48 Hours of Socially Engaged Art & Conversation Summit

Roots Radical: An Exploration into Indigenous Ancestry and Experience. August 12-13, 2022.

 What is 48 Hours?

48 Hours of Socially Engaged Art & Conversation Summit is an annual two-day summit and celebration that engages cultural organizations, non-profits, artists, and individuals to share their expertise on cultural responsiveness, social responsibility, and collective leadership.

48 Hours aims to promote positive social change through creativity and innovation.

What is Roots Radical?

Roots Radical is RedLine’s 2022-2023 Exhibition Program, which kicks off during the 48 Hours summit.

Perceptions of Indigeneity are often formed by dominant or white-supremacist narratives and/or perceptions vs the realities and experiences of thriving, living cultures.

Roots Radical explores the idea of Indigeneity and reclaiming one's connection to ancestral roots across the world. This includes all artists who share Indigenous ancestry from any country where colonialism disrupted their sense of cultural identity and ancestral knowledge/expression.

48 Hours: Roots Radical Program Guide

View the full description of program details below the presenter bios!

(Free!) Food Vendors

Friday, August 12

Breakfast: Izzio (coffee & pastries)

Lunch: Maiz Denver

Dinner: Tocabe

Saturday, August 13

Breakfast: Curtis Park Creamery (breakfast burritos)

Afternoon: Randall’s & Ice Cream Wagon

Dinner: Grill Mama’s Eatery

Artisanal Market - Saturday, August 13

You can look forward to shopping from Indigenous artists and merchants on Saturday, August 13, 11am-4pm. Full list of merchants below the artist/presenter bios and project descriptions.

There will also be art making activities for kids, a community collage mural, and power fist button making at the market! 🎨 ✊🏾

48 Hours Artists/Presenters and Project Descriptions

Learn more about the 48 Hours: Roots Radical events and presenters below!

End of Silence: A Punk Survey of Gregg Deal Exhibition Opening Reception and Keynote Address
Gregg Deal

The ethos of Punk parallels the ethos of Indigenous people so profoundly that its resonance with Native people should be obvious. Disenfranchisement, pushing against power structures that restrict, oppress or suppress, questioning and challenging authority are coupled with the overwhelming desire to fight for truth while remaining wholeheartedly free. The very existence of Indigenous people is distorted and consumed for the entertainment of the masses. Indigenous silence isn’t really silence, but the erasure of Native voices. This exhibition, similar to a Punk rock anthem, amplifies this erasure and captures an honest and authentically articulated experience and thus ends the silence.

About Gregg

Gregg Deal, (Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe) is a multi-disciplinary artist, activist, and "disruptor."

End of Silence: A Punk Survey of Gregg Deal will be on display at RedLine August 12-October 9, 2022. Learn more >

“Lunch with Lucha” Keynote Address
Lucha Martínez de Luna

On May 4. 2022, the National Trust for Historic Preservation listed Chicano/a/x historical and legacy community murals of Colorado as one of America's 11 Most Endangered Places. From the Civil Rights Movement to today, murals have been treated as "paint on a wall," disregarding their artistic, cultural, and historical value within our communal spaces. Lucha Martinez de Luna, director of the Chicano/a/x Murals of Colorado Project, will explore how murals describe our collective histories and why these artworks are not deemed worthy of preservation for future generations.

About Lucha

Lucha Martínez de Luna is an archaeologist specializing in Mesoamerican and Contemporary Archaeology.

She has worked on numerous archaeological projects in the Southwest, American West, and central and southern Mexico. She serves as associate curator of Latino Heritage at History Colorado and is a Ph.D. student at the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at the University of California Los Angeles.

Lucha is the director of the La Providencia Archaeological Project and field school and is a visiting professor at the University of Science and Arts in Chiapas, Mexico. She considers herself fortunate to grow up surrounded by Chicano/a/x art and muralism in Colorado. Upon witnessing the destruction of Chicano murals throughout the state, she began archiving their stories and the stories of the muralists.

Lucha is Executive Director of the Chicano/a/x Murals of Colorado Project, a grassroots organization that advocates for protecting historical and legacy community murals in Colorado. The project collaborates with communities, artists, scholars, and cultural and academic institutions to develop education and preservation projects to celebrate the visual heritage of Colorado.

