This year was shaped by emergent focus on themes of (collective) power, lineage, and familial love, and featured workshops from guest artists in a range of mediums. Each week's session provided an opportunity to connect artmaking with political education, dialogue, and struggle. This year, we grounded in the local context of the proposed megajail, alongside the global context of imperial violence and capitalism. Guest teaching artists Ryan Wong, Serena Yang, Vincent Chong, and Joy Mao shared their wisdom in writing, poetry, book binding, and embroidery.

This year’s group project centered an examination of power and created a platform for fellows to articulate their own framing power, specifically collective power, and its role in realizing social change. The result was Gertrude Chen, a 15 foot long rainbow dragon puppet operated by 6 people. Constructed from recycled soup containers, her individually designed scales hold a wealth of intimate and personal references to power and love including drawings, protest photos, and poems. Her creation was a practice of queer play and performance as resistance, and proceeded to shape and feature in W.O.W.’s 2024 programming.

RRR’s sixth year closed with a final showcase, Under The Same Skies, where fellows presented their final independent projects and concluded their fellowship with W.O.W. Their projects were a culmination of skills they learned from guest artists and shared through community events. Inspired by themes of lineage, Asian American identities, and stories of collective power, Under The Same Skies honored personal and community narratives as guiding stars to navigate a constellation of relationships, politics, and history. The event opened with a gallery walk of each fellow’s projects and ended with a discussion panel featuring the cohort, unpacking the inspirations and processes of creating their work, along with dreams and hopes for the future and reflections on the past year as fellows.