Ash Arder  (she/they) is a transdisciplinary artist whose research-based approach works to expose, deconstruct or reconfigure physical and conceptual systems – especially those related to ecology and/or industry. Ash manipulates physical and virtual environments to explore materials, mark making, mechanical portraiture and sound design as tools for complicating dynamics of power between humans, machines and the lands they occupy.

She has held artist residencies at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Alberta (2024), Michigan Central x Newlab in Detroit (2024), University Musical Society in Ann Arbor (2021-22), Bemis Center for Contemporary Art in Omaha (2021), Recess in Brooklyn (2019), and A Studio in the Woods in New Orleans (2017-18). Recent exhibitions include a solo show at the Cranbrook Art Museum (2023-24), and group shows at NXTHVN (2024), California African American Museum (2024), Swiss Institute (2024), and Amant (2023). Ash is a 2023 Joan Mitchell Fellow, and a two-time awardee of the Knight Foundation's Arts Challenge grant. She received an MFA from the Cranbrook Academy of Art.

Ash lives and works in Waawiyaatanong (Detroit, Michigan) about an hour south of her hometown of Muscatawing (Flint).

Reem Assil  is a Palestinian-Syrian chef and activist, based in Oakland, CA, working at the intersection of food, community, and social justice. She is the founder of nationally-acclaimed Reem’s California, an Arab bakery and restaurant that builds community across cultures and experiences through the warmth of Arab bread and hospitality. Reem has garnered an array of top accolades in the culinary world, including James Beard finalist for Outstanding Chef (2022) back to back semifinalist for Best Chef: West (2018-19). Before dedicating herself to a culinary career, Reem spent over a decade as a community and labor organizer, building leadership to have a voice in their jobs and their neighborhoods. Reem is the author of IACP award-winning cookbook Arabiyya: Recipes from the Life of an Arab in Diaspora (2022).

Lili Bernard  is a Cuban-born, Los Angeles-based interdisciplinary artist of mixed African, Caribbean, European and Chinese descent. Her work examines issues of sexism, racism and trauma. A mother of six whom she birthed in a ten-year span, Lili is an award-winning exhibiting fine artist, actor, published writer, independent curator, educator, community organizer, public speaker and founder of BAILA: Black Artists in Los Angeles. Her Art Roots Mambí project is a family collaboration with Cuban artist Arnaldo Lescay, building bridges between artists in Santiago de Cuba and Los Angeles, empowering both communities. Raised predominantly in Princeton, Jct., New Jersey, and a graduate of The American School in Japan where she spent 11th and 12th grade, Lili attended Cornell University and The City University of New York, earning a B.A. in German. She received her MFA in Visual Arts/Public Practice from Otis College of Art and Design. In the fine arts, Lili’s numerous credits include a 2017 solo exhibition at Museum of African Diaspora and favorable reviews in a multitude of mainstream art periodicals, including ARTnews Magazine. As an actor who has performed extensively in theatre, on television Lili starred in the BBC film Murder in Oakland, co-starred in Stephen King’s Golden Years, and guest-starred on Seinfeld and The Cosby Show. A public-figure anti-rape victims’ advocate, Lili influenced the abolishment of the statute of limitations on rape prosecution in California with her #EndRapeSOL peers, as well as the gubernatorial signing of three #MeToo bills on employment sexual harassment and assault.

Nikesha Breeze  lives and works in the high desert of Taos, New Mexico. Working from a Global African Diasporic, Afro-Centric and Afro-Futurist perspective, Breeze’s interdisciplinary work includes large scale oil painting, sculpture, installation, performance art and film. Nikesha also works as an independent curator, art consultant and researcher. Breeze’s work across multiple mediums seeks to honor, and reclaim invisibilized and erased histories of the African Diaspora. Breeze has won multiple awards for their work and has shown nationally and internationally in major museums, institutions, galleries, and art fairs. In 2024, Nikesha’s work, 108 Death Masks: A Communal Prayer for Peace and Justice, was included in the permanent collection of the Equal Justice Initiative’s Freedom Monument Sculpture Park in Montgomery, Alabama honoring the 6 million lives lost in enslavement in the United States.

