By Myrna Martinez Nateras, Pan Valley Institute Director
After an exhaustive selection process, in June we inaugurated the second cohort of fellows for the ArteVism Fellowship Program. With this cohort, we returned to our practice of bringing together emerging leaders from diverse communities instead of just Latinx and Indigenous as was the case with the first cohort. We are thrilled with the diversity of this group and the experiences, knowledge and creativity they bring.
Joshua Slack was born into a military family; his mother served in the Coast Guard and his father was a college professor. He spent his childhood in various cities, but with family roots tying back to singers and artists from New Orleans, as well as Philadelphia, Joshua considers himself well versed in many aspects of Black American life.
While attending California State University, Fresno, Joshua majored in theatre arts, with an emphasis in acting and Africana studies. He performed in many productions through the Black Theatre Program, while serving as the President for the Black Students United, the ONYX Black Male Collective, and was a founding member of the Afrikan Black Coalition at Fresno State. He worked with the NAACP to organize the Fresno Black Lives Matter protest in May 2020.
Joshua is a professional photographer with his own business, “J. Slack Images.” He uses his photography as a vessel to bring life to his community by depicting images of those from marginalized backgrounds at the forefront.
Joshua’s life goal is to own his own production company that emphasizes TV, film, photography, theatre, and other art forms that express the uniqueness of niche storytelling within the Black community. He plans to offer it as a platform to tell the stories that mainstream media won’t tell, and to give a voice to the voiceless in his community.
Michael Piña is passionate about giving back to her community. Michael was raised in Kerman, where she fought to be a social change maker from an early age. As a queer, Latinx, and female-identifying person, Michael faced tremendous hardships growing up, which led her to seek out a more accepting community. She attended UC Berkeley and recently graduated with a degree in sociology.
While attending UC Berkeley, Michael noticed the lack of educational resources available to students from the Central Valley in comparison to her Berkeley peers, so she founded Central Valley Scholars. The non-profit was inspired by her mission to create an educational space in which all students, particularly those who are underserved, have access to higher education and are supported, admired, respected, and advocated for. Her work is driven by love, community, friendships, family, and a passion to make positive changes.
Hana Luna Her is a Hmong fashion model, graffiti artist, muralist, and dreamer whose graffiti name is “Better.” Born and raised in Fresno, she is a first-generation Hmong American. Her parents escaped the Vietnam War, and the after-effects of scarcity and assimilation greatly influenced her family. She was disowned by her father, dropped out of college, and experienced homelessness, but those hardships helped her discover the miracle of art.
Hana began her art journey 10 months ago. In that short time, she has developed a passionate approach to pushing boundaries and cultural barriers through her unique style of activism. She believes healing generational trauma can have a significant impact on the Hmong community and dreams of helping affect that change through cultivating cultural organizations and creating murals to develop visual arts.
Immanual Hargrave, who is African American and Japanese American, is originally from the Bay Area, but has spent his life moving every couple of years. He is currently the associate project lead at the Anti-Racism Project at the Hmong Culture Center in Merced, where he is in charge of communicating with local leaders, institutions, and policy makers about the current climate of hate crimes towards Asian Americans and how to create policy change within our institutions.
Immanual volunteers at “Improve Your Tomorrow,” where he mentors young men of color, helping them to attain higher education and overcome the adversities of college life. He also volunteers at CASA as a court appointed special advocate to help mentor children who are in the foster care system. He helped plan and lead the Merced Unity Rally in an effort to address the unjust hate crimes against local Asian communities since the arrival of the pandemic.
Immanual is passionate about helping to improve his community through advocacy and civic engagement. He loves to cook and write poetry, and prioritizes helping others and treating everyone he meets with respect.
Paulina Rodríguez Ruiz is a 24-year-old queer woman of color who was born in Santiago Tangamandapio, Michoacán, Mexico. Originally a molecular biology and physiology major at California State University, Long Beach, she switched her major to journalism and then public relations because of her desire to work with and build community.
During her time in higher education, Paulina became heavily involved in cultural organizations that centered around Latinx students. Following graduation, she worked in environmental justice for the Climate Action Corps, advocating for healthy food access in low-income communities.
Paulina’s life goal is to improve the lives and living conditions of immigrant communities and QTPOC (queer, trans, people of color) in the Valley by reconnecting them to their cultural traditions, ultimately using art as a way to build resiliency and conscience. Her dream is to create cultural spaces that are intentional spaces of joy and healing.