Focus: Art/Culture

Cecilia Barja-Chamas

Cecilia Barja-Chamas is a writer of narratives that mobilize to act on behalf of the ousted and disenfranchised. She works in the public sector and civil society leading complex multi-sector, multi-year, and cross-borders sustainable programs in her home country Bolivia and throughout Latin America. Being part of a new generation that started a new era of politics in Bolivia, and later as a team member that built systemic change toward sustainable development in the Pan Amazon and the peace process in Colombia, she has deepened her understanding of the complexity and beauty of social processes towards the common good. She was a Mason Fellow at the Ash Center at Harvard…

Daniel Ziv

Daniel Ziv is a documentary filmmaker, author, and social justice advocate. A native of Canada, he moved to Jakarta in 1999 and has since been documenting society in the country’s bustling capital. His 2014 feature-length film “Jalanan” is a gritty portrait of Indonesia through the life stories of three marginalized Jakarta street musicians. It became the first Indonesian documentary in history to be released in commercial cinemas across the country, was adopted by Jakarta’s governor as a tool for social policy change, and has traveled to 60 international film festivals and won 12 awards. Daniel founded and edited the popular and irreverent Djakarta! magazine, and he authored the urban pop…

Bibi Bakare-Yusuf

Bibi Bakare-Yusuf is Co-Founder and Publishing Director of one of Africa's leading publishing houses, Cassava Republic Press, and is Co-Founder of Tapestry Consulting, a boutique research and training company based in Abuja focused on gender, sexuality, and transformational issues in Nigeria. Bibi has worked as a gender and research consultant in the public, private, and development sectors for the BBC, UniFem, ActionAid, eShekels, Central Bank of Nigeria, the European Union, and others. She sits on the editorial board of a number of influential journals and is the chair of board for The Initiative for Equal Rights, the largest organization in West Africa devoted to LGBTQ issues. Bibi is also a…

Parmesh Shahani

Parmesh Shahani is Vice President at Godrej Industries Ltd. and the founder of the award-winning Godrej India Culture Lab in Mumbai, which sparks conversations and collaborations about the changing face of contemporary India. Parmesh is a passionate advocate for LGBTQ inclusion in corporate India and has guided many of the country’s leading companies on their inclusion journeys. Parmesh's first book, Gay Bombay: Globalization, Love and (Be)Longing in Contemporary India (Sage), was originally released in 2008 and re-released in 2020. His second book Queeristan: LGBTQ Inclusion at the Indian Workplace (Westland Books) was also released in 2020. He is a member of the FICCI taskforce on diversity and inclusion and a…

Tania Bruguera

Tania Bruguera is a political performance artist who explores the relationship between art, activism, social change, and political and economic power. Born and raised in Havana, several of her exhibitions have interrogated and “re-presented” events in Cuban history. Tania explores both the promise and failings of the Cuban Revolution through performances that provoke viewers to consider political realities masked by government propaganda and mass-media interpretation. In 2011, Tania started Immigrant Movement International, a multi-part artwork that will ran through 2015. She spent a year living in a small apartment in Corona, Queens, with five undocumented immigrants and their children. Engaging both local and international communities, as well as working with…

Abdul-Rehman Malik

Abdul-Rehman Malik is an award winning London-based journalist, educator, and cultural organizer. He is Programs Manager for the Radical Middle Way, which offers powerful, faith-inspired guidance and tools to enable change, combat exclusion and violence and promote social justice for all. His work has spanned the UK, Indonesia, Pakistan, Sudan, Mali, Morocco, Singapore, Canada and Malaysia. In January 2015, he became director of the Insight Film Festival, a unique year-round festival that celebrates the intersection between faith and film. Abdul-Rehman is a regular contributor to BBC Radio, offering contemporary perspectives on spirituality and presenting documentaries and programs for Radio 4, Radio 2 and the World Service. His recent documentary work…

Renzo Martens

Renzo Martens is a Dutch artist and filmmaker and currently serves as Co-Founder and Director of the Institute for Human Activities. The Institute has launched a five-year program in the Congolese interior, bringing together artists, thinkers and specialists. With a nod to precedents set in cities like New York and Berlin, the Institute aims to turn art production into an engine of economic growth in Congo, hoping to improve the lives of the people around its settlement.    In his first film, Episode 1, Renzo travels to Chechnya to adopt a rarely defined role in contemporary war: that of its spectator. Episode 3, also known as Enjoy Poverty, is a…

Good Society Forum: Art and the Good Society

JALANAN on CBC's 'The National' (Canada)