appeared on stage with Main Street Theatre, Stages Repertory Theatre and Rogue Productions. In 2018 she co-founded TEATRX- A Latinx Theatre Company.
Mikaela Selley
Mikaela Selley has ten years of professional experience as an archivist with hands-on experience in the preservation, documentation and digitization of historical manuscripts and photographs significant to Houston’s Hispanic and Latina/o heritage.
Mo Nikole
Houston-based Black lesbian sound curator and Black cultural worker focused on creating safe spaces to heal, connect, and discover through curated sound experiences and Black oral history and archives. WOMON is the creator of @blkpplchrch – an “aint religious” functioning community space/dance party to honor the Black aesthetic by way of music and fellowship.
Phillip Pyle, II
Visual artist, graphic designer, photographer, and agitator based in Houston, whose primary interests are race, humor, advertising, sports, and popular culture. Through art, Pyle introduces a complex vision that derives from a robust comedic foundation while also looking at the abstraction and transience of our values, and beliefs.
Rachel H. Dickson
Visionary theater artist and storyteller, blending creativity, leadership, and a passion for equity to drive impactful change in the arts. With a background in nonprofit theater and expertise in new-work development, she has a proven ability to nurture collaboration, foster leadership, and align stakeholders toward shared goals.
Reyes Ramirez
Writer, educator, curator, and organizer of Mexican and Salvadoran descent. He authored the short story collection The Book of Wanderers (2022), a 2023 Young Lions Fiction Award Finalist, from University of Arizona Press’ Camino del Sol series, the poetry collection El Rey of Gold Teeth (2023) from Hub City Press, a finalist for the 2024.
Ruby Rivera
Born of Puerto Rican and Guatemalan descent, grew up in Houston’s Northside and graduated from The University of Texas at Austin. Driven by her passion for making art accessible to the community, Ruby founded the Texas Salsa Congress. Over nineteen years, the TSC has played a pivotal role in creating partnerships and organizing public events in Houston and its surrounding communities.
ShaWanna Renee Rivon
Award-winning and nationally renowned playwright, producer, director, and actor. She earned her BFA in Playwriting & Dramaturgy and an MA in Arts Administration from the University of Houston. She started her professional writing career by authoring the hit urban plays Cheaper to Keep Her and Marriage Material, which both toured nationally.
Sierra Sankofa
Educator, maternal mental health advocate, full-spectrum doula, community organizer, trainer and speaker. She founded Sankofa Mama Birth Services with a mission to center and enrich the birth experiences of Black mothers and to help them navigate the systemic challenges they face birthing in the United States.
Sneha Bhavsar
Innovative visual artist and community activist. She explores folk art practices from different cultures and uses traditional techniques to create contemporary paintings, installations, and crafts. Her artwork is influenced by cultural symbols and motifs commonly found in a range of folk art patterns from ancient India, Southeast Asia, and South America.
Sofia Silueta
Latinx queer woman raised in Mexico and Houston. They are a scientist, chainmail artist, cellist, and multimedia artist, focusing on breaking the invisible barriers between our bodies inhabiting the same sonic and physical spaces to create radical environments for collaboration and community.
Stalina Emmanuelle Villarreal
A deep-watching ekphrastic poet, photographic eco-essayist, broad-stroke sketch artist, sonic improv performer, sound-sensitive literary translator, and an assistant professor of English. Her bilingualism stems from her experience being both Mexican and Xicanx.
Theresa R. Escobedo
Multi-disciplinary creative currently living and working in Houston. She studied at the University of Houston and received a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Design in addition to a Bachelor’s Degree of Architecture. She manages the Civic Art Program for the City of Houston through the Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs.
Will North
Cultural worker and community historian based in Houston. Through his writings and artwork, he explores and helps facilitate inter-generational dialogues in shared spaces. He develops curriculum as a mentor in a rites of passage program for teenage boys and has worked with children of all ages as a volunteer art history instructor.
2025 Artist Award Ceremony
Awardee Eligibility and Criteria
- Artists who self-identify as a member of Greater Houston’s Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian Pacific Islander and/or other communities of color will receive particular consideration.
- Artists whose creative work has been recognized by local, regional, or national cultural organizations, leaders, artistic professionals, or other community advocates and leaders. Not necessarily recognition only through awards; but also through community impact, and the contribution their art/product has had in the community.
- Artists have demonstrated a history of service and support for and with a community of color in Houston. The artists’ focus is geared towards a thriving community rather than individual gain. Distinctive from collaboration, service to the community highlights the well-being, and growth of its members.
- Artists have demonstrated a history of and commitment to artistic activity/production.
- Artists have demonstrated a commitment to learning, offering expertise, and engaging with others in a productive and active manner.
2025 BIPOC Arts Network and Fund Artist Awards Process
The BIPOC Arts Network and Fund committed to resourcing individual artists since its inception in August of 2021. As with all BANF resource initiatives, we aim to build a community-participatory process that reduces barriers to entry, recognizes the humanity and value of each applicant, and avoids granting practices that perpetuate harm, particularly to those historically marginalized and under-recognized. We focus our knowledge, expertise, and energy on the process more than controlling for an outcome. Our process-oriented approach has shown that taking time for reflection is essential. We are in the process of learning with our committees, community readers, and partners. After we synthesize our initial learnings, BANF will host opportunities to learn from the selection committees and community panels in the upcoming months.