profile
Starting his artistic career in pristine nature photography, Pang evolved his work to focus on people in the context of environmental and social backgrounds. Integrating photography and poetry, he launched Tea Party Magazine as a platform to provide inclusion for other emerging artists. After exhibiting his own work in Shanghai, China, Pang evolved the magazine into Tea Roots as an arts production company.
Pang has joined with artists from many other disciplines and other arts organizations to branch Tea Roots into visual exhibition and music. As well, Pang has been actively involved with poetry and art in the Bay Area since the 1990's. He co-curated the Artship Wordsmith Series; and, he was on the Steering Committee for the Artship Foundation for five years.
In conjunction with Artship, Pang curated the Artist's Alley for the Annual International Dragonboat Festival at Jack London Square, Oakland. Most recently, Pang is well known for his participation in the Altered Barbie exhibits in San Francisco where Tea Roots artists present literary and music performances. He is currently on the Political Action Committee for Local 21 in San Francisco supporting worker rights and a living wage for all.
audrey sacco
marketing director
Audrey is a long-term, avid supporter of community wellness through the arts. From fundraising, to brand building, business development, and social outreach, she wears many hats to market the aims and activities of Tea Roots. What she brings to the group is energy, resourcefulness and a facility for working with people, while helping with strategic thinking, and project management.
Joining the group during its early literary magazine days, Audrey was able to contribute crucial advertising experience to pull in more ads and build North American distribution. At present, she spotlights Tea Roots events to potential sponsors, while helping to bring in the relevant artists for a particular show’s theme.
Growing up in Baltimore, along with a bit of Boston, Paris and London, Audrey gained early exposure to the art world and was surrounded by great diversity. Such osmosis was all thanks to artist parents, their associates, and proximity to Washington, DC. This thorough exposure to art and politics gave her a lifelong passion for multicultural projects and community support.
While in London, she was fortunate to be granted a place at the London School of Economics, having the intention of majoring in Political Science, to then head to law school. That was until she sampled an Economic History class, while shopping for course electives. The instructor’s outline of migration and class issues, industrialization and art saw her immediately switch majors, with a side foray into Public International Law. Later, while learning film distribution at Sony Pictures Entertainment and documentary production through the International Documentary Association, she completed a night-time MBA with a focus on educational media. Field work to finish the degree included stints in marketing, sales, distribution, and licensing, among various film studios and outside groups. Having new advertising and tech focal points, she joined Bay area new-‐technology finance groups to support the growth of educational media, while supporting documentary projects. The most interesting film was an ongoing study about Florida’s Weeki Wachee natural springs, their mermaid lore and underwater theater.
Eric Murphy is a photographer, art collector and independent curator who has been supporting the Oakland arts scene since 1999. He was a long time staff person of Pro Arts Gallery in Oakland and represented many Bay Area artists. He has supported many Bay Area galleries, such as: Slate Contemporary, Firehouse Art Center & Harrington Gallery, and Evolve the Gallery. In 2012, he was Project Manager and Curator for the Fukuoka Artist Exchange – a traveling exhibition of Oakland artists James Gayles and Hiroko To. This celebrated the 50th anniversary of the City of Oakland’s sister city relationship with the City of Fukuoka in Japan.
Murphy is currently Gallery Curator of the Joyce Gordon Gallery in downtown Oakland, and Curatorial Advisor for Tea Roots. He is a re-appointed member of the Alameda County Arts Commission.
eric murphy
curatorial advisor
maya khosla
poetry editor
Maya Khosla is the 10th Poet Laureate, 2018-2019 for Sonoma County, CA. Her work for the natural world led her into the wild, to the page and to the screen. Searching for the Gold Spot, her new film about wild places after wildfire, is being featured in festivals across the United States. She continues to document wildlife across the State of California to figure out levels of pesticides that would be safe for non-target wildlife.
Her writing has been featured in journals including Flyway, Kosmos Journal, Nature Writing, Humans and Nature, Bird Note, Tiny Lights and others. Joining the Bay Area’s community of writers, Maya has contributed to Watershed Environmental Poetry Festival and has taught workshops at Stanford University Continuing Studies Program and at Mendocino Writers Workshop. Her new poetry collection, “Song of the Forests After Wildfire,” was recently accepted by Sixteen Rivers Press, a Bay-Area collective. Her books are “Web of Water: Life in Redwood Creek” (non-fiction) and “Keel Bone” (poems, Bear Star Press, Dorothy Brunsman Poetry Prize).