Recently through an unnamed source (me), I caught wind of a marketing campaign for ASU’s new program, AZNext, a “Workforce Training Accelerator Partnership for Next Generation Jobs”. Go devils or whatever. However, unlike a lot of marketing campaigns, this is for something free - no one is trying to make any money. ASU got a grant from the US Department of Labor to fund programs and certificates to help struggling graduates or career pivoters level up their resumes. Normally, as I’m sure you’ve seen, people market a blush or a skincare product and it’s the best thing ever and you need it so bad and it’ll change your life. Which, not true, but you know what is actually the best thing ever and we need it so bad because it’ll change lives? These upskilling programs from AZNext. This could get someone employed! The job market sucks! And it’s free! Okay quick breakdown - there are three categories of programs/certificates and many different types of program training options. They are going to sound boring. I need an open mind and heart here. One of the certificates in the Business/Data Analytics category is quite popular in the W. P. Carey School of Business, which I graduated from. It’s the Applied Business Data Analytics Certificate, and I can think of 5 or 6 people off of the top of my head who have completed the certificate. See below for a response from Divya Gootam, class of ‘23, on whether or not that certificate helped her get her job in New York City. I would highly recommend checking out the programs on their website and seeing if anything could be of any use to you. The requirements/qualifications range based on the program, but are focused on the below. Some require applicants to be in undergraduate/graduate programs, some require a certain level of skill in an area, and some have no prior education requirements. Participants must be: 17 years of age or older A high school diploma or GED Resident of the State of Arizona Unemployed, underemployed, looking to upskill/retrain And besides all of this, they also partner with companies to get you interviews and lined up with jobs post certificate/program training. I highly doubt any of you will click on the link to actually look at the website so maybe I can entice you with this video of all of the companies.

For some background on why Club Rambutan decided to take the bold, risky, inspired step to put on a market…. Last cohort (Cohort 2), one of our clothing stylists, Katherine Morales, gave us insight on her experience being a thrift vendor in the Phoenix community and talked to us about this idea of doing an all-women’s market. Our event coordinator, Sam, met with Katherine, where she was able to verbalize her feelings and frustrations with previous markets, especially when it was male-dominated. After that, we decided that we wanted to plan a local market prioritizing and centering women and femme vendors in Phoenix. As for my part in this whole thing, I arrived at Studio Wilson super early because my roommate was volunteering to help set up and we wanted to take the lightrail together. We just love public transit like that. Here’s some behind the scenes of event set-up. Since I was there so early and had so much spare time, I went around and interviewed a few of the vendors that caught my eye. See below for rapid-fire interviews with some of the amazing vendors I got to meet! Serena - @ribbonsteahouse RIbbon’s Teahouse is a Filipino owned family business in Litchfield Park. They specialize in loose leaf tea, and are known for their pastries. By known for their pastries, I mean that my roommate drives 45 minutes to get cake and goes, “Man, I love Ribbon’s!” How did you hear about this event? What made you decide to apply to be a vendor? I’ve been following Club Rambutan for some time now, and have a lot of mutuals who were involved. My family owns and runs Ribbon’s Teahouse in Litchfield Park. Is this your first time vending? Have you done this before? We usually sell at farmer’s markets, and have a food truck instead of a table. This is our first time vending in a booth though. We’re the only boba shop here, so that’s different! What’s important about an inclusive space to you? I love the community that was fostered in Club Rambutan, and that it started initially with a focus on AAPI. (Philippines mentioned!) How has your experience been so far? Everyone has been so nice, and it’s amazing that the community showed up! We’ve been getting a lot of Asians (laughs). Priyanka (Makin Stuff Labs) - @priyankasomething / @makinstuff.online Priyanka’s booth was one of the more unique booths there and I wish I had been able to chat longer! She’s a computer engineer, educator and multidisciplinary artist. For the market, she had dozens of laser cut hairclips and keychains, and gave me one for f*ee. Check out more of her work here. How did you hear about this event? What made you decide to apply to be a vendor? I know Percy (CR's newsletter and lead merch designer), who reposted the vendor application on his story. I grew up in Phoenix, but am new to this area, so I thought this would be a great way to get to know people. Is this your first time vending? This is my first craft fair! I’ve sold artwork and books together in the past, but not in a setup like this. It’s been really fun so far. CR specifically wanted to put on an all women/femme/inclusive market to prioritize these vendors in typically male dominated spaces. What’s important about an inclusive space to you? I am excited for an all femme market since so many of these spaces are white male dominated! Kathy - @mujerezretro Kathy is actually the person who inspired the market event! I didn’t realize when I was interviewing her or I would have asked less boilerplate questions. How did you hear about this event? What