President Shannon Holsey serves as the President of the Stockbridge‑Munsee Community, Band of Mohican Indians in Wisconsin. A longstanding advocate for civic participation and tribal sovereignty, she has brought over two decades of leadership experience in tribal governance, intergovernmental relations, and community development. President Holsey is committed to strengthening democratic engagement, advancing equity for Indigenous nations, and empowering future generations through education, cultural preservation, and civic leadership.

Since unloading his breakout mixtape, 1999, Joey Bada$$ has been at the center of boom-bap lore for more than a decade. In the process, he has established as a compelling storyteller in the culture at large. He founded the rap collective Pro Era alongside Powers Pleasant, CJ Fly, and late rapper Capital Steez.

Joey will perform the closing set of the closing celebration: Until Next Time.

Mato Wayuhi will perform the opening set of Until Next Time, the evening's closing performance.

Rev. Jacqui Lewis, a public theologian, activist, and Senior Minister of Middle Church Collegiate, will ground us in spirit, truth, and collective intention as we begin our time together in the opening ceremony, Come Close: A Return to Us.

Rebecca Nagle is a Cherokee journalist and author, will debut selections from her podcast in the Reclaim zone, bringing forward stories that reclaim truth and history.

Tamika Abaka-Wood will activate 1-800-Dial-An-Ancestor, a public service hotline spanning from 2021-2121, inviting you to call in, listen, and leave something behind in the Reclaim zone.

Nkechi Taifa is a civil and human rights attorney, scholar-activist, author and motivational speaker. She is Executive Director of the Reparation Education Project, Inc. and President of The Taifa Group LLC. A visionary thought leader and nationally recognized expert and commentator on race and justice issues.

Taifa will be providing remarks during the opening ceremony: Come Close: A Return to Us.

Cali M. Banks (Lenape/Scottish) is a lens-based artist whose work reclaims identity through experiential photography and filmmaking. Her work will live within the Repair zone.

Joseph Fambrini (Mushhakòt Kshàxën / Windy Sky) is a Lenape, Filipino, and Italian multidisciplinary artist and certified artist with his nation the Delaware Tribe of Indians based in Lenapehoking’s “Brooklyn, NY”. His work centers on ancestral memory, land, and survival, depicting ancestors and sacred animals marked by the nuclear fallout and ongoing violence of colonialism, events that exist simultaneously in the past, present, and imagined futures. Joseph's work will be featured in the Repair Zone.

As one of the few Lenape artists living on his ancestral homelands, Fambrini’s practice is both personal and political, holding space for grief, survival, and continuity. His work insists on the recognition of land as sacred and alive, challenging viewers to reckon with the histories embedded beneath the city and their own presence upon it.

Layqa Nuna Yawar is a muralist and multidisciplinary artist whose large-scale public works combine portraiture, symbolism, and storytelling to explore displacement, migration, and social equity. In the Reimagine zone, he will host a participatory mural, inviting attendees to contribute their visions, stories, and symbols of a more just and liberated future.

Skylar (Sky) Walker is a Black American multidisciplinary artist whose collage-based practice explores Black identity, memory, and liberation through fragmented and layered forms. Her work will be featured across the Repair and Reimagine zones.

Trevor Smith, poet and Executive Director of BLIS Collective, will guide the gathering, with his poetry woven throughout the Repair zone.

Jeremy Dennis is a contemporary fine art photographer and an enrolled Tribal Member of the Shinnecock Indian Nation whose work centers Indigenous identity, land, and memory. His photographs will be featured in the Reclaim zone.

Dana Davenport is a Korean and Black American interdisciplinary artist working across installation, sculpture, video, and performance. Her braided chandeliers will be featured in the Reclaim zone, alongside a live braiding activation.

Mer (Chichimeca & Ndé) is an Indigenous multidisciplinary creator whose body of work includes collages, drawings, paintings, and murals. Young created the main flyer for Reclamation Day, and works will be featured in the Reimagine zone.

Da’Shaunae Marisa is a multidisciplinary artist and visual storyteller working across photography, film, and public art. Her practice reimagines visual narratives by centering healing, joy, and creative expression. Her work will be featured across the Reclaim and Repair zones. She will also host a live photo activation, A Soft Place to Land, inviting participants into a moment to be seen and captured with intention.