Pua Case  was born and raised on the Island of Hawai'i and is a Kumu Hula, a teacher of traditional dance and chant, and teacher of the life ways, culture and traditions of the kanaka maoli or native peoples of Hawai'i. Pua serves on various educational and cultural boards in Hawai'i and is the Lead Coordinator and Project Director of Mauna Kea Education and Awareness.She has been a part of the Mauna Kea Movement over the past fourteen years and has been involved in both community and frontline actions to safeguard the mountain and unify peoples of all nations in a collective mission to network, plan, and support one another. As a Kumu Hula and composer of both oli and mele, Pua has shared her selections within and beyond Hawai'i. Pua focuses on incorporating cultural and traditional values and life ways into all efforts and actions to set a precedence of protocols for social and environmental justice and positive change. Pua has been awarded the 2023 USA Today Hawaii Women of the Year, and the Sunrise Foundation Puka 'ana a ka l´ Award. In 2024 received the esteemed NCORE Suzan Shown Harjo Advocate for Systemic Social Justice Award.

Amber Espinosa-Jones  is an award winning producer and equity strategist from Oakland, CA. She is a 2024 Rockwood Leadership Fellow, 2024 ArtEquity BIPOC Leader, 2022 DOC NYC Documentary New Leader, and recently produced the feature film STANDING ABOVE THE CLOUDS following Native-Hawaiian mother daughter activists executive produced by Multitude Films. Amber currently serves as Senior Manager of Artist + Audience Impact at Sundance Institute overseeing strategy and granting programs for marginalized artists and audiences. With a diverse background in theatre and film, Amber is a graduate of the University of Southern California’s Dramatic Arts and Media Arts + Practice programs with an interest in social change and collaborative community building.

Brandi Kellam  is a two-time Emmy Award-winning investigative journalist and documentary film director. Her work has also earned a Gracie Award from the Alliance for Women in Media, Columbia University's Paul Tobenkin Memorial Award, and top honors from the Education Writers Association, including the Fred M. Hechinger Grand Prize for Distinguished Education Reporting. In 2023, Kellam gained national recognition for her series "Uprooted", co-published by ProPublica, which investigated how American universities used eminent domain and urban renewal policies to displace residents in marginalized communities. The series led to the creation of a legislative commission in Virginia to explore potential redress for displaced families.

Kellam's work has been featured by MSNBC, NBC News, CBS News, The Chronicle of Higher Education, ESSENCE, and BET. In 2021, she received a reporting grant from Columbia University’s Lipman Center, which she used to launch her investigation into housing injustice in Virginia. She has taught graduate-level courses on multimedia storytelling at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, where she earned a master’s degree in broadcast and digital journalism. A Virginia native, she also holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Erin Lau  Native Hawaiian filmmaker, has dedicated her life to creating stories for her Pacific Islander community. She earned her MFA at Chapman University and continued her growth through opportunities with the Sundance Institute, Tribeca Studios, Film Independent, 4th World Media Lab, and more. Her films have screened in over 50 festivals across the world and have been featured on the Criterion Channel, Netflix, and PBS. Notable works include THE MOON AND THE NIGHT, ALL I EVER WANTED, and INHERITANCE. Erin most recently directed an episode of FOX's series RESCUE: HI-SURF. Outside of her scripted work, Erin contributed to multiple award-winning documentaries including producing the award-winning films DEAR ALOHA and STANDING ABOVE THE CLOUDS.

Marleah Makpiaq LaBelle   is of Sugpiaq, Iñupiaq, Filipina descent and is a tribal member of the Native Village of Port Graham. Makpiaq was raised between Anchorage, Alaska and her mom’s village. She is a writer who spent most of her career working in Tribal health, and is currently a small business owner navigating federal and private contracting. Makpiaq has experience working with Tribes through artmaking and theater making. She has a master's degree from the University of Alaska Fairbanks in rural development, and a bachelor's of business administration degree from Alaska Pacific University. In 2024, she was a resident at Storyknife Writers Retreat, and was part of artEquity’s BIPOC Leadership Circle. Makpiaq resides in Anchorage with her spouse, her two daughters, a very lovable Shih Tzu named Bubbles, and a Bengal cat named Kitty.

Norma Naranjo  is a member of Ohkay Owingeh, a Tewa-speaking Pueblo located north of Santa Fe on the Rio Grande. The second oldest of six children, Norma learned to cook from her mother and grandmother, and mastered the art of baking in the horno—an outdoor adobe oven. Her horno bread is a beloved component of feast days on the Pueblo as well as events in Santa Fe. She works alongside her husband, Eugene "Hutch" Naranjo, and their home is now called The Feasting Place because of the many people from all over the world who have been welcomed there to learn about baking in an horno and about cooking other traditional foods. Norma also uses that opportunity to teach people about the history of her pueblo, language, and traditions. Ohkay Owingeh means "Community of Strong People" in the Tewa language. The community was renamed San Juan Pueblo by Spanish colonizers first introduced to the area by Juan de Onate in 1598, but the pueblo is now known again as Ohkay Owingeh. In reference to her baking in the horno, Norma says "it is an art, not a science.” She feels she has absorbed wisdom throughout her life by observing the Pueblo dances and songs. Her legacy lies on the strength of her ancestors through traditional values, traditional foods, and a woven blend of her Native and Hispanic cultures.

