Alejandro Rodríguez Álvarez is a MC and music producer from Medellin, Colombia. He has been contributing to art and culture through Hip Hop since 2005. For Alejandro, hip hop is a medium that has enabled him to connect with people through thought-provoking and slick lyrics that present about his life and the world around him.

He has been part of many different collectives and organisations over the course of his musical journey, and this experience has strengthened his knowledge of the history of Hip Hop and its ability to drive change in communities. The story of hip hop as a tool for education, personal development and positive social transformation is something he is keen to share with the world.

Alison is a creative producer, trainer, consultant, social entrepreneur and Mental Health First Aider. She co-founded Manchester Digital Music Archive and Future’s Venture Foundation, running and managing the fund and organisation. She is freelance ALF UK Coordinator at In Place of War and trainer across entrepreneurial programmes, as well as Board member of Ordsall Community Arts and Fuse Arts Space Bradford.

Alison develops and delivers bespoke training and development across the creative sector, for clients such as BBC Digital Cities, BECTU, ScreenSkills and Royal Exchange Theatre. Her consultancy work focuses on strategic and organisational review across charities and third sector organisations working in the creative sphere.

Pedro Inoue is a Brazilian-born, self-taught graphic designer and artist. He is the creative director of Adbusters magazine, and was part of the team that created the 2011 #occupywallstreet meme and poster that helped sparked the worldwide movement #OCCUPY.

In 2019 he was a Latin Grammy nominee for music video direction for Brazilian rap artist Criolo.

Huda Ammori is an activist and writer with Palestinian and Iraqi heritage. She is the co-founder of Palestine Action, a direct action network launched in August 2020, which seeks to end British complicity with Israel's apartheid regime.

Despite facing numerous charges and experiencing severe police intimidation tactics, Huda remains determined to fight for an end to British involvement in the oppression of the Palestinian people and other indigenous groups across the world.

Previously, Huda completed extensive research exposing British institutions investments and ties in companies which facilitate the oppression of indigenous groups across the world - as well as co-ordinating national campaigns to end their complicity. The success of these campaigns has involved the University of Manchester, University of Leeds, HSBC and others ending their investments in corporations which profit from colonialism, death and destruction.

Robert Mũnũku is an award-winning independent visual artist, writer, filmmaker, teacher & creative entrepreneur from Nairobi, Kenya.

Following a period of disillusionment working in the Kenyan mainstream arts industry, and also later holding a senior position in a foreign NGO, Mũnũku left & went on to create Mau Mau Arts as a way to fill the gaps where larger organisations had failed.

Mau Mau Arts specialises in offering services in visual art creation, film & music production. It also works as a social enterprise focusing on creative education & building a potent creative economy for African artists in the fields of visual arts, film & the performing arts.

Brenda Goodchild has been working as a community artist since 2008. Her work involves working with young children and NGOs to develop colourful murals to improve the local environment and discuss issues of social injustice. She also currently works as a primary school teacher in a local school.

Brenda’s work explores politics, the environment and identity. In 2011, She was awarded the Olive Morris Memorial Award for her community work and graphic Illustrations highlighting social issues such as housing, environment and social injustice.

Brenda believes pictures paint a thousand words and are an essential tool for activism.

Lexi Parra is a Venezuelan-American visual storyteller & community educator based in Caracas, Venezuela. Her work focuses on youth culture, the personal effects of inequality and violence, and themes of resilience. She has a joint degree in Photography and Human Rights from Bard College (2018).

Parra has contributed to publications like Huck Magazine, VICE World News, and The Guardian. She is a Pulitzer Center Reporting Grantee (2021) and finalist for the Howard Chapnick Grant (2020).

Parra is the founder of Project MiRA , an arts education initiative that fosters visual literacy & critical analysis with youth in the barrios of Caracas. Project MiRA was originally funded by the Davis Peace Prize in 2018. She remains an Artist in Residence at the cultural park Tiuna el Fuerte (VE) and part of the In Place of War change-maker network.