Instagram: @chicanomuralsproject

Panel: Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives

Danielle SeeWalker, Donna Chrisjohn, Richard Henson, Raven Payment, Daisy Bluestar

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives bill, SB22-150 was signed into law on June 8, 2022. Our collective group of women and tribal leadership has been working to bring this bill forward for over 2 years.

About Danielle

Danielle SeeWalker is a Hunkpapa Lakota citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and currently resides in Denver, CO.

She is a multidisciplinary artist, writer, businesswoman, Co-Chair of the Denver American Indian Commission and most importantly, a mother of two sons.

In her art practices, Danielle often uses mixed media while incorporating traditional Plains Indians’ scenes, messaging and materials.

Storytelling is an integral part of her artwork and pays homage to her identity as an Indigenous woman.

Her passion to redirect the narrative to an accurate and insightful representation of contemporary Native America is centric to her both her art work and community involvement.

Learn more about Danielle >

Instagram: @seewalker_ART

Donna Chrisjohn

Donna Chrisjohn (Sicangu Lakota and Dine) is a Native of Denver, a wife and a mother of 5. She is a legal professional with over 25 years of experience in private, public and tribal law. Donna stays active in the Native community, both locally and nationally, by volunteering and participating in several organizations. Currently, she serves on the Denver American Indian Commission (former Co-Chair) and Chinook Fund's Board of Directors (Co-Chair).

Education is not only a passion but a purpose for Donna. She is an Indigenous Education Consultant and has been presenting the Indigenous perspective to schools and organizations for over 43 years. She teaches an immersion course called Indigenous Voices. Donna was recently welcomed as a fellow with Moonshot EdVentures in 2021.

Instagram: @inyan1922

Richard Henson

I am a member of the Comanche Nation of Oklahoma & Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska.

Growing up as 2spirit, I have overcome many of the common disparities in Indian Country.

My lived experiences are unique and if I am able to support, encourage or uplift any person experiencing similar traumas, I feel it is my duty to share and be there for those struggling.

Instagram: @Crazy.Comanche

Raven Payment

A storyteller at heart, Raven Payment is Anishinaabe and Kanien'kehá:ka. Raven is a mother and partner, a veteran of the US Navy, and a long-time professional in the engineering and construction industry for transportation infrastructure across the nation. Raven is also a writer and outspoken advocate of Indigenous-specific issues.

As a descendant of four-generations of survivors of the government and religious sponsored Indian Boarding Schools, she focuses on connecting authentic and compelling narratives to non-Indigenous audiences.

Raven currently serves on the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Taskforce of Colorado, Denver American Indian Commission, legislative policy committee for the Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault, and advisory board for Haseya Advocates, the only program for Indigenous survivors of domestic and sexual assault in the state of Colorado.

Twitter: @quoth_the_rave

Writing Workshop: “Language Identity and the Poetic Voice” & Poetry Reading
Crisosto Apache

The use of the English Language does not compare to the use of Indigenous Language in poetry. The use of Indigenous Language defines many aspects of identity individually, culturally, historically, and communally. How should Indigenous Language be used alongside the English Language as experimentation to look beyond the influences of colonialism? The poetic genre can be a liberating form of expression and tool for exploring the many facets of Indigenous identity and experiences. Using the basic forms of poetry to develop and strengthen the voice to connect basic forms of imagery, poetic devices, language relationships, history, and culture as insight to re-envision Indigenous identity. This course allows participants with all knowledge of poetry to develop their voices and create new work. The course will also offer a moment to write in class & workshop, hear a mini-lecture, and discuss poetry.

About Crisosto

Crisosto Apache is from Mescalero, New Mexico (US), on the Mescalero Apache Reservation. They currently live in the Denver metro area in Colorado with their spouse. They are Mescalero Apache, Chiricahua Apache, and Diné (Navajo) of the 'Áshįįhí (Salt Clan) born for the Kinyaa'áanii (Towering House Clan) and are Assistant Professor of English at the Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design and is also the Associate Poetry Editor for the Offing Magazine. They hold an MFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Crisosto’s debut collection is “GENESIS” (Lost Alphabet). Crisosto’s second forthcoming poetry collection is “Ghostword” out by Gnashing Teeth Publication mid-2022.

