Lauryn Mills Bohannon,  a sophomore at the University of New Mexico, is deeply passionate about art. She started her artistic journey at the age of 4 and has continuously developed her skills, working with both traditional and digital mediums, and exploring areas such as pottery, sculpting, and metalworking. Lauryn is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Studio Arts, with her favorite class being Art and Ecology. She strongly believes in the power of art to drive social change and has been involved in various community outreach projects addressing issues like water conservation, erosion, racial and familial trauma, and more.

Elijah Cage  (he/him/his) is 19 years old, identifies as Black and Hispanic, and has been a magnetic and beloved member of the Generation Justice family for five years. During his time with GJ, Elijah has spoken in front of the New Mexico legislature on his experience of dealing with racism in schools and asking for change. He has worked as a GJ Media Justice Apprentice, during which time he attended the National Allied Media Conference and participated in workshops on abolition and conversations about Black history, empowerment, and joy. He is now a Fellow for the Leaders of Change Fellowship. In this capacity Elijah is working on a social media campaign on health equity specifically looking at COVID vaccinations and disinformation.

Elijah is currently a Freshman at University of New Mexico who is majoring in Political Science for Law School to become a Criminal defense Lawyer or Immigration Lawyer.

Ronald Cummings  is an associate professor of Caribbean Literature and Black Diaspora Studies in the Department of English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University. He has edited four critical volumes including Harriet's Legacies: Race, Historical Memory and Futures in Canada. He is also the editor of the poetry volume Make the World New: The Poetry of Lillian Allen. Ronald serves on the editorial board of the Journal of West Indian Literature and is the book reviews editor for the online literary journal sx salon.

Vanessa Eiland  is an Ascend Parent Advisor for Bold Futures. She was one 1 of 17 Parent Advisors convened for "Ascending Together: A vision for Young Parents in New Mexico," which brought together 120 leaders from across the state focused on moving young parents ages 18–24 toward opportunity.

Alyssa Frye  is a community organizer, holistic health advocate, and nomadic earthworker who enjoys shapeshifting through various creative mediums and outlets aligned to honoring and tending to the regeneration of culture, community, and Earth. She lives to learn and embody the healing art of weaving connections between heart, body, spirit and mind through the remembrance, reverence, and practices of ancient wisdom and earth based skills held by her ancestors.

Before moving to the southwest, Alyssa started her farming/gardening journey in 2018 when she was living on the East, in the city of Richmond VA, where she was a part of the Urban Ginter Gardening program led by community activist, educator, and organizer Duron Chavis in which she trained and focused on the education of sustainable horticultural skills, green space project development and management, and community power and trust building in urban areas. This experience ignited her passion, love, and respect for nature based community healing and helped her to recognize the vital importance of organizational efforts that uplift and amplify food access and justice. Since then, Alyssa has been actively participating in outdoor educational opportunities that intersect with holistic health, environmental care, cultural relevance, and accessibility to marginalized communities. Whether taking on the role as a school garden and cooking wellness educator, volunteering in community garden spaces, foraging on hikes with friends, or employed for seasonal farm and greenhouse work opportunities, she has always found herself engaged in the outdoors growing and tending with others.

Grammy Nominee and Winner of a Premio Shock, Nidia Góngora  is a singer, composer, tradition-bearer, folklorist and champion of the Pacific coast’s Afro-Colombian cultural heritage. Her songs bridge the roots music of her native Timbiquí with that of other world genres for a breathtaking musical dialogue. In her own words, “Timbiquí’s traditional music is a sound that comes from the jungle, and the sea. It’s a sound that represents the natural elements. So we have the marimba de chonta which sounds like rain, we have the bombo and the cununo which are drums that represent the thunder, the strength, and power that inhabits the jungle. All of them are made with materials found there. That’s why the music made in the Pacific region is always reminding us that we live amongst nature, and we have to live in harmony with it.”