Dan Glass is an ‘Aids Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) healthcare and human rights activist, performer, presenter and writer. Dan has been recognised as Attitude Magazine’s 'campaigning role models for LGBTQI youth', a Guardian ‘UK youth climate leader’, 2017 'Activist of the Year' with the 'Sexual Freedom Awards' and was announced a 'BBC Greater Londoner' in 2019 for founding 'Queer Tours of London - A Mince Through Time.

Dan is an educator with the ‘Training for Transformation’ movement, and recently presented ‘Never Again - Fighting the Polish far-right’ and the Coronavirus cabaret: the online show combating social isolation’.

www.theglassishalffull.co.uk alright@theglassishalffull.co.uk Twitter: #danglassisfull

Farah Wardani is a theatre actress, trainer, clown doctor, puppeteer and applied theatre practitioner. She is a Playback Theatre practitioner, trainer, actress, conductor and faculty member of the ASPT, and is currently finishing her MA in Drama Therapy.

Farah is the director of Laban, a Lebanese theatre-based NGO that uses social and psychosocial theatre approaches for social change, capacity building and therapy. Farah trains and uses Theatre of the Oppressed, Drama Therapy and other techniques with different communities and contexts as a medium for healing, social change and political activism.

She also leads drama therapy workshops with Intisar Foundation targeting Arab women victims of war.

David Tovey is a formerly homeless artist, educator and activist who works in a range of media. He is a photographer, painter, installation artist and performance-maker. At the heart of David's practice is a very special quality - the ability to bring you to the subject in ways both beautiful and hard-hitting in equal measure in order to raise awareness about the social issues he tackles.

David has exhibited internationally and is the founder of the UK’s first One Festival of Homeless Arts. He speaks regularly at housing and homelessness events and teaches art to people experiencing homelessness at Passage House. He is Senior Producer at Arts & Homelessness International and a core group member of the Museum of Homelessness, among other roles.

Jeison Castaño (stage name Jeihhco) is a Hip Hop artist and Cultural Manager in Comuna 13, Medellín, Colombia, and co-founder of Casa Kolacho.

Casa Kolacho is a non-profit organisation that runs hip-hop workshops for youth from disadvantaged neighborhoods in the west of the city, which it funds by organising graffiti tours of the hillside communities of Comuna 13 in Medellin. The tours are run by young, local guides and focus on the street art found along the route, as well as the politics that brought waves of violence to the area.

Jeihhco has 15 years of experience in the design & execution of social projects, specialising in Hip Hop and street art culture. He is a rapper 20 years and MC member of the rap group C15.

Solen Fluzin is a sound art curator, arts project manager and fundraiser. Trained to Masters level in architecture and music in France, Australia and the USA, she has led programmes on site-specific sound art, participatory art, fundraising, social rights advocacy and environmental engineering.

Solen is currently developing Anam Cara. A collective gathering of emerging curators, engaged artists, ideas and projects, Anam Cara works at the intersection of art, space and fairer economies to imagine a more equitable and open culture.

As a fundraiser & fundraising consultant, Solen has leveraged £480,000 in the past year from Arts Council England, British Council, Pro Helvetia and more. She is interested in the redistribution of financial resources and reducing economic inequality.

https://twitter.com/Solenfluzin

https://www.instagram.com/so_l_en

Becka Whitely has headed up Marketing and Communications at Kambe Events since 2015. Kambe Events have been producing award-winning creative events for over 20 years. They are best known for their flagship event, Shambala Festival - a pioneering green event with a capacity of 15,000 that takes place every August.

Becka is responsible for writing and implementing the marketing strategies for Shambala and the rest of the events in the Kambe portfolio - as well as being responsible for design, photography, video content, podcasts, app development and press/media relations.

Shereen Perera is an award winning cultural producer who spends her time between London and Manchester. She has delivered over 250 UK and international projects in a variety of formats - from 24 hour digital festivals about the impact of COVID-19 on women and girls, to co-managing In Place Of War’s international girl band, to delivering city-wide biennials and co-directing Manchester’s DIY film and music night Video Jam.

