!Kona

 !Kona is a Vancouver-based artist, writer, and activist. Her creative and social justice-oriented work has spanned arts/cultural, queer, feminist, Leather, and Black communities for over 20 years. !Kona identifies as a Black, Femme, Leatherdyke, Artist and highly engaged citizen currently existing on the unceded homelands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh, and səl̓ilwətaɁɬ peoples. She considers herself part of a stolen people on stolen land. Masquerading as a lower mainland cultural bureaucrat by day, she has a history of compulsively organizing and educating around the lives of Queers, BDSM practitioners, and Black folks.

!Kona is known for community development; consulting on organizational culture shift, agitating, and advocating in online social spaces; and sometimes acting professionally for film and TV. Through her production company, NubianImpProjects she: hosted the only queer bathhouse night in western Canada for almost a decade; created and held space for the D/s Discussion Salon series later replicated in Seattle; and produced the weekend-long D/s Intensive series which featured an internationally recognized community educator at each of the full weekends. For many years she co-disorganized the Bride of Pride Queer play parties and the 2009 Canadian Mayhem conference. She is also the co-creator of the interactive QueeriodicTable art project and experiential installation experienced in both Canada and the States.

BlackChat, 2023