2024 BLM NH EXCELLENCE AWARDS
Black Lives Matter New Hampshire is proud to present our 4th Annual BLM New Hampshire Excellence Awards!
We will be honoring Black, Indigenous and Person of Color community members older than 14 years old from all walks of life; artists, educators, activists, entrepreneurs, inventors, musicians, students, etc., that have made contributions to benefit the New Hampshire, and the Seacoast areas of Maine and Massachusetts!
The event will be taking place on April 20th at 5pm at the Currier Museum in Manchester, New Hampshire!
Read Below for information regarding our Host, Keynote Speaker, vendors, and Award Winners! View past years: 2021, 2022, & 2023
Keynote Speaker
Flo Nicolas
Flo Nicolas, Esq., is a lawyer, emerging technology thought leader, and global contributing author, notably co-authoring 'Legal Operations in the Age of AI and Data.' In her capacity as the Founder and Chief Data and Innovation Strategist at Get Tech Smart, Flo specializes in aiding organizations with data analytics for project assessment, ensuring successful outcomes. Serving as a board member of the NextGen Valley Resiliency Council, Flo is actively engaged in the Build Back Better Regional Challenge (BBRC) coalition, which secured a substantial $44 million grant in 2022. This funding specifically drives inclusive growth and sustained economic development in the biomedical manufacturing industry. Her impactful work, advocating for access to STEAM education, women in tech, and diversity in tech, has earned her prestigious awards, including the NH Business Review Outstanding Women in Business 2023 and the NH Tech Alliance Tech Professional of the Year 2023.
Honored as a Gartner Legal Ambassador and an Honoree of the American Bar Association Women of Legal Tech 2023, Flo's influence is further amplified as a TEDx Speaker. In 2024, she was named to the New Hampshire 200 list, recognizing leaders who have made significant contributions to the state's economy and business climate. Notably, she serves as a board member for the SEE Science Center, championing accessibility to STEM resources for all children.
HOST
Lionel Loveless
Lionel Loveless (he/him/his) is a New Hampshire Business owner and current Board member for Business Alliance for People of Color New Hampshire and Black Lives Matter New Hampshire. Community driven individual with a Fashion forward outlook. Some know me as Mr. Bowtie Daily because of my Sustainable fashion brand, Officially Knotted Bowties. When I'm not sewing or selling Antiques, you can find me giving tours for the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire.
DJ
Chloe Cataldo (DJ MAM)
DJ MAM is a new addition to our Black Lives Matter New Hampshire Board. Chloe (DJ Mam) is originally from Boston but has called NH her home for 26 years. Although Chloe’s musical interests are centered in early 90’s Hip-Hop & R&B, she loves and plays all music as she believes music brings people together and can survive in some of our hardest moments. DJ mam is not only an advocate for Brown & Black voices but also the LGBTQA+ community..
DECORATOR
Jewel Reid
Jewel Reid is the sole proprietor of Home Gems by Jewel, Interior Design and Home Staging. With her instinctive eye for beauty and sense of scale, her design style is sophisticated elegance with a comfortable, intimate feel. Jewel’s objective and passion remains the same; to curate interiors that not only spark joy but that attain the highest level of producing functional rooms that reflect client’s goals and personality. Jewel doesn’t just create pretty spaces, but aims for her clients to feel inspired, elevated and right at home. Her designs spread throughout the New Hampshire Seacoast area, Boston, Cleveland, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Florida. The entire process is self discovery, creative discovery and learning more about how mood and function work together. Jewel’s education and counseling background brings out patience and kindness that is unprecedented in the field.
2024 Excellence in Artistry Award Winner
Diannely Antigua is a Dominican American poet and educator, born and raised in Massachusetts. Her debut collection Ugly Music (YesYes Books, 2019) was the winner of the Pamet River Prize and a 2020 Whiting Award. Her second poetry collection Good Monster is forthcoming with Copper Canyon Press in 2024. She received her BA in English from the University of Massachusetts Lowell, where she won the Jack Kerouac Creative Writing Scholarship, and received her MFA at NYU, where she was awarded a Global Research Initiative Fellowship to Florence, Italy. She is the recipient of additional fellowships from CantoMundo, Community of Writers, Fine Arts Work Center Summer Program, and was a finalist for the 2021 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship. Her work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and chosen for The Best of the Net Anthology.
Diannely Antigua
]Her poems can be found in Poem-a-Day, Poetry, The American Poetry Review, Washington Square Review, The Adroit Journal, and elsewhere. She currently teaches in the MFA Writing Program at the University of New Hampshire as the inaugural Nossrat Yassini Poet in Residence. She hosts the podcast Bread & Poetry and is currently the Poet Laureate of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the youngest and first person of color to receive the title. In 2023, she was awarded an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship to launch The Bread & Poetry Project.
2024 Academic Leader Award Winner
Tina Philibotte
Tina Kim Philibotte is an abolitionist educator committed to nurturing liberating spaces for youth and community. Tina joined the Manchester School District in July 2021 as the district’s first Chief Equity Officer. She previously spent over 15 years teaching English and Dance at the high school and university levels. Tina co-founded the NH Educators of Color Affinity Group and leads efforts to support the humanity of BIPOC teachers across the state. Tina recently received NAACP Manchester’s Excellence in Education award as well as the NH MLK Coalition’s Social Justice Warrior award.
