Join us in welcoming the 2025 UCLA Activists-in-Residence!
On behalf of the UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy, UCLA Asian American Studies Center, cityLAB-UCLA, and the UCLA Center for the Study of Women|Barbra Streisand Center, we are thrilled to welcome Lupita Limón Corrales, Kaya Dantzler, Kari Okubo, Romarilyn Ralston, and James Suazo as the 2025 UCLA Activists-in-Residence. The activists will be in residence at UCLA from January through May.
RSVP Here
Tuesday, January 21, 2024 • 4 to 6 PM
UCLA Perloff Hall, DeCafe – 365 Portola Plaza,
Room 1302
UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy activists:
Lupita Limón Corrales (she/they) is a poet, artist, organizer, and language interpreter. Born in Sinaloa, Mexico and raised in the San Gabriel Valley, she comes from a long line of arboleros, theologians, homemakers, peasant farmers, criminals, factory workers, and cashiers who party on the weekend. She is a founding member of the Echo Park local of the Los Angeles Tenants Union, organized by struggles to end renovictions in LA and defend the caretakers of the oldest house in the neighborhood. Her writing can be found in dozens of zines and handmade books; on Dublab and Lower Grand Radio; and in Dryland, Protean Magazine, Longreads, Street Views, and Huizache. Her first full-length poetry book ESTA BOCA ES MIA was published by nueoi press in Spring 2024.
James Suazo (he/him) is a 34-year-old reader, writer, organizer, and abolitionist who identifies as queer, Latinx, and Jicarilla Apache. James was born, raised, and politicized in occupied Tongva and Acjachemen land known as modern-day Santa Ana, California and has lived in Long Beach since 2011. James’ passion for organizing began as an 18-year-old growing up in Santa Ana’s Delhi neighborhood where he started organizing low-income bus riders at the height of the Great Recession. As his organizing journey continued, James contributed to and led community, labor, and electoral organizing efforts to address poverty, housing, transit justice, education equity, justice reform, and racial justice. James has spent the last 10 years organizing with Long Beach Forward, a nonprofit organization building community knowledge, leadership, and power with low-income BIPOC communities in the City of Long Beach, where he currently serves as Executive Director. James has and continues to learn from, train, and mentor organizers locally and nationally as part of his personal commitment to building a better world.
UCLA Asian American Studies Center activist:
Kari Okubo (she/her) is a digital strategist, cultural worker, and organizer who is a fifth-generation Uchinānchu and Japanese settler from ‘Aiea, Hawai’i. As the Social Media Strategist for 18 Million Rising, an organization mobilizing Asian Americans through digital organizing, Kari brings eight years of experience working in social media across various industries to power Asian American grassroots campaigns and creative projects. Her work addresses immigrant rights, demilitarization, abolition, decolonization, gender justice, and LGBTQIA+ rights. Kari focuses on building narrative power in digital spaces and utilizing storytelling as an organizing tool to shift culture and engage communities in the fight for collective liberation.
cityLAB-UCLA activist:
Kaya Dantzler (she/her) is a cultural organizer from South Los Angeles dedicated to uplifting Black communities through creative placekeeping and cultivating ecosystems of solidarity and collective care. She led local and national campaigns at Color of Change, mobilizing communities to advance racial justice. As co-founder of We Love Leimert, she organizes alongside community members to nurture and sustain Leimert Park Village as a sanctuary for Black people and a thriving hub of Black culture and community. Rooted in the Black radical tradition, Kaya envisions a future where Leimert Park Village serves as a global model for a solidarity economy that fosters shared prosperity and collective liberation for people from the African diaspora.
UCLA Center for the Study of Women|Barbra Streisand Center activist:
Romarilyn Ralston (she/her) is the Director of the Justice Education Center at the Claremont Colleges and former Executive Director of Project Rebound at CSU Fullerton. Identifying as a Black feminist abolitionist, she earned a Bachelor’s in Gender and Feminist Studies from Pitzer College and a Master’s in Liberal Arts from Washington University in St. Louis after 23 years in prison. Her work focuses on empowering women and justice-involved people. Romarilyn is a member of the California Coalition for Women Prisoners. In 2022, she received a full pardon from Governor Gavin Newsom and is a PhD student in Executive Management at Claremont Graduate University.
