WHO WE ARE
nicole gervacio
Co-Founder & Co-Director
nicole gervacio (she/her/they/them)
is an interdisciplinary artist based in
Oakland, California - occupied Huchiun
- her roots originate from Luzon and the
Visayan Islands across the Pacific. nicole
integrates various methods and mediums
from visual work to movement, video to words.
Their work is inspired by the body, memory,
permanence versus impermanence, and is
driven by the fear of forgetting, a response to the
colonization and invisiblization of their communities
and many others under U.S. imperialism. They aim to
heal the cultural and historical amnesia we inherited and
the ongoing violence of colonialism – that harms all peoples,
beings, and lands – that has us facing multiple crises today.
nicole received their BFA at California College of the Arts in 2011
and has exhibited visual work with various bay area organizations including People of Coloring, Urban X Indigenous, The Flight Deck, Rock Paper Scissors Collective, and is associated with the contemporary Filipinx visual artists collective Epekto Art Projects. Their words, poetry, and visual art have been published in Ano Ba Zines, The Pilipinx Radical Imagination Reader, The South Seattle Emerald, Liwanag 3, collaborative zines produced through We Rise and more.
Since 2016, nicole has been an active participant and collaborator with the decolonial freedom school Liberation Spring. That same year she co-founded the collaborative cultural production collective We Rise. Both continue to deepen and support her work as an artist and activist. nicole currently works with The People's Conservatory in training young art scholars to explore, create, and envision through artistic endeavors that can promote positive social change. As an educator, nicole sees her position in the classroom as that of a collaborator. She offers guidance, support, as well as space for young artists as they explore mediums for self expression and self realization.
View more of her work at nicolegervacio.com
Catherine Petru
Co-Founder & Co-Director
Born and raised in Oakland, California -
occupied Ohlone land called Huchiun
- granddaughter of Holocaust survivors,
gardeners, and artists, immigrants and
settlers - Catherine Duval Petru (she/her)
dedicates her work to the weaving of art
and liberation, rooted in collaboration and
storytelling. Moved by the urgency of revolutionary
Grace Lee Boggs’ inquiry What time is it on the clock
of the world?, Catherine is a founding participant of
decolonial, feminist grassroots adult freedom school
Liberation Spring, graduate of KPFA Radio’s First Voice
Apprenticeship Program, and co-founder and co-conspirator of cultural production collective We Rise Production. She holds a BA
in Critical Theory and Social Justice from Occidental College
and graduated with departmental honors for best
integration of theory and practice.
Catherine’s study of grassroots mediamaking was nurtured during
her time with First Voice, where she continues to teach, produce
and collaborate. She makes podcasts, radio shows, audio features,
and facilitates group dialogues with liberation and community at
the heart of production. Examples of her writing, hosting, and engineering include This Land is Called Huchiun, born out of the
event Living on Ohlone Land, A Letter to My Ex, featuring queer pop artist Be Steadwell, #Right2Return: The Movement to Free Palestine
featuring members of the Palestinian Youth Movement and
Gaza-based journalist Rawan Yaghi, and An Intro to Transformative
Justice with Mia Mingus. She provides technical production and
more for Feral Visions, Birth Bruja, and the TheatreFIRST podcast.
Catherine recognizes media as a vehicle for popular education,
and is committed to sharing her skills and inviting folks to take
the lead in their own creative practices and cultural production. Catherine practices American Sign Language and is committed
to transcribing every audio work.
For more, please visit Cat’s CV
Photo by Sania Elahi
CORE TEAM
Tierra Allen
Treasurer & Cherisher, Lead Artist of The Real Work
Tierra Allen (she/her/they/them) is a theatermaker, teaching artist, facilitator, educator, youth worker, and activist living in Occupied Huchiun/Oakland, California. She holds a B.A. in Theater & Dance with concentrations in Black Studies and English from Amherst College, where she graduated magna cum laude and earned the David Kirp ‘65 Stonewall Prize, which recognized her thesis as a work of exceptional intellectual and artistic merit pertaining to the LGBTQI experience.
