4Culture and King County Metro are excited to announce the selection of six artists who will create a collection of short-form graphic novels exploring the people and places along Metro’s twelve existing and planned RapidRide lines (A-K and R). 

Monyee Chau, Jonathan Ya’el Eden, Kiku Hughes, Myra Lara, Clyde Petersen, and E.T. Russian will soon begin research to learn more about the communities and cultures that shape our region. 

Moving Stories draws inspiration from the RapidRide Art Plan, created by Johnson|Ramirez (Elisheba (Johnson) Wokoma + Kristen Ramirez) and illustrated by Aaron Bagley. The plan outlines a vision and conceptual framework for system-wide and community-specific art integration, guided by values such as kindness, meeting people where they are, and fostering connection through shared spaces. They ask: “How does a transit system shift from simply moving people from point A to B? How does art transform the transit platform and the bus itself into spaces that cultivate imagination? How do these spaces become more comforting and connected?”

As Metro expands RapidRide—an arterial bus rapid transit network serving key corridors across King County—the project builds on this foundation. The resulting Moving Storiescollection is intended as a gift to riders and the broader public, responding to these questions through the work of the artist cohort.

PROJECT ADVISORS

The cohort will be joined by a team of specialists, including graphic designer Jayme Yen and arts advisors Jenny Asarnow, Tom Eykemans, and Tessa Hulls. Together, they will help guide the storytelling and provide feedback as the artists research, write, and produce final content for their short-form graphic novels. 

Jayme Yen is a graphic designer and design educator whose work explores the poetics of visual information and the reader’s experience of word, page, screen, and space. She has curated and participated in exhibitions internationally and is a co-founder and co-organizer of the Seattle Art Book Fair. Her recent installation, Echo (repeat and reflect), is on view at the Frye Art Museum through 2026. Jayme will support Moving Stories through graphic design direction and production oversight, working with the artists to develop a flexible visual framework and templates that shape the overall look and feel of the project.

Jenny Asarnow is a queer Jewish audio producer and parent who works with communities to tell their stories through journalism, documentary, audio art, and site-specific projects. They founded KUOW’s RadioActive Youth Media and have held leadership roles at Hollow Earth Radio, The Seattle Globalist, and the Third Coast International Audio Festival. Jenny will contribute expertise in community-based research and advise on how audio might inform or extend the artists’ visual storytelling.

Tom Eykemans is a designer and artist focused on creative publishing and connecting communities, often working from his studio at the historic Woodland Theater in Ballard. After a decade at the University of Washington Press, he is now design director at Marquand Books, co-organizes the Seattle Art Book Fair, and founded Tome Press. Tom will provide guidance on publication design and production and help connect the artists with local resources related to bookmaking and distribution.

Tessa Hulls is an artist, writer, and adventurer, and the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of the graphic memoir Feeding Ghosts. Her work spans comics, writing, and research-driven storytelling, and she is currently developing a collaborative practice as an embedded comics journalist alongside field scientists in remote environments. Tessa will offer guidance on narrative development, encouraging rigorous research and will support the creation of compelling, story-driven graphic work grounded in place and community.

ARTIST COHORT

The artists selected for Moving Stories bring a wide range of professional and lived experiences to the project. Their work reflects an incredible capacity for visual storytelling, drawing readers into richly imagined worlds while staying connected to real-life contexts.

Monyee Chau (F + R Lines) is an artist exploring personal and collective healing through their lens as a queer Taiwanese/Chinese American, grounded in a belief in the power of storytelling and breaking bread as tools for community building and pathways toward justice and liberation. Monyee’s work spans multiple mediums, engaging themes of labor, diaspora, and collective care. They invite audiences into vulnerability through a practice centered on healing and relationship.      

They were recently selected to present collaborative work with Meilani Mandery at Gallery 4Culture in January 2027, featuring zines, comics, prints, ceramics, and photography that honor self-determination and resistance in historic West Coast Chinatown communities.     

For Moving Stories: Monyee will gather and illustrate stories along the R Line, drawing on deep roots in the Chinatown–International District, the northern end of the line, which passes through Mount Baker, Columbia City, Hillman City, and Brighton, culminating in Dunlap, as well as the F Line, which connects the Burien Transit Center, SeaTac, Tukwila, and Renton. 

Monyee reflects, “Public transit is the intersection across neighborhoods, workers, families, and all of our histories.” 

Clyde Petersen (D + E Lines) is a transgender Northwest artist working across film, animation, visual art, music, and installation. He re-creates lost worlds and documents cultures largely erased by AIDS, capitalism, and gentrification, offering more equitable futures through the reexamination of overlooked histories. A true multi-genre artist, Clyde has previously worked with 4Culture, including an installation of their nautical adventure series Boating with Clyde at Gallery 4Culture, and The Wild World of Pesticides, a stop-motion video commissioned for the King County Hazardous Waste Management Program. 