She is currently the Senior Producer for The WOW Foundation who put on WOW - Women of the World festivals, shedding light on gender issues by convening people around the world to mobilise, activate and most importantly, celebrate women and girls.

All of Shereen’s work combines her two passions - creativity and social justice and stems from a life long commitment to platform marginalised voices, promote intercultural dialogue and bring people from different backgrounds together.

Adrian Sabogal is a musician and cultural producer. He is the founder and musical director of Marimbea, an organisation designed to spread the musical culture of the Colombian Pacific through learning experiences, events and cultural tourism.

He is an advisor to In Place of War’s board of trustees.

Samm Farai Monro AKA Comrade Fatso is Zimbabwe’s trailblazing political satirist, a leading activist for freedom of expression and a media disruptor in a country with very little democratic space. Comrade Fatso is co-founder of Magamba Network, one of Africa’s leading creative & digital media organisations working on the cutting edge of arts, digital media, activism and innovation. His award-winning media projects include the internationally acclaimed Zambezi News satire show, the weekly political news show The Week and the pioneering citizen journalism project Open Parly ZW. Comrade Fatso is also co-founder of the country’s longest running urban culture festival, Shoko Festival, and Zimbabwe’s first creative hub, Moto Republik.

Comrade Fatso has won awards locally and internationally for his work, recently being named one of the 100 Great Zimbabweans by leading newspaper publisher AMH. Meanwhile Magamba was named by Nelson Mandela’s Elders as one of the global 100 Sparks of Hope in 2018.

Eli Moura is based in Brazil and is a producer, entrepreneur, activist and most importantly a decolonialist feminist.

Eli has a degree in Performing Arts, specialising in music business, from the Musicians Institute in Los Angeles (USA), technical audio from the São Paulo Institute of Audio and Video, and design thinking at the Design Thinkers Academy South Africa. As an artist and producer she has been working in cultural management since 2004 when she opened her first cultural project management company Cultural Machine.

Since then she has been working in music management and is a founding member and commercial director of the TREMA Musicians Association and current owner of Iduna Creative Productions, the first accelerator of musical careers in the Midwest. She is also a partner at both Convida Festival & Reverbera - a platform for women in the arts.

Vera, born Kudakwashe Maria Chisvo, is a young female creative from Zimbabwe. Through her love for music, Vera discovered how to use art as a method to advocate for change, to bring people together and to solve community problems.

As such, she launched her own creative hub in 2018, Incubator ZW, that focuses on creating spaces for marginalised artists to collaborate, create content and share skills. The hub hosts a podcast focusing on issues that affect young people in and around Zimbabwe.

Vera is also the Community Manager at Moto Republik, the first creative hub in Harare, Zimbabwe. She is passionate about equal opportunities for women and marginalised communities in Zimbabwe.

Dave Ojay is an Arts Manager and Environmentalist pushing for the planet’s water resource restoration through art advocacy. Eager to explore what his surroundings had to offer, he settled into creative performing arts after a short stint in journalism. His experience of working with international festivals inspired him to pursue cultural events at sites of natural heritage.

Over time, he became concerned about Lake Victoria. The idea that the largest fresh water lake in Africa, on which millions of people depend, could be allowed to lie in the current sad state due to hyacinth menace and human activities did not sit well with him. He now runs a global environmental justice campaign for endangered lakes known as MY LAKE MY FUTURE launched in India (Lake Vellayani) and Peru (Lake Titicaca) 2018.

He founded NAAM Festival as a creative activism initiative to restore endangered lakes to their original grandeur. As a non-conformist, critical questions power Ojay’s imagination for a better planet.

Limbi Blessing Tata is a social change maker, climate activist, advocate for women & girls’ rights and youth mentor from Cameroon. She is a trained plant & conservation scientist, forestpreneur and non-timber forest & agricultural products value chain expert.