made you decide to apply to be a vendor? I’m actually friends with Jasmin (Creative Director) and helped out with the last magazine. Is this your first time vending? Have you done this before? I’ve been vending for three years. I used to thrift a lot, loved going to flea markets, and eventually thought, “Wait, I can do this myself!" How’d you get started doing this? What makes you decide to do it again? I love the way people react when they find something they love, and seeing their personal style. Everyone always comes to these things dressed so well. I also love seeing the other vendors, how they set up their booths and how they style themselves. CR specifically wanted to put on an all women/femme/inclusive market to prioritize these vendors in typically male dominated spaces. How has your experience been so far? I like it, it’s been great seeing women coming together to carve out a space for a creative market. A lot of the other markets I’ve been to have been very male dominated, like Pickers Playground or Ivory House. As for how everything’s going, people have been big fans of the lingerie wall. Courtney - @courtneysbakehouse I got the Cheddar Jalapeno sourdough loaf. REALLY good. HIGHLY recommend. How did you hear about this event? What made you decide to apply to be a vendor? Club Rambutan reached out to me and asked if I wanted to apply to their market, and I said yes! Is this your first time vending? Have you done this before? I just did my first market 2 weeks ago, the Thems Market. I get nervous when it comes to food, but I sold out of everything! I got really excited and decided that I wanted to continue doing markets. How’d you get started doing this? What makes you decide to do it again? At the beginning of the year, I decided I didn’t want to buy bread anymore and I could do it myself. There’s not enough bread in the queer community (laughs). I started my business a couple months ago and it’s been great. Bread is very community forward, and I love seeing the people in my community enjoy what I make. CR specifically wanted to put on an all women/femme/inclusive market to prioritize these vendors in typically male dominated spaces. What’s important about an inclusive space to you? I would say Phoenix is a pretty progressive city. However, it’s more like pockets of community that could use more people. We would be better together. These markets give people the opportunity to connect with others like them and build connections. How has your experience been so far? (After this question I bought a loaf of bread) Almost sold out of the cinnamon rolls. It’s going great. Lydia & Al - @lyd.alduin How did you hear about this event? What made you decide to apply to be a vendor? We saw it on Instagram and were like, “Let’s try a local market!” Is this your first time vending? Have you done this before? We’ve done a lot of markets at anime conventions, comic conventions, etc. How’d you get started doing this? What makes you decide to do it again? It’s really nice to have everything handmade and see people that love our work. It makes us feel like what we are doing is meaningful. Also, love seeing people’s smiles! What’s important about an inclusive space to you? The idea of being able to be welcome and included in a place is really appealing. We’re a queer couple that wants to make a living off of art, and it’s cool to not be the odd ones out. Sometimes at bigger conventions, or more stereotypical conventions, we get some funny glances, so it’s nice to have a safe space. Charlotte - @charlotteyiu.art How did you hear about this event? What lol made you decide to apply to be a vendor? Club Rambutan reached out to me! I thought the vibe was good so I applied. Is this your first time vending? Have you done this before? No, I typically vend at Phoenix Flea and other markets. It’s basically my full time job, I do this year round. How’d you get started doing this? What makes you decide to do it again? I went to art school in Florida and I didn’t know what to do with my degree. CR specifically wanted to put on an all women/femme/inclusive market to prioritize these vendors in typically male dominated spaces. What’s important about an inclusive space to you? I vended at a different market this morning, Saturday morning, and I had a lot of people ask stupid questions. People will say, “I love Japanese art!” I’m not Japanese. An inclusive space has the right audience, people who come to this market are interested in independent artists and are overall more informed. Dyanne - @flygirlsvintage How did you hear about this event? What made you decide to apply to be a vendor? I saw it on Kathy’s story and I wanted to bring back the shop! I haven’t been a vendor at a market in a year or so. I missed the environment of a market, to be honest. I love getting to meet people, and I work from home, so I’m pretty isolated. How’d you initially get started? Why’d you stop? I started Fly Girls Vintage with my friend who was training to be a pilot while I was a flight attendant. We would take trips, free because of flight benefits, and thrift wherever we went. I haven’t been able to go thrifting as often, and my friend moved away, which is why we took a break for a year or so. CR specifically wanted to put on an all women/femme/inclusive market to prioritize these vendors in typically male dominated spaces. What’s important about an inclusive space to you? How's your experience been so far? I love the girls supporting girls vibe. I’m sure many people have said this, but the markets are so male dominated. I do this for fun, and it’s been great getting to meet people. I really like everyone I’ve met so far. It’s a great community. ...end of rapid fire interviews! If you made it this far, here’s a photo of Jasmin holding up Ed Hardy socks.

