ENVISIONING OUR FUTURE:

United States

Roberto Lovato is the author of Unforgetting, a “groundbreaking” memoir the New York Times picked as an “Editor’s Choice.” Newsweek listed Lovato’s memoir as a “must read” and the Los Angeles Times listed it as one of its 20 Best Books of 2020. Lovato is also a journalist and visiting professor of English at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. A recipient of a reporting grant from the Pulitzer Center, Lovato has reported on numerous issues—violence, terrorism, the drug war and the refugee crisis—from Mexico, Venezuela, El Salvador, Dominican Republic, Haiti, France and the United States, among other countries.

United States

Natalia 'Nati' Linares is a Communications & Cultural Organizing Strategist at the New Economy Coalition - a network of over 200 organizations in the U.S. and Canada envisioning a just transition to a better social, cultural and economic system. Nati comes to the solidarity economy movement after over a decade of witnessing inequities in the music and media industry. She tells the stories of people resisting capitalism and building new systems, creating a culture of revolution. In 2021, she co-authored a report for the Arts & Culture Grantmaker community called "Solidarity Not Charity: Arts & Culture Grantmaking in the Solidarity Economy.”

United States

Ernesto Yerena Montejano was born in El Centro, CA, a mid-sized farming town bordering Mexicali, BC, MX. Fueled by his cross-national upbringing, his art practice reflects his observations of the views and interactions between the Mexican communities living on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.

United States

Ana Maria Alvarez is the founding artistic director of CONTRA-TIEMPO - a multilingual Los Angeles-based activist dance theater company dedicated to transforming the world through dance. She is also the 2020 Doris Duke Artist and an inaugural Dance/USA Artist Fellow, a prolific choreographer, skilled dancer, masterful teaching artist, and movement activist who has achieved multiple accolades for her dynamic works.

Brasil

Raul Amorim is a leader of the Landless Worker’s Movement of Brasil (MST). The MST, Brasil’s Landless Workers Movement, is a mass social movement for land reform and against injustice and social inequality in rural areas. The MST was born through a process of occupying large landed estates with families fighting for the realization of their political, social, economic, environmental and cultural rights. Currently, there are approximately 900 encampments holding 150,000 landless families in Brasil.

Cuba (Video)
Israel Rojas is a vocalist, composer and leader of the Buena Fe Duo together with Yoel Martínez who is a lawyer by profession. His troubadour training is present in all their lyrics and is full of reflection on the current Cuban reality. Buena Fe Duo music has a contemporary sound which creates musical arrangements from the most varied genres of Cuban music, including with pop and rock influences.

Moderator

Gina Belafonte is an artivist, actress, director, and producer known for BlacKkKlansman, The Commish, Operation Splitsville and Sing Your Song. Gina is the Executive Director and co-founder with her father Harry Belafonte of Sankofa which is a social justice organization that elevates the voices of disenfranchised people, and promotes peace, justice, and equality.