Artists + Practitioners + Organizations

Meet the artists, practitioners, and organizations! Far South/Border North awarded funding to support artists and cultural practitioners working in disciplines from performing arts, visual arts, music, film and media, and literature to multidisciplinary and socially engaged forms.

Far South/Border North Round I Grant Recipients

Our Round I grant recipients include about 60 artists and cultural practitioners from San Diego and Imperial counties. Round I grant recipients began developing their campaigns in June 2023, and are now implemented those campaigns through May 2024.

Olivia Quintanilla

San Diego County

Olivia Arlene Quintanilla is a Chamoru educator born and raised in San Diego. Her cultural practice focuses on intergenerational public ethnic studies programming that centers on civic and community engagement. She organizes workshops and events that use culture, such as food, music, dance, poetry, art, and storytelling, as a catalyst for connection, awareness, and social change. A first-generation college student alumni of San Diego community colleges, San Diego State University, and the University of California San Diego, she is now an Ethnic Studies professor at MiraCosta Community College in Oceanside.

Armando de la Torre

San Diego County

Armando de la Torre work has a long-time involvement in social justice and outreach projects through visual art and teaching practices. These projects - including participatory events at Bread & Salt and The Front and participation in the Best Practice exhibit "Rosas Y Nopales" - entwine with place, borders, and identities. His works often reflect the dichotomy of the San Diego-Tijuana region in its complex environmental and social problems. He is a multidisciplinary artist who is deeply impacted and shaped by these political and environmental forces, and he has learned to turn this into cultural content, continuing to develop work that can inform a broader narrative of inclusion in the San Diego -Tijuana region.

Ramel Wallace

San Diego County

Ramel Wallace is a multi-dispensary artist working at the intersection of creativity, community, and technology. He is the Senior Community Manager at BAM, a public relations and marketing firm for venture-backed companies. Wallace is responsible for researching, developing, and managing BAM events with key internal and external stakeholders. He has been a recording artist for over fifteen years, leading him to host CreativeMornings/SanDiego and become a San Diego African American Museum of Fine Art board member. Before BAM, Wallace was the CEO and Founder of thChrch and continues to live at the intersection of art, tech, and creativity. His roots in Hip Hop have allowed him to turn his ability to control a crowd into an ability to run an organization and lead a community. He is currently the CEO of The Holyfield, an organization that focuses on creativity and identity.

Johnnierenee Nelson

San Diego County

Award-winning poet and playwright Johnnierenee Nia Nelson, aka the Kwanzaa Poet, has written and published six books of poetry. Ms. Nelson is a poet/teacher with California Poets in the Schools and San Diego's Border Voices Project and a performance poet who has presented readings and workshops from Cairo, Egypt, to Vancouver, British Columbia. She also appeared in the Emmy-Award-winning documentary "Lighting the Way." In 2017, Nelson received a Fellowship from the Livingkindness Foundation to attend the International Women Writers Guild's 40th Annual Summer Conference in Allentown, Pennsylvania. She serves as the San Diego County Area Coordinator for California Poets in the Schools and as Poet Laureate of the World Beat Cultural Center in San Diego's Balboa Park.

Kendrick "Mr. Lyrical Groove" Dial

San Diego County

Kendrick Dial, also known as Mr. Lyrical Groove, is a renaissance man with a mission to blend mental health and social justice art. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Africana Studies/Psychology from San Diego State University and a Master's in Social Work from the University of South California. Dial is an accomplished spoken word artist who published his first poetry book, Da JOYNT, in 2005. He has worked with the poetry collective Collective Purpose for over ten years, hosting one of Southern California's highest-attended open mic events, ELEVATED. He has collaborated with several arts-based organizations to perform and produce shows that inspire, challenge, educate, and entertain, including BkSoul, Playwrights Project, and Ira Aldridge Theatre. He is also a teaching artist with the Old Globe and recently completed a veteran playwriting workshop with the La Jolla Playhouse, where he is working on his two-person production.

Elsa Alvarez

Imperial County

As an Imperial County artist for 30 years, Elsa Alvarez has utilized oil, acrylics, and mixed mediums to produce realistic art paintings highly influenced by her community and culture. She was born in Mexicali, Mexico, and later moved to the Imperial Valley with her family as a child, becoming an American citizen. While growing up in the county, Alvarez participated in art competitions and exhibits, the most recent of which included the Imperial Valley Palate, Palette & Pallet (P3), a popular fundraiser held by the Imperial Valley Food Bank. Alvarez is excited to transform her artistry into a public awareness campaign highlighting crucial community issues. For the last 15 years, Alvarez has become a knowledgeable Alzheimer's Disease caregiver for her mother. This essential work has influenced her future projects to highlight the complex nature of this disease and its impact on the community.

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Far South/Border North Round II Grant Recipients

Our Round II grant recipients include 18 San Diego and Imperial County organizations. In fall 2023, they hired artists and cultural practitioners and began working alongside them to develop their campaigns, and implemented them through August 2024.

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