ABOUT THE PERFORMING ARTISTS

7:05 – 7:45 pm 

Diana Gameros 

Songs of Light and Remembrance  

Featuring 

Diana Gameros – songwriter, singer, multi-instrumentalist 

Diana is a singer, guitarist, pianist, composer, songwriter, music instructor, lead teaching artist with the Lullaby Project and core band member of the Immigrant Orchestra. Based in San Francisco, California, she was born and raised in Ciudad Juárez, México and immigrated to the United States as a teenager to study music in Michigan. Over the last decade in the Bay Area she has released two albums of original songs written in Spanish and English, and Mexican classic songs. In 2014 Diana received the Emerging Leader Award by the Chicana/Latina Foundation. In 2015 she was named one of YBCA’s 100: creative minds, makers, and pioneers that are asking the questions  and making the provocations that will shape the future of American culture. NPR Music gave Diana an honorable mention to Arrullo in best Latin albums of the year in 2017. Diana was named one of SF Magazine’s 100 Artists: Artists Putting The East Bay On The Map, in 2018. 

Diana is currently a lead and teaching artist in San Francisco, for the Lullaby Project, a project of Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute which pairs new and expecting parents and caregivers with professional artists to write and sing personal lullabies for their babies, supporting parental health, aiding childhood development, and strengthening the bond between parent and child.

8:00 pm – 8:50 pm 

Nēkajun

Iranian Liberation Folk

Featuring: 
Nekajun –  guitar, vocals 
Aaron Kierbel – drums 
Ahmed Ragab – oud
Arslen Matouii – quanun
Z: guitar

Nēkajun is an Iranian American musician, storyteller, and farmer whose work braids land, memory, and resistance. Her songs draw from dried riverbeds, quieted forests, and communities shaped by borders and power.  On stage, she blends performance and education, lifting up stories of Iranian farmers, Indigenous land stewards, and others fighting to protect the earth. Her music aims to connect, teach, and energize collective action.

9:05 pm – 10:00 pm 

Melodies Under Occupation

Music from Palestine

An evening of Palestinian songs that celebrate resilience, culture, and love. Experience an intimate program of music and personal storytelling that highlights the human side of life in Palestine—focusing on family, community, and the everyday moments that shape identity.

Featuring:

Basma Edrees-Piano, Violin, Voice
Alaa Alqallel-Oud
Loay Dahbour-Percussion
Shaden Amleh-Singer
Hala Al-Khalil: Singer
Nour Bouhassoun-Singer
Frank Gelat: Singer
Marvin Flores: Poet

This event is not only about listening—it’s about understanding.

Awareness is the first act of solidarity. Come with an open heart and leave with a deeper sense of connection. With a special guest reading by Chicano poet Marvin Flores.

Basma Edrees is a graduate of The Juilliard School where she received her Masters in Violin Performance and Mannes School of Music where she received her Bachelors degree. She studied with Joseph Lin, Laurie Smukler, Sally Thomas, and Catherine Van Hoesen. Basma has performed under the batons of many great conductors including Alan Gilbert and Daniel Barenboim. Basma has served as Associate Concert Master of the Oakland Symphony during their 2015-2016 season. She has also been invited to sub for the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, San Francisco Opera Orchestra, San Jose Chamber Orchestra, San Jose Opera Orchestra as well as the Santa Rosa Symphony.

Basma has performed as a soloist in various countries including the USA, Montenegro, Ethiopia and her native country, Egypt. 

Equally at home with Arabic music, Basma is the founder of Music in-Takht; an instrumental ensemble dedicated to preserving Egyptian musical heritage in the SF Bay Area. She performed with renowned musicians from the Arab world and has been invited to give Arabic Music workshops at UC Berkeley and Stanford. She has taught Arabic music at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and has also been a member of the Arabic Music faculty at Labyrinth; one of the leading educational institutions of modal music. In early 2023, Basma was invited to play on the sound track of Assasin’s Creed Mirage alongside members of the New York Arabic Orchestra. From 2016 to 2019, Basma Edrees held the position of Music Director of the Aswat Women Ensemble, an all female Bay Area community ensemble specializing in Arab music. She also served as the co-manager and instructor of the Aswat Women Empowerment Program during their 2019 Fall season.

Visual Art Exhibition: Fracture Zones

Inspired by the geographical language and imagery of topographic maps, particularly the large scars forming “fracture zones” deep beneath the surface of the Atlantic Ocean, she uses these fissures as a metaphor for the layers of emotional experience related to ancestry, immigration, and lost family narratives.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Andrea Guskin is a San Francisco Bay Area based multidisciplinary artist who was raised amongst the woods and college campuses of Wisconsin and Ohio. 

She works across multiple disciplines including photography, sculpture, and painting. She often uses everyday domestic materials and tools for mending–such as thread, foil, spices– to explore ancestry, domesticity and strategies for repair and transformation in our daily lives.

After studying painting at Antioch College in Ohio, Guskin moved to New York City and became part of the art and songwriting communities on the Lower East Side, joining a group of visual and performing artists working in a 19th century school building now known as The Clemente. She exhibited her work and performed her songs regularly in the East Village (Sidewalk Cafe, C Note, CBGB’s Gallery). 

Since moving to California, she has regularly exhibited her work throughout the state (Berkeley Art Center, H Gallery, Mercury 20 Gallery), often combining her experience in museum education with her creative practice to lead participatory art events. Andrea is a 2025 recipient of the San Leandro Arts and Culture grant for her community cyanotype project, Local Roots. In 2023, she graduated with an M.F.A in Interdisciplinary Arts from Mills College at Northeastern University. She currently lives in San Leandro with her husband and two sons.