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DESCRIPTION:Join us to learn about the important work of Sister Warriors Freedom 
 Coalition, a group of women and gender expansive folks who have been 
 incarcerated and are building a movement to support each other, shift 
 power, and lead systems and policy change.\n\n\nNiki Martinez is a leading 
 social justice advocate and organizer dedicated to ending mass 
 incarceration and dismantling systemic injustices and the criminalization 
 of women, gender expansive and trans people. Since her release in 2019, she 
 has mentored countless individuals, been a leader in the Credible Messenger 
 movement, while also working on key propositions and policies and 
 continuing to advocate for folks inside of the women’s facilities. 
 Currently, Niki serves as the Administrative and Organizing Director of 
 Sister Warriors Freedom Coalition and continues to build Sister Warriors 
 Chapters throughout the state. While incarcerated, she co-founded a 
 youth-centered advocacy organization and holds certifications in 
 trauma-informed care, relapse prevention, and restorative justice. Charged 
 as an adult at 17 and sentenced to 45 years to life, Niki served 25 
 consecutive years inside the carceral system—experiences that drive her 
 commitment to healing, justice and the continued fight against systemic 
 gender-based violence and ending mass incarceration.\n\n\nSusan Bustamente 
 is a part of the California Coalition for Women Prisoners and an advocate 
 for ending Life Without Parole. Susan was sentenced to Life Without Parole 
 (LWOP) and served 31 years. While incarcerated she co-founded CWAA, a 
 battered women’s group, and was also a dog trainer and a member of the 
 Veteran’s group Happy Hats. In 2018, Susan was the first person with an 
 LWOP sentence to be released via a sentence commutation. Since her release, 
 Susan continues to give back to her community by visiting and supporting 
 incarcerated women and fighting for the end of LWOP through the Felony 
 Murder Elimination project.\n\n\nElizabeth Lozano is a Latina artist who 
 was born in Harbor City, CA and currently resides in Riverside, CA. In 2012 
 Elizabeth received her A.A. in Behavioral and Social Science with Honors 
 from Feather River College. Elizabeth’s art was first exhibited in 
 Central California Women’s Facility’s visiting store, the facility 
 where she resided for 30 years serving a sentence of Juvenile Life without 
 Parole. In 2024 the facility requested Elizabeth paint affirmations on the 
 sidewalks and other spaces to uplift the community. Elizabeth has 
 participated in several exhibitions and projects including: Return to 
 Sender: Prison as Censorship, EFA Gallery NY, (2023); The Only Door I Can 
 Open: Women Exposing Prison Through Art and Poetry, Museum of the African 
 Diaspora, CA (2023); Work Assignments: Forced Prison Labor in the Land of 
 the Free, several Bay Area locations(2023 & 2024); and the Involuntary 
 Servitude Digital Billboard campaign for Legal Services for Prisoners with 
 Children, California,(2024)\n\nCurrently Elizabeth works for The Institute 
 of the Arts and Sciences as a Prison Education Advisor where she develops 
 art workshops and education programs for the women prisons in California 
 and formerly incarcerated individuals, supports the reentry transition back 
 to the community and aids in the development and promotion of art 
 exhibitions and outreach programs.\n\n\nJulissa O. Muñiz, PhD is an 
 assistant professor of education in the School of Education and Information 
 Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. Broadly, her 
 scholarship examines how people and communities of color –specifically 
 Latinx and Black communities– navigate, negotiate, and resist racialized 
 organizations and systems of power such as the education, criminal legal, 
 and juvenile legal systems. More specifically, Dr. Muñiz examines the 
 conditions that both enable and constrain teaching, learning, and identity 
 development in carceral contexts, with an interest in better understanding 
 how youth, girls, women, and gender expansive individuals live and learn 
 while confined. Importantly, her work uplifts the various ways individuals 
 are always co-creating fugitive liberatory learning environments for 
 themselves and others in spite of the carceral institutions they exist in. 
 Most recently, Muñiz was an assistant professor of psychology with 
 affiliation in education and the Visualizing Abolition Program at UC Santa 
 Cruz.\n\nDr. Muñiz earned her Ed.M. in prevention science and practice 
 from the Harvard Graduate School of Education; her M.A. in human 
 development and social policy from Northwestern University; and her B.A. in 
 ethnic studies from UC Berkeley. Her training and research have been 
 generously supported by the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New 
 Americans, Spencer Foundation and the National Academy of Education, Social 
 Science Research Council, and the University of Texas at Austin’s 
 Division of Diversity and Community Engagement. Dr. Muñiz is a 
 first-generation borderlands scholar from San Ysidro, California. In 2021, 
 she founded the San Ysidro Rising Scholar Award, a scholarship and 
 mentorship program that supports first-generation college students from her 
 alma mater, San Ysidro High School. Before entering graduate school, Muñiz 
 was a middle school academic counselor for TRIO Talent Search in Oakland, 
 California, and a GED co-instructor for the Adult Peer Education Project at 
 San Quentin State Prison.\n\n\nThis event is organized in conjunction with 
 the exhibition Everything is Going Right and as part of Visualizing 
 Abolition, an arts-based initiative that reaches across prison borders to 
 contribute to the unfolding collective story and alternative imagining 
 underway to create a future free of prisons.\n\nFree\n\nSister Warriors 
 Freedom Coalition\nhttps://www.sisterwarriors.org/\n 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2026/04/21/18885713.php
SUMMARY:In Conversation: Sister Warriors
LOCATION:Institute of the Arts and Sciences, 100 Panetta Avenue, Santa Cruz
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2026/04/21/18885713.php
DTSTART:20260502T210000Z
DTEND:20260502T223000Z
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