Professionals

David Hassler, director of the director of the Wick Poetry Center in Kent State's College of Arts and Sciences, which is in collaboration of the Global Vaccine Poem Project, says "We know that poetry is a powerful tool to connect us across division, to remind us of both of our individuality and our shared humanity". The Global Vaccine Poem uses creative healing through poetry to encourage all people to re­flect on both the pandemic and their vaccination, and to imagine a safe and thriving future. The project is an effort to support both large-scale vaccination efforts and personal, individual responses to the historic challenges brought on by COVID-19.

Johaira Michelle, registered nurse and a film student, creates visually stunning art that incorporates humor to empower the latino community to get vaccinated.  La Cuarentena Project, created by Michelle, is an informational website about COVID-19. The website contains two music video PSAs promoting vaccines, "La Cuarentena" and "Hot VaXxX Summer."

Latinx cartoonist and two-time Pulitzer editorial cartoon finalist Lalo Alcaraz has created comic cartoons for the "COVID Latino Project". Using culturally relevant references, Alcaraz’s cartoons hope to spread information about coronavirus inoculations and the importance of testing to Latino communities. “It’s right up my alley as far as something that I believe in and that is a crisis, which is vaccine hesitancy in our community, especially among campesinos,” Alcaraz said, referring to farmers.

Using street art, this former lunch lady expresses a message of hope and wants to encourage people in her community to get vaccinated. She wants to make pro-COVID vaccine artwork that connects us and also encourages people to trust in the vaccine. The artist uses a sense of humor and a tongue-in-cheek attitude to get her message across. She wants to produce art that is "pretty, positive, and uplifting" but also nudges her neighbors in the right direction.

Doug E. Fresh, founding artist and board member of Hip Hop Public Health, uses his talents and resources to unite and inspire social justice. More specifically, he is dedicated to inspiring health behavior change and achieving health equity in communities of color.

Lopez is the executive director of the non-profit Raizes Collective and one of the main organizers for the arts and public health campaign. The campaign takes aim at fears and myths about vaccine safety, through artwork by local artists that’s been made into posters, flyers and banners. “For me, this campaign is really about attempting to save our gente (people) because right now there are so many myths going around,” says Lopez.

DJ Ricardo Castorena with the radio station, Radio Lazer, travels from farm to farm in California's Central Valley to attract farmworkers to nearby vaccination sites he is playing lively music at. Castorena states that his job is to do outreach such as starting conversations and debunk myths about the COVID-19 vaccine for farmworkers that may be hesitant to receive it.

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) CEO Deborah Cullinan is one of the nation’s leading thinkers on the pivotal role artists and arts organizations can play in shaping our social and political landscape, and has spent years mobilizing communities through arts and culture. Deborah is committed to revolutionizing the role art centers play in public life and during her tenure at YBCA, she has launched several bold new programs, engagement strategies, and civic coalitions. Under Deborah's leadership, YBCA has been actively engaged in efforts to support vaccine confidence in communities. In partnership with the City of San Francisco, YBCA launched the San Francisco Creative Corps, an initiative designed to employ 60 performing artists as Community Health Ambassadors (CHAs) to engage their neighborhoods in person and online, sharing critical vaccination and pandemic safety messages through the performing arts, murals, and video.