2023 Voqal Fellows

Adamu Chan (he/him) is a filmmaker, writer, and community organizer from the Bay Area who was incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison during one of the largest COVID-19 outbreaks in the country. He produced numerous short films while incarcerated, using his vantage point and experience as an incarcerated person as a lens to focus the viewer’s gaze on issues related to social justice.

The What These Walls Won’t Hold film impact campaign is dedicated to transforming the representation of incarcerated people in mainstream media and public consciousness. The campaign seeks to leverage the film as a resource for organizers and activists in the prison abolition movement to consider new strategies and methodologies to open new avenues toward liberation.

Adamu draws inspiration and energy from the voices of those directly impacted. He seeks to empower them to reshape the narratives created about them through film. Through the work of this project, in conjunction with partnerships with advocacy organizations, we expect to see tangible changes in the coverage and representation of system-impacted people and the passage of decarceration policies, furthering a vision of transforming racial justice and the criminal legal system.

Arielle Newton (she/her) is a world-builder, organizer, and movement strategist ready to design our Liberated future’s pillars. A Black feminist anchored in the traditions and insights of the Combahee River Collective, she is inspired by the generations of Black women and queerfolk who dared to live freely.

The Solidarity Society is an emerging lifestyle organization that will bring direct giving, political education, and research together to facilitate an equitable world that will soon be here. The Solidarity Society will operate like a think-and-action tank that advances reparations, solidarity economies, and participatory democracy as anchors to a queer-affirming Black Liberation. Black Liberation is central to Society’s world-building and powers Arielle’s curiosities and freedom dreams.

Chino Hardin (he/him) not only believes in change but works for it. He leads with love and fights with forgiveness. Forgotten Stewards is an anthology of black, indigenous, and queer folks of color reconnecting with and reclaiming nature/land in this country. He will work with this community to document their journeys and analyze how they reconnect with nature and land, including histories about what happened to break those connections and why.

They will also collect and share skill-ups and “nature secrets,” the healthy and healing things people do in nature that they don’t share due to shame, shyness, and other reasons – until now. Chino focuses on black, indigenous, and queer folks to bridge the divide among communities through isms, colonization, and trauma, as these identities have guided his journey and vision.

David Sampe (he/him) seeks knowledge and enlightenment, dedicating his life to personal growth and becoming an accomplished teacher, father, and friend. He has developed unique techniques and approaches to healing trauma in children through breath-work and music therapy with his organization Article 730.

Healing Liberation Music & Breath (HLMB) is a program to transform social, emotional, and civic education to help at-risk DC middle schoolers participate in their own process of healing and liberation. At this critical and transitional moment in kids’ lives when traumas start to compound, and the school-to-prison pipeline pulls them in, we bring participatory music therapy and breathwork to help them do their internal healing work. We then partner with local DC advocacy organizations to help them identify and align on a campaign or community need that they can strategically impact.

David remains humble and grounded, always prioritizing his role as a father, inspiring those around him to reach their full potential. His commitment to lifelong learning and connection to the world around us show that healing and personal growth are possible with dedication and an open heart.

jøn kent’s (he/him) principal aim is to be of help. The theme of his life’s work is being a community service actor through acting, activism, and activating sustainable spaces. He is currently working to develop a community land trust to curb displacement in the Riverbend neighborhood, located on the eastside of Detroit.

Through this work, they will engage, educate, and empower residents to reinvest in their communities by purchasing and repurposing land to their vision. This participation fosters bonds of safety, solidarity, and trust. Through an equitable cooperative model, we endeavor to create pathways of resiliency, food sovereignty, and economic empowerment by giving residents the foundational tools to collectivize and co-own their community.

As the Co-Founder of Sanctuary Farms, jøn works to close the food loop by collecting food waste to create nutritious compost and in turn uses that compost to cultivate organic produce. He also sits as the Executive Director of Sacred Spaces, a nonprofit organization that works to bring food sovereignty and design healing nature-scapes to historically disadvantaged communities.

Lydia Cutrer (she/her) is a real estate consultant through her firm, The O.W.N. Her life is dedicated to helping clients Build Wealth through Real Estate. She is a licensed real estate salesperson in Louisiana and Mississippi. She has worked across the real estate and financial services industries focused on business lending; affordable housing development; homeownership for first-time homebuyers; small business and non-profit development; and commercial property investment.

The brainchild of her and her partner, Jenga Mwendo, The Village is a New Orleans community where we sow our resources to grow our neighborhoods. The Village is a community-based real estate investment cooperative that lowers barriers to building wealth by expanding our knowledge and pooling our funds to prosper collectively. As a member of The Village, you are an owner of real estate projects that have the potential to improve our communities and increase our assets.

Growing up, her family provided her with many examples of belief and perseverance, including the importance of owning a home and having rental income. She returned to her hometown of New Orleans in 2012 and restored a home her family owned since 1953. Though it wasn’t a topic of normal conversation, the lives and achievements of her ancestors taught her the importance of diversifying income, saving money, building and protecting assets, giving generously, and living fully. Lydia’s mission is to help others experience the benefits of property ownership to protect their financial futures.

Marcus Akinlana (he/him) uses art to make your spirit fly free, and your soul sizzle and pop! He is Olòrìṣà ṢÀNGÓ, aka African Traditional Priest, ready to serve ọjọ gbogbo (on any given day). He is a drummer to tap into beats to make your body bounce. He was previously an MMA trainer for self-defense.

Bulbancha Rise Up is a series of art concerts and performances intertwined with Afro-Indigenous sacred and powerful ritual communal workshops to shift the energy in the environment, transform consciousness and self-awareness, and popularize and uplift Afro-Indigenous cultural genius. These sacred rituals and community-wide artistic performances will also highlight the roles our illustrious ancestors, like the Maroons of Bayou Sauvage, played in our survival.

We will introduce, intrigue, and then inspire the community to develop and draw strategies from our Maroon Ancestors to face and conquer our daily challenges. These magnificent events will uplift, preserve, and popularize our Afro-Indigenous culture.

Michelle Mondia (she/her) has nearly two decades of experience as a public health consultant. She has managed many projects, including evaluating the impact of rehabilitation programs on incarceration. She is dedicated to working with organizations that focus on community building, restorative justice, and systems thinking. She supports families in reclaiming the end-of-life journey and works to decolonize the death and dying experience of BIPOC and other marginalized communities.

The BIPOC Death Doula Collective’s mission is to resist the racist, capitalist, and discriminatory practices that rob us of a dignified and compassionate end-of-life journey while centering the voices and experiences of BIPOC communities. This project aims to address inequity by organizing death doulas, developing a robust toolkit to serve as a resource, and training members of communities as compassionate companions. The BIPOC Death Doula Collectives stand to resist the status quo by reclaiming the end-of-life journey.

Michelle received her Bachelor’s from the University of California, Berkeley, and her Master’s in Public Health from Boston University, focusing on International Health. She received death midwifery training from Sacred Crossings and certification from NY Open Center’s Thanatology Program.