Brian Aguilar
Brian is a digital content creator born and raised in LA. Having been a part of the social media landscape for 10+ years, he was fascinated by its growth and limitless potential for all things creative. He found himself frequently getting into chats around the experiences of POC and wanting to learn from ALL perspectives, so naturally he wanted to create a space where people could come together and have these conversations.
Zarina Guerrero
Zarina Guerrero is a conscious creative and blogger at www.estiloyalma.com. She uses her platform, Estilo Y Alma, to talk about issues in fashion - such as waste, pollution and human rights - as well as arts, culture and social justice. She is also currently pursing her Masters in Social Entrepreneurship from the University of Southern California and is very excited to be a part of the POC Talks team.
Axel Oliva
Axel is an audio engineer, musician, and entrepreneur from Los Angeles, CA. He founded SASPAP, a program that teaches musicianship, theater, and technical arts to under-served kids in the South LA community.
David Flores, M.Ed
David is a Xicano educator, mentor, public speaker, activist, and coach originally from Northwest Pasadena, CA. He is currently a Gender and Ethnic Studies teacher in East Oakland, CA where he continues his efforts to offer students a liberatory educational experience and engage in intentional tactics to dismantle the white colonial patriarchy in and out of the classroom.
Steven Almazan
Steven is a former teacher and a current Master of Public Policy (M.P.P.) candidate at Berkeley. He's doing research and analysis on gentrification, displacement, affordable housing and potential opportunities for low-income families to build equity/capital in marginalized communities throughout California. He's very active in the resistance against the redevelopment of Boyle Heights.
LUIS VILLANUEVA
lesly flores
Lesly is a Dancer, Teaching Artist, and Entrepreneur from Los Angeles, CA. She double-majored in Communication Studies and Dance at LMU, where she did extensive research on how to use Dance as part of a holistic form of education - particularly in inner-city communities. She started Dance2Serve to advocate social justice through the Arts and help bring forth a more social conscious generation. She continues to develop as a dancer and is currently an educator with the Gabriella Charter School and award-winning Everybody Dance program.
COURTNEY ARIEL
Courtney Ariel is a songwriter and storyteller. She is committed to building bridges of deeper understanding through stories. Despite what middle school taught many of us, she thinks we are the coolest when we care.
Melody Klingenfuss
Born in Guatemala, coming to the US at the age of 9 with no knowledge of the English language, Melody earned her Bachelor’s degree by the age of 20 and her Masters by 23.
Melody works as 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. She has also conducted research on the representation of undocumented students in mass communication.
JASON CHU
After studying philosophy at Yale, Jason, worked in the nonprofit world, including two years in Beijing, where he co-founded Chinese rap crew Bust Out. With their support, as well as encouragement from The Fung Bros, he moved to Los Angeles in 2012.
As a Hip-hop artist/poet/activist, Jason is on a mission to speak hope, healing, and justice in a broken world.
He tells stories about friends and families wrestling with fear and joy, greed and hope, hurt and healing.
LUIS OCTAVIO
Multi-talented hustler, Luis, comes from the world of Experiential Marketing and understands the influence of Latino/a/xs in America. Having previously hosted Tamarindo Podcast, and now hosting his own, Nos Vemos En El Swapmeet, Luis aims to change the world of Podcasting for both creators and consumers through Podcasterio, a hub that values Latinx Podcasters and the first ever Latinx Podcast Festival.
STEVEN CRUZ
Born and raised in Los Angeles, CA., Steven is the founder and president of AFJA, a non-profit youth soccer academy in El Salvador. He graduated with his Bachelors in Human Biology and Entrepreneurship from the University of Southern California 2015.
Steven aims to provide access to the kids of El Salvador and bridge the gap between them and kids in the US.
EBONY BAILEY
Photographer, Filmmaker, and Master’s student at UNAM in Mexico City, Ebony is interested in exploring issues such as race, cultural intersections, diaspora and food-justice. She recently finished her short documentary, titled Life Between Borders.