Felipe Luciano was born "Phillip" in 1947 in Spanish Harlem and was raised by his mother, Aurora, who was a devout Pentecostal Christian.[5] Luciano describes the public housing project where they lived as "the craphole of the world," saying, "no one ever placed as his or her first choice on the Housing Authority application, 'Brookline Projects.'"[6] He feels that his childhood was cut short, in large part due to the absence of his father.[4] At age 12 he became part of a gang called the Canarsie Chaplain Division, which was made up of "guys who would go hard if forced to, but would rather look good, go to school, and talk to the ladies.”

Felipe attended Queens College as a political science major. He joined The Last Poets, and co-founded the New York chapter of the Young Lords. (It was during this time that he changed his name to Felipe, a move that can be understood as a means of emphasizing his Puerto Rican identity). Later, he had a successful career as a journalist and television and radio show host, and continues to be a well-respected public figure today. 

When Luciano was 16, he initiated a fight with a member of a different gang who had attacked his brother. The fight resulted in the target being fatally stabbed, though not by Luciano himself.[6] Nevertheless, Luciano was convicted of manslaughter and served two years in prison.[4] Some understanding of Luciano's feelings about his incarceration may be gleaned from a speech he gave in 2010 at the commencement ceremony for inmates receiving bachelor's and associate's degrees from the college program at Sing Sing Prison. Speaking to the graduates, he said, "Prison is the place where faith is tested. You are here because you were there. But if you pass this, you are good to go."

Writing about Luciano's background and upbringing, the New York Times reported,  "Because he is Black and Puerto Rican, an ex-con and a poet, the father of  a Navy man and the son of a single mother, Mr. Luciano can wear many hats with  ease. With a Haitian, he debates the history of the Caribbean. With an African-American, he talks as if he had just come out of the ghetto (in fact, he has lived on the Upper East Side for many years). With Hispanic guests to his show, he reverts to short, endearing phrases in Spanish."[1] In this way, his work, art, and activism connect to the larger project of fighting anti-Blackness within the Latinx community and to uplifting Black Latinx stories, experiences, art, and visions of liberation.

The foundation of my beliefs is the same as it was when I was 10. Non-violence.

If people have to put labels on me, I'd prefer the first label to be human being, the second label to be pacifist, and the third to be folk singer.

From the beginning, the life’s work of Joan Baez was mirrored in her music. At a point when it was neither safe nor fashionable, she put herself on the line, singing about freedom and Civil Rights everywhere, from the backs of flatbed trucks in Mississippi to the steps of the Lincoln Memorial at Dr. King’s March on Washington in 1963. She participated in the birth of the Free Speech movement at UC Berkeley, and co-founded the Institute For The Study Of Nonviolence near her home in Carmel Valley. She stood in fields alongside Cesar Chavez and migrant farm workers striking for fair wages, and opposed capital punishment during a Christmas vigil at San Quentin.

Joan Baez has long been a musical and social force of nature of incalculable influence. She marched in Northern Ireland with the Irish Peace People in 1978, appeared at rallies on behalf of the nuclear freeze movement, and performed at benefit concerts to defeat California legisla-tion that would have banned openly gay people from teaching in public schools.  

She received the American Civil Liberties Union’s Earl Warren Award for her commitment to human and civil rights issues; and founded the Humanitas International Human Rights Commit¬¬tee, which she headed for 13 years. She dedicated her first entirely Spanish album to Chileanos who suffered under the rule of Augusto Pinochet. In 1981, hostile authoritarian regimes across Latin America tried to prevent her concerts there – three decades later, her return tour of 1984 was heralded as a triumphant success.

