Umi Hsu

Umi Hsu is a trans nonbinary sound artist, musician, and writer whose practice is driven by inquiries about sound and migration. Hsu has led community sound projects including LA Listens and Movable Parts; and performs and writes songs in their LA-based ghost pop band Bitter Party. Hsu’s sound practice has been featured in LA Times, LA Weekly, KCET, MIT Arts, Giant Robot, KCHUNG Radio, and Dublab, and presented by the Rubin Museum, Japanese American National Museum, CTM Festival in Berlin, Tuesday Night Project, 18th Street Arts Center, ONE Archives at the USC Libraries, Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke University, and MIT Community Innovators Lab. With a PhD in Critical and Comparative Studies in Music from the University of Virginia, they have received fellowships and awards from the American Council for Learned Society, Shuttleworth Foundation, LA Metro, and National Endowment for the Arts. They teach an adjunct faculty member in the MFA in Media Design Practices program at ArtCenter College of Design, serve on the Advisory Board for The Invisible Archive journal, and previously directed content at One Institute.