Leading Women Artist Panel

SPNN's Leading Women Artist Panel highlights local female artists who have done significant work in their field and communities. 

Amoke Kubat, 9she/her) Writer, Artist

Amoke Kubat is a "North sider for life" who has been involved in empowering mothers and families since 1987. She is a Yoruba Priestess, teacher, artist, and writer who partners with community artists, activists, and organizations to bridge African/ African American culture and historical contributions into transformative actions and socially equitable practices for healing and building sustainable families and communities. Amoke is the designer of YO MAMA, a "mothering" artistic practice whose mission is to empower mothers by disrupting the devaluation of women's invisible labor and showcasing their mastery of the art of mothering and the universal traditional women's work that transforms into art-making and economic security. 

Pao Houa Her (she/her) Visual Artist

Pao Houa Her was born somewhere in the northern jungles of Laos. She fled Laos with her family when she was a baby, crossed the Mekong on her mother's back, was fed opium to keep from crying, lived in the refugee camps in Thailand and landed in America on a silver metal bird in the mid 1980s. She is a visual artist in Minnesota who works within multiple genres of photography. Her received her BFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and her MFA from Yale University. 

Marlena Myles (she/her) Visual Artist

Marlena Myles is a self-taught Native American (Spirit Lake 
Dakota/Mohegan/Muscogee) artist located in St Paul, Minnesota. Her art brings modernity to Indigenous history, languages and oral traditions while using the land as a teacher. Growing up on her traditional Dakota homelands here in the Twin Cities, she enjoys using her artwork to teach Minnesotans of all backgrounds the Indigenous history of this place we call home. In 2021, she opened her own Dakota publishing company called Wiyour:ikihipi (We Are Capable) Productions to create a wider platform that educates and honors the culture, language and history of Dakota people.