Kianna Pete (Diné/Navajo) is a climate justice and education policy advocate. Kiana's social media content will be played on loop in the Repair zone and she will be on site capturing content throughout the day.

Shawn Escoffery is a photographer who uses his passion for life and the built environment to uncover beauty in images of everyday life, often overlooked. His photography will be displayed in the Reclaim zone.

Ella Mahoney is a visual artist, illustrator, educator, and a member of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah). Her interdisciplinary practice focuses on oil, acrylic, and silk painting that evoke the movement, memory, and atmosphere of northeast coastal environments, and, more specifically, Aquinnah. Her work will be featured across the Reclaim zone.

Debbie Ann-Paige is a public historian and genealogist specializing in local African American history. Her research on locating and identifying the Cherry Lane Cemetery, the final resting place for formerly enslaved and free Black Staten Islanders, will be featured in the Reclaim zone.

Deyah Cassadore is a hairstylist, makeup artist, and proud member of the White Mountain and San Carlos Apache. She will be activating a live hairbraiding installation in the Repair zone.

Kamau Ware is a multidisciplinary artist, historian, walker, and founder of Kamau Studios, where he leads the Black Gotham Experience, an immersive experience celebrating the impact of the African diaspora in New York City. Kamau will provide historical context during the opening ceremony and closing performance.

Aminah Howell is a hairstylist who specializes in creative styling for natural hair, color, and weaves. She will be activating a live hairbraiding installation in the Repair zone.

Oriel Ceballos is a Brooklyn-raised artist, author, curator, and educator whose work spans visual art and storytelling, born in Panama. Commissioned to create the cover art for BLIS Collective's first printed zine in 2023, his work will be featured in the Repair zone.

David is a North Carolinian with strong familial ties throughout the Deep South. Guided by stories from his elders, David documents family ethnographies tracing his enslaved ancestors’ arrival in Louisiana, his great grandparents’ survival of sharecropping, the Great Depression, and World Wars, and his grandparents’ persistence through Jim Crow segregation as original members of New Orleans’ oldest Black neighborhoods. These themes directly translate into David’s art: vibrant colors illuminating the brash brass and spirit of the Tremé, lush backdrops of the land that cultivated him, and Black folks defiantly poised towards liberation and self-determination.

Brandon Clarke is a Miami-based artist whose work explores the intersections of identity, memory, and historical narrative. Drawing on his background in architecture, Clarke employs structure, form, and color as frameworks to build meaning. Clarke's art will be displayed in the Reclaim zone.

Lovie is a Brooklyn-based DJ whose sound is rooted in a soulful and eclectic selection. As a former theatre artist, she brings her love of storytelling and empathy-building to the dance floor, and makes mutual exchanges of joy and collaboration with her audience as she interweaves soul, disco, and house into a sound that creates warmth. Lovie will be playing on the rooftop for the Reclaim set.

Bridge is a Brooklyn-based DJ and multidisciplinary creative whose sets weave together classic and gospel house, disco, and ballroom into transporative, vocally driven experiences. Bridge will be playing on the rooftop for the Reimagine set.

A storyteller first, Roselle’s artistry is deeply informed by her Afro-Indigenous roots. Raised by the chief of her tribe, The Chappaquiddick Wampanaog of Martha’s Vineyard, Roselle’s late mother Alma Gordon inspired tenacity, a baton that Roselle carries on and off stage. She rides melodies, taps into the sacral with the bass of house, and succumbs to the refrains of jazz - a sojourn sure to inspire the revolutionary within. Roselle will be playing on the rooftop for the Repair set.

Nia Harris Burnley is a New York City pianist whose music speaks directly to the soul. Having graced the keys since age three, this Howard University graduate carries forward the legacy of her grandfather, legendary jazz saxophonist Eddie Harris, while forging her own distinctive path in the music world.

Nia will be performing during the opening ceremony: Come Close: A Return to Us.

Kyle T. Mays is an Afro-Indigenous (Saginaw Chippewa) writer and scholar of US history, urban studies, race relations, and contemporary popular culture. He is an Associate Professor of African American Studies, American Indian Studies, and History at the University of California, Los Angeles. Mays' new book, When We Are Kin: The History and Future of Afro-Indigenous Solidarity, will be featured in the Reclaim and Repair zones.

