Meet the 2025 Honorees and Emcees!
Learn more about them below.
Community Catalyst Honorees
Sal Pizarro
Sal Pizarro has written the Around Town column for the Mercury News since 2005. His column covers the interesting people, places and events in Silicon Valley. A native of San Jose, he attended Santa Teresa High School and San Jose State University before earning a degree in political science from the University of California-Santa Barbara in 1993. He joined the Mercury News that same year and worked as an editor in the sports and local news departments before succeeding Leigh Weimers as a columnist.
He served as president of the Rotary Club of San Jose in 2022-23 and currently serves on the Silicon Valley Reads Community Advisory Board. He was honored in 2021 by History San Jose at its Valley of Heart's Delight dinner and can be seen as a volunteer emcee for several nonprofits, including Cinequest, Silicon Valley Reads and San Jose Jazz. Sal lives in the city's historic Naglee Park neighborhood with his wife, Amy, and their two children, Alex and Mia.
Larry Stone
Larry Stone has been recognized as one of Silicon Valley’s most powerful leaders by San Jose Magazine, with praise from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Haynes Johnson and longtime Mercury News columnist Scott Herhold. First elected as Santa Clara County Assessor in 1994, he has been overwhelmingly reelected ever since, serving a region that includes San José and more than 1.7 million residents. Stone previously served 16 years as a Sunnyvale councilmember and mayor.
A former Wall Street financial manager and founder of two successful real estate firms, Stone has modernized and streamlined the Assessor’s Office, earning recognition as one of the best-run in the state. A civic leader in areas ranging from the arts to education and the environment, he holds an MBA from the University of Washington and studied at Harvard’s Kennedy School. He and his wife Carmen have lived in Sunnyvale since 1970, where they raised their three sons. Stone will be stepping down on July 6, 2025, two days after the parade. As tradition has it, let’s give him one last round of ‘Boos!’
Community Catalyst Artist Honorees
Yosimar Reyes
Hailing from East San Jose by way of Guerrero, Mexico, Reyes quickly made a name for himself at the tender age of sixteen, exploding onto local Bay Area stages and captivating his audiences with deeply moving spoken word performances.
Reyes’ repertoire has since evolved to include nationally-acclaimed keynotes, writing workshops, and his one-man show, Prieto, a coming-of-age story that explores subjects like migration, sexuality, and socio-economic struggle—all while empowering his audiences to tap into their own creative potential.
His achievements don’t stop there. In addition to being the first-ever undocumented poet to achieve Santa Clara County Poet Laureate status, Reyes was chosen to be a 2024 Creative Ambassador by the City of San Jose, The Advocate named him one of "13 LGBT Latinos Changing the World," and Remezcla included him on their list of "10 Up And Coming Latinx Poets You Need To Know."
Amongst numerous accolades, Reyes has been awarded a NALAC Catalyst for Change Grant (2020), a Gerbode Foundation Grant and most recently, a Walter & Elise Haas Creative Work Fund Grant (2023), . His writing has appeared in publications such as MARIPOSAS: A Modern Anthology of Queer Latino Poetry, Somewhere We Are Human: Authentic Voices on Migration, Survival, and New Beginnings and forthcoming UndocuPoetics.
Roshni and Janhavi Pillai
Roshni Pillai
Roshni Pillai is a Kathakali vesham practitioner for over 25 years. Beginning her journey at the age of seven, she received training from the celebrated gurus, the late Kalamandalam K. Gopalakrishnan and Kalamandalam Keshavan Namboothiri. She regularly performs and frequently shares the stage with renowned artists in both Kerala and the United States. Over the years, she has portrayed a diverse range of roles, with her special portrayals of sthri vesham (female roles) earning her acclaim from Kathakali critics and enthusiasts. She is selected as a Mentor for the 2025 ACTA Apprenticeship program. While balancing her profession as a Design Verification engineer at Intel Corporation, she continues her pursuit of Kathakali, aiming to introduce and make this ancient classical art form accessible to new audiences.
Janhavi Pillai
Born into a family of Kathakali artists, Janhavi is continuing the tradition and training in kathakali acting under Kottakkal Harikumar. She completed her debut in 2022, and most recently, in January of this year, presented the main role of Krishnan in a full play in Kerala, India. She also trains in Bharatanatyam under Meera Sreenarayanan and is the recipient of the ACTA Apprenticeship grant. Janhavi graduated from UC Berkeley and now pursues her master's at UCLA.
Parade and Festival Emcees
Parade Emcee
Ms. Sweet Nothing
Joining us again as emcee this year is Ms. Sweet Nothing!
Sweet Nothing is the unforgettable Drag Queen persona of Queer Artist Robby Kendall, a Psychlogist, Writer, and Filmmaker living here in the Bay Area. Created in Ft Lauderdale, FL, Ms. Nothing has made many appearances on stage and on-screen across the country, often leaving a trail of feathers and glitter in her wake.
Sweet Nothing, AKA Miss Nothing, returns to San Jose with her endless energy, strong personality, and unpredictable antics. Lately, Ms. Nothing has hosted and performed in Robby Kendall's "Fishnets and Film", an in-person event that combines DRAG with QUEER CINEMA.
Festival Emcee
Daniela García-Piedra
Daniela García-Piedra is a first generation Honduran-Mexican woman born and raised in the Bay Area. Since 2014, she has served as a teaching artist for a variety of companies including the African American Shakespeare Center, Performing Arts Workshop, and Dance Mission Theater. In 2025, her Storytelling through Movement dance class presented piece ‘Our Voices’ in which raises awareness on sexual assault and highlights the everyday struggle and silencing victims face. The piece was curated by the students under the directorship of Daniela and co-worker Bella Gutierrez.
In 2023, Daniela shifted her focus to production work including production managing, stage managing, and assisting. In 2023, she worked with local company "La Mezcla" as an Executive Assistant, supporting Executive Artistic Director Vanessa Sanchez. Daniela's responsibilities included coordinating schedules, managing projects, and premiering their latest show, "Ghostly Labor," at Brava Theater. In 2024, Daniela worked for "CubaCaribe", where she took on the role of Production Assistant for projects such as Carnaval SF (2024, 2025), the Annual Gala Fundraiser (2024), and the Annual Dance and Music Festival (2024, 2025).
Garcia is also a vocalist, dancer, and operations director for local band Batuki. In 2025, Daniela presented her first dance and music work, ‘Nuevo Camino’ at ODC Theater alongside Batuki and co-produced Palm & Sole: a Dance and Music conference. The conference included 15 Master classes taught by local Master teachers, local vendors, body workers and was offered free to any youth under 18.