Learn more about Crisosto >

Instagram: @crisosto_apache

10 Minute Talk: “Strategizing Around All Stages of Your Manuscript Description” & Book Reading from White Horse
Erika T. Wurth

Whether you end up with a smaller, independent press, or a large, traditional New York press, getting there can be difficult—and once you do have a book under contract, how do you bring your audience to it? Networking, residencies, conferences, and everything around your book, is exactly what people often don't talk about. In this seminar, I'll talk about putting away the dreamier aspects of the book life (the good stuff, like working on your craft!) and looking at what the career paths are that folks can take to support a literary life. We’ll also talk about what happens at all stages of your career—and what you can do to help utilize your specific skill set that might bring publishers, agents, and editors to you—and to your book, once it’s about to be out in the world.

About Erika

Erika T. Wurth’s novel WHITE HORSE is forthcoming via Flatiron/Macmillan.

She is both a Kenyon and Sewanee fellow, has published in The Kenyon Review, Buzzfeed, and The Writer’s Chronicle, and is a narrative artist for the Meow Wolf Denver installation.

She is a professor of creative writing at Western Illinois University and faculty at the low-res MFA program at Regis University.

She is an urban Native of Apache/Chickasaw/Cherokee descent. She is represented by Rebecca Friedman (books) and Dana Spector (film). She lives in Denver with her partner, step-kids and two incredibly fluffy dogs.

Learn more about Erika >

Instagram: @erikatwurth

Live Music Performance

Leondelasflorez (Diego Florez)

Diego Florez is an Artist, Poet, Artivist, Musician, and Educator from the Northside of Denver, CO. Florez's work is inspired by his roots and involvement in the Denver Chicano and Indigenous prayer communities, as he integrates ancestral philosophies and teachings into all he creates. His activism supporting immigrant rights truly began after the deportation of his mother to Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, MX, at the age of 15. Since then he has also fought against the rapid gentrification of the Northside in Denver, as well as Indiginous and Chicano rights in Colorado and beyond.

Florez's works influence each other, from his musical expression in the Chicano Funk band, Los Mocochetes, to education in art, music, and storytelling with area youth organizations such as The Birdseed Collective, Radical Arts Academy of Denver and Youth On Record. Florez's vision is to unite and educate communities through the arts of all kinds, through joy and beauty. He currently works out of Zarape Studios in Denver.

Instagram: @leondelasflorez

Live Music Performance: “Promise”
Cipriano Ortega

Cipriano uses elements of cabaret, jazz, film noir, beat poetry and Mexican culture to create a new all American perspective on the person of color. With his unique outlook his work uses humor/darkness to bring light to the unseen factors of being a minority. By having been outcasted by so many social facets, Cipriano uses that rejection to make a whole new world full of low rock. Cipriano is explicit with accusation and expression. Get low, with Cipriano…

About Cipriano

Cipriano has been fortunate enough to have his work recognized and shown both nationally and internationally.

Cipriano strives to create works of art that probe the mind and make people question what they perceive as the normative.

Whether that is shown in music, theater, visual art or some sort of culmination of all of the above; Cipriano enjoys blending all creative forms of expression.

As a sociological artist, Cipriano deconstructs the worlds around him and observes it under a nihilistic perspective.

As an indigenous POC, they also have no choice but to deal with colonialism head on by making it a daily practice to see the divisions we as a society create and continue to make the “normative.”

Instagram: @ciprianoband

Living Land Acknowledgement
Kristina Maldonado-Bad Hand

Conceived and directed by Kristina Maldonado Bad Hand, a Sicangu Lakota and Cherokee artist, Living Land Acknowledgements responds to the need to acknowledge stolen Indigenous land and honor Indigenous people through art and community gardens, while meeting the needs of local BIPOC communities for healthy food options. The centerpiece of the garden, a collaborative community-responsive artwork that actively acknowledges the Indigenous ancestral land of Five Points in an ongoing conversation to fortify residents' sense of belonging, agency, and place-keeping. The topiary sculpture will incorporate images and the language of the tribes that call Colorado home, while also incorporating the historical narratives of that neighborhood. The topiary sculpture features Indigenous plants that thrive in Colorado’s arid climate to reconnect gardeners to native plants and to promote environmental sustainability.

