Across Borders: Communities Against Gun Violence and Voter Suppression 

Across Borders: Communities Against Gun Violence and Voter Suppression will bring together leaders, community members and advocates for conversation on how gun violence impacts our communities as well as the threat of voter suppression in our BIPOC communities. Over dinner, we will open with a panel of awesome leaders: Mynor Alonzo, who is a political analyst, strategist, and co-founder of FOCO, a Guatemalan social research organization; Elena Gutierrez, who is affiliated with Global Exchange in Mexico and collaborates with the People’s Movement for Peace and Justice to advance community-based peacebuilding initiatives and strengthening international solidarity networks; and Alí Bantú Ashanti, who is a lawyer, human rights defender, and strategist in high-impact litigation involving state crimes. He is the founder of Colectivo Justicia Racial, a network of lawyers and humanists dedicated to dismantling structural racism in Colombia. 

Please arrive at 5:30 for dinner if you wish. Following our panel, we will move into smaller brainstorming groups facilitated by local gun violence prevention/intervention workers and voting rights activists. We will close with our local community calls to action.  While remembering our ancestors’ fight for civil rights and democracy, 2026 calls us into deeper collaboration, communication and organizing. Through sharing of lived experiences and brainstorming of solutions we will increase our capacity for change and engagement while challenging, white supremacy, fear and loss of hope.