Dr. Doaa Omran  is an adjunct faculty in the English Department at the University of New Mexico. Her research interests include post-colonial theory, feminism, and the Middle Ages. She did her master’s and PhD at the University of New Mexico. She co-edited Memory, Voice, and Identity: Muslim Women’s Writing from Across the Middle East (Routledge, 2021) as well as Muslim Women’s Writing from Across South and Southeast Asia (Routledge, 2022). She was also invited by Women Studies: an Interdisciplinary Journal to be Guest co-editor of the special issue Muslim Women Speaking Persistently (2022). She is the author of six articles and book chapters. She is also the administrator of the Facebook group "CompLitScholars" which serves a community of more than 4,600 international researchers. She is also currently serving on the Delegate Assembly of the Modern Language Association (MLA).

Nicole D. Porter  Named a "New Civil Rights Leader" by Essence Magazine for her work to challenge mass incarceration, Nicole D. Porter manages The Sentencing Project’s state and local advocacy efforts on sentencing reform, voting rights, and confronting racial disparities in the criminal legal system. Since joining The Sentencing Project in 2009, Porter’s advocacy and findings have supported criminal legal reforms in several states including Kentucky, Maryland Missouri, California, Texas and the District of Columbia. Porter’s areas of expertise include research and grassroots support around challenging racial disparities, felony disenfranchisement, in addition to prison closures and prison reuse. Her research has been cited in several major media outlets including Salon and the Washington Post, and she has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, and on National Public Radio and MSNBC. Porter has also been invited to speak on state sentencing policy, collateral consequences, and racial disparity to various audiences including the League of Women Voters, NAACP, and the United Methodist Women’s Assembly and on Capitol Hill. She has authored reports highlighting ballot access for people detained in jails, state prison closures and declining prison populations, in addition to articles on the collateral impacts of justice involvement on communities of color and how current social movements are challenging mass incarceration. Porter is the former director of the Texas ACLU’s Prison & Jail Accountability Project (PJAP) where she advocated in the Texas legislature to promote felony enfranchisement reforms, eliminate prison rape, and improve prison medical care. Porter received her undergraduate degree from Johns Hopkins University and a Master of Public Affairs from the University of Texas at Austin. Her master’s thesis addressed exploring self-employment among formerly incarcerated African Americans. She also studied African politics at the University of Ghana, West Africa.

Riva Nyri Précil  is a Haïtian multi-disciplinary artist based in Brooklyn New York. After receiving a degree in Music Therapy from Loyola University in New Orleans Riva began a dynamic career that includes work as an author, a visual artist and jewelry maker, a musician, and dancer. Her work creates connections that not only honors Haitian traditions, but presents them as relevant today. Her Altar Art and Wearable Altar projects position these customs as necessary practices for contemporary living. She is widely known throughout Haïti and its diaspora for her unique fusion of Haïtian music with African roots, American R&B, Soul, and Jazz. As the director of Tout Se Pa she offers dance education around the world. Riva’s practice is about elevating and preserving Caribbean culture, promoting wellness, facilitating healing, and offering ways to engage spirituality through her music and dance therapy.

Aída Esther Bueno Sarduy  is a Filmaker with a PhD in Social and Cultural Anthropology from the Complutense University of Madrid. She has conducted research in Cuba and Brazil on African religions from the perspective of gender and feminist theory and criticism. She is currently researching the buying and selling processes, letters of freedom and freedom purchasing documents of African or Afro-descendant women in Brazil, 18th and 19th centuries, in the states of Pernambuco and Bahia. Since 1999 she has taught at different universities in the USA: NYU, BU, Stanford and others.

Filmography: 1939 days (7’ 2015); Rezadeira(2018) feature length documentary in post-production; Guillermina, (17' 2019). Anna Borges do Sacramento. Feature length documentary in production (2024). Joaquina de Angola, audiovisual installation (CCCB-Barcelona), January 14-February 16, 2025. Autograph Gallery, London, Encounters in the Archive, 18-19 March, 2025.

"Guillermina" has been screened at: New Orleans Film Festival (2019) Uppsala International Short Film Festival (2020) / Évreux International Educational Film Festival (2020); My First Doc (2020) / Tunisia; Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival (2021); SANFICI (2021) / Bucaramanga, Colombia/ 16th Zózimo Bulbul Black Film Festival, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil (2023); 20 Mostra Internacional do Cinema Negro, MICINE, São Paulo, Brasil (2024).