For Moving Stories: Clyde’s experience with maritime communities will inform his approach to the D Line, which connects Crown Hill and Ballard with Uptown and Downtown Seattle, and interest in the midcentury hotels and longstanding businesses that characterize the E Line, running between Shoreline and Downtown Seattle via West Green Lake, will further support his work. 

Clyde observes: “The bus can be an anonymous portal, a way for a rider to travel to secret locations or discover new parts of a city, and in turn, new parts of themselves. I look forward to illustrating these adventures.”

Jonathan Ya’el Eden (A + C Lines) is a South African-American speculative writer and visual artist whose work explores monstrosity, liminality, and memory, with a focus on the experiences of trans and disabled people of color. He sees each act of creation as one of embodiment and resistance. Most recently, he illustrated the children’s book All of Us: A First Conversation About Disability (Penguin x Rise).      

For Moving Stories: Jonathan will focus on stories along the A Line, which connects the Tukwila International Boulevard Station and the Federal Way Transit Center, and the C Line, which connects South Lake Union and West Seattle—an essential route for him since his teenage years.     

He shares, “I’m moved by Moving Stories’ goals to use art as a means of deepening relationships with the people and places that make up our communities. Transit is unifying—it’s one of the few places where strangers converge, and I’m excited to explore the possibilities for connection within that.” 

Myra Lara (H + I Lines) is a Mexican American architectural designer, illustrator, cartoonist, and organizer. Their work explores the politics of the built and unbuilt in service of justice, self-expression, and belonging. Myra was born and raised on the border by the sea in Brownsville, Texas and has lived in Seattle since 2010. 

For Moving Stories: Myra’s fluency in Spanish and commitment to working across communities will inform research along the H Line, which runs from Burien to Downtown Seattle through White Center and Delridge, and the planned I Line, which will connect Renton, Kent, and Auburn.     

Myra states: “Politeness curbs my curiosity every bus ride—so what a wonderful excuse this is to get to know you. Tell me a story! I would love to draw it so you can share it with your community.”

E.T. Russian (G + K Lines) is a multi-sensory artist and cartoonist whose practice engages sight, sound, and touch. Their work is held in the permanent collections of Wellcome Collection, the Library of Congress, the Washington State Convention Center, and the City of Seattle, and has been exhibited at institutions including the National Library of Medicine, Wing Luke Museum, Center on Contemporary Art, Bellevue Arts Museum, Jack Straw Gallery, Flux Factory, Hedreen Gallery, Fantagraphics Gallery, Out of Sight: Survey of Contemporary Northwest Art, and the Seattle Architecture Foundation.     

For Moving Stories: E.T.’s long-standing personal connection to First Hill, Capitol Hill, and Madison Valley—including time spent at Harborview Medical Center and living and working along the corridor—will inform their approach to the G Line, which connects Madison Valley with Downtown Seattle through Capitol Hill and First Hill. They will also bring their perspective as someone who grew up in Kirkland to the planned K Line, which will connect Totem Lake, Kirkland, Bellevue, and Eastgate.

E.T. shares: “The Moving Stories project excites me because I love public transit. It’s the cultural lifeline of this area and connects all the neighborhoods. I grew up here, and I love drawing the places and people of the Pacific Northwest.” 

Kiku Hughes (B + J Lines) is a Japanese American (Yonsei) comic artist and organizer born and raised in Kenmore. Her first graphic novel, Displacement (First Second, 2020), was an APALA Literature Award Honor title and an Eisner Award nominee. Kiku’s work explores concepts of inherited memory and the power of community action, ideas that align closely with Moving Stories.      

For Moving Stories: Kiku will create graphic novellas for the B Line, which connects Redmond and Bellevue, and the future J Line, which will link the University District and Belltown via Eastlake and South Lake Union, corridors associated with student activism and political organizing. 

Kiku says: “This project called to me like no other! I’m a lifelong King County Metro rider, an avid local and community history buff, and someone who believes deeply in the power of comics to tell complex, often overlooked stories.”

The Moving Storiescohort of artists and advisors are in the early stages of a year-long collaborative process, beginning with research into places and communities along the twelve RapidRide lines. Opportunities for public engagement and story collection will be shared through 4Culture and Metro channels as the project unfolds, with publications expected in summer 2027. We look forward to seeing how the artists interpret the system, bringing their distinct perspectives and approaches to graphic storytelling.

As Johnson|Ramirez writes: “Art can facilitate connection through the construct of the bus, a space that moves through neighborhoods, communities, and cities.” By positioning transit as a cultural platform, Moving Stories becomes a way of honoring presence, place, and lived experience.