Tina has presented and facilitated at conferences and events across the country including the National League of Cities City Summit, the National Dance Educators Organization Conference, and the National Writing Project NH Conference. She was a 2019 NH State Teacher of the Year finalist and a two-time National Writing Project Fellow. Tina received both her BA and Master’s Degree in Education from Plymouth State University and is currently a doctoral candidate in Boston University’s Educational Leadership & Policy Studies program.
As a choreographer, dancer, and director, Tina founded one of the only concert dance programs in a public high school in New Hampshire. Tina leveraged dance as a vehicle to engage youth mentorship, healthy relationships, wellness and nutrition, and build community. She was featured in Dance Teacher Magazine and NH Chronicle for her ability to create inclusive community performances that inspired even the most unlikely movers to the stage. She is currently working with the NH Dance Collaborative to produce a city-wide culturally responsive, musical theatre production that provides high quality dance, music, and theatre opportunities to BIPOC youth at no cost.
Tina is a mother, partner, writer, gardener, reluctant beekeeper, mother of cats, and dreams of opening an abolitionist bookstore in her next act.
2024 Ground Breaker in Graduate Studies Award Winner
Shantel Palacio
Shantel Palacio is a doctoral candidate in Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of New Hampshire. She is also a Principal Advisor at Urbane Advisory and a consulting partner at the Perception Institute. Her community work and policy research have been featured across several mediums, including NPR, GQ Japan Magazine, West’s Education Law Reporter, The Gotham Film and Media Institute, and citations in Harvard’s IOP.
2024 Outstanding Business Owner Award Winner
Sarah Krzyzanowski
Sarah found yoga while training for her first marathon. She looked to yoga as just another part of her training regimen and after her first class, she realized that it would become much more. Yoga changed the way Sarah breathed, looked at herself as well as the world around her. After some time, learned techniques and repetition she wanted to share this newly found gift of harmony with others.
A native New Yorker, Sarah received her RYT 200 certification from Laughing Lotus Yoga Center under the tutelage of Mary Dana Abbot in 2015. In 2021, Sarah completed her Katonah Yoga ® certification and started Sarah K Yoga LLC. Sarah believes in the power of personal practice and communal practice as an essential for personal and communal well being.
Sarah instructs privately and is grateful to teach weekly with Yoga on York in York Maine and Prasada Yoga Center in North Hampton, NH. When Sarah is not on the mat, you can find her jogging around the New Hampshire/Maine Seacoast, baking pies or on the beach with her husband Steve, son Axel and daughter Lucy.
2024 Community Impact Leader Award Winner
Journee LaFond
Journee LaFond (they/them) is a social worker, podcast producer, model, drag performer, event organizer and restorative justice advocate. Journee has a Master’s degree in Social Work from the University of New Hampshire and serves as a mental health and DEIJ consultant. They have had the privilege to work with youth and families with varied behavioral and mental health concerns at the individual level as well as lobby for policy change around mental health issues. They have worked closely with marginalized youth since 2011 and host events to create a sense of community for LGBTQIA+ people and People of Color, from networking and the monthly Free Range Revue variety show, to the Decolonize and Discover Festival which highlights the need for accessible, inclusive spaces for Disabled, BIPOC and Queer communities.
Journee has the distinct honor of being canonized by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, taking on the title of the “Saint of the Onyx Journey.” It is Journee’s goal to eradicate stigma and stereotypes around what it means to be multiply marginalized and to promote equity for historically oppressed groups.
2024 Collegiate Brilliance as An Undergraduate Student Award Winner
Tinotenda Duche
Tinotenda Duche’s journey began in Zimbabwe, where she was born, and continued as she was raised in Botswana. In 2011, she embarked on a new chapter by immigrating to the United States. However, it wasn’t until 2017 that she found herself settling in Manchester, New Hampshire. Currently a senior at the University of New Hampshire (UNH) in Durham, Tinotenda is a senior pursuing a major in Biochemistry, and minoring in Women in Gender Studies, with a passion for bridging the gap between science and social justice. Her research endeavors focus on advancing biomaterials to facilitate smoother clinical translations, reflecting her aspiration for a career in medicine. Beyond her academic pursuits, Tinotenda is deeply involved in the campus life. She has served as a Resident Assistant (RA) for two years and currently holds the position of Assistant Hall Director in one of the university's largest freshmen dormitories. Additionally, she serves as an ambassador for Buddies Without Borders, fostering meaningful connections between international and domestic students. At the heart of her involvement lies her dedication to advocacy and community empowerment.
As the Program Coordinator, and now Chair of the Black Student Union (BSU), Tinotenda strives to cultivate spaces of inclusivity and belonging for Black students and people of color. Through BSU, she endeavors to provide support, education, and a platform for dialogue on black identity and experience. In her role as Chair, Tinotenda is committed to dismantling barriers and encouraging equity, ensuring that marginalized voices are heard and valued within the UNH community.
2024 Youth Trailblazer Award Winner
Coyijocalyeea Grimes
Coyijocalyeea Grimes is an emerging youth leader from Manchester, NH. Coyijocalyeea grew up in the system and has dealt with systemic racism from a very young age. These tough experiences have taught her to be strong, resilient and compassionate. She hopes to use her lived experience to spread love and support other Black women and girls who are navigating challenging life circumstances. Coyijocalyeea is part of the AFSC NH Voter Engagement leadership team, working to engage new voters in Manchester and Concord who are young adults from historically marginalized communities, particularly BIPOC, immigrant, low-income and formerly incarcerated by focusing on the issues that are important to them and the importance of voting as a tool for much-needed change.