Founder of Ibirí Filmes, an Afro-centric audiovisual production company based in Spain that produces works by black women filmmakers, and of Afro Diasporic Room, a consultancy for Afro-Latam artistic projects.

Patrick Sylvain  is a Haitian-American poet, writer, social and literary critic, and photographer who has been published widely on Haiti and Haitian diaspora culture, politics, language, and religion. He is the author of several poetry books in English and Haitian, and his poems have been nominated for the prestigious Pushcart Prize. He has been published in several anthologies, academic journals, books, magazines and reviews including African American Review, Agni, American Poetry Review, Callaloo, Chicago Quarterly Review, Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, Transition, and The Caribbean Writer. His poetry chapbook, Underworlds, was published by Central Square Press in 2018, and he was a featured poet on Benjamin Boone's Poetry and Jazz CD The Poets are Gathering (October 2020). His bilingual poetry collection, Unfinished Dreams /Rèv San Bout, was published in December 2023. Dr. Sylvain is the lead author of Education Across Borders: Immigration, Race, and Identity in the Classroom published by Beacon Press (February 22, 2022), and has received several awards, among them the Harvard University Derek Bok Center Award for Teaching Excellence.

Saeed Teebi  is an acclaimed writer and lawyer. His debut short story collection, Her First Palestinian, was a finalist for several awards, including the Atwood Gibson Writer's Trust Prize. His short story "Her First Palestinian" was shortlisted for the CBC Short Story Prize. His upcoming book, a memoir entitled You Will Not Kill Our Imagination, will be published in September 2025.

Paula Terrero  is a Reiki Master, born and raised in the Dominican Republic, and a resident of Albuquerque since the late nineties. She has been working in the Reiki and energy healing community as an educator, practitioner and advocate of grass roots community healing work for over 30 years. She is one of the founding members of the Sacred Spring Reiki Collective and the author of “Sowers of Light,” where she shares stories of her Reiki journey.

Paula along with Reiki practitioners from the Collective and healer friends from the community will be creating a space for healing, connection and renewal through a Healing Circle on Saturday April 12th as part of the AfroMundo Festival 2025 "Troubled Territories: The Will to Heal."

Cassandre Thrasybule  is a filmmaker, journalist, producer, a published author and public speaker born and raised in Port-au-Prince, the capital of the beautiful island of Haiti. Her work has focused predominantly on documentary films and publications that emphasize on the life, culture and history of Haitians in and outside of the country.

Cassandre has been a leader in bringing to light the plight of the voiceless and displaying some of the realities ignored by “the majority.” Over the last two decades, Cassandre has produced dozens of projects, most notably “Cassures: nos familles entre Haïti et ailleurs ( Fractures: families between Haiti and abroad.)”; “Exiled inland. Cassures (fractures) II”; and “Ayiti Pap Peri (Haiti will not Perish).” Cassandre’s productions on society’s core issues have been awarded among others, the 2019 Tin Medal by the Arts, Sciences et Lettres Académie, in Paris, France. In 2021, Cassandre was the award winner of the Best Human Rights Documentary of the Montreal Film Festival for the film-documentary “Exiled Inland. Cassures II.” Cassandre also won the Best Director Award, still in 2021, at the Tagore International Film Festival in India, for the film-documentary ”Exiled Inland. Cassures II.” In 2024, the film-documentary received the Best Producer Award of the New York Independent Cinema Wards. In 2024, “Ayiti Pap Peri” received the Best Producer Award of the Cannes Arts Festival. Cassandre combines her knowledge in sociology with her expertise in media to produce successful documentary-films using basic methodological approaches to address society’s core issues. She believes in the power of storytelling to change narrative and shape perceptions.

Carletta Tilousi, member of the Havasupai Tribe  A lifelong advocate for the protection of the Grand Canyon, Ms. Tilousi has worked for more than twenty-five years promoting environmental justice for the Havasupai Tribe, the Grand Canyon, and the indigenous people of the Southwest. Since 1998, Ms. Tilousi has served as President of Red Rock Foundation, Inc., a Native American non-profit organization promoting environmental education for Tribes in the Southwest.