About Kristina

Kristina Maldonado-Bad Hand is a Sicangu Lakota and Cherokee artist that hails from Taos, New Mexico. Her passion for community and social justice has led her to speak on matters of equality and cultural representation in pop culture. She is a graphic designer, illustrator, comic creator, and former co-chair of the Denver American Indian Commission. She has 10 years of experience in after-school and summer programs. Most notably for her work with Pop Culture Classroom in their comic-based literacy curriculum; as a community and OBH liaison with the Jeffco Indian Education Program, and as a Think 360 Artist for her SEL lessons through design and pop culture. She now works with the Denver Art Museum as the Creative and Pubic Engagement Fellow, working with the Creative in Residence and the Native Artists in Residence programs.

Learn more about Kristina >

Virtual Performance: “A Vignette from Ojos en la Selvas”
Victor Escobedo

Processions is a look at ritualistic offerings and ceremony that cross time and space. The first installment of Ojos en la Selva was awarded the INSITE Fund in 2019 through the Andy Warhol foundation. Processions was awarded a Workshop Grant through the Jim Henson foundation in 2021.

About Victor

Victor Escobedo's body of works pays tribute to his experience and time spent in the Yucatan jungle listening and feeling the energy, seeing ancient ruins and exploring Maya sites. Born in Los Angeles, Victor was heavily influenced by Hip Hop, graffiti, alternative music and Pop culture.

Growing up in a cultural hub in the 90's and 00’s, the result is a compelling style of ceramic masks, marionettes, murals, paintings, and performances rooted in reimagined ancient iconography with dynamically textured installations. Escobedo explores mythology, intuition and Shamanistic practices as inspiration for contemporary transformation.

His artwork is a reinterpretation of ancient, indigenous art and mysticism for a contemporary audience, that integrates seemingly unrelated disciplines in search of something universal.

Learn more about Victor >

Instagram: @victor_j_escobedo

Workshop: “Women We Call Home” Collage & Interview Series
Yazz Atmore

“Women We Call Home” is a collage & interview series honoring the Black ass women we call home. Inspired by my late grandmother this series celebrates the multifaceted, layered & vastness beauty of the Black women we call home, love, joy & ancestor. Series participants offer memories & stories of life with such extraordinary women giving us a glimpse of the many ways love shows up time after time. The collages consist of photos, magazine snippets, colors & patterns that embody the essence of the women we call mother, grandmother, aunt & friend. I hope this series reminds you that you too will become the new home, peace, love & ancestor for the next generation. By simply honoring the multifaceted, layered & vastness of our ancestors, we honor our own complexities and our own stories. We are the new ancestors and we are called to act accordingly.

About Yazz

Yazz Atmore is just a scattered brain barefoot babe who likes to dance with words, play in the spirit world & dabble in art magic. Having created her own degree from Metropolitan State University, Yazz obtains a BA in Supporting High Risk Youth through the Arts. Yazz is a community organizer, creative & educator in Denver, Colorado where she continues to mentor and create with young artists as they explore their lives, stories, and passions through the beauty of art. Constantly inspired by the youth + community she works with, Yazz continues to develop & deepened her own artistry as an analog collagist and muralist. Her work is heavily influenced by her spiritual journey as she loves exploring the spirit world with God, Ancestors & her Spirit Team. As an expressionist intuitive mixed media artist she creates breathtaking hand cut collage works, with the use of bright bold colors, metallic paints and gold leaf.

Learn more about Yazz >

Instagram: @ChattyAncestors

10 Minute Talk: “Linguistic Mutation: The Persistence of Hegemony | Why we’re still trying to push Latinx”
The Vamp DeVille (Denise Zubizarreta)

Multiple pan-ethnic labels of Americans tracing their roots to Latin America and Spain have been introduced over the decades. Today, the two dominant labels used are Hispanic and Latino. But, for the population it is meant to describe, only 23% of U.S. adults who self-identify as Hispanic or Latino have heard of the term Latinx, and just 3% say they use it to describe themselves. So why does this term persist?

About The Vamp DeVille

Denise "The Vamp DeVille" Zubizarreta is a Puerto Rican and Cuban American Mixed Media Interdisciplinary Artist raised between Union City, NJ, and Hialeah, FL, currently living and working in Denver, CO. She is the former President of the Student Government Association at the Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design where she is completing her BFA in Fine art. ​

Zubizarreta recently presented The Modern Borikén (an award winning paper on the Puerto Rican Statehood movement and colonizations impact on the cultural identity of the Puerto Rican people) at the HERA (Humanities Education + Research Association) Conference hosted by University of Texas - El Paso and at the RMCAD Research Symposium where it won the Quality of Paper Research award.

