Kaya Rial
Kaya Rial
Organizing Director
Kaya (they/them) is a Filipinx artist, creative, storyteller, and first-gen immigrant. They immigrated to Chicago in 2012, and graduated in 2017 with a BFA in Architecture from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Their ancestral home is based in the Bicol region of the Philippines.
In community, they have design-collaborated with Grow-Op Chicago, a community garden advocacy group and seed-starting initiative; organized with Non-Monog Baddies, a queer and POC-centered non-monogamous/polyamorous discussion and support group; and are a founding member of House of Huitlacooch, a QTPOC-centered kink and BDSM arts and organizing collective. Additionally, they are an active farmer volunteer with Cedillo’s Fresh Produce, a family-run urban farm based in Englewood, and OTIS (Only Things In Season) Fresh Farm, a cooperatively-owned farm located in Back of the Yards. In their spare time, Kaya enjoys belting to 80s/90s power ballads, hoarding (dead) plants, catching up on books, looking for the moon every night, and sleeping in.
Kaya leads AFIREs mobilization efforts, monitoring campaign efforts happening within coalitions and creating spaces for community leaders to plug into civic engagement and campaign work.