Ms. Tilousi and the Tribe have opposed the development of uranium mines on federal lands above the Village and located within the watershed of Supai Village. One uranium mine is operating next to the Tribe’s sacred site called Red Butte. Ms. Tilousi was born and raised in Supai Village located at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. In 2002 after earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Justice Studies from Arizona State University. Ms. Tilousi returned to Supai Village, and was elected to serve on the Havasupai Tribal Council and was re-elected multiple times for over 17 years. While serving on the Tribal Council, Ms. Tilousi addressed the major issues of the day by improving the legal and financial infrastructure of the Tribe to provide better methods to address environmental threats. She has worked alongside Havasupai Elders to successfully have Red Butte legally declared as one of the largest Traditional Cultural Property sites in the U.S. providing added protection for the site. In 2012, she provided public comment in support of the successful effort declaring a 20-year moratorium on new mining claims surrounding the Grand Canyon. As a Tribal Council member, she provided congressional testimony to support the Grand Canyon Centennial Protection Act and its successful passage through the U.S. House of Representatives twice.

Supai Village is world-renowned for its dramatic and picturesque blue-green waterfalls, which are threatened by the uranium mines on the rim of Grand Canyon. Ms. Tilousi serves as an ambassador for the Havasupai Tribe by presenting their environmental justice issues to the world. Ms. Tilousi also served as a delegate to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland and has also presented the Havasupai uranium case at the World Uranium Hearings in Salzburg, Austria. Ms. Tilousi helped defeat a proposed nuclear waste dump in Wallenberg, Switzerland, which had direct ties to proposed mining activities in the Grand Canyon region. In 2010, Tribal members, including Ms. Tilousi, and Tribal Council were also engaged in a protracted legal dispute with Arizona State University over alleged improper human subject research conducted by the University officials against the Havasupai people. This work resulted in a groundbreaking settlement compensating individual tribal members and provided direct benefits to the Tribe.

Ms. Tilousi also currently serves as a representative of the Tribe on the First Things First Coconino Regional partnership Council in Northern Arizona promoting early childhood program in tribal communities. “The work I do is for the future children of the Grand Canyon, and for all my ancestors who endured the hardships of life in a remote canyon, I am honored to tell our story.”

Maria E Trillo  is an Usui Reiki practitioner and member of the Sacred Springs Reiki Circle.

Cynthia “Chef Thia” Verna   is a Haitian-born culinary powerhouse known for her vibrant personality and groundbreaking contributions to Caribbean and Haitian cuisine. Her journey began at 17 in her mother’s restaurant in Haiti, later leading her to establish Atelier Les Bamboos and train under renowned chef Reginald Koury. She honed her craft at Club Med before moving to the U.S., where she graduated cum laude from Le Cordon Bleu in Miami and worked at two Ritz-Carlton franchises.

Chef Thia’s culinary excellence has earned her global recognition. She represented Haiti at international cultural events and made history in 2017 as the first woman to win the People’s Choice Award at the Embassy Chef Challenge in Washington, D.C. North Miami honored her by declaring November 18, 2017, as Cynthia Verna Day. She gained national exposure as a co-host of Taste the Islands and co-authored 50 Favorite Haitian Recipes, a bestselling cookbook.

Beyond cooking, Chef Thia is a mentor, speaker, and advocate for mental health and spiritual growth. She has appeared on No Passport Required with Marcus Samuelsson and Can’t Cook with Ludacris on the Food Network. Her second cookbook is available nationwide, and her deeply personal memoir about surviving sexual assault highlights her resilience. A proud mother of three, Chef Thia’s life is a testament to the strength of the Haitian spirit—rooted in heritage, passion, and perseverance.

Elio Villafranca   Born in the Pinar del Río province of Cuba, Elio Villafranca was classically trained in percussion and composition at the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana, Cuba, with piano then becoming his instrument of choice. The Grammy nominated, Steinway Artist as well as 2014 Jalc Millennium Swing Award recipient, Villafranca has, since his arrival in the U.S. in mid 90’s, found himself at the forefront of the latest generation of remarkable pianists, composers and bandleaders. His concert Letters to Mother Africa was selected by NYC Jazz Record as Best Concerts in 2016 and in 2015, he was among the 5 pianists hand-picked by Chick Corea to perform at the first Chick Corea Jazz Festival. Over the years Villafranca has recorded and performed nationally and internationally as a leader with artists like Pat Martino, Terell Stafford, Billy Hart, Paquito D’Rivera, Eric Alexander, David Murray, and Wynton Marsalis, among others and as a sideman has collaborated with: Chick Corea, Jon Faddis, Billy Harper, Sonny Fortune, Miguel Zenón, Johnny Pacheco among others. In 2017, Villafranca received The Sunshine Award, founded in 1989, to recognize excellence in the performing arts, education, science and sports of the various Caribbean countries, South America, Centro America, and Africa. Based in New York City, he is a faculty member of Temple University, Philadelphia, The Juilliard School of Music, New York University, and Manhattan School of Music in NYC.

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.