Her artwork focuses on her connection to self through exploring childhood angst, chronic illness, PTSD, and cultural identity. It has been exhibited in gallery and in performance with Microtheater Miami, the Fort Lauderdale Fringe Festival, Emmanuel Art Gallery, Las Laguna Gallery, RedLine, CORE New Art Space, EDGE Gallery, D’Art Gallery, Cicada Magazine, BRDG Project, and the Providence Art Club. Her solo exhibition, “El Bohío Del Bohiti” recently closed at the Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design’s Rotunda Gallery.

Zubizarreta explores post-colonial theory through mixed media artworks and installations. By investigating the 20th century cultural effects of colonialism within Latiné communities, she challenges the binaries between Self and “Other.” Traditions, memories, and contemporary life are blended in her work to honor, reclaim, as well as, reinvent narratives of the past, present, and future.

Learn more about The Vamp DeVille >

Instagram: @thevampdeville

Virtual Conversation: “Indigo, Cotton, and Image Afterlives meet Ecstatic Contemporaries” Socially-Engaged Art Project & Black in Denver Process Talk
Narkita

About Narkita

(b. Jasmine Narkita Wiley, 1987) is a visual artist, creative researcher, and poet based in Brooklyn, NY. She works in photography, textiles, text, performance, and social practice. 

Narkita is an advocate for love and liberation. She is also concerned with time. Not our linear understanding of it but the simultaneous existence of the past, the present, and the future. In her work, she explores the possibilities of transgenerational communication as a means to remember, to heal, and imagine the world anew. 

Her exhibition record includes Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver (2021), Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art (2021), Colorado Photographic Arts Center ( 2021), History Colorado (2021), RedLine Contemporary Art Center (2021), Arvada Center for the Arts & Humanities (2020), among others. She holds an M.A. in Art Politics from New York University Tisch School of the Arts, and is the recipient of the school’s prestigious HEAR US 2022 Award. Narkita is currently developing a book on her accomplished series “Black in Denver.”

Learn more about Narkita >

Virtual 10 Minute Talk: "A Reflection of My Mexican Heritage"
Memo Plastilina (Guillermo Castellanos)

My storytelling, both written and visual, is a reflection of my Mexican heritage—the sights and sounds of my childhood, the everyday colors and shapes, the stories of struggle and survival in my family and those around me. My work is a response to the trauma experienced by children in my country, empowering them to feel proud of who they are and to believe that the very things that make them different are their greatest strength. I use dinosaurs to put children who feel marginalized at the center of the story, so they can embrace their “inner dinosaur” as a source of pride.

About Memo Plastilina

Guillermo Castellanos es mexicano, Licenciado en Diseño para la Comunicación Gráfica por la Universidad de Guadalajara, y pertenece a la primera generación de la Maestría en Narrativa Gráfica en América Latina. Es autor e ilustrador de libros para la niñez. Se especializa en utilizar materiales poco convencionales para ilustrar, como la plastilina, por ello firma su trabajo con el nombre de “Memo Plastilina”. Ha ilustrado una docena de libros en colaboración con escritores latinoamericanos. Cuenta con cuatro títulos más de su autoría: Lucy Detective, Pijama, Huella y Evasaurio. Este último cuenta con una adaptación para teatro. Sus ilustraciones han formado parte de diversos carteles de teatro para la infancia en México, han sido exhibidas en distintos museos nacionales y en exposiciones colectivas en Israel y Reino Unido. Es tallerista en importantes eventos culturales, entre ellos la Feria Internacional del Libro de Guadalajara.

Guillermo Castellanos is a Mexican artist with a bachelor’s degree in graphic design from the University of Guadalajara and received a Master’s degree in Latin America’s first program for graphic narrative. He writes and illustrates children’s books, specializing in unconventional materials, including plasticine—hence his pen name, Memo Plastilina. He has illustrated a dozen books in collaboration with various Latin American authors, and has authored four books himself: Lucy Detective, Pijama, Huella, and Evasaurio. His book Evasaurio was also adapted as a play. His illustrations have been used as the poster artwork for children’s theater productions across Mexico, and his art has been displayed in national museums and exhibitions in Israel and the United Kingdom. He has been a facilitator for prominent cultural events in Mexico, including the Guadalajara International Book Festival.

