We are THRILLED to be supporting 5 leading artistic activists and their exceptional 2022 midterm election work

Read on to get to know Steve, Andrew, Céshia, Aileen, and Alannah

Hailing from Georgia, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and DC, our 5 Unstoppable Voters Fellows are bringing big, bold ideas to help their communities around the country vote this midterm election season and beyond. Read on to learn more about them, the organizations they work with, and the incredible things they’ll be doing between now and November.

Poder Latinx

Andrew Dinwiddie

Democrasexy

Céshia Elmore

New Voices for Reproductive Justice

Aileen Loy

Fair Count

Alannah Ray

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee/Panthers Vote

Unstoppable Voters 2022 Fellows

Steve Alfaro. Photo by Liz Vanderstel.
Steve at the Black Lives Matter Plaza in 2020. Photo by Jolie Abreu.

Steve Alfaro is the son of immigrant parents from Guatemala and grew up in South East Los Angeles. He currently lives in Washington D.C. with his partner and two daughters. He went to art school for graphic design and got involved in artistic activism and the political space during the 2006 immigration marches. He has been working in the civic engagement space since 2008, focusing on the Latinx millennial generation and online audiences. He began his career in the entertainment industry by working at the SiTV Network (now FUSE TV), where he worked on TV and Digital Campaigns to engage Latinx youth. Upon moving to Washington D.C., he worked at Voto Latino for 12 years, where he developed visual design systems, campaigns, public service announcements and social media presence as a digital first organization. He has been an Art for Social Justice Fellow at the Sanctuaries, a Ricardo Salinas / Aspen Ideas Festival Fellow, and has received the Bronze Pollie Award for Best Innovation for Voter Technologies. His social justice art has been featured in The Harvard Journal of Hispanic Policy, GOOD Magazine, the Washington Post, and the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center. As Founder and Creative Director of Unique Shift Creative, he has provided creative and graphic design support for over twenty Latinx civic and social justice organizations.

He currently serves as the Creative and Digital Consultant at Poder Latinx, a civic and social justice organization building Latinx political power in battleground states. At Poder Latinx, he works alongside the digital team to co-lead and produce all creative digital campaigns that have an art and culture connection. They use technology and multiple lenses that speak to the complex and diverse Latinx community of today and create programs that educate and engage their audience on their website and social media platforms. Read more about Steve here.

I’m excited to learn and unlearn and to gain new knowledge that I can use for myself but also share with others I work with in this space.

– Steve Alfaro, Creative and Digital Consultant, Poder Latinx

Poder Latinx is a civic and social justice organization. Our vision is to build political power for the Latinx community to become decision-makers in our country’s democracy to win on our issues at all levels. Our mission is to work to build a sustained progressive voting bloc of Latinxs in battleground states across the country. We do this by leading a voter-integrated engagement program where all aspects of voter engagement, issue-based campaigns, leadership development, voting reform and protection, and narrative change form a continuous cycle of political consciousness. Through our work, we empower and equip the Latinx community to become agents of change now. Founded in 2019, Poder Latinx operates in Central Florida, including Orange, Osceola, Seminole, Lake, and Polk counties, Arizona East Valley of Maricopa County, and in Georgia including Gwinnett, Cobb, Dekalb, Fulton, and Clayton counties. Through our powerful team, all Latinx and hired from the communities where we work, we have registered 34,292 new voters, knocked on more than 60,000 doors, called close to 4 million Latinx voters, partnered with 412 organizations, gained 2,702 advocates, and reached 7.3 million people online. Read more about Poder Latinx here.

Andrew Dinwiddie
Andrew at a potato sack race in Brunswick, Georgia, 2022. Photo By Shelia Pree Bright.
Drag performers Justice and Maxine LeQueene talk with Becky Bullard, Founder & CEO of Democrasexy, about the ways drag has shaped their experience of gender. Photo by Leah Muse.

Andrew Dinwiddie was born in Atlanta, raised in the Southern Labor Movement, and educated in experimental performance. He is Chief of Staff of New Georgia Project and New Georgia Project Action Fund, shepherding strategic projects and Cultural Organizing. With Times Square Arts 2016-2020, he curated and produced interdisciplinary public art by emerging and world-class artists. From 2004-2017 he was a co-everything of the OBIE-winning CATCH Performance Series. Andrew has worked at BRIC, MoMA Film, New York Live Arts, Ralph Lauren Corporation, Rooftop Films, WNYC, and as a Contributing Editor for the Movement Research Performance Journal.

I’m working to marry my art-world professional principles with organizing. It’s mission-critical that our art-forward programs be just as or more effective in building power and increasing civic engagement as all our other tactics. 

– Andrew Dinwiddie, Chief of Staff at New Georgia Project, collaborator with Democrasexy

Through Unstoppable Voters, Andrew is collaborating with Democrasexy.

Democrasexy makes democracy sexy so more people will do it. Launched in September 2021, Democrasexy curates events and creates content connecting issues we care about with actions we can take in a way that excites rather than overwhelms.

