Karen Joyce (they/them/siya) is an autonomous Filipinx Femme, interdisciplinary artist, musician, educator, mental health advocate, and trauma survivor. They created their zine project name, Yellow Stained Blue to represent an AAPI person living with mental & chronic illness. During Karen's personal healing and recovery process, they revisited their childhood loves of art and storytelling and thus Yellow Stained Blue, was born! They want to remind others that they are not alone and that “It’s Okay to Not Feel OK!” Karen has facilitated workshops on decolonizing mental health and identity at academic conferences, to grassroots community and youth centers. They currently work as a Case Manager serving marginalized individuals impacted by homelessness.
Through their work, they seek to empower disenfranchised communities and dismantle the harmful systems & effects of white supremacy and capitalism. Karen has a heart for QTBIPoC (Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous, & People-of-Color), youth, and persons-living-with-disabilities. They believe in navigating the world with compassion and courage and hope to eventually develop programs on suicide prevention as well as sexual violence education. Their latest zine, Stage Fright: How to Deal with Performance Anxiety—talks about performance from a decolonizing, anti-capitalist lens, and features insight & advice from 14 women, queer, and non-binary musicians-of-color. Stage Fright 2 is currently in the works. |