Closer to Liberation

Dr. Amanda Solomon Amorao serves as an assistant teaching professor and the director of the Dimensions of Culture Program at the University of California San Diego's Thurgood Marshall College. She received her M.A. and Ph.D. in literature from UC San Diego, and her research and teaching interests include U.S. multiethnic literature, Asian American studies, Filipino/a/x American cultural productions, critical race studies, decolonizing pedagogies, and women of color feminism. DJ Kuttin Kandi is a "People's Hip Hop DJ Scholar'' who was born and raised in Queens, New York, and is widely regarded as one of the most accomplished womxn DJs in the world. She is a queer, gender-fluid, femme, disabled Filipinx-Pin[a/x]y-American writer, poet, theater performer, educator, hip hop feminist, public speaker, and community organizer. Kandi is a co-founder and the executive director of Asian Solidarity Collective (formerly Asian for Black Lives San Diego). She has received an honorary doctorate in Pinayism for her endless dedication to radical sisterhood, critical praxis, and transformative solidarity. Jen Soriano is an award-winning writer, movement strategist, and the co-founder of MediaJustice and ReFrame. She has spent more than 20 years working at the intersection of narrative strategy and grassroots organizing for racial, climate, and gender justice. She is the author of Making the Tongue Dry and Nervous, a forthcoming book of essays.