Oye Mi Gente!

Kat Lazo is a director, producer and host. The half Colombian – half Peruvian New Yorker has made a name for herself for being a no nonsense Latina who tells it how it is.

Her work behind and in front of the camera has been featured by Buzzfeed, Upworthy, Daily News, Latina Mag and HuffPost to name a few. And she’s collaborated on projects with MTV Decoded, Bustle and UbyKotex. 

Kat was a video producer for the Latino digital platform Mitú, where she’s most known for her series – “The Kat Call” which she directed, produced, wrote and hosted. “The Kat Call” is a web series that debunks Latino taboos and misconceptions about the Latino community. 

The series as a whole has garnered over 14 million views. Currently Kat is working as an Associate Producer for sociopolitical feature documentary about Reggaetón by Mass Appeal and directed by Raquel Cepeda.

"..Growing up, she always felt more comfortable surrounded by adults, which made her different than the other kids. How do you fit in after you’ve grown up too fast?'

This is the reality for most first born children of immigrants. We carry a lot on our shoulders. In this episode we dove into her parents experience as immigrants and her experience as first generation.

Mixed Media Artist, Bianca Giovanna professionally known as “PeruvianDurags” is a native of Los Angeles. PeruvianDurags recently moved onto her family’s farm in the mountain region of the desert where her family have been landowners for nearly a century. As a mixed media artist this move was necessary in order to further her exploration of her Blackfoot and Peruvian Andean ancestry. PeruvianDurags creates artwork to heal the tattered aspects of her people. Her clothing, paintings, photography, film, music and sculpture are reflective of the spiritual and symbolic artistry of ancient Indigenous warrior masks that gives the viewer or wearer strength and/or a grounded sense of self. 

The colors she creates in her paintings & clothing comes from her two thousand year old ancestral practice and/or methodology of crusting the color formation of rocks combined with a binder to connect and create a connection with the essence of the people that surround her during the moment of creation. PeruvianDurags’ believes that learning and teaching is fluid and thereby in constant flux.  As a result, she can often be found teaching battered men & women “calm” through art therapy, and impromptu live art performances. In her spare time, PeruvianDurags teaches healing arts to mentally compromised LA youth.

Whitney is a Brooklyn-based Graphic Designer, Type Artist and Community Builder. When designing her goal is to always give the best representation of her clients vision. Her close attention to detail, strong communication and time management skills helps facilitate this.

Along with designing full-time at Scholastic Whitney is also the Ambassador of TypeThursday, a monthly meet up for designers who are interested in letterforms. TypeThursday events have attracted 4,000+ letterform lovers all over the world, including Barcelona, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Seattle. Whitney is responsible for cultivating relationships in these cities in order to help create and support thriving  chapters. Feel free to reach out to her if you'd like to attend a meet up or present your work. 

This past Summer she also became a co-host for Ladies, Wine & Design, a non for profit organization empowering women and non-binary creatives in the work field through planned events. There are over 250 chapters worldwide  and her personal goal for the Manhattan chapter is to focus on diversity and making sure everyone feels represented.

Marggie Ponce Valencia was born in New Jersey. She’s the creative director and founder of Bloom NJ. 

Bloom NJ is a media platform spotlighting the artistic culture in New Jersey. Their goal is to inspire young minds to get to know their community and be more involved with the underground music scene around them.

Margie’s parents are Peruvians from Lima! Her mom is from Chacra Rios and her dad from Barrios Altos. Her parents came here together in 1995. Although her dad had already been in the US earlier on in the 80s, he was traveling back and forth to Peru. 

Margie grew up in an artistic family of dancers, singers and musicians. They taught her about Criollo culture and Afro-Peruvian history. Her mother at age 6  and grandmother were part of Victoria Santa Cruz’s group “Teatros Y Danzas Negras Del Peru”. 

Later at 15 years old, her mother joined Peru Negro, a musical ensemble founded in 1969 to celebrate and preserve Peru’s black culture and musica criolla. She has earned a reputation from then in Peru as an Afro-peruvian dancer

Margie’s father runs a trucking business that was formed by his father in the 80s.