Speaking Truth to Power: Bending Toward Justice in the Creative Industries

Leticia Rhi Buckley, Senior Civic Strategist, The Music Center

Leticia Rhi Buckley is Senior Civic Strategist at The Music Center, Performing Arts Center of LA County and is responsible for the overall direction, management and strategic implementation of civic and community relationships, cultivating and building strong arts and culture-focused partnerships. 

A native Angeleno, Leticia was born and raised in East Los Angeles. She is deeply committed to shepherding diversity and to making the arts accessible to all and has led major countywide initiatives to effectively shape more inclusive and equitable policies throughout the region. Most recently, Leticia served as Chief Deputy of the Los Angeles County Arts Commission (now Department of Arts and Culture), where she managed the daily activities, operations and programmatic functions of the agency. While at the Arts Commission, Leticia led the County’s Cultural Equity and Inclusion Initiative (CEII), facilitating dialogue and working closely with stakeholders to develop and implement actionable strategies to support the arts in historically under-resourced communities.

Leticia is recognized for her dynamic leadership in driving innovation and diversity within the arts. Through a strategic and integrated approach to communications, she has championed record-breaking publicity, outreach and engagement for organizations including Cirque du Soleil and Disney Theatrical Productions. 

Before her roles in major cultural organizations, Leticia launched a boutique marketing and PR firm specializing in Latino outreach and engagement, with a client roster that included Cheech Marin, LA Convention 2000, East Los Angeles Community Youth Center, and the City of Huntington Park. During this time, she was featured on KTLA’s “Making It: Minority Success Stories” and voted by Hispanic Magazine as one of the “100 Most Successful Hispanic Women” in the industry. 

Leticia is a fellow of Leadership L.A., a program of the Southern California Leadership Network. She currently serves on the boards of the California Arts Advocates and Californians for the Arts, co-chairing the Racial and Cultural Equity Committee. Leticia is interim Chair of the board of directors of the Arts for Healing and Justice Network, and a member of the marketing committee of the L.A. Tourism and Convention Board. She was recently honored by Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda L. Solis as part of Hispanic Heritage Month. Leticia is an adjunct professor at the Center for Business and Management of the Arts, Claremont Graduate University. She earned a degree in political science from Loyola Marymount University and received the 2019 Alumni Role Model Award from the LMU Latino Alumni Association.

Ana Cervantes, Grants Writer, Arts Connection - The Arts Council of San Bernardino County

Ana Cervantes is a multimedia artist and educator from San Bernardino, California. Ana holds an M.A. in Art Education from Azusa Pacific University and a B.S. in Kinesiology from California State University, Long Beach. Her current focus is studying the impacts of art education on mental health and well-being and advocating for equitable arts access in TK-12 curriculum. Her passion is holding safe spaces for people of all ages to tap into their creative selves and their innate source for healing. She has worked with school districts and non-profits in the community since 2015 and currently instructs at the Art of Education University. Ana's art practice for healing leads her journey. She firmly believes in the creator in each of us and the important signature message that will emerge within our lifetime. Her art offerings are crafted with deep healing intentions, but above all, she hopes her artwork will spark the creator in the viewer. She is informed by her dedicated studies in art education, kinesiology, and psychology.

Quanice G. Floyd, Host, Black Arts Admin B*tch Podcast

Quanice G. Floyd is a renaissance woman who wears many capes. Born and raised in NYC, she has spent over a decade in Washington, DC where she has received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Music Educationfrom Howard University and Kent State University respectively. Her passion for arts administration led her to pursue her second Master’s degree in Arts Management at American University and is currently a doctoral student at Drexel University. Quanice is also the Founder & Director of the Arts Administrators of Color Network, an organization committed to empowering artists and arts administrators by advocating for access, diversity, inclusion, and equity in the arts in the DC and Baltimore metropolitan areas. For the past decade, she has been a public-school music educator where she taught elementary school general music, chorus, band, and orchestra. Quanice also serves as a board member for two DC arts organizations, and is an alumna of ArtEquity’s Racial Facilitator Cohort, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s Music Educators and Arts Administrators Academy, 4.0 Schools’ Essentials Program, and the Arts Education Collaborative’s Leadership Academy. In 2018, Quanice was honored with the American Express Emerging Leader Award by Americans for the Arts.

Lakhiyia Hicks, Founder + Project Manager, HOMEplxce

Lakhiyia is a public health cultural shapeshifter, a freedom art warrior, inviting us to remember who we are. Depending on our community needs at hand, this may mean masquerading as a spoken word poet, participatory action researcher, singer, director, dancer, curriculum developer, kuringa/joker, educational curator drawing forth leadership wrapped in y/our radical authenticity, and you name it. Pedagogy/Theatre of the Oppressed ground Lakhiyia's feet with deep roots in multidisciplinary means for being the fact of our freedom in a world designed to systematically undermine our birthright to belonging. Lakhiyia holds a Bachelors from Northwestern, Masters from USC, and lecturer experience at UCLA. Lakhiyia means “home” in isiXhosa and Haitian Creole. Calling in such Ancestral determinism, Lakhiyia is the founder and project manager for HOMEplxce, an educational consulting space dedicated to the mobilization of Survivors of childhood sexual assault as Liberation Arts Community Health Strategists across the Blxck Queer Diaspora. Come. Meet HOMEplxce at the intersections of Transformative and Healing justice!