Natasha Gordon-Chipembere,  Ph.D. is a professor of African Diasporic literature. Her first academic publication was Representation and Black womanhood: The Legacy of Sarah Baartman (Palgrave 2011). Gordon-Chipembere’s writing has also been published in Essence Magazine along with a monthly series, “Musings from An Afro-Costa Rican” in the Tico Times. She is a Senior editor of the AfroLatin@ Diasporas Book Series from Palgrave, where they prioritize the voices of emerging Afro-Latin@ scholars. Her current writing is on the legacy of Afro-descendants in Latin America. Her historical fiction novel, Finding La Negrita, published by Jaded Ibis Press in 2022 is the Silver IPPY Award winner for Best Historical Fiction in 2023. Finding La Negrita has also been nominated for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Foundation Best Debut Novel in 2023. Gordon-Chipembere is the founder and host of the annual Tengo Sed Writing Retreats in Costa Rica, an exclusive gathering of global BIPOC writers. Born in New York to Costa Rican/Panamanian parents, she lives in Costa Rica with her family.

Yashika Graham  is a Jamaican poet, essayist and broadcaster and is a 2023 University of Iowa International Writing Program Honorary Fellow in Writing. In 2019 she won the Melvyn Morris Prize for Poetry from the University of the West Indies, Mona, where she read for a Bachelors degree in Literatures in English. An executive member of the Poetry Society of Jamaica, she has been awarded a Centrum Writer’s Residency and has been featured on stages including the Dodge Poetry Festival (USA), Bristol Festival of Literature (UK), the World Festival of Poetry (Venezuela) and the Port Townsend Writers Conference (USA) where she has also delivered craft talks and taught cross-genre workshops. Her poetry, prose and literary criticism have published internationally including in Spillway Magazine, Magma, Cordite Review, PREE Lit, Bookmarked, Jamaica Journal of Social Work and others. Short films for her poems "“"Directions from the Border" and “Time Travel”—for which she won a gold medal and the Noteworthy Writer award from the Jamaica Creative Writing Competition—premiered in 2016 and 2017 respectively. Her debut collection Some of Us Can Go Back Home is forthcoming from Blouse & Skirt Books.

Kiara Holloway,  a Voting Rights Activist, has worked for multiple legislators. Graduating with honors in Animal Science from New Mexico State University, she has had the privilege of contributing to impactful political initiatives and currently serves as the Voter File Manager for the Texas Democratize Party.

Hubby Jenkins,  is a multi-instrumentalist who shares his love and knowledge of old-time American music. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he delved into his southern roots, following the thread of African American history that wove itself through America's traditional music forms. As an integral member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops and later Rhiannon Giddens band, Hubby has performed at festivals and venues around the world, earning himself both Grammy and Americana award nominations. Today he spreads his knowledge and love of old-time American music through his dynamic solo performances and engaging workshops.

Sofia Martinez,  is a New Mexican organizer, educator and radio producer. She earned a Ph.D. in Language, Literacy and Socio-Cultural Studies (LLSS) with a focus on environmental justice and discourse analysis from the University of New Mexico. She is Co-Founder and Co-Coordinator of Los Jardines Institute (LJI) based in Albuquerque. The work of LJI focuses on environmental, economic, food and social justice with an intergenerational, anti-racist, sharing and learning lens. She is a co-founder and co-producer of Voces Feministas, a women of color radio show of politics, art, culture, news and information. The program airs on the University of New Mexico’s radio station KUNM FM 89.9. Martinez is originally from northern New Mexico where she resides for much of the year and where she is active with the Concerned Citizens of Wagon Mound and Mora County (CCWMMC). The CCWMMC works on water, environmental, economic, and food justice issues and projects.

Karen Jones Meadows  is an award-winning writer, producer, actress, visual artist, and educator, who creates dynamic stories and events that are universal in theme, passion, and resolution. A gifted intuitive/psychic with 40+ years of spiritual and metaphysical studies in many disciplines, Karen serves as a conduit connecting people to their own intuitive abilities and divinely guided soul motivations and outcomes. For decades, Ms. Jones Meadows has facilitated experiential workshop adventures for people of all ages and backgrounds. Each dynamic interactive journey is a deep societal, cultural, and spiritual examination that results in more harmony within individual participants and the community that develops during the events.

Growing up in San Francisco, CA and born in Bogotá, Colombia, Angelica Mena’s  fondest memories came from cooking with her father and mother at home during the holidays; from watching her grandmother cooking lunch and dinner for her ten children and grandchildren; and from the process of making a meal, choosing the ingredients, and sharing cooking duties with her family. From an early age, Angelica knew that her interest in the art of cooking was something deeply lovely. For the past ten years she's worked in different food industries, from packing, prep, cook line, sous chef, head chef and manager at one of the city’s community centers.