Instagram: @memoplastilina

“The Red Road Project” Presentation & Project Highlight
Carlotta Cardana

Since inception in 2013, The Red Road Project’s purpose is to document, through words & visuals, the inspiring and resilient stories of Native America. These stories, not often told, highlight the people and communities that are taking positive actions and demonstrating resilience. More often than not, we see a non-Native narrative reporting on what Indigenous cultures are or represent and this often leads to misconceptions and fueling of negative stereotypes and microaggressions. With the vast and complicated historical trauma that American Indian people have had to endure for centuries, our intention through this project is to redirect that conversation. It is important that The Red Road Project is a platform for Native American people to tell their stories of past, present, and future through their own voices and words. We believe that Indigenous knowledge and teachings can also suggest solutions to the issues we are facing collectively as humans – now more so than ever.

About Carlotta

Carlotta Cardana is an Italian editorial and commercial photographer based in London.

In her personal practice, she looks at how communities are affected by economic upheaval and oppression, indigenous cultures, the relationship between humans and their environment and at how one’s identity is shaped by the society and space he/she inhabits, such as among minorities or subcultures.

She's a regular contributor to The New York Times, Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian and The Financial Times.

Carlotta’s work has been awarded and exhibited in numerous international galleries and festivals and is included in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery in London and the UK Parliamentary Art Collection.

Learn more about Carlotta >

Walking Meditation and Workshop
Meca'Ayo Cole

If you really wanted to hear the news, you would take a walk through the city. You would take a long view of the landscape. You would breathe in the street, the river, the side of a mountain, the trees and their inhabitants, the symbols and old masonry of the historical buildings, a street’s evaporating histories, and you would recognize yourself as not apart. You would recognize yourself as an extension of that street, and everyone who has tread upon it. You would recognize yourself as all parts of the river: the water coursing, the salmon struggling upstream during their season, the water birds, the moss and the stones and water skimmers. You would walk and collect the street, the river, through your vision, and through your eyes reflect it back to many more who need reminding that if they really wanted to hear the news, they would take a walk through the landscapes surrounding them. This can be an artists' work in any medium, and I want to talk about that with you. This will be part meditation, part idea making, and part planning for what next as an extension of deepening a practice of noticing and incorporating it into our work.

About Meca'Ayo

Meca'Ayo Cole (aka Tameca L Coleman) is a singer, multi-genre writer, itinerant nerd and artist in Denver, Colorado. Their work explores heartbreak and healing, familial estrangement, being 'in-between' things, finding beauty, even during times of strife, working towards finding the words for our experiences, and movement towards reconciliation as part of a way forward. Their art and writings have appeared in many print and online shows, journals, anthologies, and newspapers. Their debut book an identity polyptych (2021) is available from The Elephants on the Salish Sea. You can find Meca'Ayo on social media under the handle Meca'Ayo Cole

Instagram: @sireneatspoetry

The Guillotine Hip Hop Showcase
Slam Nuba

The Guillotine is a hip-hop showcase that highlights local artist by booking them for a 20 min set, allowing them to gain exposure and revenue through offering a guarantee, enabling artist to receive 100% of their own presale tickets and sell merch. Artist who have been showcased come from all across the front range, with an emphasis of prioritizing Black and brown emcees ranging in gender, sexual orientation, and education level.

About Slam Nuba

Slam Nuba is an award-winning performance poetry organization based in Denver, Colorado. Originating in 2006 as a program of the Pan African Arts Society and certified by Poetry Slam Inc, Slam Nuba has become a collective of many of the nation’s finest poets, including Amy Everhart, the 2010 Individual World Poetry Slam Champion & Dominique Ashaheed, the 2012 Women of the World Poetry Slam Champion.

Slam Nuba was conceived by Ashara Ekundayo, Ken Arkind, and Panama Soweto. Café Nuba, Denver’s premier monthly poetry showcase, had been a registered Poetry Slam, Inc. venue for several years and had never sent a team to the National Poetry Slam. With the support of the community, Slam Nuba was created for the purpose of representing the versatility of Denver’s poetry scene under its parent organization of Café Nuba.

In 2011, Slam Nuba won The National Poetry Slam Championship. Every single member of the Slam Nuba has appeared on at least one final stage in the trio of large competitions put on by PSI. Slam Nuba was inducted to the Denver Westword’s Mastermind Class of 2011. This award is given to creative people and groups who serve the Denver community with an invaluable service or product. The organization has performed in many places outside of poetry slam including local events as Denver’s Black Arts Festival, Freedom of Speech, Café Cultura, & Mercury Café Poetry Slam.

