Gilda Haas is the Executive Director of SAJE (Strategic Actions for a Just Economy), that has accomplished significant economic advances for working class people in Los Angeles by using a popular education approach to community organizing. SAJE’s approach involves poor people in developing organizing strategy and policy initiatives themselve—ranging from creating the first welfare-to-work bank account in the nation to negotiating a package of community benefits with a company owned by the richest men in the world.
Tomas Benitez is the Executive Director of Self-Help Graphics and Art, Inc. (SHG), which is the leading visual arts organization that serves the Latino community of East Los Angeles. From its origins in an East Los Angeles garage, SHG has risen to international stature for producing the largest collection of Chicano prints in history, for cultivating local Chicano artists, and for promoting the rich contribution of Chicano art and culture to the American landscape. Building from a firm foundation in Chicano and Mexican cultural identify, SHG is also recognized in Los Angeles as a center for multi-cultural artistic exchange, and symbolizes the creative potential of L.A.’s diversity.
Carol Wells is the Executive Director of Center for the Study of Political Graphics (CSPG), which collects and preserves international and domestic human rights and protest posters. From this archive of more than 45,000 grassroots graphics, over 40 social-justice theme exhibitions have traveled to over 160 venues throughout the United States and internationally. Through its traveling exhibitions, workshops, and publications, CSPG is reclaiming the power of art to inspire people to action.