So Mak is a queer, gender non-conforming, Hong Kong Chinese American educator and facilitator with a strong artistic practice. They cut their teeth as a young organizer in Baltimore, MD, where they co-founded Baltimore Asian Resistance in Solidarity, bringing together Asian people in Baltimore for learning, mutual support & radical organizing.

With over 15 years of facilitation and training experience in nonprofits, schools, universities, and collectives, So has honed a speciality working at the intersection of art and social justice. As a facilitator, So brings a sharp power analysis and a creative approach to guiding groups through conversations about power and oppression. Their performance background allows So to create imaginative learning spaces that cultivate trust and vulnerability with participants, often inviting reflection and deep change.

In addition to their consulting work, So has spent the past four years coaching students and young professionals in their careers in art and design at the Parsons School of Design. They are also a member of a mental health collective that provides sliding scale peer counseling services to people of color. So holds an MA in Art and Public Policy from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where they used performance as a decolonizing research method to explore East Asian trans-masculinities through the racial metaphor of the banana. They have presented at numerous venues both nationally and abroad, Artist-In-Residence with their collaborator, Bex Kwan, at Brooklyn Arts Exchange 2019-2021, and is currently a Jerome Artist Fellow with Bex Kwan . Learn more about So’s artistic practice at sophiamak.com and soandbex.com.