Joan was a fixture on Amnesty International’s Conspiracy of Hope tour in 1986, with U2, Peter Gabriel, Sting and others. Her 1989 concert in Czechoslovakia was cited by President-to-be Vaclav Havel as a tipping point in the Velvet Revolution that established the Czech Republic. In 1993, Joan was in war-torn Bosnia-Herzegovina, at the invitation of Refugees International. A year later she was singing to her friend and mentor Pete Seeger at the Kennedy Center Honors in Washington, D.C.  The Four Voices benefit concerts with Mary Chapin Carpenter and the Indigo Girls that took place later on in the 1990s (reprised for eleven shows in 2017), reinforced Joan’s belief in the new generation of songwriters’ ability to speak to her. The 1995 live album Ring Them Bells expanded on the Four Voices format (featuring duets with Mary Chapin Carpenter, the Indigo Girls, Dar Williams, Janis Ian, and more). It was followed by Gone From Danger (1997), with songs from a new generation of songwriters including Dar Williams, Richard Shindell, Sinéad Lohan, and others.  Into the new millennium, Joan received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 49th annual Grammy Awards® in 2007, where she introduced the Dixie Chicks (now known as the Chicks) and saluted their courage to protest the Iraq war. She stood with old friend Nelson Mandela in London’s Hyde Park as the world celebrated his 90th birthday in 2008.

Since she retired from active performing, Joan has been able to focus her talents in the visual arts on painting and drawing, creating art with a social conscience. Her second “Mischief Makers” exhibition – portraits of risk-taking visionaries who have fought for social change through nonviolent action took place from January 1 through February 14.  In celebration of the Joan's 80th birthday, a reception was streamed on her birthday, January 9 with an interview with Baez, a virtual tour of her exhibition, Mischief Makers 2, music, memories and even some dancing!  

 A veteran of the 1969 Stonewall Inn uprising, Sylvia Rivera was a tireless advocate for those silenced and disregarded by larger movements. Throughout her life, she fought against the exclusion of transgender people, especially transgender people of color, from the larger movement for gay rights. Rivera was born in New York City in 1951 to a father from Puerto Rico and a mother from Venezuela. She was assigned male at birth and given the name Ray. Rivera had an incredibly difficult childhood. Her father was absent and her mother died by suicide when Rivera was 3 years old. Raised by her grandmother, Rivera began experimenting with clothing and makeup at a young age. She was beaten for doing so and, after being attacked on a school playground in Sixth Grade by another student, suspended from school for a week. Rivera ran away from home at age 11 and became a victim of sexual exploitation around 42nd Street. In 1963, Rivera met Marsha P. Johnson and it changed her life. Johnson, an African American self-identified drag queen and activist, was also battling exclusion in a movement for gay rights that did not embrace her gender expression. Rivera said of Johnson that “she was like a mother to me.” 

 Sylvia Rivera Law Project continues her legacy that  “all people are respected for who they are" 

Rivera is possibly most well known for her participation in the Stonewall riots of 1969, an event that revolutionized the gay rights movement. However, Rivera’s relationship with organizations like the Gay Activists Alliance, which formed as a result of the riots, was not an easy one, as the GAA frequently rejected the role transgendered individuals (the majority of whom were people of color) played in Stonewall.  After several setbacks from within mainstream gay organizations, Rivera organized the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) with her friend Marsha P. Johnson, an African American transgender woman. STAR became a space to organize and discuss issues facing transvestites in New York City. In addition, Rivera and Johnson started STAR House in order to assist the homeless in the gay community, with a focus on LGBT people of color. Rivera explained in 1998, “Marsha and I decided it was time to help each other and help our other kids. We fed people and clothed people. We kept the building going. We went out and hustled the streets. We paid the rent.” Though Rivera was only nineteen herself, she became like a mother to many of the residents at STAR House, and she and Johnson helped to form a home and family for those who needed it most.  Rivera’s legacy has led to organizations like the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, which “works to guarantee that all people are free to self-determine their gender identity and expression, regardless of income or race.” The SRLP provides much-needed legal services for those who cannot afford representation. This organization is continuing Rivera’s lifelong work to ensure a stable and safe existence for transgender, intersex, and gender nonconforming people.