Episode 43: Artivist Maven Gina Belafonte

Published: June 27, 2019, 1:25 p.m.

Episode 43 of the Mavens Do It Better Podcast features Gina Belafonte, artist, producer, artivist, and executive director of Sankofa.org. Sankofa.org is an organization in service of artists and grassroots movements and equitable change in the world using art and culture as a healing opportunity to express fear, anger, and frustration, empowering people and organizations to find non-violent ways for response and for everyone to have a whole human experience in our lives. \nGina and Heather caught up virtually in Los Angeles, CA. \nListen in as Gina and Heather talk about: \nBeing an artivist at the intersection of art and activism to open hearts and minds using art as a tool to communicate thoughts and ideas. \nHow as the executive director of Sankofa.org, an organization founded by her Father, Harry Belafonte, they educate, motivate, and activate artists and allies, supporting grassroots movements and equitable change by developing cultural content in partnership with community partners. Sanokfa.org started five years ago, activating fully after the Trayvon Martin murder and verdict along with many other organizations like Black Lives Matter, Movement 4 Black Lives, The Justice League. \nGrowing up with two parents, Harry and Julie Belafonte, who were and are today, deeply rooted in the Civil Rights Movement having the likes of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Shirley Chisolm and others around her kitchen table inspiring, shaping, and developing her artivist roots and way she moves in the world. \nA discussion of many social justice issues and organizations that are making a change in the world, looking at how we are only as good in our society as the most marginalized citizens. And a look into how movements are built, strategized and the responsibility we have as human beings being beneficiaries of the legacy and work of those that came before us. \nHow one dinner with her friend Stacy Lynch, daughter of East Coast political strategist, Bill Lynch, became more dinners and has developed into a group of women, working, dreaming, and activating together. The group includes: Gina Belafonte, daughter of Julie and Harry Belafonte; Suzanne Kay, daughter of Diahann Carroll; Stacy Lynch, daughter of Bill Lynch; Dr. Hasna Muhammad, daughter of Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee; Ilyasah Shabazz, daughter of Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz; Dominique Sharpton, daughter of Reverend Al Sharpton; and Keisha Sutton-James, granddaughter of Percy Sutton. The daughters explore how their shared memories growing up watching their parents at work overlap and intertwine, as did the lives of their parents\u2014activists, artists, politicians, political strategists, religious leaders, and founders of the civil rights movement. The group is calling themselves Daughters of the Movement, taking their stories to a broader audience through panel discussions, speaker series and an upcoming new podcast.