Meet the 2024 Fellows & Finalists

Voqal Partners is excited to introduce the 2024 Fellows. The Fellowship is an investment in community leaders and changemakers. It is a talent accelerator that gives bold visionaries a chance to be at center stage. The 2024 cohort continues the program’s legacy of supporting the individuals who are transforming the world yet are often overlooked as they go against the norms. From restoring local ecosystems to reclaiming community and family narratives, these eight (8) practitioners are healing communities and building collective power by tapping into ancestral knowledge and traditions. They center multi-generational approaches in their work, welcoming everyone in the process of decolonizing and transforming systems- or even creating their own. This is why we believe they are at the forefront of liberating us all in the here and now. We’re honored they chose this community to embrace and cannot wait to tell you more about their work and world-changing ideas.

FINALISTS

We received hundreds of applications for the eight (8) spots we can currently support in the fellowship. We meet many changemakers and want to uplift their work for you to know as well. We are excited to also introduce these finalists.

Clarivel Ruiz (we/us) | Communicare Heart Workshops

Communicare Heart Workshops is a series of gatherings for families and communities to heal and grow together. The curriculum is based on a somatic embodied, mindful, and artistic approach that centers social and emotional learning, intergenerational and inter/ intracultural experiential workshops related to multiculturalism/multilingualism, intergenerational trauma, belonging, tolerance, and dignity. Learn more about Clarivel at clarivel.com.

Rafael Feliciano-Roman Ruiz (he/him) | Nueva Era Waterbury
Nueva Era puts in the forefront the Latine population of the City of Waterbury. Currently the city’s two major news sources are run by white individuals who do not tackle the root causes of the city’s issues. “Nueva Era” would be a bilingual (Spanish/English), community-led and trained news source to support the increasing Latine/Afro-Latine population. Learn more at rafaelfelicianoroman.com.

Teniqua Pope (she/her) | Selah Sound
Selah Sound is a movement of Gullah Geechee artists, environmentalists, and activists organized and united to preserve the history and future of our culture, land, and people. Our vision is to curate a sustainable retreat space, homestead and hermitage where indigenous art and wellness modalities are centered and used to heal and cultivate the land and its people. Our mission is to host cultural, creative, and wellness retreats for the visitors and facilitate ongoing wellness programming for locals.

Timothy Parent (he/she/they) | Reforme U
Reforme U is on a mission to transform fashion from a system of exploitation to one of empowerment for all people through the power of education and access. Through online courses, individuals learn how to use personal style to advance systemic, equitable change in fashion. By empowering people en masse, Reforme U hopes to create a movement of personal and systemic transformation and liberation. Learn more at www.reforme.style.

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Land Acknowledgement

We work all over the country and recognize that we are on the traditional and ancestral homelands of Indigenous Peoples. We acknowledge the unceded land where most of our work is carried out as the ancestral territory of the people of Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi Nations (Chicago, IL) and the Wahpekute Dakota and Anishinaabe peoples (Minneapolis, MN).

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Labor Acknowledgement

We acknowledge that much of our country’s culture, economic growth, and development throughout history has been made possible by the violent, coercive, and exploitative forced labor of indigenous peoples, enslaved Africans, Chinese and Japanese immigrants, and migrant workers from the Philippines, Mexico, and Central and South America.

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