Youth Activist Panel
Friday, Jan. 22nd, 7:15 – 8:30 pm EST
Young people have never been—and cannot be—mere passive observers of the world. As the Youth Activism Panel will show, young people are always actively building their networks and communities, gathering resources and discovering new ways of knowing and being, and helping to envision the future of the collective. What role do young people hold in not only sustaining but also transforming (and perhaps building new) movements for justice? What challenges do young people face in their organizing efforts, and how can we collectively support them and their work? How do we move toward synergy between existing efforts and new efforts? In this 75-minute panel, we will learn about organizing and movement building in the here and now through the lenses of five young activists and community organizers.
Auja Diggs
Due to unforeseen circumstances Auja Diggs will not be able to participate on this panel.
Auja Diggs, 19, is a fellow executive member within Black Young and Educated. She is a youth activist and artist as well. Auja is involved with organizations such as Gwen’s Girls, Planned Parenthood, and many more
Chrissy Carter
Chrissy Carter is a black trans queer organizer from Pittsburgh. In 2017 Chrissy took on One PA’s summer internship where she and Nia Arrington co-founded Youth Power Collective—a multi-issue based student-led collective which has organized around Gun Legislation, School To Prison Pipeline, Public Education, and more recently the death of Antwon Rose II. Chrissy began working at the Alliance Police Accountability in 2019 and organized closely with others around the police acquittal in the Antwon Rose II case. During summer 2019, Chrissy was a part of the All Star internship at Foster Club in Seaside, Oregon—a National based organization that advocates for youth in the foster system. Chrissy has sat on the board of The Youth Advisory Board at Carnegie Museum of Art, SisTers PGH, and is a part of the Black organizer and Activist collective of Allegheny County. Chrissy and Nia received The Thomas Merton Center New Person of the Year award in November 2020.
Priscilla Ortiz
Rincon Indian Education Center/Haskell University
Priscilla Ortiz is Kumeyaay from the Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel and Payomkawichum from the Rincon Band of Luiseno Indians, both tribes located in Southern California near San Diego. She has been mentored by the Rincon Indian Education since her early years in 2009 and molded into the youth advocate she is today through the opportunities given to her by numerous Native Youth organizations like U.N.I.T.Y., the Native Wellness Institute, and the Rincon Youth Storytelling Program. Along with her coworkers, Priscilla strives to see Indigenous people rise and become the healthy communities they strive to be through youth advocacy and education.
Anthony Hurtado
Rincon Education Center/SDSU
Míiyuyum, notúung Anthony Hurtado yaqá’. Nóon Payómkawichum pi Tohono O’odham. Hello everyone, my name is Anthony Hurtado and I am Payómkawichum and Tohono O’odham. I attend UC San Diego studying Public Health, tutor youth in my community, and I am part of a group whose focus is to improve our local school district’s education system by providing equitable resources and academics for our Native youth.
Jalina McClarin (moderator)
My name is Jalina McClarin, and my activism is rooted in abolition. I’m biracial and recognize my relative proximity to whiteness is a privilege, and I do my best to uplift the voices and work of fold not afforded that privilege. I organize primarily independently, forming affinity groups with trusted people as needs arise (the Stop The Station Pittsburgh Coalition being a current example). I believe that we must embody the world we want to create, and that building networks of trust and sincere accountability are the most important steps we can take right now.
Radical Artivist Panel
Saturday, Jan. 23rd, 3:15 – 4:30pm EST
When Bessie Smith—the Empress of the Blues—recorded “Back-Water Blues”, she did not have just any flood in mind. It was the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 about which she sang and the Black residents of Tennessee who withstood the heaviest damage from where the flood started whose experiences she immortalized. When Octavia Butler wrote the duology “Parable of the Sowers” and “Parable of the Talents”, she did not have just any apocalyptic society in mind. It was the institution of American democracy gone awry with fascism and modern slavery that she envisioned vividly as a warning sign; the people’s efforts in the novels were her blueprint for how communities could resist, reshape, survive. What is the role of the arts—especially intentional, critical, radical art—in a time of collective turmoil and grief? How might the arts and the artists spark transformation and carry movements? Our panel of radical artists and artivists will explore these critical questions in our last 75-minute panel of the Summit.
Christina Acuna Castillo
Christina Acuna Castillo (they/them) is a Peruvian cultural worker in Pittsburgh, creating art as an organizing/accessibility tool to help people imagine what change can look and feel like. Previously, they organized with Spanish-speaking immigrants, providing urgent support and resources — especially to families targeted by ICE. Currently, Christina is the Communications Specialist for the Alliance for Police Accountability, works for Sisters PGH, and Pgh United.
Jasmine Green
Jasmine Green is a Black visual artist born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Growing up in Pittsburgh, a city known for both being one of the most segregated major cities in the country as well as a city with the worst overall outcomes for Black Women in terms of health, happiness, and success, positive representations of Black Women were few and far in between. In unlearning the indoctrination of white supremacy within her school district that was only officially desegregated in 1981, Jasmine strove to create artwork that could tell the story of black women in as bold and creative ways as possible.
Jasmine is currently a member of 1Hood Media, an artist collective based in Pittsburgh that is dedicated to utilizing art as a means of raising awareness about social justice matters affecting people around the world. She participated in the Activation Residency in 2019, which was a black and black queer informed micro-residency focused on how marginalized artists can communicate in primarily white cishet spaces.
Darrell Kinsel
D.S. Kinsel is an award winning creative entrepreneur and cultural agitator. He expresses his creativity through the mediums of painting, installation, curating, action-painting, non-traditional performance and #HASHTAGS. Kinsel’s work puts focus on themes of space keeping, urban tradition, hip-hop, informalism and Cultural Re-Appropriation. D.S. has served creative residencies at Most Wanted Fine Art, Artist Image Resource, The Homewood Residency Program, Kelly Strayhorn Theater, Pittsburgh Public Schools Carnegie Mellon University Digital Arts Studio, AS220, the Pittsburgh Glass Center and the Sedona Summer Artist Colony. He also served as the curator of #ACTIVISTprint, a collaborative public art program of The Andy Warhol Museum and recently served as the Senior Producer at the Kelly Strayhorn Theater.
D.S. is the co-founder of BOOM Concepts, founded in 2014. BOOM Concepts is a creative hub dedicated to the advancement of black and brown artists representing marginalized communities. BOOM Concepts is located in Pittsburgh and is funded by The Heinz Endowments and The Pittsburgh Foundation. BOOM serves as a space for field building, knowledge sharing, mentorship, and storytelling. In its fifth year, BOOM Concepts consistently challenges artists and communities to find new and innovative ways to write their own narratives. D.S has served as a board member of Pittsburgh Center for Creative REuse, and serves on the advisory board for the Transformative Arts Process. A former AmeriCorps Public Ally member, D.S. has also been recognized as an Awardee of the Pittsburgh Courier Fab 40, Pittsburgh Magazine PUMP 40 Under 40, Pgh Tech Council Creative of The Year, and the Pittsburgh Post Gazette’s “Top Ten People To Meet in 2016” and the Incline’s “Who’s Next” for 2018.
Moderator: Bekezela Mguni
Bekezela Mguni is a queer Trinidadian artist and independent librarian. She is the founder of the Black Unicorn Library and Archives Project, a Black queer feminist library & archive. Bekezela is also a studio member of BOOM Concepts, which is community space and gallery dedicated to the development of artists and creative entrepreneurs. She also serves as the Education Program Director at Dreams of Hope.