Come journey…

Elizabeth Rivera is a queer first-generation Filipina, interdisciplinary performance artist, cultural worker, producer, educator, and activist. Her work encompasses singing, music producing, and dancing. From age 7 she was classically trained in singing and piano. In dance, she has trained in Filipinx Cultural Dance, African Roots Hip-Hop, Jazz, Contemporary, and Ballet. Raised by a single immigrant mother in a low-income, working-class community in San Jose, CA , Elizabeth soon realized the power of performance as a means of storytelling. Her work has been informed by her experience growing up in one of the most ideologically progressive and potent cultural hubs on Turtle Island, the Bay Area.  

After visiting the Dominican Republic and the Philippines, and seeing  paralleled injustices impacting Third World countries, she began community organizing work in 2016. She has since been working with Filipinx Immigrant and Migrant communities, and various Indigenous spaces locally and abroad.  She has organized and performed for events including workshops, conferences, fundraisers, and mobilizations with youth Filipinx organization Anakbayan, to link cross-cultural, working-class struggles including Immigrant, Palestinian, Latinx, Black, and Indigenous communities. She has facilitated events on Migrant rights, Indigenous rights, and Ethnic Studies, at UC Berkeley, SFSU, SJSU, and De Anza College. She has worked as a Filipinx Dance instructor at AYPAL Oakland for at-risk students as a way to utilize art for healing and connecting to cultural roots.

She soon realized the crucial role of arts to create social change. This led to the founding of SOULIDARITY WAVE, a music and dance performance collective bringing together a community of world artists and activists creating music, dance and art to uplift the struggles and voices of  Third World communities  and promote healing and justice for Mother Earth. Over the past 6 years, she’s been a member of Parangal, Dancing Earth, and KulArts, 3 Indigenous Contemporary dance groups. Notably, she’s performed for San Francisco’s Office of the Mayor, and International Festival, Art Basel Miami. She’s a graduate of UC Berkeley, holding degrees in Environmental Sustainability and Ethnic Studies, and a minor in Theater Dance Performance Studies.  

Currently, Elizabeth is utilizing her education and community organizing experience to inform her arts practices to elevate the voices of indigenous defenders.  She interned at the NEST Indigenous Arts Center in Pomo territory and continues to build those relationships, grounded in indigenous practices and concepts while advocating for true environmental justice, and reciprocity with Mother Earth. She’s a member of the Bangka Canoe Journey Organization. The Bangka is a sacred indigenous canoe inspired by traditional seafaring ways of the Philippines, using traditional wood carving practices by master carvers from around the world, and is a living piece of history connecting the physical and Spirit World.

She is strongly dedicated to redistributing decision-making power back to vulnerable communities that are systemically impacted by environmental  injustices. She celebrates  and embodies indigenous concepts that inspire individuals to consider that in your words, work and actions, it's important to remember those who came before and consider those who will be hereafter.