Sexy explainer videos, “Tarot for America” videos & events like “Texorcism” made Democrasexy a finalist for the Austin Chronicle’s 2022 “Best Politics & Media Wildcard” Award. Democrasexy puts fun & humor first and foremost, attracting young Texans to the political process regardless of whether they consider themselves “activists.” It’s a way of “hiding the vegetable” of civic education by making learning a treat.

Céshia Elmore.
Alex Webster Photo.
Céshia, as captured by Ria G.

Céshia Elmore is a Creative, Educator, and Community Organizer based in her hometown of Philadelphia. Céshia has been a professional educator for 13 years, specifically for Special Needs, and recently decided to align professionally with the work that affirms her as a Black, Queer Woman. She began her Organizing work with New Voices for Reproductive Justice as a Lead Organizer for the #SayHerName March for Justice to honor Dominique “Remmie” Fells, Breonna Taylor, and other black and brown women, femmes, girls and folx who suffered from violence. Since then, she has mobilized for abortion rights, developed a teach-in series about Black Maternal Health and helped launched the #SAYHERNAME Justice Fund for her work with New Voices for Reproductive Justice. Céshia is better known as Queen Phierce, International Poet and Curator of Dope Spaces. Read more about Céshia here.

Artistic Activism is a grand opportunity to incorporate art and civic engagement. I am honored to be a Fellow and excited to witness what we all create.

– Céshia Elmore, Community Organizer, New Voices for Reproductive Justice

New Voices for Reproductive Justice is dedicated to transforming society for the holistic health and wellbeing of Black women, girls and gender expansive people, nationally and in Pennsylvania and Ohio. We help dismantle patriarchal anti-Blackness using the tools community organizing, leadership development, and voter engagement. Our vision is to achieve the complete health and well-being of Black women, girls, and gender expansive people.

Aileen Loy
Aileen unloading a large shipment of PPE. During the height of the pandemic, Aileen helped distribute over 200,000 masks to residents throughout Georgia.

Aileen Loy is a multi-disciplinary artist, street activist, and person of conscience. Combining her artistic expression with her activism, Aileen responded to school book bans by building and distributing one-of-a-kind installations stocked with banned books, and when COVID struck she organized pop-ups throughout Atlanta to give away thousands of hand-sewn masks. She began her work with Fair Count in the role of PPE Manager; she is now its Volunteer Coordinator, instilling a sense of safety and support among Fair Count’s volunteers and team members. Read more about Aileen here.

This is a singular opportunity — a chance to meld my artistic side with my work in activism in a more intentional manner. I’m looking forward to the mentorship and to being inspired by the other fellows and their work.

– Aileen Loy, Volunteer Coordinator, Fair Count

Fair Count is a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to partnering with Hard to Count (HTC) communities to achieve a fair and accurate count of all people in Georgia and the nation in the 2020 Census, and to strengthening the pathways to greater civic participation. The mission has expanded to include extensive programming around redistricting and voting. Our Vote-365 initiative started November 8, 2021, and is actively organizing and educating, in Georgia’s most marginalized communities, to make sure everyone can vote in 2022.

Alannah Ray
Alannah at National Voter Registration Day 2021. Pictured with Natalie, another UWM student and employee in their office.

Alannah Ray is the Panthers Vote Coordinator at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (their mascot is Pounce the Panther). In addition to civic engagement work, she is currently pursuing an M.S. in Anthropology and just finished a graduate certificate in Museum Studies this spring at UWM. Her bachelor’s degree is in Graphic Design from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Utilizing her multidisciplinary background, she is interested in blending the physical and digital worlds to facilitate education, accessibility, and exploration.

As someone who works primarily with youth voters (and as a youth voter myself), I know students represent our future. Empowering youth voters to overcome barriers to fully exercise their right to vote presents monumental challenges – challenges that require creative solutions. I am thrilled to learn, collaborate, and work towards those creative solutions as an Unstoppable Voters Fellow.

– Alannah Ray, Panthers Vote Coordinator, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Panthers Vote is the hub for the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s student voting initiatives. UWM is a public R1 research university serving over 24,000 students in southeast Wisconsin across three campuses. Our students are at the heart of our pro-voter goals. Panthers Vote works to provide UWM students with the resources and education they need to register to vote, vote, and be civically engaged community members. While we aim to reach all of our students, we are particularly focused on reaching populations at our campuses who have been historically marginalized, face additional barriers to voting, or have low rates of voter turnout.

Unstoppable Voters

Through our expansive Unstoppable Voters program, we support creatively risk-taking, strategic, ambitious organizations, people, and projects that address urgent and specific anti-voter attacks. We provide training and community building for individuals and groups who are passionate about protecting the freedom to vote and bringing the needed innovation to that fight. And we provide funding and support to help manifest that innovation and bring real, measurable impact. To date, we’ve helped dozens of organizations and many hundreds of individuals make voting accessible, safe, joyful, powerful, and irresistible.