Artist in Residence (2024 - 2025)

Kill Joy

Kill Joy (she, her, hers) is a Filipino American street artist from West Texas who currently lives in Houston. During her residency, Kill Joy worked with Kitchen Table Puppets & Press to activate the collective strength of border and immigrant communities in Texas amid escalating anti-immigrant rhetoric, unconstitutional policies, and state violence.

Giant puppet rally for immigrants’ rights in Austin

Texas is one of the most diverse states in the county. Immigrants not only belong in Texas but make Texas the state that it is. Yet, anti-immigrant laws like Senate Bill 4 put communities of color across the state at risk of being harassed and detained by police, while fueling mass incarceration and wasting millions of taxpayer dollars.

Kill Joy and Kitchen Table Puppets & Press worked with more than 100 volunteers to bring giant 15-foot puppets and protest art to the State Capitol in Austin. The puppet performance, which dramatized the beauty of collective resistance, kicked off an immigrants’ rights rally on Saturday, March 9, 2024, which was organized by the Border Network for Human Rights and more than 40 other organizations including the ACLU of Texas. Danzantes drummed and danced while the crowd shouted and cheered. The spectacle was featured in English and Spanish press.

Kill Joy and Kitchen Table Puppets & Press worked with more than 100 volunteers to bring giant 15-foot puppets and protest art to the State Capitol in Austin. The puppet performance, which dramatized the beauty of collective resistance, kicked off an immigrants’ rights rally on Saturday, March 9, 2024, which was organized by the Border Network for Human Rights and more than 40 other organizations including the ACLU of Texas. Danzantes drummed and danced while the crowd shouted and cheered. The spectacle was featured in English and Spanish press.

Giant puppet performance reuniting families in El Paso

Kill Joy and Kitchen Table Puppets & Press worked with volunteers to puppeteer a story about a mother who was left with no choice but to cross the border to provide for her family back in Mexico.

Hundreds of families across the U.S.-Mexico border reunited for a few minutes on a bridge over the Rio Grande during the Border Network for Human Rights’ “Hugs Not Walls” event on Saturday, November 2, 2024.

The performance by Kill Joy and Kitchen Table Puppets & Press culminated with a giant hug between the mother and her son as onlooking families held their loved ones tight. While heartwarming, the large-scale art also drew attention to the devastating number of deaths along the border, which has become a war zone with lethal buoys and razor wire.

Giant puppet performance reuniting families in El Paso

Hundreds of families across the U.S.-Mexico border reunited for a few minutes on a bridge over the Rio Grande during the Border Network for Human Rights’ “Hugs Not Walls” event on Saturday, November 2, 2024.

The performance by Kill Joy and Kitchen Table Puppets & Press culminated with a giant hug between the mother and her son as onlooking families held their loved ones tight. While heartwarming, the large-scale art also drew attention to the devastating number of deaths along the border, which has become a war zone with lethal buoys and razor wire.

Giant puppet tour across Texas for immigrants’ rights

Amid escalating anti-immigrant actions by federal and state politicians — denying Texans due process and ripping families apart — Kill Joy, Kitchen Table Puppets & Press, and the ACLU of Texas led a two-week statewide tour in early April 2025 to educate communities about their rights and inspire collective action.

More than 1,000 people attended the tour's stops in El Paso, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio. Additionally, over 80 local advocacy organizations and small businesses participated in the night markets at each location. The tour earned media coverage in every city, including a 10-minute morning show segment on Univision San Antonio.

"Thank you so much for letting us be part of the magic," one attendee said.

More than 300 hands helped create the community-written and community-performed giant puppet show, which highlighted the struggle and resilience of immigrant communities in Texas. “Recipes of Resistance / Recetas de Resistencia” follows five friends through time as they navigate changing experiences of the Texas borderlands: past, present, and future. Through allegory and movement, the friends confront forces of destruction before reclaiming their connection to their neighbors and the earth.

Giant puppets at The Falstaff in El Paso