Irene Suh (@iirbee) is an artist based in the Bay Area specializing in illustration and painting. Graduating from UC Santa Barbara, her work has been featured in multiple art exhibitions over the years. Over a call, I chatted with Irene about her art medium of choice, the process of getting work featured in exhibitions, and the balance between work and life as an artist. Felix: You're an artist who has delved into different mediums of art, ranging from embroidery to illustrations and paintings. What were the reasons for choosing different art mediums? What draws you to them, and which sticks out the most to you? Irene: I try out different mediums just because it’s fun for myself–I like that it challenges me to create new things. I am most comfortable with graphite, acrylic, and watercolor. I like those three because when I'm painting specifically, I visualize doing it layer by layer, which is my technique on how I create things. Acrylic and watercolor easily allow me to do that. I also like oil painting because of how it never fully dries or hardens. I enjoy how the colors interact with each other and how you can't predict how it's going to turn out. F: Congratulations on having your art featured in the art exhibit, “Positive Exposure: Southern California Asian American Art”. What was the process like of having your work accepted there? How does it differ from creating your student art exhibit in 2022? I: Sophia, my intern director, posted about the opportunity, and Christine, my friend, knew that I was an Asian American artist, so she invited me to apply. Even though I was invited to apply, it was still very validating to have my work displayed in a public setting. Compared to a student exhibit, it is very different, especially because you're seeing a lot more new people, and since it's a group exhibit, it invites a lot of other non-student viewers that would have been harder to meet otherwise. To have people of all ages approach me and say, “Wow, this really resonated with me, and I love what you're doing”, was just a very validating experience. Having my solo exhibit back in my senior year of college was different. For that exhibit, it was a lot more pressure because I was creating it myself, and I needed to have a vision of how I was going to install everything. It was a two-day process where I was not sleeping. I was proud of how it came together in the end though, and it pushed me to see how I wanted my art pieces to interact with one other. For example, adding other elements, like chairs and the carpet, gives a more domestic feel and setting for my paintings to kind of live in. I also had an exhibition with Arc Studios and Gallery during this past summer in San Francisco, and then I had another one in Palo Alto for the Palo Alto Art Center. F: How is it balancing your nine-to-five and working on your art as well? I: Honestly, it's something that I still struggle with, even though the job I'm working at is still art-related. It's simultaneously inspiring because I work with a lot of students who are in middle and high school, so it's inspiring to see how hard they work to build the start of their practice. It’s motivating because it pushes me to work on my art, but then I struggle with the pressure of making good art. I have to overcome this pressure by just doing it. Sketchbook illustrations are what I enjoy doing the most currently. It's a lot less pressure and it still lets me be creative without thinking about all of the pre-planning of what I want to go into a piece. Art shouldn’t be thinking of how the end product will be, but rather how it makes you feel in the moment. I wouldn't tell another person or artist to plan every little step to make sure it's “good” art, because there's no such thing. I'm trying to be nicer and more forgiving to myself. F: Looking back at your college experience and to where you are now, what is some advice you would give to someone studying art in college, or getting into art post-grad? I: My advice would be to find a strong community and support system of other creatives, not necessarily people who work in the same field as you. For me, I have a lot of friends who are into film, photography, or acting, and so seeing them pursue their passions encourages me to pursue my own, being able to talk with them and relate to one another as artists. My other advice for post-grad is to be kind to yourself. Whether you have a creative block or are suffering from burnout, do not push yourself too hard, and let yourself take that break if you need to. Pursue other hobbies, because if you try new things, you may find that it inspires you and your art in unexpected ways.

