Every creative journey includes moments of uncertainty, perseverance, and growth. In this panel discussion, Latino artists and creative business owners will share their personal stories of overcoming challenges, building sustainable careers, and staying connected to their cultural roots while navigating the creative economy.
Ask Me Anything: Through honest conversation and shared experiences, participants will explore the barriers and opportunities that shape Latino creative entrepreneurship, celebrate the community’s resilience and innovation, and discover practical insights for personal and professional growth. Together, we’ll foster meaningful connections, inspire one another, and imagine new possibilities for collaboration and collective success.
Art Book Cart: Artists Nicole Rojas-Oltmanns and Monica Rojas will be on site with Art Book Cart, a Ready Go project that encourages participants to engage with books through hands-on arts and literacy projects.
4:00-4:30: Meet and Greet
4:30-5:30: Panel Discussion
5:30-6:00: Networking
This Ask Me Anything program is presented in partnership with Minneapolis City of Lakes | Minneapolis Forward, as a part of Latino Business Week.
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Jessica Lopez Lyman, Ph.D. is an interdisciplinary performance artist and Xicana feminist scholar interested in how Indigenous and People of Color create alternative spaces to heal and imagine new worlds. Jessica built, La Luchadora, a mobile screen printing cart as part of the Ready Go! program and prints political posters with communities across the state. She is a an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chicano and Latino Studies at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.
A queer, trans, non-binary mixed Puerto Rican from Minneapolis, Cándida González (they/them) is a multimedia artist most often working in temporary altar installations using found objects, words, and elements of the natural world. They have been teaching the course Making it Public through Forecast Public Art since 2019, working with emerging public artists around the country to help elevate their public art careers. They are passionate about supporting emerging artists in developing and elevating their work. Visit their website at 
Ricardo Levins Morales is a boricua artist, organizer, and author based in Minneapolis. His decades of social movement activism spans supporting the Black Panthers and Young Lords, union organizing, farmer and environmental, and anti-police struggles. He uses his art, writing, and mentorship practice to stimulate historical memory in the face of forgetting, resilience in the face of trauma, and resistance in the face of oppression. He co-founded the Northland Poster Collective, which produced art, screen printing services, and organizing materials for movements (1979-2009). He was part of a political/artistic current, starting in the 1980s to establish the centrality of cultural organizing and narrative strategy in movements for change, participating in such national initiatives as the Alliance for Cultural Democracy, the Great Labor Arts Exchange, the National Organizers Alliance, and Labor Notes. He works from a collectively managed storefront studio in Minneapolis with fellow members of the News Guild/CWA. Learn more at 
José Luis Fitch Jiménez is a Mexican artist and creative entrepreneur specializing in visual art and working across gallery and urban art settings. Luis’s artwork has garnered widespread recognition. His art pieces are featured in private and institutional collections throughout the USA and Latin America, including institutions such as the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the National Museum of Mexican Art, National Hispanic Cultural Center, and the Tamarind Institute.