Limbi comes from a nature-dependent background - nature, and forests in particular, was a source of livelihood that they depended on for food, water, medication, and pretty much everything.

Limbi founded Ecological Balance - a non-profit organisation that uses the environment for social change - insisting that it is possible to use forests while keeping them intact for future generations. She believes that ecosystem conservation is most successful and sustainable when led by the people living adjacent to it, and more so if it contributes to their livelihoods. She sees her job as empowering local communities to independently undertake actions that ensure long term sustainability of their adjacent ecosystems.

Lenin is an activist environmental lawyer based in Zimbabwe, Southern Africa. He is the Founder and Director of Advocates4Earth - a non profit , public-interest environmental law, climate and wildlife justice organisation focusing on Global South issues.

www.advocates4earth,org

Hanna Henshall is Director & Co-founder of If Not Now, a digital activism organisation based in Bristol. They specialise in creative campaigning on issues that fight for climate and social justice.

Hanna has always advocated that to see real change, we must envisage the world we know is possible, which is why she leads her activism with art; a powerful tool to inspire empathy & hope for complex issues.

Hanna is also Co-founder of SHEvotes, a campaign to encourage young women to recognise the power of their vote in elections, and Campaigner for SHE Changes Climate to get equal representation of women at COP26. As a result of her work this year, Hanna was selected to be an official Delegate at the UN Women UK’s Commission on the Status of Women (CSW65) to participate in the decision-making to shape global standards on gender equality.

Greg Bunbury is a Graphic Designer, Diversity & Inclusion Consultant and founder of the Black Outdoor Art initiative in London, UK - a social initiative that uses outdoor advertising space as a platform for positive Black expression in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement

A former marketing agency Head of Creative, his mission now is to create positive change in the world by design. He does this by helping purpose-driven businesses and organisations connect with diverse audiences, and teaching creatives the tools to make a difference through their work.

Andy Greene is a member of the National Steering Group of DPAC (Disabled People Against Cuts) and has been involved in all DPAC direct action/civil disobedience campaigns, Weeks of Action, National Days of Action including the Save the ILF campaign and the anti-Atos campaign.

Andy has been heavily involved in developing DPAC’s links and relationships with other activist groups and networks. He has also written extensively, including for the New Internationalist, Red Pepper and Strike! magazine.

Andy previously Managed a local disabled people’s organisation in London; and now works for himself promoting disability culture and independent living.

Mwaka Benson, better known as Mc Benny Acholimuding, is a hip-hop artist and youth activist. As a rapper, Mc Benny paved the way for hip-hop artists in Northern Uganda by being one of the first rappers to incorporate Acholi language into hip-hop music.

As a youth activist, Mc Benny is the founder and director of Northern Uganda Hiphop Culture (NUHC), a community-based organisation in Kitgum that empowers youth through the creative arts and entrepreneurship. NUHC works with various groups in the community, including youth in secondary, primary and nursery schools, as well as youth and adults in prison, to provide skills and give hope to the individuals in order to help them see a better future for themselves.

Grace Quantock is a counsellor, writer and non-executive director across social care, health and human rights. She has experience working with change-making across governance, policy and in practice.

Grace has undertaken a research fellowship in inclusion, developing appetite and aptitude for inclusion-informed change making with Bristol and Bath Creative R & D. She has been awarded the The London Library Emerging Writers Award and was shortlisted for the Writers & Artists Working-Class Writers’ Prize 2021.

She has been published, or has essays forthcoming, in The Guardian, The Metro and The New Statesman; she has also appeared in The New Yorker Online, The Times and Marie Claire. She lives in Wales and is passionate about nature journalling and calligraphy.

Kieron Jina is a multidisciplinary artist, facilitator/researcher of creative processes and lecturer based in Johannesburg. Jina has an MA in Arts from Wits University. Working primarily in the realms of performance art, visual art, theatre-making and with a background in film, Jina's masterpieces include Afrofuturism, migration, Identity, sexuality, new technology, Indigenous cultural practices, site-specific performance, collaboration, and interdisciplinary creative practices.