As Artistic Engagement Manager at Cal Shakes and Community Discussion Coordinator at TheatreFIRST, Tierra curates diverse programs that bridge theater and activism and leverage performances as sites for healing, critical consciousness-raising, and community-building. In addition to performing, directing and choreographing with companies and collectives throughout the Bay Area, Tierra has worked as a teaching artist and facilitator for social justice at Alameda County Juvenile Hall, at schools throughout Oakland, and has tutored community members from ages 5 to 65.
Devised works with her theater collective, The Bonfire Makers, include WE GO BOOM!, which explored the impact of the tech industry on Oakland; PLACE to LAND (an oakland love story), which examined Oakland’s histories of displacement and how to make its ideal future; and a theater-based tool kit to organize for housing justice and Proposition 10.
Her activism has also included consent education and sexual assault prevention; supporting survivors of domestic violence; counter-recruitment against the military’s targeting of Black and brown youth; education and empowerment of low-income girls of color; alternatives to displacement, homelessness, and the housing crisis; defunding police terrorism; and protecting the West Berkeley Shellmound.
Photo by Sania Elahi
Mayra Rios
Operations Manager
Mayra Rios (she/her) studied at California State University, Chico where she majored in Business Administration: Entrepreneurship with minors in Managing for Sustainability and Marketing During her academic career, she completed two years of study abroad, the first at the Dauphine University in Paris, France where she completed her marketing minor and the second at the University of Ghana, Legon in West Africa where she studied African drumming and dance.
Professionally, she has been working in the education and non-profit sector for the last 5 years. Her past work includes administrative and marketing support for the Shafter Learning Center, the first learning center of it's kind for the community in Kern County, operations management for Mercy For Animals, an international non-profit animal rights organization, and project management of the Trauma Prevention Initiative: Arts Integration for communities in South Los Angeles. For this project, she worked with the Arts for Incarcerated Youth Network in conjunction with the Los Angeles County Arts Commission and the Department of Public Health to support the goals of the Trauma Prevention Initiative by providing arts performances and programming to support community healing and trauma prevention education. Currently, she works as Assistant Project Leader of Rhythm Arts Alliance, a Los Angeles based non-profit bringing West African and world arts & cultures to incarcerated youth in the LA probation system and as Program Coordinator for the Arts For Youth Network bringing arts programming to Juvenile Day Reporting Centers & Parks and Recreation sites throughout LA County.
She also founded her own media company, Blossoming Light Media & Consulting, in 2016, providing photography, videography and marketing services to artists and organizations, as a way to visually tell the stories of the work she is doing in communities and highlight the people, organizations and movements of our revolution for justice and peace.
Kendall Morgan Crakow
Creator, Editor & Sound Design
Kendall Morgan Crakow (she/her) is a Writer, Dreamer, and Audio Artist born and bred on Occupied Ohlone Territory. On her Matrilineal side, she is a descendent of Polish and Russian Holocaust Survivors and on her Patrilineal side, she is a descendent of Portuguese Immigrants from the Azores Islands. Coming from a long line of beautifully fierce Women, she finds that as a creator, she thrives best in strong communities of Womxn.
Kendall received her BA in Comparative World Literature from UC Santa Cruz, graduating with Dean’s Honors and receiving the Chancelor’s Undergraduate Research Award, the Dean’s Undergraduate Research Award, and the Jewish Studies Undergraduate Research Award for her thesis exploring the Politics of Memory in relation to The Holocaust. In 2018, she graduated from KPFA”s First Voice Apprenticeship Program, where she found her love for audio, and for community radio. Since then, she has produced for several KPFA Programs, including Full Circle, Flashpoints, La Onda Bajita, and Women’s Magazine. She also produces with Radio Free Alcatraz for the annual Indigenous People’s Day and Thangstaken Sunrise Ceremonies, and as a part of the Women’s Mag Collective to produce KPFA’s yearly International Women’s Day Broadcast.
While Kendall’s love of audio is ultimately grounded in her love of telling and holding stories, her work has also focused on giving voice to elders and ancestors, communities impacted by incarceration and state violence, advocates for global health justice and equity, educators, spiritual leaders and artists, and all things healing. Kendall is excited to be a part of the We Rise Family, and to continue growing as a creator and as a consciousness raising community collaborator.
