Lofanitani Aisea is a Black Indigenous interdisciplinary multimedia experimental performance artist, filmmaker, and storyteller. She is Modoc, Klamath, Tahlequah, Black, and Tongan. Aisea’s work combines film, movement, and sound to transform cultural memory into immersive experiences, centering joy as a radical act of reclamation.

Using an experimental lens, she examines identity, intergenerational storytelling, and the ways histories are archived, embodied, and reimagined.

Founder/Executive Director, AfroMundo

I am a daughter of a man who at 19 ruptured ancestral links and converted to Christianity in 1937, the very year Dominicans who shared his polytheistic faith or were Black as he were massacred alongside an estimated 15,000 to 35,000 others profiled as Haitian.

I am the daughter of an Afro-Indigenous Dominican woman who only on the sly admitted she inherited an ability to commune with spirits.

From both parents I learned of the complexities of identity, of the plight of those who stray from the normative and prescribed, of the need for narratives that honor lived experiences and counter whitewashed histories.

My art and cultural activism center the voices and histories of Afro-Latinx erased although 2/3 of an estimated twelve million who survived the trans-Atlantic slave trade were shipped to Spanish speaking America where slavery persisted for about 350 years.

My novel Geographies of Home explores racial identities. My upcoming nonfiction book Beyond the Pale won a PEN America 2019 Jean Stein Grant for Literary Oral History.

Beyond that I am a native of Quisqueya divvied by colonialism into Haiti and the Dominican Republic. I am an immigrant and an American whose Latinidad and Americaniidad are called into question due to race. I am a sister, aunt, friend, scholar, cultural activist who believes in community. I also believe art is a form of restorative justice able to nurture the soul, spark informed dialogues, address inequities, and foster collective healing.

Discipline: Folklife/Traditional Arts

Loida Maritza Pérez is the Founder and Executive Director of AfroMundo. A native of the Dominican Republic, she is an independent scholar, cultural activist and author of Geographies of Home, a novel published in the United States and abroad. Her upcoming book, Beyond the Pale, won a PEN America 2019 Jean Stein Grant for Literary Oral History. Her work has appeared in the Michigan Quarterly Review, Latina, MaComere, Meridians, Edinburgh Review, Bomb, Callaloo and Best of Callaloo. A 2022-2023 National Leaders of Color Fellow, she has received awards from the New York Foundation for the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts in collaboration with University of New Mexico and Rutgers University, IC3-Institute for Communities, Creativity and Consciousness, Djerassi’s Henry Louis Gates Fellowship, Ragdale Foundation for the Arts U.S.–Africa Writer’s Project, MacDowell Arts Colony, Yaddo Foundation, Hedgebrook, Millay Arts Colony, Ucross Foundation and Villa Montalvo.

Los Descendientes Del Presidio De Tucson

Discipline: Crafts

Losalia Ah Chee is a revered traditional weaver from Pago Pago, American Samoa, whose artistry is deeply rooted in Samoan heritage. Entirely self-taught, she honed her craft through keen observation and an intuitive connection to her surroundings, mastering the intricate techniques of weaving with dried pandanus and coconut leaves. Over time, weaving has become more than a skill, it is an extension of her identity and a source of strength. Her passion for the art was nurtured by the enduring wisdom of her late mother, Telesia Ah Chee, whose words “‘E te ola i ou lima” (“You live by your hands”) that continue to guide her journey. Through weaving, she has cultivated resilience, purpose, and a profound sense of cultural pride. Committed to preserving the traditions of her ancestors, Chee actively shares her knowledge with youth and community members, ensuring that the legacy of Samoan weaving lives on through intergenerational learning and cultural stewardship.

Louise Cutler Studio

Artist

(Amanalli Lu) was born in Mexico City. Vargas migrated to Los Angeles, California at the age of 11. She then moved to Santa Rosa where she works as a Professional Tattoo Artist. Inspired by Mexican and Native American Culture, she employed a naïve folk art style to explore questions of identity, postcolonialism, gender, and race in American society. Art has transformed her life and has helped her heal her trauma. She hopes to use the same process to help young people. Vargas strongly believes art is one of the best activities for anyone to heal the body, mind and spirit.

Chief Entertainment Officer, CASA ALTA LLC

Lynne Hardy, originally from Arizona, currently resides in Provo, Utah. She earned a Bachelor of Arts with a minor in entrepreneurship.

Her work, created using digital drawing and painting in Adobe Fresco, is described as colorful, modern depictions of her Navajo people and culture. Inspired by her ancestors, Hardy strives to preserve their stories. Authenticity, Native representation, and inclusion are central to her creations, as she aims to share her culture and combat harmful Native stereotypes.

In 2020, Hardy launched her small online business, Ajoobaasani, where she sells self-designed Navajo products, including stickers, prints, and apparel. The success of Ajoobaasani opened doors for her to collaborate with Native-led organizations and companies seeking Native art, enabling her to become a full-time illustrator.

Hardy hopes to continue growing her art career and business while working with clients who value Native culture.

Discipline: Folklife/Traditional Arts

Magdalen Santos is an emerging bead-maker from Talabwogh, also known as Tanapag. She is learning her craft through the guidance of her maternal aunts and relatives, whose knowledge deeply shapes her journey. Through bead-making, she connects with her cultural roots and contributes to the preservation of her community’s traditions. Her growing practice is both a personal exploration and a tribute to the history, skills, and resilience passed down through generations.