African Culture in the Americas

Mar Cruz

-

Luana da Silva
Luana Da Silva (she/they) is a mixed-race queer femme from Brasil. Her mixed heritage has played a major role in her life - navigating and negotiating identity, intersectional experiences of oppression and privilege as someone who is deeply committed to the work of historic justice and abolition. Luana is dynamic and passionate about a lot of different things in life, yet most of them are rooted in sacred healing work of mental health and wellness with special focus on the impact of ancestral/cultural traumas as a major source of distress. She is a healer, birth worker, consultant, educator, and artist. She's also a mama of two babes under three and believes in the sacred work of parenting as healing justice.

https://www.batalahouston.com

-

Tristan Samuels
Tristan Samuels received his Honors B.A. major/minor in History & European Classical Studies from York University (Toronto, Canada). He earned his M.A. in Egyptology at the University of Toronto. Currently, he is a doctoral student in Africology at Temple University. His primary research interests are (1) Afro-Caribbean languages, (2) Nile Valley Civilizations, and (3) Afrocentric Theory. His dissertation research focuses on examining Kemetic texts from a Jamaican perspective.

https://temple.academia.edu/TristanSamuels