Rooted in Community, Powered by Justice: Meet the Changemakers of our Student Night Cross Cultural Panel
Join us for the Student Night performance of PARANORMAL INSIDE on Thursday, October 16 to discuss a more just and connected world.
Across sectors and identities, there are leaders who quietly and powerfully reshape the world through presence, purpose, and people. From community mental health to dance, policy to podcasting, these five visionaries are building bridges between advocacy, art, healing, and belonging.
Meet Jazzmun Nichcala Crayton, Wanda Pathomrit, Usa Prompongsatorn, Bernard Brown, and panel moderator elaine hàng; each one a changemaker whose collective work invites us to imagine a more just and connected world between Black and Asian American communities.
Jazzmun Nichcala Crayton: At the Intersection of Storytelling and Structural Change
Jazzmun Nichcala Crayton has built a career that bridges the worlds of entertainment and advocacy – actress, producer, and policy leader. Beyond the screen and stage, Jazzmun is a dedicated advocate for equity and justice. She currently serves as Associate Director at Access Prevention Advocacy Intervention and Treatment (APAIT), where she develops and oversees programs serving historically marginalized and underserved communities.
Her civic leadership extends to the City of Los Angeles Transgender Advisory Council, where she works to shape policy and legislation that advance the empowerment of transgender communities, particularly around inclusive housing, and employment opportunities.
Wanda Pathomrit: Mental Health Advocate and Anti-Hate Leader
Wanda Pathomrit is a psychiatric community mental health therapist at SSG–Asian Pacific Counseling & Treatment Center (APCTC), where she provides care for Thai immigrant communities in Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley. She has also worked with organizations such as the Thai Community Development Center, Little Tokyo Service Center, and Center for the Pacific Asian Family to expand immigrant access to social, legal, and mental health services. In addition, she serves as a Board Advisor for Healing Out Lao’d, a podcast that uplifts Lao diaspora storytelling, healing, and sustainability.
At APCTC, Wanda also leads the Stop the Hate project, part of a statewide network that has grown to support more than 180 organizations serving Asian, Black, Indigenous, Latinx, LGBTQ+, Pacific Islander, and disability communities. She advances community awareness in relation to hate crime/hate incidents , while coordinating prevention, direct services, and empowerment self-defense workshops for Limited English Proficient Thai immigrant workers in the massage and restaurant industries. These efforts align with the Grant initiative, which funds research-based strategies to help communities heal and recover from hate through culturally relevant and language-accessible resources.
Usa Prompongsatorn: Shaping Justice through Leadership, Identity, and Spirit
Usa Prompongsatorn is an organizational development professional and community-based scholar whose work bridges leadership practice, cultural identity, and social justice. With more than two decades of experience strengthening nonprofits, she supports organizations in building equity driven practices and fostering transformative leadership. Her executive experience includes co-directing a politicized somatics nonprofit, generative somatics, and organizational culture building at advocacy organizations. Usa is the Organizational Resilience Officer at the Thai Community Development Center.
As a doctoral candidate, her research focuses on spirituality, healing, and sociopolitical development in the lives of Thai American Women. The research extends Gloria Anzaldúa’s Path of Conocimiento into a Thai diasporic framework where Usa and her research participants navigate identity, belongingness and liberation. Usa is deeply committed to meaningful solidarity work across race and ethnicity to center cultural narratives as tools for healing and collective transformation. You can find Usa’s work at usaleeconsulting.com.
Bernard Brown: Dance as Dialogue, Movement as Memory
Bernard Brown (he/they) Artistic Director of Bernard Brown/bbmoves, is a Los Angeles-based performing artist, choreographer, filmmaker, activist, and educator who situates his work at the intersection of Blackness, belonging, and memory. In addition to their scholarship on Blackness, queerness, activism, inclusive pedagogy, and modern dance nationally, Bernard is interested in excavating the ways in which art can transform, create ripples of empathy, and foster healing. His work is rooted in catalyzing change through dance; dance sparks dialogue which in turn, inspires action, the action being the change within our communities.
Earning his MFA from UCLA’s Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance and BFA from Purchase College, recent faculty appointments include Loyola Marymount University, Sacramento State University, New York University (Tisch School of the Arts), and the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance Department in addition to the School of Theater, Film and Television at UCLA. A first generation college graduate, Bernard is currently an Assistant Professor of Dance at University of California San Diego, and a Certified Katherine Dunham Technique Instructor.
Moderator; elaine hàng: Holding Space for Southeast Asian Solidarity and Healing
elaine hàng has dedicated much of her education, community work, and professional work to supporting Southeast Asian communities. She is involved with Tuesday Night Project, VAALA, and with mutual aid organizations like the Matilija Collective – she is always seeking to be connected with more. She currently works at OCAPCIA on their Stop the Hate program which aims to educate folks on identifying and reporting acts of discrimination as well as to provide services for healing from incidents of hate & harm.
A Shared Commitment to Justice, Healing, and Collective Power
Across their work, these leaders offer unique pathways toward healing and justice. Yet, they all share a common truth: that transformation happens when communities are resourced, seen, and empowered. Their efforts remind us that equity is a practice, healing is political, and cultural work is justice work.
Join us on October 16th at 8PM for a discussion on building empathy and support between Black & Asian communities in these divided times.
Our Student Night / Cross-Cultural Panel Discussion performance is supported in part by the County of Los Angeles Chief Executive Office (CEO) Anti-Racism, Diversity, and Inclusion (ARDI) Initiative’s Equity and Diversity Fund.
PARANORMAL INSIDE is supported in part by the County of Los Angeles Chief Executive Office (CEO) Anti-Racism, Diversity, and Inclusion (ARDI) Initiative’s Equity and Diversity Fund; the Venturous Theater Fund, a fund of Tides Foundation; the National New Play Network Venturous Production Pipeline Award; Asian Pacific Community Fund; Los Angeles New Play Project; The Roy Cockrum Foundation; National Endowment for the Arts; Alex Giza & Cathy Noonan; Tom Stempel; and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Department of Arts and Culture. East West Players is a recipient of the 2025 THRIVE! Grant, funded by the Theater League of Kansas City and administered by Theatre Communications Group, the national organization for theatre leading for a just and thriving theatre ecology.
