CRISOSTO APACHE — 2026 Colorado Poet Laureate [Denver]
Crisosto is a recipient of the Montalvo Arts Center’s Lucas Artists Fellowship, a three-time Pushcart Prize nominee, and a board member of The Offing, a literary magazine. Originally from the Mescalero Apache reservation in New Mexico, Crisosto is Mescalero, Chiricahua (Chair-a-cowah), and Diné (De-neh), with maternal and paternal clanships in the Salt Clan and Towering House Clan. Apache holds an MFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) and serves as an Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing at the Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design. For the past twenty years, they have advocated for the Two-spirit and Indigiqueer communities through local and national grassroots for non-profit organizations.
Chris Allred — Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center [Boulder]
Chris Allred graduated from CU in the Spring of 2012 with a degree in film studies. During a Residential Academic Program course about Gandhi in 2010, a teacher made a recommendation to visit RMPJC to learn more about nonviolence. After an internship and a few years of volunteering, he began work in 2014 as a Nuclear Guardianship Coordinator. Over the past 11 years, this job has involved a variety of tasks including documentaryfilm and photography, coordinating internships, coalition and alliance building, administrative tasks, fundraising, research, campaign planning, and civic engagement with local, state, and federal government.
ROSY CAMPANITA — Photographer and Artist, Rebel Axolotl Collective [Austin]
Rosy Campanita (they/she/them /he) is a queer 2-spirit artist and Axolotl midwife, born to a Mexican immigrant family, raised in the culturally rich barrios of Chicago. Rosy is a multi-disciplined artist using photography to document cultural life, land struggle, and resilience with a focus on Indigenous communities, immigration, and LGBT+ communities throughout the country. Recently, Rosy has turned their artistic focus to screen-printing their original photos onto fabrics and up-cycled apparel by creating the Rebel Axolot! Collective. They invite artists from Central Texas come together to co-create and educate the public about the cultural significance and lore around these special endangered creatures from Xochilmilco, Mexico, as a means to support the Axolotls in Austin Texas, where Rosy works and lives.
CHE CHRIST — Pii Paash/Quechan, Poet and Hiphop Performer [Arizona/Denver]
Che Christ is a piipaash/quechan underground poet from the valley of the sun; a phoenix-born, Chicago-bred hip hop MC who uses his music and poetry to empower the people while documenting the struggles of community resistance to colonization on stolen lands. His writing form strands between water protection, LANDBACK, and cultural revitalization efforts continent-wide. Che has been a director, writer, and story consultant on documentaries and videos, and provided the soundtrack for PBS’s Crying Earth Rise Up. Che is published in Truthout, Waging Non-Violence, High Times, and self-published poetry books. https://chechrist.bandcamp.com/music
VALENTINE ESPINOZA – Citizen Soil Scientist, Suelo Sano [Chicago]
Valentine (she/her) is a citizen Soil Scientist and Educator whose work focuses on helping and educating communities on preventing soil erosion and nutrient loss, water conservation practices, carbon sequestration, and other factors that support a more resilient regional food system. Valentine grew up on the Northside of Chicago and has strived to expand Community Based Soil Health and Education Resources in her hometown, the southwestern U.S. and Mexico. Valentine constructs rain gardens and green storm water infrastructures and collects, monitors, and analyzes soil moisture data to enhance water retention in urban depleted soils. Valentine is passionate about documenting her community and social movements through her work with Prairie Dust Films and the Waters Connect Us collective. When Valentine is not photographing or digging in the dirt, she enjoys learning about manmade events which impact the geology of an area or traveling to soil symposiums to expand her knowledge in the field.
The work we do today to build soil health and plant fertility will not only create reciprocity with the earth
but will ensure future generations inherit a healthier planet and future.
DAVID FARRELL — Associate Professor of Music, Ruminant: Bison Carcass Soil Project [Denver]
David E. Farrell (he/ him) is a composer based in Denver, CO. David’s music has been performed by ensembles across the United States. His works have been featured at the SCI National Conference, The Electroacoustic Barn Dance, DomeFest West, The Playground Ensemble’s Colorado Composers Concert, and many more. His music can also be heard on Meerenai Shim’s album The Art of Noise, The Playground Ensemble’s 8-Bit X-Mas, and Patricia Surman’s New American, Vol. 1. David studied at the University of Illinois and at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, where he earned a D.M. in Composition. He is currently Associate Professor of Music at Metropolitan State University of Denver and a longtime member of The Playground Ensemble.
GISELLE HERZFELD — Campaign Coordinator, Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center [Boulder]
JOHN IBARRA — Executive Director — Que4 Media Network [Chicago]
A Chicago native, John Ibarra operates on the belief that a community reaches its fullest potential when its members are equipped to share their own narratives. With over two decades of background in event support and live sound production, he established the Que4 Multimedia Network in 2005 and continues to serve as its Executive Director. Through Que4 LLC, he delivers full audio, video, and stage infrastructure tailored to community events of all scales, alongside practical training in digital production and show engineering.
MATO WHITE PLUME — Organizer, Oglala Lakota Indigenous Youth Council [Pine Ridge]
Mato White Plume is a Oglala Lakota Organizer from the Pine Ridge Reservation. He’s been a part of multiple campaigns, successfully mobilizing his Oyate (People) to put their moccasins on the ground to assert Treaty Rights, defend Sacred Sites and strengthen Lakota sovereignty.
ANNE YONCHA — MSU Denver Art Faculty, Ruminant: Bison Carcass Soil Project [Denver]
Anne Yoncha (US) is Associate Professor of Art at Metropolitan State University Denver. She was born and raised in Wilmington, Delaware. After earning her MFA at the University of Montana in 2019, she was awarded a Fulbright fellowship at the Natural Resources Institute Finland, working with restorationists on art-science work about former peat extraction sites outside Oulu. Her practice combines digital sensing technology, such as biodata sonification, and analog, traditional processes including painting with ink she makes from locally sourced plant matter. Her ongoing research with the HAB (High Altitude Bioprospecting) working group began in Fall 2019 at Field Notes, a residency of Finland’s Bio Art Society in subarctic Lapland, where she worked with artists, biologists, and programmers to detect high-altitude microbes using a heli-kite. Outside the studio she can often be found doing another kind of environmental “research” via bicycle.