Friday, March 19th, 2021 at 6:00 PM
Being an Indigenous womxn comes with many challenges and can mean many things. This gathering of Indigenous artists and activists features story-keepers from communities deeply seeded on this continent, and offers old lessons for navigating the complicated times of today.
* There will be a breakout space for non-Natives to unpack and strategize around appropriation & solidarity
FACILITATORS
Lucky Garcia (she/they)
Lucky Garcia is a Indigenous/Chicana queer writer, community organizer, educator, and software engineer. She has lived in Kansas City for 14 years. As an Iraq War veteran turned political leftist, she has dedicated her life to social and racial justice. Lucky hosts workshops and speaks publicly at schools, conferences and community events on relationships, sexuality, as well as LGBTQ, political, women’s rights, and racial justice issues. Lucky is a founding member of the La Resistencia poetry collective. She is an organizing member of One Struggle KC in the Movement for Black Lives, Brown Voices/Brown Pulse which centers LGBTQ people of color, and Showing Up for Racial Justice – Kansas City (SURJ).
Alex Kimball Williams (she/they)
Alex Kimball Williams is a multicultural artist, writer, speaker, and scientist. Their work often focuses on cultural identity, ethnopolitics, and natural sciences. Kimball Williams is the recipient of the 2018 MLK Dreamer’s award, and they are also depicted in the Womxn of Color Mural installed on the Lawrence Public Library. Currently, Kimball Williams works as a consultant and researcher on issues of equity within public health, public education, and policy. Whether it’s performing protest songs, writing compelling articles, or teaching about ethics, Kimball Williams radically stirs up their community with their multicultural and scientific approach to issues of social and environmental justice.
Desiree Kane (she/they)
Desiree Kane is a Miwok multimedia journalist, and a live-media event producer. Lately she can be found on The Real News Network, producing an educational class series by and for Indigenous People called First Foods, and working to combat disinformation in the news. You can see lots of her documentary photography now in the New Mexico Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe, NM at the Beyond Standing Rock exhibit. With the Firestarter Films crew as an Associate Producer, Camera Operator and Investigative Journalist on the feature-length documentary film Akicita: The Battle of Standing Rock, premiering at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. She was part of the organizing body the did Boulder Valley Indigenous People’s Day 2019 this past October which was heavily focused on #MMIWG2S, the epidemic that takes so many lives of Native women, girls, and two spirits.
Diane Burkholder (she/her)
Diane Burkholder is Black mixed-race, queer equity consultant and community organizer, who considers herself Half Midwesterner / Half Californian. She is the founder of The DB Approach, providing anti-oppression and social justice facilitation, coaching, and training to NPOs, universities, arts organizations, and healthcare facilities. Diane co-founded One-Struggle KC, a Movement for Black Lives affiliated organization, as well as the Missouri HIV Justice Coalition, which focuses on improving the state’s HIV-criminalization laws. She serves as chair for the American Humanist Association’s LGBTQ Alliance, focusing on secular activism and equity. When not chasing sunsets, she lives under the rule of her cat, Rosa (Parks).
