How Philadelphia's Festivals Preserve Diaspora Culture

How Philadelphia's Festivals Preserve Diaspora Culture

Festivals are more than celebrations — they're living archives of culture, memory, and resistance. In this episode of Patterns of Our Diasporas, host Monica O. Montgomery sits down with three Philadelphia festival organizers to explore how community events preserve identity across generations. Gerardo Coronado of the Association of Mexican Business Owners (AEM) shares how Día de los Muertos and the Fiesta Futbolera Soccer Fest create space for Mexican traditions to take root and be embraced by the broader city. Erika Goslin, Executive Director of Taller Puertorriqueño, reflects on 50+ years of art, activism, and education — and how the Feria del Barrio stakes a joyful, defiant claim to El Barrio Latino de Philadelphia. Mabel Negrete, co-founder of Indigenous Peoples' Day Philadelphia, speaks to the profound complexity of uniting indigenous communities from across the Americas in a single celebration — one that educates, heals, and pushes back against erasure. Together, they wrestle with the words survival, sovereignty, and belonging — and what it means to organize a festival not just as a party, but as an act of resistance, a democratic gathering, and a gift to the next generation.

Save Philly Festivals - Full Press Conference

The following is the full audio from the Save Philly Festivals Bus Tour by Diaspora DNA Story Center [https://www.diasporadna.org/] - first speaking is the founder of Monica O Montgomery, Sarah Everly from the DRWC, Shekhinah B. from Women's Coalition for Empowerment, LindoYes! The Poet, and Edgar Ramirez from Philatinos Media.

Women’s History Month - Philadelphia Rooted in Story

In honor of Women's History Month, host Monica O. Montgomery brings together four extraordinary Philadelphia women who are reshaping what it means to empower community through storytelling, culture, and healing. In the first conversation, Judith Robinson (North to the World) and Chrissy Watts (Philly Experiences) discuss the art of the tour guide — not as a formulaic experience, but as a deeply personal, culturally rooted act of homecoming. From walking North Philly's historic corridors to hosting soul food crawls and trap music bar crawls, both women share how they use tours as a vehicle for economic empowerment, historical preservation, and connection. They also open up about training the next generation of young storytellers and tour guides, and why locals are just as important an audience as visitors. In the second conversation, Serita Lewis (Urban Seek) and Jillian Glaze (Elevate Wellness) reflect on a powerful community healing event held in the aftermath of the unexpected closure of the University of the Arts. Brought together through Jasper DNA's "Reclaiming Power, Releasing Grief" activation, they describe how Black tea ceremonies, dream-line banners, and dance movement therapy created space for collective mourning and resilience. The conversation expands into a broader dialogue about somatic healing, creative arts therapy, cultural rootedness, and why the practices of the global majority deserve to be centered — not rebranded — in wellness spaces. Together, these four women remind us: whether it's a mural tour, a cup of chamomile, or a Zulu war cry with young men — healing, history, and community are inseparable.

Curation of the Arts with Ginger Rudolph & Angela Caroll

This episode, “Curation of the Arts” is a powerful conversation about Black art and reclaiming our narratives. We’re joined by two brilliant guests: Angela Caroll - author of "No Solace in the Shade" which is the first major publication on Baltimore-based painter Jerrell Gibbs, whose contemplative portraits of Black sitters thrum with a vivid sense of place and reflect the complexity and emotional depth of everyday Black life. She is also the Guest Curator at the Brandywine Museum. And Ginger Rudolph—Co Owner of the Paradigm Gallery, leads the Mural Arts Philadelphia Fellowship for Black Artists, and the founder of HAHAMAG and co-founder of HAHAxParadigm, a Philadelphia-based arts initiative that partners with artists, creatives, and brands to produce impactful public art experiences that inspire and connect communities. Together, we’ll dig into what it means to celebrate Black art and continue the legacies of the foundational artists that came before us.

Kinkeeping & Genealogy: Creatively Inserting You and Your Family Into History (w/ Eboni Zamani & Christopher "KP" Brown)

This episode, “Kinkeeping & Genealogy: Creatively Inserting You and Your Family Into History,” is a powerful conversation about ancestry, identity, creative confidence and the art of reclaiming our narratives. We’re joined by two brilliant guests: Eboni Zamani — documentarian, family lineage tracer and founder of Pearl’s Girl Productions, whose work blends film and lineage research to illuminate community memory. And Christopher KP Brown— spoken word artist, storyteller, poet and 15 year professional genealogist, whose creative practice explores past history as a pathway to collective truth. Together, we’ll dig into what it means to locate ourselves in the archive, to reimagine what was lost to erasure, and to boldly place our families back into the historical record with intention and care and unapologetically rediscover our ancestry.