John Isaiah Pepion is a Plains Indian graphic artist, muralist, and educator from the Piikani Band of the Blackfoot Confederacy. He is based on the Blackfeet Reservation in north-central Montana. He is best known for his ledger art, a tradition developed by Plains tribes when buffalo hides, once central to painting, became scarce, leading artists to adapt their work to ledger paper. His work blends traditional Blackfeet design elements with bold linework and vibrant color, resulting in contemporary illustrations that are instantly recognizable. John's work will be featured in the Reclaim zone.

Brea Baker is a writer and freedom fighter whose book, ROOTED: The American Legacy of Land Theft & The Modern Movement for Black Land Ownership, was published with PRH/One World Books. ROOTED details her family’s experiences across the South and makes another case for reparations to include land distribution. ROOTED has been celebrated in The New Yorker, The Guardian, Apple Books, the New York Times, iHeart Radio’s The Breakfast Club, Harper’s BAZAAR, Ms. Magazine, and more.

James Candelaria is a contemporary ceramic pottery artist from the Pueblo of San Felipe, specializing in pieces that are utilized in many cultural ceremonies and events within the Pueblo. In the last few years, Candelaria has begun specializing in pieces that recognize organizations, programs, and institutions, using his unique designs to highlight the importance of agencies that do important work for Native Americans. Candelaria's work will be featured in the Reclaim zone.

Ben Scott Miller is an award-winning creative designer, coppersmith, and registered citizen of the Delaware Tribe of Indians, also tracing his lineage as a descendant of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians. With a career spanning international advertising and fine metalwork, Ben’s practice is deeply rooted in the preservation and visibility of Indigenous heritage.

Taylor Uchytil is a member of the Walker River Paiute Tribe and an artist from Nevada, currently based in New York City. She reimagines the traditions of her Paiute tribe into fashion. Her work is a tribute to her younger cousins, symbolizing resilience, hope, and gratitude.

Taylor’s signature beading style is inspired by the hood of her childhood cradleboard (1999). The artist hand-beads each piece with the intention of bringing the wearer a sense of security and comfort, similar to the feeling of a baby in a cradleboard. Her work will show up in multiple zones.

Raka is a Brooklyn-based DJ and producer, originally from New Jersey, known for blending 90s rave nostalgia with modern dance energy, including house, UK funky, and club-ready grooves.

Nish Newton (they/them) is the star and a crucial creative collaborator of Space to Breathe, and an artist who utilizes their background as an educator of History and Sociology to wage a better world. They are also a practicing gender doula whose work is informed by the old ways of our elders and the new ways of our descendants. Their distinct approaches have led them to facilitate social justice spaces alongside Sonya Renee Taylor, adrienne maree brown, Dr. Angela Davis, and other beacons of transformative change.

Jean-Pierre Brutus is a senior counsel in the Economic Justice Program at the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice and Convener of the New Jersey Reparations Council. He leads and manages the Institute’s reparations advocacy. He is a co-author of “More than a Check: Building Narrative Power for Black Reparations” in Liberation Stories: Building Narrative Power for 21st – Century Social Movements, alongside BLIS co-founder Trevor Smith. He was a member of Liberations Ventures’ Reparations Narrative Lab and represented the Institute as a community fellow on the Rutgers- Newark Crafting Democratic Futures Project on community dialogues on reparations.

Jean-Pierre will moderate the panel during the Reimagine film block.

Linda Tigani is the Chair and Executive Director of the NYC Commission on Racial Equity (CORE), where she leverages over a decade of government experience to work with New Yorkers to create meaningful change and advance racial equity. Prior to this role, Tigani was the acting Chief Equity and Strategy Officer for the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, where she led the Race to Justice team, an internal initiative to transform the agency into an anti-racist organization. She worked with New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan and across the health department to implement an equity-focused strategic plan in all agency programming and operations.

Linda will speak on the panel during the Repair film block.

Lurie Daniel Favors, Esq. serves as Executive Director at the Center for Law and Social Justice at Medgar Evers College. She is an author, activist and attorney with a longstanding commitment to racial and social justice. She also hosts The Lurie Daniel Favors Show on Sirius XM’s Urban View Network, a national talk show that tackles issues of race, gender, culture, politics and the law and its accompanying podcast, Lurie Breaks it Down. She served as a commissioner on the New York City Racial Justice Commission and currently serves as a commissioner on the New York State Community Commission on Reparations Remedies. Ms. Daniel Favors earned her J.D. from New York University, where she was a Root-Tilden-Kern public interest scholar.

