maura chen is an artist, community organizer, and educator who uses drawings, written essays, multi-media collage, and architectural design to map relationships between flora, fauna, people, and place; document interstitial spaces from the bike lane; draw cartographies of sound, movement, and other improvisations; design third places that span between existing transit infrastructure and ongoing mutual aid efforts. Their work has shown at Superchief Gallery in downtown LA and at Human Resources in Chinatown, LA: thirty-six large-format line drawings of line dance choreographies framed by a series of dance parties and lessons that blur the line between the club and the gallery, and underscore the importance of collective movement. chen has been published by Haus Red, Pidgin Press, Disc Journal, and the Dry River, and writes the regular email newsletter Drafting Curbside. chen has worked between community organizers and developers on designs for permanent supportive housing and other affordable housing types to be built on congregation-owned land across LA county, and uses their architecture training to unbuild the toxic structures that have historically prevented communities from thriving. Their drawing of Eyvind Kang’s viola d’amore piece Riparian is featured on Kou Records. chen is the frontwomxn of ecological psychedelic punk project the Velvet Ants, who have performed at the bike co-op and local park, with fellow native planting and composting comrades committed to neighborly behaviors and fighting for the unpaving of the LA river and freed waterways from every river to every sea.