We were lucky to catch up with Faith-Ann Young recently and have shared our conversation below.

Faith-Ann , appreciate you joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

For the past decade, I’ve been creating meditative textile flag sculptures and large-scale installations that serve as soft, tactile sanctuaries for reflection, meditation, and non-violence. Inspired by Japanese Shintoism, magical realism, the vibrant abstractions of Sam Gilliam, and the environmental artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude, I seek to create liminal spaces and ethereal moments of connection and community.

One of the most heartfelt and meaningful projects I’ve been part of is Kibō Nobori, (“Hope Flags”) an annual arts and culture festival I founded at the Terasaki Budokan in Little Tokyo, inspired by Japan’s Kodomo No Hi (“Children’s Day”) and celebrated during AANHPI Heritage Month. This began in 2021 as an immersive flag installation and has grown into a beloved multi-generational event, drawing over 2,500 attendees last year. The festival spreads “kibō”—hope—through art, community, and cultural celebration.

The idea came during a sleepless night while awake nursing my second child. I was deeply moved by images of koi nobori—carp-shaped streamers— that fly dramatically over rivers and rooftops in Japan during Kodomo No Hi (Children’s Day) celebrations. That night, I dreamed of creating a colorful, immersive playground, filled with art, in the heart of Little Tokyo where children and adults alike could celebrate the joy, resilience, and creativity of youth. After I began to create the art series, I reached out to the non profit community center Terasaki Budokan to bring the event to life. This year, we are debuting our fourth annual festival.

This year’s Kibō Nobori, May 3, 2025, features traditional odori dance, youth hip-hop troupe Youth Shock LA, dancers Friidom and Forz, as well as Yoko Hasebe, the Japanese rock musician Ryoji with a koto player, countless kids’ activities, an AANHPI marketplace curated by Filled Market and my large-scale flag installation. Angel City Football Club is the festival’s title sponsor.

For me, Kibō Nobori is more than an art project—it’s a critical community offering. After the fires, and due to the current political chaos, our community needs joyful celebrations of hope, cultural pride, and creative expression.
Kibō Nobori also teaches a whole new generation to celebrate and protect what makes Little Tokyo—and our shared heritage—so sacred. (More at Kibonobori.com)

Faith-Ann , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I call myself a “crazy flag artist”; I create dream-like ‘flag’ textile sculptures and liminal, multi-sensory installations that stand in opposition to the aggression, violence, and division of today’s world.

“Flags” historically are symbols of boundaries, war, and often violence; mine seek to do the opposite. To create my flags – I first begin by photographing natural elements—sunlight, stones, trees, moonlight- as well as portraits, antique Japanese textiles, and imagery that capture sacred moments from daily life. I also paint abstract marks and document them, gathering a visual archive. These fragments are then intuitively composed into digital photographic collages— colorful abstractions that echo memory, dream, and the subconscious. I print these compositions onto sheer fabric, sew and suspend them like ceremonial flags, which move with air and light. Installed in fields, rooftops, galleries, or public spaces, each installation is a meditative reminder of reflection, reverence, and wonder.

Collaboration is integral to my practice. I often team up with community organizers, nonprofits, and cultural institutions on events to create unique series, installations and immersive experiences. Once created, I activate each space with the community through journaling, “tanzaku”-writing (intention setting or wish-making), movement, meditation, sound, smells, and discussions.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

In 2024, I made the big leap to pursue fine art full-time. Over the years, I’ve worn many hats: journalist, creative director, photographer, consultant, and entrepreneur – all while maintaining an art practice. In 2015, I founded a creative agency, Mossy Creative, where I worked with clients like Reese Witherspoon, Mindy Kaling, Kevin Bacon, and organizations such as TIMES UP and Live Nation, where we used art and technology to build large-scale social movements, campaigns, and brands. I sold this creative agency in 2021 to Blended Strategy Group, where I became head of creative. But I soon realized that balancing motherhood, marriage, and the demands of this career left so little room for my own art and activism. And at the same time, as society became increasingly consumed by digital noise and distraction, the need for grounding, meditative spaces only grew. So, January 2024, I left to devote myself to my art practice full time and to use the knowledge that I had garnered towards the people, spaces and places that I felt needed it the most.

Since then, I’ve created site-specific installations at Sofi Stadium, in Hollywood and Little Tokyo, and at Honor Your Feelings Festival in Koreatown. Last October, I had a duo art exhibition, All The (Healing) Parts, at DMST Atelier with talented painter Shizuka Kusayanagi.

While the journey is still challenging— artists always face uncertainty and inequity – especially in a system driven by scarcity—the rewards have been profound. The past year has been both emotionally and fiscally fulfilling, with new commissions, installations and serendipitous connections. And now, given turmoil of LA’s fires and the political landscape, I’m driven more than ever to use art to make change, healing movements, and safe, peaceful spaces.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

As a half-Japanese artist, my art reflects the duality of my identity—shaped by two sides that once fought each other during World War II, one side that endured a devastating nuclear attack and internment here on the West Coast. In many ways, I am a manifestation of peace, living proof that love can overcome hate.
It is this philosophy that drives my creative work.

I am painfully aware that if I had lived during WWII, I would have been interned here in Los Angeles, alongside my quarter-Japanese children. This history deeply informs my current understanding of freedom and my responsibility to prevent such injustices from recurring. Given the political climate in America —where the threat of martial law looms and where American citizens are being deported, detained without due process, and stripped of their rights— I am driven more than ever to create tactile, healing spaces for those who need it most, to storytell around my unique heritage, and to unite our communities towards a more hopeful rather than fearful, peaceful rather than hostile, colorful, joyfully diverse, equitable future.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://faithannyoung.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/faithannyoung

Image Credits

Portrait : Leah Rom

Other photos:

1. Sara Wang
2. Faith-Ann Young
3. Sara Wang
4. Mari Weiss
5. Faith-Ann Young
6. Sara Wang
7. Faith-Ann Young