Mya Rodriguez Williams
Mya Rodriguez Williams (she/her) is a dedicated activist, restorative justice practitioner, and filmmaker whose work focuses on community building, storytelling, and advancing social justice through the arts. Through the blend of photography, writing, and community art co-creations, Mya is centers her work on uplifting the voices of the BIPOC community, especially youth, through creatively expressing the community's resilience, love, and triumphs– narratives that are too often overlooked and marginalized. In her free time, Mya loves to paint, play guitar, go birdwatching, and cook meals for her friends and family. She is an Afro-Latinx woman, an older and a younger sister, a daughter, an educator, a creative, an environmentalist, and a friend.
In-Person Featured Youth Institute
1:00 PM - 4:00 PM
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Facilitated By: Mya Rodriguez Williams & Micah-Jade Stanback
Audience: Youth, Young Adults, and Educators preferred but Open to Everyone
Throughout history, the concept of liberation has manifested in various forms across cultures, ranging from dance to visual art to collective social justice movements. Honoring the Summit theme of Casting Bold Visions: Healing & Activating from the Roots, we invite high school youth, young adults, and K-12 educators to participate in a mixed media art co-creation that focuses on what liberation and healing looks like, sounds like, and feels like as both individuals and as a community. The session will also include open discussion on what adult accountability looks like in youth spaces and their overall communities, and how adults can not only support young people’s dreams, but also acknowledge the ways they may fall short in creating a world that affirms young people’s needs and desires. Inspired by the healing elements of water, Flowing Forward invites participants to explore how liberation can feel when we combine art, justice, and multi-generational discussion with the power of youth-led spaces.