Denise Brown

Paul Robeson Lifetime Achievement Award

This award is given to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to social change throughout their lifetime.

Denise M. Brown is a cultural organizer and strategist, coach, and facilitator who is passionate about using her skills and energies on creating, supporting, and illuminating work at the intersections of art, culture, and social justice, and working intergenerationally to support the development of young leaders. She is the Executive Director of the Leeway Foundation, an organization whose mission is to support women and trans artists and cultural producers creating art for social change. For over 30 years, Denise has worked with cultural and social justice organizations, individual donors, and foundations like the Philadelphia Assembly, Grantmakers in the Arts, Philanthropy Network Greater Philadelphia, Rauschenberg Foundation, and Surdna Foundation on program development and grantmaking strategies regionally and nationally. She currently serves on the boards of the Henrietta Wurts Memorial Fund of the Philadelphia Foundation and Scribe Video Center, a Philadelphia-based media arts organization. Denise is also a long-time member of the Bread & Roses community, having served in multiple roles – as staff, board member, and donor. 

Ellen Somekawa

Paul Robeson Lifetime Achievement Award

This award is given to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to social change throughout their lifetime.

Ellen Somekawa has been the Executive Director of the Folk Arts-Cultural Treasures Charter School (FACTS) since 2014. From 1996 to 2014, Ellen was the Executive Director of Asian Americans United (AAU), where she carried forward the organization’s commitment to creating intergenerational spaces for young people to come to consciousness and to serve their communities. At AAU, she helped grow the Chinatown Mid-Autumn Festival (now in its 27th year), which is led by young adults who developed through AAU programs and involves over 200 community volunteers. To further strengthen community, AAU created FACTS to build institutional permanence in Chinatown and to educate K-8 children to be active participants in shaping society. Ellen has participated in many campaigns, including Justice for Heng Lim; No Stadium in Chinatown; No Casino in the Heart of Our City; and the 2009 boycott led by Asian immigrant students in response to anti-Asian violence at South Philadelphia High.

Fred Pinguel

Trailblazer Award

This award is given to an outstanding leader in community organizing who has helped to pave the way for others. 

Fred Pinguel is a professional with 15 years of experience in social justice organizations. He is an experienced and dedicated leader who has a deep commitment to popular education, combined with rigorous study, and the belief that all people bring knowledge and expertise. Most recently, Fred served as the Executive Director of Philadelphia Student Union (PSU), a 28-year-old youth organizing group. Through his time with PSU, Fred organized young people and brought them into a fight to improve their schools. He also served as lead organizer with Filipino Advocates for Justice in Oakland and as an organizer with CeaseFire PA. Through these organizations, Fred worked on campaigns for gun control, tenants’ rights, and investments in public education. Fred now brings his experience across the breadth of social justice and movement work to his role as Director of Movement Learning with the Movement Alliance Project.

Kaia Chau & Taryn Flaherty

Emerging Leader Award

This award is given to an individual who is beginning to make their mark as a community organizer.

Kaia Chau (Bryn Mawr College ‘24) and Taryn Flaherty (University of Pennsylvania ‘25) are the founders of Students for the Preservation of Chinatown (SPOC). SPOC is a coalition of college students in the Philadelphia area fighting against the proposed construction of the new 76ers arena less than a block away from Chinatown. Kaia and Taryn are lifelong friends and attended Folk Arts Cultural Treasures Charter School. They grew up going to Chinatown almost every day. They were raised by organizers who dedicated their lives to fighting for the existence and preservation of Chinatown. At 5 and 6 years old, they watched their mothers fight a proposed casino in Chinatown. Now, 15 years later, as college students, they carry on the tradition of intergenerational Chinatown activism and organizing, mobilizing their peers to protect a beloved neighborhood and community. As the elders who came before them, Kaia and Taryn recognize that their generation has a responsibility to protect and preserve Philadelphia’s Chinatown.

Chill Hixon

Emerging Leader Award

This award is given to an individual who is beginning to make their mark as a community organizer.

Derek “Chill” Hixon is a Youth Coordinator and Organizer with Philly Thrive, a community group in South Philly that fights for environmental justice and the right for everyone to breathe clean air.

Chill is a lifelong South Philly (Grays Ferry) resident. Since early adulthood, he’s made sure South Philly youth have the support and programming they need to help them fight for and achieve their life goals. He has been part of a career exploration program with the University of Pennsylvania called “Design2thrive”, and a youth theater ACTivism program. Chill also works with the Philadelphia Parks & Recreation Department to run his neighborhood park, Stinger Square, and afterschool programs at Di Silvestro Playground. Chill is dedicated to developing the next generation of freedom fighters!

Youth Art & Self-empowerment Project

Victory is Ours Award

This award is given to a community organization, union, or campaign that has advanced movements for racial and economic justice. 

The Youth Art & Self-empowerment Project (YASP) was created in 2006 by five young people with the goals of building youth leadership in the movement to end mass incarceration and ending the practice of prosecuting and incarcerating children as adults. YASP is a youth-led, intergenerational organization working to end youth incarceration. Their holistic approach supports young people impacted by the criminal legal system to express themselves creatively, to grow as leaders, and to develop transformative possibilities in their communities and beyond. YASP implements alternatives for responding to harm and violence in Philadelphia and across the country while building towards a vision of a world without incarceration.