About Light Hive & Logan Juliano
The Person Behind Light Hive
Hi, I'm Logan (they/them), a queer transracial adoptee, educator, and facilitator with a broad background that includes a PhD in performance studies, almost twenty years of mindfulness practice, and lots of weird stops and starts. I currently teach writing at UCLA while running Light Hive as a space for community, practice, and mindful play.
Creating Light Hive wasn't linear. I began as a triple-major, double-minor undergrad earning a city commendation for SA/DV crisis work, with plans to become a professor of political philosophy advocating for the rights of lesbians of color.
But life rarely follows our scripts.
In graduate school, my focus shifted to the intersection of interactive media, political economies, and identity formation. I was drawn to the potential of play spaces as sites for practicing new ways of being. Games are more than distraction tools: they can be a laboratory to explore anattā (not-self) and community building in real time.
After my PhD, I found myself navigating the same challenges many academics face: precarious employment and institutional constraints—the dukkha (suffering/unsatisfactoriness) of career expectations meeting reality.
Why Light Hive Exists
Light Hive was born from my experience at the intersections: being adopted into a White family, navigating queerness, and feeling torn between activist urgency and contemplative practice.
I noticed a recurring pattern in both mindfulness spaces and social justice circles:
Many meditation spaces avoided engaging with systems of power
Many activist spaces had no frameworks for sustainable engagement
Few spaces acknowledged the unique experiences of adoptees and other identity intersections
As the complexity of our collective challenges increased—climate crisis, political polarization, economic uncertainty—I felt called to create something that could hold it all without collapsing into either despair or toxic positivity.
My Approach & Philosophy
Light Hive's approach draws from several wellsprings:
Buddhist philosophy: Not as dogma, but as a pragmatic framework for understanding suffering and liberation
Performance theory: Understanding how we rehearse, embody, and transform our ways of being in the world
Narrative design: Using structured play to practice new patterns and possibilities
Lived Experience: Centering the unique perspective of those who live at the borders of belonging, especially adoptees
I am neither a formally authorized Buddhist teacher nor a licensed therapist. My offerings come from my academic training, personal practice, and lived experience as someone who continues to forge my own path toward integration.
The challenges we face—from eco-grief to digital overstimulation to political violence—require us to cultivate practices that are both deeply personal and radically collaborative. Neither individual transcendence nor collective action alone will be sufficient.
This is a both/and.
My Practice Background
My meditation practice began nearly twenty years ago, initially as a way to manage anxiety and depression. What started as simple breathing exercises evolved into dedicated study of the dharma through various teachers and traditions.
My play practice emerged separately, through theater, performance art, and role-playing games. I've facilitated everything from Nordic LARPs to queer murder mystery cabarets to three-day gaming intensives.
Bringing these two life-changing, life-affirming practices together gives me great joy. I love the practice and theory of thinking through the mindful elements of imaginative adaptability, the speech and listening practices involved in collaborative storytelling.
Mindful play provides enough abstraction to give us fuel to really engage with our political and material realities.
What I'm Not
In the spirit of clear communication, I am:
Not a replacement for therapy or medical care
Not an authorized teacher in any Buddhist lineage
Not claiming to have all the answers to our collective challenges
Not offering a path to transcendence or escape from worldly responsibilities
Not the best at improv! Play is a practice for me, too!
What I Am
A fellow practitioner sharing what I've found helpful
A facilitator creating spaces for exploration and community
A writer translating complex Buddhist concepts for contemporary application
An adoptee offering perspective on belonging, identity, and not-self
A player inviting you to imagine new possibilities
What Light Hive Offers
The Creative Coalition
Monthly "mindful play" sessions using tabletop roleplaying games as laboratories for practicing new ways of being and responding to challenge.
"Logan creates such a welcoming space as a facilitator in which to explore role-playing, even for me as a complete newbie. To me, role-playing is a really unique kind of mindfulness practice - I get to thoughtfully help create new stories in a world that we as a group build up piece by piece."
Bi-Weekly Essays
Explorations of Buddhist concepts, identity formation, and navigating uncertainty, all grounded in practical application for daily life.
Interviews and Guest Spots
I interview folks like Tavo Amezcua, a human rights lawyer working at the UN, and Kellan Bacon, a queer, transracial adoptee working in somatics and root cause therapies, who share their practices to stay mindful and engaged.
Connect & Collaborate
I'm always open to connections, collaborations, and conversations. If Light Hive's approach resonates with you, please:
Subscribe to receive essays twice monthly
Join our next Creative Coalition game (open to all)
Email me at logan@lighthiveintegration.org
Follow on Blue Sky or Substack Notes
Sending you much metta!
Logan