Learn more about Slam Nuba at RedLine >

Arts in Society Project Presentation
Lares Feliciano

Administered by RedLine and funded through a cohort of Colorado foundations and government agencies, the Arts in Society program provides grants ranging from $5,000-$35,000 to individuals and organizations seeking to implement projects that utilize the arts as an integral element in promoting social justice and community welfare.

About Lares

Lares Feliciano (b. 1985 Oakland, CA, USA) is an interdisciplinary artist and cultural worker based in Denver, CO. Feliciano uses animation, installation, and collage to create worlds where marginalized experiences are front and center. Her work explores queer identities, mixed-race experiences, and complex expressions of grief and trauma.

Feliciano lives and works in Denver, CO where she has several projects in development including: DIASPORICAN, a multi-layered storytelling project that uses archival imagery, experimental animation, and oral history to explore the deeply personal and diverse stories that make up the Puerto Rican experience and MEMORY MIRROR, an immersive installation that invites visitors to explore their relationship with memory through animation, dioramas, and interactive storytelling.

Learn more about Lares >

Live Music Performance
DJ Selecta SunRa

I learned early the importance of art as a means to express. Growing up Philadelphia, in the dichotomy that was my family, my voice often went unheard. The juxtaposition of my mother and her nomadic, hard and sometimes too honest approach against my grandparent’s more affluent and sometimes highly bourgeoisie attitude, was extremely confusing for me. I was imaginative, shy but extroverted and very aware of my station on both sides of my family. But my mother, in her dysfunction, attempted to teach my brother and I freedom, inside of the prison society was setting up for us. Even as an addict, she encouraged all of our artistic impulses.

She also tried to teach us what diversity looked like. A segregated 80’s Philadelphia didn’t allow much room for peaceful interactions with other ethnic groups, or so my grandparents thought. Art provided areas of opportunity to meet people who would become inspiration to explore beyond my own culture. That, coupled with the birth of Hip Hop, taught me fearlessness in my exploration of identity and creativity.

As a result of that exploration, I never had questions regarding identity. I just knew my art kept me sane. As a curator of music, it has inspired me to explore the music that heals me, first. As a poet, it has created narratives within the soundscapes I create. This exploration has afforded me opportunities to be in spaces I would have never considered.

I have been able to play in the Clifford Still Museum, Redline, Leon Gallery, the Crowned Curls festival, Headroom Sessions held at Recreative Denver, several poetry events and one party for an 80 year old ranch owner in Winter Park. Music allows me to connect to fellow humans, without anger or bias. I will always use that concept as my North Star.

Instagram: @selecta_sunra

Live Music Performance
DJ Selecta C

Known for an energetic and unique style of hosting, Selecta C sets the stage for connecting people through music and movement, two things she says are powerful medicine. Raised in Denver, CO, C is a mother, certified yoga instructor specializing in youth practice, and the founder of URBN Brands x HUMN Media — a digital agency that takes a human-centric approach to branding and visual media.

Instagram: @selecta.c + @urbanbricks

“Call of Our Ancestors” Music Performance created by Beats by Girlz
Vonna Wolf

Beats By Girlz is the promise of a future - one where traditionally marginalized gender identities are able to visualize and realize their full potential.  We do this important work by giving them access to the tools, resources, education, and community necessary to foster growth. Music is the skeleton key we use to open the door to technology parity and justice, not only in the music industry but in all tech-related fields where women and gender minorities are underrepresented. 

We are a decentralized and non-hierarchical global organization that supports and works in tandem with our member chapters all over the world. We empower and collaborate with regional leadership to understand and identify the needs of their respective communities by meeting them where they're at and expanding/contracting to appropriately serve them. Our entire model is built off of power-sharing, partnership, and community building.  

Founded in 2013 by Erin Barra, Director of Popular Music at Arizona State University and former Associate Professor at the Berklee College of Music, Beats By Girlz now has over 35 chapters across the world which represent 15 countries across 4 continents.

Learn more about Vonna Wolf >

Learn more about Beats By Girlz >

Saturday Market Vendors

(Not pictured): Marsha Alex, selling beaded jewelry, dream catchers, shawls and women’s skirts.

Explore the 2021 48 Hours Summit:

Afrofuturism + Beyond