Meet Our Residents

Brent Devaram Buffone

Brent Devaram Buffone is a Las Vegas Native. He is a graduate of UNLV College of Liberal Arts, obtaining an Interdisciplinary Studies Degree with areas of study in psychology, communication, and marriage family therapy. Brent strongly believes that you can do anything that you put your mind to, if you simply focus on the matter. Brent is a registered yoga teacher and is the founder of ChewManja, an organic chewing gum company whose mission is to protect and preserve the life of the rainforest. Brent is an eclectic human being as he is passionate about many things. Brent is a licensed life and health insurance agent in California, Nevada, and Arizona and provides employee benefits counseling to small and large businesses alike. Brent enjoys sharing his own written poetry over instrumentals in the local Las Vegas art scene. You can typically find him as the first to perform at ‘Soul Sessions’, an open mic that takes place the first Sunday of every month in Downtown Las Vegas.

Chase McCurdy

Chase McCurdy is an interdisciplinary artist and educator in Las Vegas, Nevada. Chase’s art practice has evolved from a focus in photography and film to encompass painting and writing among others. With a focus on art history and theory, education, and societal relationships, Chase’s studies have brought him back to his hometown of Las Vegas after living and working in Los Angeles, CA and Paris, France.

Lucas Ybarra

Lucas Ybarra was born in Tacoma, WA but at the age of four moved to Japan and grew as a military brat. He moved to Las Vegas, NV in 2002 and has spent most of the time in the valley and Los Angeles, CA.

He is a UNLV alumnus and graphic designer by profession. His passion lie in music, where he also co-founded a collective of musicians/music producers called The Rabbit Hole. He has made big strides with the collective in the Las Vegas Downtown scene, recently named Best DJ/Beat Collective in Las Vegas by the Desert Companion Magazine.

His goals are to continue striving to make changes in the Las Vegas Downtown scene and tirelessly work in having a hand in the culture that is developing. For more in depth views on his work visit his online portfolio: lucasybarra.com

DESIREE BENJELLOUN

Desiree (DeCosta) Benjelloun was born and raised in Hawaii and moved to Las Vegas in 2014. She is a graduate of Nevada State College with a Bachelors of Science in Business Administration emphasizing in Marketing. She is a digital creative who is passionate about social impact via content creation. You can check out her comprehensive portfolio of works at: dezdecosta.com 

Desiree co-founded the media agency LIT Media, on a mission to empower creators to deliver positive media through podcasting. LIT is an acronym for love, impact, and teach, which are the pillars that drive the content that is created. Desiree believes in the power of digital storytelling, the way it creates longevity, and the impact that can be made when these stories reach the right audiences.

Desiree is inspired by stories of challenging the status quo in the pursuit of happiness. She carries a rebellious heart, the knack for questioning everything, and the philosophy to “Simplify, simplify, simplify.“

Moee Turbin

Moee Turbin is a student at Nevada State College currently at the tail end of her Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary – Special Education. One of few Substitute teachers in the Clark County School District who is fluent in American Sign Language, Moee also holds a Minor in both Deaf Studies and Psychology and in the midst of completing one in Sociology.

With her passion for education, Moee has worked tirelessly since she was a child to educate herself and make the most of the opportunities that have came her way along with supporting and uplifting underrepresented communities, helping families and individuals find resources, and advocating on behalf of those whose voice may be silenced or rarely heard. Moee has developed programming for 1^st Generation students, and mentored them academically, financially and personally as they matriculate through college.

In addition to helping her peers, Moee has worked with Nevada Education for Women’s Leadership (NEWL) in providing leadership training and support for women in NV since 2015. Outside of her professional life and when she is not volunteering her time to those who need the support, Moee is out supporting local artists at shows and promoting events in the Vegas rave community. After years of playing guitar and writing songs, Moee has recently begun to experiment with making electronic beats and aspires to commit to being a DJ after her undergraduate degree is finished.

Karla Lagunas is an interdisciplinary artist currently investigating how built environments both construct and reflect our identity. Born in Chicago to Mexican immigrant parents, Karla is a Las Vegas resident of 23 years. A graduate of UNLV with degrees in Art History and Art, her projects explore colonization, urbanization and their branches – immigration and gentrification. Karla’s work manifests through performance, painting, video, writing, and collaborative multimedia endeavors, all while rooting subject and medium to place. Her work challenges an audience to not take any construct, whether social or physical, as a given. Often asking, “Why is this the way it is? Where did this originate? Who does it benefit?” In doing so she asks her audience to do the same and continue to carry this critical curiosity elsewhere and absorb it in an everyday practice. She believes that nurturing a compassionately critical mind is not just the job of artists and activists, but of everyone. Karla is involved in several collectives that have similar visions that place identity – race, gender, sexuality- in the forefront of their practice. Together, they all proactively engage the community not only as performers and organizers, but as audiences and supporters. Both as individuals and as a collective, they encourage open dialogues, support political activism and volunteer beyond the scope of our art practice.