Day 1 | Wednesday, August 29, 2018 |
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ANABELLA AGUIRRESEIU-USWW, Executive Board Chair Founding member and instructor of Ya Basta SEIU-USWW, Executive Board Chair. Anabella Aguirre came from Guatemala when she was 19 years old. She left her country because gang members in her country killed her husband. She also left eeing poverty with three children. When she came to the U.S. she worked taking care of children and cleaning houses. In 2001, she started working in the cleaning industry. She was humiliated and suffered two sexual abuses. At that time, she did not know there was help, and she was harassed at work. She was about to make the decision to quit her job because of everything she had gone through, but a colleague told her that they had a union. From there, she became more involved. She is proud to be a member of USWW, as well as a delegate on her site, She is a Promotora, a self-defense instructor, and SEIU-USWW Executive Board Chair . She decided to break silence and talk about her rape story. In 2016, she participated in a hunger strike in Sacramento to support action to prevent sexual abuse of janitorial workers. |
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TARANA BURKE‘me too.’ Movement, Founder Tarana has worked in social justice and Black arts and culture for more than twenty- ve years. Her long and varied professional career started in Selma, AL where, over the span of a decade, she worked with: the 21st Century Youth Leadership Movement helping to develop hundreds of youth leaders across the country; at the National Voting Rights Museum & Institute serving as a curatorial consultant and special projects director helping to organize the annual commemoration and celebration of the Selma Voting Rights Struggle known as the Bridge Crossing Jubilee; and as Executive Director of the Black Belt Arts and Cultural Center where she created and oversaw cultural community programs designed for underserved youth. She has done organizing work from the deep South the East Coast dealing with issues ranging from economic justice to police brutality. She has been invited to speak and present at various conferences and gatherings in Senegal, Cuba, Mali, and Tunisia as a UN Delegate for the World Summit on Information Systems. In 2003 she turned her focus to young women of color and co-founded Jendayi Aza an African-centered Rites of Passage program for girls. That program eventually evolved into the creation of her non-pro t Just Be, Inc. Through the work of Just Be, Tarana started the ‘me too.’ Movement, a campaign using the idea of “empowerment through empathy” to help young women of color who are survivors of sexual abuse, assault and exploitation.
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Day 2 | Thursday, August 30, 2018 |
KAYTESHIA WESCOTTKayTeshia Wescott attends Menominee Indian High School, she will be a senior the upcoming year. In recent months KayTeshia was chosen to travel to New York to speak in front of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) about the sulfide mining that would not only destroy the Menominee’ Antiquity but destroy the Menominee river that’s located next to the mine. A significant accomplishment for KayTeshia is that she has done a family water walk that her family has done for many years since her grandparents were alive. She has faced many challenges in her life but her spirit stays strong. KayTeshia strength comes from her belief that she has to be a leader for herself, her family, and her people. |
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DALTON DAGONDON TIEGSIdaho Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence |
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MELODY MINUET KLINGENFUSSCoalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA)’s California Dream Network, Statewide Organizer Melody Minuet Klingenfuss was born in Guatemala City, Guatemala. After growing up without parents, she was reunited with her mother in the heart of Los Angeles when she was 9-years-old. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Communications and Political Science at California State University, Los Angeles. She graduated with a Master of Nonpro t Leadership and Management from the University of Southern California. She has conducted a research thesis focused on the representation of undocumented students in mass communication. Melody works as the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA)’s California Dream Network (CDN) Statewide Youth Organizer as a devoted advocate for human and immigration rights. She is a DACA recipient since 2015. Her life goal is to continue bending the arc of the moral universe towards justice. |
Day 3 | Friday, August 31, 2018
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BAMBY SALCEDOTransL[email protected] Coalition, President and CEO |
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LUPE GONZALOCoalition of Immokalee Workers |
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FARAH TANISBlack Women’s Blueprint, Executive Director Farah Tanis is the co-founder, Executive Director of Black Women’s Blueprint working nationally and at the grassroots to address the spectrum of sexual violence against women and girls in Black/African American communities, and working with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) across the nation on issues of gender, race, sexuality, anti-violence policy and practice. Tanis was the national co-chair of the March for Black Women. She chaired the rst Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the U.S. ever to focus on Black women and their historical and contemporary experiences with sexual assault. Tanis is a NoVo Foundation – Move to End Violence Program, Cohort 3 Movement Maker, a U.S. Human Rights Institute Fellow (USHRN) and a member of the Task Force on the UN Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Until 2017, Tanis served on the Advisory Board of SurvJustice and Faculty Against Rape. |