Listen & read more about her work at soundcloud.com/kendallspeaks
DiaspoRADICAL
Music Production
At DiaspoRADICAL Soundscapes, we are decolonial DJs, musicians, and sound artivists. We build emotional bridges and bonds between people from all walks, taking extra care to give the mic to those in our (global) community rarely heard of/from. We bring the soundtrack to your events whether it is in community spaces, event spaces, or people's homes. Most recently, because we cannot go to the aforementioned physical event spaces, we have been putting out some live radio programs (The DiaspoRADIO Show), broadcast twice weekly via the internet (mixlr.com/diasporadio). Our goals are to entertain and to educate (raise the consciousness of) our listeners using sound as our chief medium of operation.
Our name "DiaspoRADICAL" is a portmanteau of two words: Diaspora (meaning: a people settled far from their ancestral homelands) and Radical (meaning: very different from the usual or traditional). In other words: we are from all over the world and we are curious to deeply interact with different peoples from all over the world; this sort of radical inclusivity is not commonplace in music scenes.
Stay connected with @Diaspo.RADICAL
To tune in to weekly radio broadcasts, follow DiaspoRADIO on mixlr
Eri Guajardo Johnson
Creator & Host of Birth Bruja Podcast
Eri Guajardo Johnson (she/her/they/them) is a bi-racial, Midwest-born birth doula, wellness coach, community organizer, and host of The Birth Bruja Podcast. Drawing upon her breadth of experience supporting survivors of sexual assault, studying indigenous Mexican and Indian healing modalities, and obtaining her masters in Women, Gender, Spirituality, & Social Justice from the California Institute of Integral Studies- she approaches birthwork as a mechanism for individual and collective liberation.
The Birth Bruja Podcast is a manifestation of Eri’s passion for birthwork as a spiritual, liberational & decolonial practice. Listen now on SoundCloud, iTunes, YouTube & KPFA’s podcast site, Area 941.
More about Eri at BirthBruja.com
Photo by Sania Elahi
Grace Diehl
Fire Tender & Writer
Grace Diehl (she/her) is passionate about working for social justice across sectors and concocting radical strategy. With a deep foundation in conservation and philanthropy, she schemes for collective liberation by building bridges between change-makers.
Grace is also a writer. Look out for her upcoming novel Yuppie White Girl Treason in print and also podcast form!
Specialties: Team Dynamics, Strategic Planning, Grant Writing & Administration, Editing, Native Plant Production, Conservation Ecology, Figure Painting
ADVISORS
Uzo Nwankpa
Dancer, Performer & Community Health Nurse
Uzoamaka Nwankpa (Uzo) (she/her/they/them/ọ) is a is a fourth generation descendant of women healers from Enugu, Nigeria, West Africa. She is a first generation immigrant to the west and dedicated to the preservation and restoration of the indigenous African healing practices. She is a performing artist, dance facilitator, choreographer, educator, researcher, registered nurse and an advocate for advocate for healing through the use of the arts. As an advocate for communities that use the arts to heal, Uzo is dedicated to creating and exploring diverse ways to combine ancient practices with innovation. As the Founder of the Uzo Method Project- healing through music and movement, she continues to create diverse ways to engage communities around the world through innovative workshops, speaking engagements, presentations and performances.
More about Uzo at theuzo.com
Photo by Carlos Willborn
Anjali Lynn Nath Upadhyay M.A.²
Creator & Host of Feral Visions
Anjali Lynn Nath Upadhyay M.A.² (she/her/they/them) is academically trained as a political scientist, philosopher, and educator. She holds an M.A. degree in Political Science from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa with specializations in Indigenous Politics (the only program of its kind in the US) & Political Theory & a Graduate Certificate in International Cultural Studies (the only Cultural Studies graduate program in the US that explicitly teaches scholarship from the Global South & not mostly the Western canon). She also holds an M.A. degree from the oldest Women’s Studies Department in the US (at San Diego State University) with concentrations in feminist pedagogies, epistemologies, and gender and militarization. She double-majored in Women’s Studies and Political Science with a minor in Philosophy at California State University at Fullerton. From 2010-2014, she was a Fellow at the East-West Center in Honolulu. Anjali’s longstanding curiosities focus on learning and teaching as practices of freedom.
More about Anjali at liberationspring.com
Photo by Sunshine Velasco of Survival Media Agency