Jina has won multiple awards & artistic residencies that lead to performances and the creation of art in Brazil, Germany, Austria, France, Reunion Island, Nigeria, Tanzania, South Korea & Switzerland. Jina has been awarded the Top 200 M&G Young South Africans in the Arts and Culture Category for performance art in 2012.

Jina has just completed a new online performance entitled CHAMELEON HOME for Die Irritierte Stadt Festival in Stuttgart, Germany.

www.kieronjina.com

Lorraine-Charlotte Bgoya (aka Loch) is a cultural producer based in Harare, Zimbabwe. She is currently the founding Community Manager of Moto Republik, the first creative co-creation and co-working space in Zimbabwe. Lorraine focuses on designing and implementing programmes and platforms targeted at proving the viability of creative entrepreneurship and increasing freedom of expression through the arts.

Lorraine has 10 years experience in the media & creative economy sector and her work is a strategic effort to prove the sector’s contribution to social and economic development. Her work in promoting creative spaces has given her the opportunity to give presentations and sit on panels in many cities around the world, from Sao Paulo to Beirut.

Since dropping banners against Heathrow Airport's third runway from the roof of the Houses of Parliament, Tamsin has consistently shifted public conversation on the climate and ecological emergency. They have organised (and been arrested for) a number of high profile protests, co-founded a Suffragette-inspired environmental group called Climate Rush, coordinated (the successful) Save England's Forests coalition, founded a CIC - The Momentum Project - that mobilises the community surrounding London City Airport, led global corporate campaigns as Head of Global Campaigns at Lush Cosmetics and been a founding member of Extinction Rebellion.

In 2021 Tamsin stood for co-leadership of the Green Party of England and Wales. They are also active in queer uprising. They are a theatre maker and author of RUSH! The Making of a Climate Activist and and Do Earth: Healing Strategies for Humankind.

Joe Ryle is Campaign Director for the 4 Day Week Campaign, Media and Comms Lead for the think tank Autonomy, a former Labour Party press officer and adviser to former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell MP.

Sapphire is a comedian, actor and writer that uses comedy as a vessel to teach people about tough or challenging social issues.

Dani has been active in campaigning and activism since joining ACT UP London in 2015, and since then they have worked with groups including the Gay Liberation Front, PrEPster, the National Park City Campaign, Queer Tours of London, and most recently ultimate (!!) tr@nny trash powerpunkgirl band The Trashettes with their most beloved trans sibling-accomplices.

Dani approaches this conversation about political disillusionment from the lived experience of a mental health burn out/break down, caused by a systemically enforced absence of concepts of care. Their recovery has been linked inherently to a deepening connection to abolitionist principles, which have allowed him to reactivate their political engagement on new and exciting terms.

www.danidinger.com @thetrashettesldn

Martin Atkins is the definition of entrepreneurial activity in cultural arts endeavours. His 35+ years in the music business spans genres, borders and industries. He was a member of Public Image Ltd and Killing Joke. He founded industrial supergroup Pigface, The Damage Manual, and Murder Inc., and has contributed to Nine Inch Nails (for which he has a Grammy) and Ministry. He is the owner of Invisible Records and Mattress Factory Recording Studios (est. 1988).

Martin is the author of Tour:Smart, Welcome To The Music Business….You’re F*cked!” Band:Smart, and is the new Music Industries Coordinator at Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois. Martin is a producer, drummer, documentary filmmaker, DJ, and father of four. Whatever the future of entrepreneurial music business education is, you can pretty much bet that he’ll be in the middle of it.

Fabrício Nobre is Content Operations Senior Manager at Kwai's Brazil - a social network for creating & sharing short videos.

Founder of the legendary festival and label Bananada that he developed from scratch, he has also held positions such as head of artistic programming at Cine Jóia and Blue Note SP, and partner at Braba Música. Fabricio was founder & former president of ABRAFIN - the Brazilian Association of independent festivals.

Giovanna Villefort is an artistic producer, programmer and artist booker based in São Paulo, Brazil.