Lurie will speak on the panel during the Repair film block.

Willi White, an enrolled member and citizen of the Oglala Sioux Tribe from the Black Hills of South Dakota, is a film director, producer, and multi-disciplinary creative. He produced the Camera d’Or-winning film WAR PONY (2023) and worked on titles such as WINTER IN THE BLOOD (2013), AMERICAN HONEY (2016), and WOMAN WALKS AHEAD (2017). He is a 2016 Sundance Institute Indigenous program fellow and 2019 ARRAY Alliance grantee. Willi is part of the producing team on the Emmy-winning documentary LAKOTA NATION v. UNITED STATES (2023) and directed and produced the short film GIIWE: BRINGING LEONARD PELTIER HOME (2025).

Willi will speak on the panel during the Reimagine film block.

Delfina Roybal is an Indigenous (Mexican and Diné) organizer, communications strategist, and civic researcher based in New York City. A recent graduate of Columbia University with a Bachelor’s in Political Science and Political Theory, she is the founder and former Executive Director of Native Action NYC, a political power-building organization promoting civic engagement for Indigenous New Yorkers, and formerly served as a policy fellow on the Eli Northrup for State Assembly campaign.

Delfina will moderate the panel during the Reimagine film block.

Andy Jacobs is a member of the Delaware Nation, also known as Eelunapeéewi Lahkéewiit, Ontario. She is also a board member for the Lenape women's group Lenni Lenapexkweyok Naxpankuntitam.

Miss Monroe is a model, DJ, and producer that plays music for the baddies that like to listen and dance to all different genres from all around the world! Her goal as a DJ is to expand her followers’ horizons and get them to listen to every type of music possible, even music that they never thought they would be into!

“Music to me is the closest thing to magic and I want to share that magic with everyone that I know.“

leelander is Onöndowa'ga:' a member of the Seneca Nation of Indians from the Cattaragus Reservation and who has developed a deep passion for DJ'ing, working closely on soundscaping a runway show mix, or playing at different events around the city where community is created through sound. Behind the decks you can expect a blend of lively sounds of jersey club, current tracks in rotation mixed together with 90's deep house anthems, an echo of ballroom and tech-house that blend together to create a groovy and lucrative performance that will be sure to make you move.

Charitie Ropati (Yup'ik & Samoan) is an Indigenous climate justice advocate and water engineer, recently appointed as a Youth Climate Advisor to the United Nations Secretary-General. She has worked on water and pipe infrastructure for rural Alaska Native communities and is originally from the Native Village of Kongiganak in Southwest Alaska. A Columbia University Civil Engineering graduate, Charitie has advocated for Indigenous rights and climate justice through policy, education, and international leadership. She is a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, serves with the Youth Climate Justice Fund and UN Women Leaders Initiative, and has spoken at the United Nations on behalf of her Arctic community.

Dr. Justis Lopez — aka DJ Faro — is a son, brother, husband, mama’s boy, chocolate chip cookie lover; and mc extraordinaire. His home is diasporic, from the city of village charm, to the melodies of the coqui in Puerto Rico. Home is where the heart is and he currently lives in the boogie down Bronx, NYC, where he is rooted in the rhythm of justice, joy, love and liberation. Dr. Lopez is a Harvard-educated educator. His doctorate degree focused on fostering ecosystems of healing, through healing-centered youth development, healing-centered leadership, and healing-centered research through emancipatory inquiry.

Yolanda Hoskey is a multidisciplinary artist from East New York, Brooklyn, whose work investigates Black identity, national mythology, and the distance between how communities are seen and how they see themselves. Rooted in a background in Theatre Arts and Film, she came to photography through a deep belief in the power of narrative — that images, like stories, can shift how the world understands itself.

Patricia Tarrant is the Executive Director of the American Indian Community House, where she has served in a variety of leadership and administrative roles since 2005. An enrolled member of the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota and a member of the Flint Knife Clan, Patricia has dedicated her career to advancing Indigenous representation, cultural preservation, and community well-being.