Ashley K. Shelton

"The arts have always been a cornerstone of social change. Picture the Power captures the spirit, sacrifice, and strength of Louisiana voters whose acts of courage shape our democracy every day." - Ashley K. Shelton

Ashley K. Shelton is the Founder, President, and CEO of the Power Coalition for Equity and Justice, a statewide 501c3 table in Louisiana. The Power Coalition uses a broad-based strategy that combines community organizing, issue advocacy, and civic action, all while increasing the capacity of community organizations throughout the state to sustain and hold the work. Mrs. Shelton has led both C3 and C4 strategies to move almost one million voters throughout the state of Louisiana, having a significant impact in elections in the major metros, including New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Shreveport. Our integrated voter engagement approach has changed policy at the municipal and state level as well as moved infrequent voters of color to vote at the same levels as chronic voters in the communities where we run a full Get Out The Vote program.

Dr. Joyce Jackson

Dr. Joyce Marie Jackson is a professor in the Department of Geography & Anthropology and former Director of African & African American Studies at Louisiana State University and Founder of Cultural Crossroads. She earned her Ph.D. from Indiana University, Bloomington, in folklore and ethnomusicology, and her Bachelor's and Master's of Music degrees were in vocal performance from Louisiana State University. Currently, she is serving as Director of the Academic Program Abroad to Haiti.

Her key research interests center on African and African Diaspora performance-centered studies, sacred and secular rituals, cultural and community sustainability and women’s agency. Her ethnographic research sites include New Orleans, LA, Dakar, Sénégal, Port-au-Spain, Trinidad and Jacmel, Haiti. Dr. Jackson has authored, Life in the Village: A Cultural Memory of the Fazendeville Community and many scholarly articles and book chapters. She is a National Endowment for the Arts and a Rockefeller Foundation Fellow and was awarded a Brigh Mohan Distinguished Professorship for Social Justice. Recently, Dr. Jackson completed a documentary film titled, Easter Rock, which was selected and featured in the spring of 2016 at the Ethnografilm Festival in Paris, France. She has curated many exhibitions, including the notable New Orleans Mardi Gras Indians: Exploring a Community for the Smithsonian Institution.

Dr. Jackson is the 2021 recipient of a the Lifetime Contributions to the Humanities award from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities. This honor acknowledges her extensive work in enhancing public understanding of African American culture and music, as well as sacred and secular rituals in Africa and the diaspora. ​

Rita Harper

Rita Harper is a documentary photographer and photojournalist from Atlanta, Georgia.

It is her goal to show the beauty of the everyday person. Rita has captured images of everyone from unsung pillars of tight-knit communities to regular people fighting against powerful, faceless corporations. She wishes to amplify the voices and narratives of everyday, working-class Black people and people of color as a reminder that all our lives have a purpose, importance, and value.

Ms. Harper has received several grants and awards, including the BET Network Artist in Residence (2019), the Sprite X Wish Atl: The Give Back Artist Grant (2020), the Southern Documentary Grant Award (2020), and the National Geographic Emergency Fund for Journalists Grant (2020).

Her photos have been featured in exhibitions all around Atlanta, including shows at the Future Dead Artists Gallery, Mint ATL, Georgia State University, and the Auburn Avenue Research Library. She has also been published in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, National Geographic, The Today Show Digital, Pro Publica, The Guardian, and Ilford Photo.