10am-12pm
Morning Program
Samuel M. Ciccati Performing Arts Center, Cuyamaca College
Join us for a morning reflection and dialogue on Nourishment, this year's theme for the Annual Gathering. What does it truly mean to nourish ourselves and one another? Speakers will share stories and weave threads that link food, connection, and community to nourishment, healing, and collective liberation.
Opening Speaker:
The Nourishment We Give Each Other
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Dr. Ashanté Reese is associate professor of African and African Diaspora Studies at The University of Texas at Austin. She earned a PhD in Anthropology from American University and a bachelors of arts in History with a minor in African American studies from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. Broadly speaking, Dr. Reese works at the intersection of critical food studies and Black geographies, examining the ways Black people produce and navigate food-related spaces despite anti-Blackness. Animated by the question, “who and what survives?”, much of Dr. Reese’s work has focused on the everyday strategies Black people employ while navigating inequity.
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Her first book, Black Food Geographies: Race, Self-Reliance, and Food Access in Washington, D.C., takes up these themes through an ethnographic exploration of anti-Blackness and food access. Black Food Geographies won the 2020 Best Monograph Award from the Association for the Study of Food and Society. Her second book, Black Food Matters: Racial Justice in the Wake of Food Justice, is a collection co-edited with Hanna Garth that explores the geographic, social, and cultural dimensions of food in Black life across the U.S. Her work has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, and the Mellon foundation and has been published in a variety of academic and public venues: Antipode, Human Geography, the Oxford American, and Gravy Magazine among others.
Currently, Dr. Reese is working on a project tentatively titled, The Carceral Life of Sugar in which she explores the spatial, economic, and metaphorical resonance of the plantation in the early 20th century convict lease system in Texas and the ongoing carceral significance of sugar in everyday (Black) life.
Learn more at amreese.com
Land Acknowledgement
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Bobby Wallace is from the Barona Band of Mission Indians and the Kumeyaay Nation. He is deeply committed to climate and racial justice, community health and wellness, and cultural preservation. Bobby brings years of governance and business experience, and has held several leadership roles within the community.
His advocacy work includes opposing nuclear waste storage, preserving Kumeyaay sacred sites, and stopping the desecration of rivers and watersheds. He currently spearheads the movement against sand mining in the San Diego River and is active in the fight to clean up the Tijuana River Valley.
Bobby's vision is that his Nation’s Flag will be raised throughout Kumeyaay Territory, and that his people’s history will be told with truth and respect. Bobby’s biggest hope is that we all get through this time in history the best way we can and leave a good mark for future generations to come.
Poetry
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Diamond Brandon is a poet, movement builder, and cultural worker whose work lives at the intersection of storytelling, justice, faith, and healing. Writing since the fifth grade, she has long understood poetry as both refuge and resistance. A way to witness, process, tell the truth, and give language to the things we are often asked to carry quietly.
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Rooted in her lived experience as a Black woman, wife, mother, organizer, and community advocate, Diamond’s work explores grief and joy, struggle and possibility, love and collective survival. Beyond the stage, she serves as Director of Community Partnerships at the California Labor Federation and Chief Consultant for her family’s Black-owned S&S Friendly Ranch in San Diego.
Whether writing, organizing, or holding space, Diamond believes our stories can help us remember who we are, reclaim our power, and imagine what is possible.
Learn more at DiamondBrandon.com
Facilitated Dialogue:
Nourishing Ourselves and Our Movements
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Shantel Suárez Ávila, daughter of Mexican immigrants and a Chicago native turned Escondido resident, is the Founder and Principal Resource Strategist of Más Allá, a values-driven and community-centered fundraising practice advancing resource justice and equity. Through her work, Shantel partners with women, BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and grassroots communities to reimagine how resources are raised, shared, and moved into community.
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A San Diego community organizer, Shantel is a co-founder and organizer with the San Diego Solidarity Network, former co-steward of the Community-Centric Fundraising San Diego Chapter, and currently serves on the Nominations Committee of the ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties and as a Council Member of the Community-Centric Fundraising North American Council.
Grounded in her heritage and guided by a belief in collective well-being, Shantel is passionate about changing how we understand resources—not simply as dollars to be raised, but as tools for building power, sustaining community, and creating more just and abundant futures.
For funsies, you can find Shantel dancing to live music, drinking a dirty martini, camping, deepening her yoga practice, or enjoying a croissant and cup of coffee at Izola Bakery.
Learn more at masallaconsulting.com
Dialogue Voices
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“We are the future ancestors. I have deep reverence and great appreciation for the sacrifices my family has made and the awesome responsibility and joy I inherited. I will grow my work to leave things in a good way for the next generations.”
Janice Luna Reynoso is the Founder and Executive Director of Mundo Gardens. She grew up in National City, Southeast San Diego, and Baja California. She draws from her family’s Mexican and farmworker heritage, her connection to the land, culture, and indigenous history of the region. Her vision is a healthy thriving community.
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Learn more at reconnectsesdnc.com and @mundogardens
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REE (she/her) is a second-generation Filipina community organizer, social worker, and doctoral candidate whose work lives at the intersection of mental health, culture, community care, and social justice. For more than two decades, she has dedicated her clinical and community work to advancing the rights and well-being of marginalized communities, centering culturally responsive healing, suicide prevention, collective care, and community power. Her practice is grounded in Liberation Health and draws upon storytelling, cultural wisdom, and lived experience as pathways toward individual and collective healing.
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REE believes radical love and community care are not separate from movements for justice—they are essential to sustaining them. She is the founder of emrg collaborative therapy and support services, inc., a culturally responsive mental health practice rooted in liberation, connection, and community. REE is a Doctoral Candidate in the Doctorate of Social Work program at Simmons University, where her scholarship explores culturally grounded approaches to healing with Filipino Veterans and communities. Above all, REE loves being a mom, and she finds nourishment and joy in family and community, lowriding and classic cars, and training jiu-jitsu.
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Shannon Magee (Luiseno/Cahuilla) is an enrolled Tribal member of the Pala Band of Mission Indians. Shannon enjoys working on projects that support Indigenous youth, family and maternal health,Traditional Ecological Knowledge, cultural preservation, and agricultural endeavors within Tribal communities.
Her background includes collaborating with diverse partners on initiatives that are guided by Traditional Ecological Knowledge, organizing community workshops, and supporting grant-funded projects to advance Indigenous land stewardship. Shannon’s dedication to community health is further demonstrated through her work as a Birth Doula and Indigenous Birth Justice Advocate on the Yakama Nation, where she supported maternal and infant health initiatives.
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As a certified Herbalist and California native plant lover, Shannon’s work is deeply rooted in preserving traditional cultural practices, promoting Tribal self-reliance, and strengthening resilient communities.
Shannon currently lives with her three children on the Pala Reservation, located in San Diego County.
Closing
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Giovanni Mejia, is a guitarist with deep San Diego roots, one half of the local group Dulcet. He is a former guitarist with B-Side Players, and played alongside well known activist Ramon “Chunky” Sanchez. Learn more @tiogiomusic