Go vote! By the time this newsletter reaches you, election day will be upon us and it’s on you, lovely Rambutan Roundup subscribers, to fulfill your civic duty. Remember, the right to vote was hard fought and hard won, and we do a disservice to the people who came before us to not exercise our rights (unless you have had the right to vote since America came about, in which case, you have no obligations. Free reign!). I did in fact attend some election related events this past month and I won’t bore you with the details. This is first, in the name of being objective, and second, not your business! I’ve already subtly expressed my views so that you can take my bias into consideration. Without further ado - here is a breakdown of the propositions that will be voted on during the 2024 election. I have included any additional pertinent information that may provide insight on some of these - in other words, I asked a former state employee what the people might be missing. Proposition 133 “Require partisan primary elections for partisan offices and prohibit primary elections where all candidates, regardless of political party affiliation, run in the same primary election, such as top-two, top-four, and top-five primaries.” What this means: This would only allow primary elections where candidates from the same party run against each other. This would not allow primary elections where candidates from all parties compete against each other (Prop 140). This means that there will always be a candidate from each party in the final. Proposition 134 “Create a signature distribution requirement for citizen-initiated ballot measures based on state legislative districts.” What this means: Require a certain number of signatures from all 30 districts in the state in order to get a proposition by citizens on the ballot. Currently, the constitution requires only a percentage of a total number of voters in the state, not percentages from each district. Think of the people who ask for signatures on college campuses, near malls, in public spaces, etc. Many other states have signature distribution requirements for citizen ballot measures, but most allow for lower percentages of voters and do not require all districts/counties to fulfill the signature requirement. Proposition 135 “Provide for the legislature to terminate a state of emergency or alter the emergency powers of the governor during the state of emergency, and provide for any emergency powers granted to the governor to automatically terminate 30 days after the state of emergency is proclaimed, unless the state legislature extends the emergency powers granted to the governor, and except in cases for a state of war emergency or an emergency arising from a flood or a fire.” What this means: Senate and House of Representatives can vote to stop a state of emergency or change the governor’s powers during the state of emergency. It would require ⅓ to pass. This proposition also would end the governor’s emergency powers after 30 days unless the Senate and House voted to continue them, unless it’s about war, flood or fire. Former State employee says: “Note that disease is not one of these three.” Proposition 136 “Provide for challenges to an initiative measure or constitutional amendment after the filing of the measure with the secretary of state.” What this means:Anyone can legally challenge a measure or proposition going on the AZ ballot up to 100 days before the election for being unconstitutional. A superior court (trial court, first level) would review all of these and make a decision on whether the measure/proposition is unconstitutional. After this decision is made, anyone can appeal this again for up to 5 days. Former State employee says: “This adds a lot more work to the trial courts when they are already extremely behind.” Proposition 137 “End term limits for state supreme court justices and superior court judges, replacing them with terms of good behavior, unless decided otherwise by a judicial review commission, and would end retention elections at the end of the judicial term, providing for retention elections under certain circumstances.” What this means: State supreme court justices and judges will not have term limits, similar to the federal supreme court. They will have their term ended if found guilty of a felony, a crime involving fraud/dishonesty, or if they have declared bankruptcy/foreclosure. Currently, state supreme court justices have terms of 6 years, and the judges have terms of 4 years. Former state employee says: “Undecided on this - we see how the US Supreme court has played out, however, the entire reasoning behind no term limits is so that they are not tempted to take any bribes or monetary support to keep their position. Under normal circumstances it’s supposed to keep them nonpartisan.” Proposition 138 “Allow for tipped workers to be paid 25% less per hour than the minimum wage provided that the worker's total compensation was not less than the minimum wage plus $2.” What this means: Pretty straightforward. Currently, businesses can pay tipped workers $3 less than minimum as long as their take home pay with tips equals at