Along with her cooking skills, she has worked in the tech industry for companies such as Echo Technology Solutions providing support to the Hispanic community and Nielsen Media Research.

Angelica’s business, SukulentaSF, started in 2019 providing catering and participating in different cultural events to make Black Latinos in the Bay Area visible through her food and paintings.

Shahid Mustafa  was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. He is the founder of Taylor Hood Farms in Las Cruces, NM. Shahid moved to Washington, D.C. in 1989 to attend Howard University in pursuit of a degree in journalism. While attending Howard, he worked as a radio station program engineer, and host at WDCU FM while also working part time at a natural food store. He began to grow an interest in natural and organic foods, and decided to pursue a career natural foods retail.
Throughout his 26-year career in Natural and Organic retail industry, he managed and supervised various departments in six different stores, and was a general manager for three different businesses over a 15-year period. He served on the Board of Directors of the National Cooperative Grocers’ Association for 3 years from 2009 until 2012, and is currently the Board Vice President of the New Mexico Agrarian Commons. He also co-hosts a local radio Program on KTAL FM Las Cruces called "Black English Vernacular."
Taylor Hood Farms is located in Anthony, New Mexico and features 2 1/2 acres of seasonal crops that are grown using organic standards. They are a small diverse farm dedicated to educating and training community members about growing food and local food systems. They are committed to providing community members access to a variety of fresh, nutritious locally grown vegetables.
Their plan is to create multiple demonstrations of sustainable agricultural practices, and train a new generation of farmers to take part in what will become a burgeoning agrarian society. We hope to become an incubator for regenerative organic farmers, and be an inspiration for farmers to adopt the regenerative organic practice.

Eugene Pickett  Mr. Pickett is the Chairman Founder of Black Farmers and Ranchers New Mexico Global, Vice President for the National Latino Farmers and Ranchers International, and on the Governing Board of New Mexico Food and Agricultural Policy Council. Previously, Mr. Pickett was Deputy Director of the National Latino Farmers and Ranchers Trade Association. He was also a Member of New Mexico Farmers Marketing Association, of the National Association of Black Farmers and Ranchers, of the Albuquerque Branch of NAACP, of the New Mexico African American Chamber of Commerce, and of the National Association of Conservation Districts.

Diana Carolina Angulo Ramírez  is co-author of "Unveiling the Past: Enslaved Lives Matter." A civil rights activist and lawyer from the Santo Tom´s de Aquino University, she has a master’s degree in Political and International Studies from the Universidad del Rosario where she is currently completing her doctorate and is a professor and Chair of Afro-Colombian Studies. She is also a member of KAMBIRI—a national network of Afro-Colombian women. Her research focuses on gender issues, intersectionality and the organizational structures utilized by Afro-Colombian women. She is also a co-investigator for the research project "Slavery (and other forms of racial oppression) in the history of Universidad del Rosario."

An ethnobiologist, Jose Luis Rengifo   is a longtime conservationist and civil rights activist. A member of Rights & Resources and of PCN (Process de Comunidades Negras), an organization of multiple Afro Colombian organizations that just this past June succeeded in having ancestral land rights recognized for 150 maroon families, Jose Luis advocates for the civil rights of and inclusion of Afro and Indigenous peoples in conservation discourses and solutions. For instance, nearly 500 million acres throughout Latin America are inhabited and protected by Afro descendants. In his role as civil rights activist, Jose Luis serves on multiple national and international commissions and convening to advance the rights of Afro and Indigenous peoples.

Kimora Toledo  is an Advocate for New Mexico’s Indian Family Protection Act.

Belinda Deneen Wallace   (she/her) is an Associate Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of New Mexico. She embraces the Combahee River Collective's shared belief that Black women are inherently valuable. She teaches classes on contemporary Caribbean and African Diasporic literatures, Afrofuturism, Queer Studies, and Intersectional and Black Feminist Studies. She is the winner of the 2022 Canadian Committee on the History of Sexuality Best Article award for her essay “Our Lives: Scribal Activism, Intimacy, and Black Lesbian Visibility in 1980s Canada.” Her writings have appeared in a number of journals, including Small Axe, Cultural Dynamics, Journal of Canadian Studies, and Radical Teacher. Presently, she is completing her first manuscript, which queers literary reimaginings of Caribbean rebellions and revolutions.