ABOUT OUR FOUNDERS:

Dr. Amir Whitaker is a culturalist, artivist, civil rights lawyer, and founder of the non-profit Project Knucklehead. Amir has traveled to over 20 countries tracing the influence and music of the Afro-diaspora. In the process, he has taught workshops on Hip Hop and Beatmaking in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Jamaica, Guatemala, and other countries. He is the co-founder of the Afro Unidad, a cultural movement that united Afro-descendants around the world through art and justice. Dr. Whitaker is also a published author and his “Encyclopedia of Afro-Diaspora Music '' compiles over 200 styles of Afro music across the Americas. His research also focuses on the criminalization of Afro culture and the drum throughout history and can be viewed at www.afrounity.org. Amir received his doctorate in Educational Psychology from USC, law degree from the University of Miami, and Bachelors from Rutgers University. He currently works as a lawyer for the ACLU of SoCal and previously worked as a researcher at UCLA.

Iya Janina is co-founder of the Afro Unidad Movement and she hails from a Panamanian family of Afro-Caribbean origin. She studied Languages ​​& Business at the University of Bordeaux, France, where she lived for 10 years. She has been a certified translator of the Republic of Panama for over 20 years and is also the president of the Arnold Walters Foundation, with cultural heritage and community programs, such as Caras Afro Panama and the Healing Arts Egbe. Her spiritual journey led her to become a Yoruba priestess and Iyanifa (Iya Janina of Egbe) of the Fasola lineage of Ota, Nigeria, where she now serves as co-founder and liaison for Latin America of the APICS Cultural Institute of the Ancestral Pride Temple.

BECOME AN AMBASSADOR BY COMPLETING THIS SURVEY! JOIN THE MOVEMENT.