Born and raised in Oakland, California, Ariel Luckey is a hip hop theater artist whose community and performance work dances in the crossroads of education, art and activism. He attended his first workshop at the age of 2 with his father, Paul Kivel, a writer and political educator, and has been active in the community ever since. Ariel has developed a powerful approach to arts activism through his training with Wavy Gravy and Patch Adams at Camp Winnarainbow, June Jordan at UC Berkeley's Poetry for the People and Augusto Boal at Theatre of the Oppressed workshops. Ariel's lyrical language and political vision have inspired and transformed audiences from the streets of Seattle's WTO demonstration to Cafe Cantante in Havana, Cuba to the Nuyorican Poets Cafe in New York. He has been a featured artist at the North Bay Hip Hop Theater Festival, the White Privilege Conference and the Intersection for the Arts' Hybrid Project and has shared the stage with The Coup, Zion-I, Marc Bamuthi Joseph and Sparlha Swa.

Ariel's community work includes workshop facilitation, curriculum development, diversity training and direct action with the Todos Institute, GreenAction for Health and Environmental Justice, Youth for Environmental Sanity, Copwatch, Y-Step, Jewish Youth for Community Action, Bioneers and the Easy Bay Institute for Urban Arts. As a father, friend and activist, Ariel makes connections between issues, communities, and movements to build alliances for social and environmental justice.

Topics covered

• Poetry for People Power: The Pen, The Mic and The Movement
• Acting Out Change: Theatre of the Oppressed for Collective Liberation
• ToxiCity: Art and Organizing for Environmental Justice (Part One)
• New World Water: Art and Organizing for Environmental Justice (Part Two)
• Ancestry in Progress: Connecting Our Family Histories to Our Global Future
• Free Land: Unearthing the Legacy of Manifest Destiny and White Privilege thru Hip Hop Theatre

If you would like to plan a speaking event with Ariel, please contact him at skylight [at] arielluckey.com or (510) 287-6406.