She is the artistic director of Festival Bananada, an artistic programmer at Cine Joia and a partner at Braba Música

Ruth Daniel is an artistic director, activist, change-maker, honorary research fellow at The University of Manchester & proud owner of an old VW van.

As CEO of In Place of War, Ruth has led a diverse range of arts & peace-building initiatives across the globe. She has developed & implemented over a hundred cultural programmes in sites of conflict and disadvantage such as war zones, post war zones & areas of economic deprivation.

From guitarist at the age of 8 to record label owner, band manager, fundraiser, international cultural activist, entrepreneur, educator, influential speaker (TEDx) to prestigious award winner (Social Enterprise of the Year & Manchester Woman of Culture to name a couple), Ruth’s passion to empower people to build their own positive futures through creative entrepreneur programmes, cultural spaces & artistic collaboration shows no boundaries.

Liz Atkin is an artist and educator. She reimagines her Compulsive Skin Picking and anxiety into drawings, photographs and performances. Liz is a mental health advocate and raises awareness for the disorder around the world. She has exhibited and taught in the UK, Europe, Australia, USA, Singapore and Japan. Her artwork and an archive of her advocacy for skin picking is held by the Wellcome Collection.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, she gave away more than 18,000 free #CompulsiveCharcoal newspaper drawings to commuters on public transport in London, New York, San Francisco, Singapore, Cologne and more.

Liz teaches art in schools, hospitals, hospices, prisons, arts venues and universities. She is an ambassador for The Big Draw, the world’s largest drawing festival, focusing on the role of creativity for health and wellbeing.

Emily is Refugee Week UK Coordinator at Counterpoints Arts. She has a background in media, music and community work and previously coordinated My Journey, a multimedia storytelling project at Migrants Resource Centre.

Tom Green is a senior producer at Counterpoints Arts, working primarily to support artists and organisations including through the Platforma network. He produces the biennial Platforma Festival and also helps oversee Counterpoints’ international work.

Previously he has worked for organisations including the Refugee Council, where he first began work on Platforma and the Writers’ Guild, where he was first involved in supporting artists. Tom’s background is in creative writing and his work has been performed in theatres and on BBC Radio 4.

Mambila Mageza has been director of Trackside Creative, an art hub in Soweto, South Africa, curating workshops, exhibitions and concerts since 2013. Mambila is driven by his passion to transform his environment through artistic expression.

Abdelfattah Abusrour is founder and director of Alrowwad Cultural and Arts Society, established in 1998 in Aida refugee camp, Bethlehem. His concept and philosophy ‘Beautiful Resistance’ - using performing and visual arts, culture and education, is a creative and peaceful expression in situations of oppression and trauma to provide possibilities to save lives and inspire hope and build peace within individuals to be peace builders in their communities and beyond.

Abusrour is an author, actor and theatre director, with a PhD in Biological and Medical Engineering.

Abusrour was elected president of the Palestinian Theatre League and many other organisations. He is co-director of Bethlehem Cultural festival since 2020. He has delivered conferences & workshops around the world using ‘Beautiful Resistance’ to empower people through building peace within themselves and becoming active change-makers, instead of waiting for miracles to happen.

Njeri Mwangi is the Co-Founder of PAWA254, Nairobi's first unique social enterprise that uses Art for Social Change in what is now widely known as ARTivism. She is an activist and a Human Rights Defender. Her family was the subject of the multiple award-winning and Oscar contender docu-film, Softie. She is also an AMADE Award-winning journalist and a nominee of the Emmy Awards and the Rory Peck Awards.

Njeri is a photographer and a great speaker. She is passionate about youth and women empowerment. She is a trainer and mentor of experiential learning programs for communication and life skills. An avid lover of motorcycles and adventure, Njeri is a member of Throttle Queens Bikers and a Road Safety Ambassador. When she is not working, Njeri enjoys travelling, photography, a good read, a great story on paper, stage or on screen. She lives in Nairobi with her family.