Author: Lavender Phoenix

Image description: Shivani smiles with a big smirk at the camera. They are outdoors with a white door and wall behind them

Shivani Chanillo

NOV 2021 | Shivani Chanillo Shivani Chanillo (they/them) has been involved with APIENC for about a year and is part of the new Community Safety committee. Shivani, who identifies as a queer South Asian non-binary person, moved to the Bay Area from Chicago during the pandemic and soon after, joined the Our World, Our Solutions

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Image description: A group selfie of APIENC staff, a sunflower, and summer organizers smiling outdoors.

I am reminded I am enough

When my time as an APIENC Summer Organizer came to a close, I brought ink to skin, tattooing a representation of my transformation this summer. Now, on my right arm is an abstract person whose head is exploding, three bold eyes flying in different directions. If I could encapsulate this summer with APIENC in a

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Image Description: a Zoom photo of 16 QTAPIs, including Nisha. Everyone is smiling at the camera, and making hearts and peace signs with their hands.

We need to extend humanity to ourselves.

I sat in a Zoom room with 30 other people—most, I didn’t know, and all, I had never actually met in-person. It was our first weekend of LEX—APIENC’s API Queer Justice Leadership Exchange—and I felt a mix of anxiety and excitement. Just over a year ago, I first joined APIENC. At the time, the COVID-19

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Image description: Jeff is sitting behind a desk indoors, smiling with hands folded in front of them. There are reusable name tags in front of them.

Jeff Ramos

JUL 2021 | JEFF RAMOS Jeff (they/he) joined APIENC in 2019 and is a member of the Trans Justice committee, where he is working on launching the peer counseling pilot. Jeff, who identifies as a Filipino American, demi/pansexual, genderqueer and nonbinary person, attended their first APIENC event back in October of 2019, the Fall Potluck.

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