least minimum wage. Proposition 139 “Provide for a state constitutional right to abortion before fetal viability.” What this means: Also straightforward, fetal viability means the point in pregnancy when the fetus has a chance to survive outside of the womb. This will be based on good faith judgment from health care professionals. Proposition 140 “Require primaries in which candidates, regardless of partisan affiliation, appear on a single ballot and a certain number advance to the general election, and require general election candidates to receive a majority of votes.” What this means: The exact opposite of Proposition 133. No primaries for solely Democrat or Republican parties where only registered members of each party can vote. All candidates will be grouped together in the primaries, which means that the top candidates for the finals will be the ones that receive the most votes. Proposition 311 “Establish a $20 fee on every conviction for a criminal offense, which would go to pay a benefit of $250,000 to the family of a first responder who is killed in the line of duty. What this means: Every person who is convicted of a crime pays $20 per conviction to a fund that pays out to the families of first responders. It does not matter whether the crime they committed was directly involved with the potential injury or death of any first responders. Proposition 312 “Allow for property owners to apply for a property tax refund in certain circumstances, including in instances if the city or locality in which the property is located does not enforce laws regarding illegal camping, loitering, obstructing public thoroughfares, panhandling, public urination or defecation, public consumption of alcoholic beverages, and possession or use of illegal substances.” What this means: If the state is unable to enforce laws on a citizen’s property, they will be able to file a tax refund. They can file for this once per year, for however much they paid in damages due to these laws not being enforced. They will need documentation of this, and the amount cannot exceed what they paid in property taxes for the previous year. Former state employee says: “Reasonable in my eyes but I could see how there are several loopholes that could be taken advantage of.” Proposition 313 “Require that anyone convicted of child sex trafficking must receive a sentence of life imprisonment.” What this means: Very straightforward. They will not be eligible for parole or release. Currently, Arizona’s sentencing for child sex trafficking is the following for minors under 15. First offense/first felony: minimum 13 years. Second offense/prior felony conviction: minimum 25 years. Third offense/2 or more prior felony convictions: minimum 30 years. Proposition 314 “Provide for several changes to criminal and immigration law, including allowing police to arrest noncitizens who enter Arizona from foreign countries at locations other than official ports.” What this means: This essentially takes what is a federal problem and turns it into a state problem. State and local police will be able to arrest noncitizens who illegally cross the border, if they have probable cause. It also makes the sale of fentanyl a class 2 felony if the person knowingly sells it and it results in a death. Former state employee says: “One good anecdote regarding the border is when former President Trump ordered the addition of shipping containers to the border in Arizona to build the wall. After he left office, the containers were then removed and used as cooling centers for the homeless, and it cost $20,000 a week to run these in the summer. I suppose if he wins in 2024, those containers are going right back up on the wall. This is all to say that the border should stay a federal issue. Above, I mentioned that the courts are already extremely backed up post covid, and frankly the state does not have adequate resources to help. If they need more people at the border, the federal government should supply the funding for additional border control agents. Additionally, the fentanyl piece has been lumped in to get the entire proposition to pass - you see this quite often with propositions.” Proposition 315 Prohibit a proposed rule from becoming effective if that rule is estimated to increase regulatory costs by more than $500,000 within five years after implementation, until the legislature enacts legislation ratifying the proposed rule What this means: If a project or new implementation for the state is likely to spend 100K, then whoever is proposing this project (Senate/House/agency/department) needs to submit it for review. If the reviewal team finds that it might actually cost 500K+, then the project/rule cannot begin until it gets a majority vote in both the Senate and House (ratification). This does not apply to emergency rulemaking or the Arizona Corporation commission (public utilities). Former state employee says: “I think this is stupid but whatever.” And that’s a wrap for the 14 propositions on the Arizona ballot! The law is a tricky thing, please feel free to reach out if you have any questions. Kisses and happy voting! 🗳️💋

Please see my recap video below.