I.D.E.A WAVE COLAB

I.D.E.A WAVE COLAB moves lasting, systemic change across private and public sectors through the collaborative development of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Anti-Racism (I.D.E.A.) tools and supportive networks and partnerships informed by abolitionist leaders, indigenous practices, and ancestral wisdom.

Anika Kwinana, Director of Social Responsibility and Inclusion, Western States Arts Federation

Anika Kwinana serves as WESTAF’s director of social responsibility and inclusion. In this role, she informs and develops a range of equity-centered learning experiences that connect and inspire leaders and communities to build a more inclusive arts and culture sector. She joins WESTAF from her position as manager of national education initiatives at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts where she ensured that arts professionals were equipped with relevant professional learning and support as they sought to provide equitable access to the arts among public school students. Kwinana has worked with a number of arts organizations as a stage manager, producer, gallery coordinator, and subscriptions sales associate. She also served as assistant director of national college fairs, programs and services for the National Association for College Admission Counselling where she piloted and scaled STEM college and career fairs reaching over 20,000 attendees annually. Kwinana is chair of the Arlington County Commission for the Arts and co-founder of Arlington for Justice; chair of the Arts Administrators of Color Network and served as co-chair of the organization’s 2020 convening; and is a part of artEquity’s BIPOC Leadership Circle, working with other arts leaders from across the nation to develop social justice leadership models. Kwinana earned her bachelor’s degree in political science from Howard University and a master’s degree in arts management from George Mason University, where her capstone focused on the need for diversity in arts organizational leadership. She also holds a master’s degree in public anthropology from American University and a postgraduate degree in management from the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa.

Jade Elyssa Rivera, Programs and Operations Associate, Californians for the Arts

Jade Elyssa A. Rivera (they/we) is a data strategist, community organizer and arts education activist. As a product of California’s Title I schools, community college system, and a public research university, their early exposure to class injustice grounds their anti-racist advocacy. 

At Californians for the Arts (CFTA), Jade Elyssa is responsible for optimizing CFTA's website for 50K+ arts advocates, curating Anti-Racism resources on a bi-weekly basis, the technical management of all CFTA programs and services, managing the 20+ years of data in the CFTA database and supporting selected CFTA/CAA Board committee activations. They are proud to have been integral to the organization’s pivots under the extraordinary conditions associated with the changing needs during a global financial, mental and public health crisis.

Prior to joining CFTA, Jade Elyssa was preparing to apply for German arts policy fellowships while living in Washington, DC. They are an alum of The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Segerstrom Center for the Arts Research & Evaluation and Education internship programs. As Founding Co-Director of Transfer Pride Admit Weekend at UCLA, they received commendation from Supervisor Kuehl of Los Angeles County's Third District for their extraordinary significance in creating an inclusive environment in the greater Los Angeles area. In 2018, they were endorsed by Dr. Marvin Alkin, Founding Director of the UCLA Center for the Study of Evaluation, to be an Undergraduate Affiliate of the American Educational Research Association. They began their career in 2015 as Director of Cesar Chavez Middle School Color Guard.

Outside of their work in the field, they serve as the Board Co-Chair of UCLA Lambda (LGBTQ+) Alumni Association. As newly elected board co-chair, they have been rethinking how to cultivate a sense of community based on impact-driven principles and ideals; and look forward to renewing Lambda's commitment to being a trans-inclusive, anti-racist space.

Ted Russell, Director of Arts Strategy & Ventures, Kenneth Rainin Foundation

Ted Russell is Director, Arts Strategy & Ventures for the Kenneth Rainin Foundation. Ted leads the Foundation’s strategic direction for the arts, supporting diverse, visionary artists and collaborating with artists, partners and funders to foster an equitable ecosystem.

Before holding this position, Ted was Associate Director, Arts Strategy & Ventures. In that role, he developed new initiatives, managed elements of the Arts Program’s portfolio, and advanced learning and evaluation processes, including sharing knowledge about promising practices.

Prior to joining the Foundation, Ted was an organizational consultant who specialized in working with arts and cultural organizations and funders. He also served as the Senior Program Officer for the Arts Program at the James Irvine Foundation from 2005-2016. Earlier in his career, Ted was Director of Marketing at Montalvo Arts Center, Audience Development Manager for the San Francisco Symphony, Annual Fund Director at the La Jolla Playhouse, and Managing Director of Malashock Dance. In 2016, Ted was named a Faces of Theatre Bay Area 40@40 Celebration Honoree as one of 40 community members who have changed the face of theater in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2020, he received the AATAIN Award for Exceptional Merit and Commitment to Supporting the African American Arts Community from the African American Theater Alliance for Independence.

Ted is chair of the board of Grantmakers in the Arts, the only national association that brings together public and private arts and culture funders. Ted is also a founding board member of 43rd & 44th Street Garden, a community garden in Oakland’s Temescal neighborhood.

Ted earned a BA in Mechanical Engineering from Yale University and an MBA in Arts Management from the Anderson School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Nokuzola Songo, International Liaison, HOMEplxce

Nokuzola holds an MSc. in African Studies from the University of Oxford, as well as an MA in Drama Therapy from Wits University. Nokuzola is a Mandela Washington fellow who has worked for over ten years in the social development sector in South Africa, Europe and the United States of America. Her experience ranges from youth development and forming HIV support groups to conducting research on political violence and the subsequent trauma in disenfranchised communities. Currently, Nokuzola contributes as International Liaison for HOMEplxce, and is preparing to start a PhD at the University of Toronto Department of Geography.