Anida Yoeu Esguerra seeks an artistic, spiritual and political exploration of her identity as a non hyphenated Cambodian Muslim American woman. Esguerra is a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary artist who believes in pushing artistic and political boundaries. She creates art that mixes the visual, spoken and written into performed investigations of hybrid identities. She is interested in using performance work as a means to transform losses into conversations about healing and understanding. She is a founding member of the critically acclaimed panAsian American spoken word quartet I Was Born With Two Tongues as well as Mango Tribe, an Asian American women’s performance ensemble. Esguerra tours extensively in North America with recent international performances in The Faroe Islands, Delhi, Ho Chi Minh City, Phnom Penh and Chiang Mai. Esguerra is co-editor of Screaming Monkeys: Critiques of Asian American Images (Coffee House Press, 2003), ForeWord Magazine’s Gold Book of the Year. In 2002, Esguerra was recognized by PoliticalCircus.com as one of the 30 most influential Asian Pacific Americans 30 years of age or younger. Esguerra’s continued cultural work within the development of dialogue concerning social justice and human rights earned her Insight Arts’ Creative Movements Award for Spoken Word/Poetry. Her much anticipated full length CD, On the Cusp of Phoenix Rising, an experiment in sound and poetry will be released in Fall 2006. She aches for home, a good pair of ass-kicking shoes, and poetry by Audre Lorde. She is proud to call Chicago home but knows the journey never really ends for the refugee. For more information visit www.atomicshogun.com.