THE STRUGGLE FOR SOVEREIGNTY

Opening by Viver Brasil

 

While the U.S. Government seeks to shape the world for its own financial and political benefit, the oppressed and struggling people inside and outside its own borders know that they have the right to determine their own societies and their own futures. 

Join us to listen to the voices of Black, Indigenous, and Latinx leaders on the struggle against US domination and exploitation in this moment of intense political, economic, and social crisis.

  • Viver Brasil

    Viver Brasil (VB) honors Brazil’s African legacy through contemporary dance theatre by utilizing Afro-Brazilian dance and music in performance, arts education, community, and cultural exchange programs. The company conveys contemporary representations of Afro-Brazilian dance that uplift ancestry and social equity. The company’s core values focus on addressing anti-blackness, building joyful community, and honoring elder wisdom. Led by Co-Artistic Directors, Luiz Badaró, Vera Passos and Linda YudinViver Brasil is proudly celebrating its 25th anniversary, and is led by Artistic Directors, Luiz Badaró, Vera Passos and Linda Yudin.

    www.viverbrasil.com @viverbrasildance

  • Medea Benjamin

    United States

    Medea Benjamin is the co-founder of the women-led peace group CODEPINK and the co-founder of the human rights group Global Exchange. She serves on the CODEPINK Board of Directors and has been an advocate for social justice for more than 40 years.

  • Vijay Prashad

    India | United States

    Vijay Prashad is an Indian Marxist historian and commentator. He is an executive-director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, the Chief Editor of LeftWord Books and a senior non-resident fellow at Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China.

  • Bertha Zúniga

    Honduras

    Bertha Zúniga is a Honduran social activist of Lenca descent. She is the daughter of social leader Berta Cáceres, murdered in 2016. She is the general coordinator of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras [COPINH] which fights for the environmental, cultural, social, health, economic and educational rights of Honduras’s largest indigenous group, the Lenca people.

  • Oscar Lopez Rivera

    Puerto Rico

    Oscar López Rivera is a Puerto Rican activist and militant who was a member and leader of the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional Puertorriqueña (FALN), an organization devoted to Puerto Rican independence. Rivera was a political prisoner after being sentenced to 55 years in 1981, and then again in 1988 he was sentenced for an additional 15 years for conspiring to escape from Leavenworth Prison in Kansas.

  • Nana Gyamfi

    Ghana | United States

    Nana Gyamfi is an abolitionist, an organizer, a Movement lawyer, an educator, with three decades on the frontlines for Black liberation. She is the Executive Director of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, President of the National Conference of Black Lawyers, a member of Black August LA, co-founder of Justice Warriors 4 Black Lives and Human Rights Advocacy, and a radio show host and producer.

  • Tina Orduno Calderon

    Tina Orduno Calderon is a Culture Bearer of Gabrielino Tongva, Chumash and Yoeme decent. She is wife, mother, grandmother, sister and auntie to many. Tina is a singer who also enjoys creative writing and composing poems and songs. To date she has composed over a dozen songs in her ancestral languages of Tongvé and Chumash. Additionally, Tina is a traditional dancer and storyteller who strongly believes in honoring her ancestors by sharing their history and educating others about Indigenous truths.

  • Manolo De Los Santos

    Moderator

    Manolo De Los Santos is an organizer with the International Peoples’ Assembly. He also the Co-Executive Director of the People’s Forum in New York City and a researcher with the Tricontinental Institute of Social Research.