Sacramento Knoxx
Knoxx is an Ojibwe/Anishinaabe & Xicano emcee, music producer, film maker, digital media artist, and community organizer who specializes in youth development. With 7 years of foundation in Latin jazz, swing, funk, blues, and indigenous music, Christopher Yepez also known as Sacramento Knoxx, has brought a hybrid-blend of performances that engage audiences through digital media arts and hip hop across America and globally through digital media sources. Through his multidisciplinary artistry, his creations inspire, educate, heal, motivate, engage and reach both youth and our elders alike in communities of color. Being a prominent music artist from Southwest Detroit with his cultural stories of love and resistance, raw hip hop sounds, and evolving style, Knoxx is a radical composition of a free soul.
As Knoxx says, "Music Is Medicine", and through this work his narrative provides a voice for creative expression of identity, love, and healing by creatively challenging and bravely confronting many social ills faced by our communities.
DPress
Emcee Eddi Gonzales, also known as DPress, is a Southwest Detroit native who uses his lyrics to help raise awareness of everything that is hidden in our society, from social issues to personal struggles. Using an array of skills like graphic design, videography and beat production he hopes to not only showcase the experiences that have molded him into who he is today but also reach people in a positive way. He has strong ties to his community through years of experience working as a youth mentor and organizer with the Detroit Hispanic Development Corporation.
Candace Curtis-Cavazos
Candace, originally from Southwest Detroit, is an active community organizer and student at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She teaches spoken word and hip hop at Compas Arts Institute and is the founder of an organization called For Your Intellect, or FYI. FYI provides the resources needed by youth to express themselves effectively and productively through artistic means, in such a way that they might be able to participate in community building and personal growth. She is dedicated in many ways to the youth of various communities but has a strong passion for those in Southwest Detroit. A poet, emcee, and bgirl, Candace goes by the name of Spoke Cándida and uses her arts as not only a form of expression but a tool for social change and education for both communities and individuals.
Antonio Cosme
Artist, activist and community organizer born and raised in Southwest Detroit. Recent graduate from Eastern Michigan with a double major in Political Science and Economics. Over the last few years Antonio has focused his energy on creating conscious and critical graffiti and other forms of visual arts that focus on encouraging popular education and critical knowledge sharing. Currently he is working on a program with the Chadsey Condon Youth Employment Alliance that will employ 10 youth while gaining experience going door to door, meeting their neighbors and designing art that reflects the culture and histories of the people within a community.
Amelia E. Duran
Southwest born and raised: “mother, daughter, sister, lover and life liver”. Amelia has been an active member of her community for over 14 years through not only her professional experience as a community organizer/developer with Bagley Housing Association, but her participation in creating and executing workshops and cultural events in collaboration with an array of both non-profit and grassroots organizations. Some of the organizations with which she has worked in the past include: Matrix Human Services-Vistas Nuevas, Detroit Hispanic Development Corporation, Compas, Garage Cultural, Harriet Tubman Center (Youth-Voice), and Southwest Detroit Business Association, among others. Proud of her Chilena-Latina heritage and language she strives to use them as inspiration to continue developing her skills as a visual (digital media/photography) and performance artist. Her passion as an activist is rooted in hip hop movements that are founded on popular education and creative expression, working towards creating outlets that encourage us to collectively challenge the current norms and structures of mis-education which keep our communities disenfranchised.