YoloSol Collective

About Us

YoloSol cultivates place-based civic engagement and learning about issues of environmental and economic justice in Yolo County through storytelling, and creative nature-based and multimedia cultural activities. YoloSol brings together multimedia artists, cultural workers, and community organizers, who have decades of experience using digital and hands-on technologies and practices, to foster inclusive public participation. We believe that the arts are the best vehicles for fostering dialogue across difference, so that we can work together to build climate resilience and a just transition from the current fossil fuel economy to an equitable, inclusive and sustainable society.

YoloSol pays deep attention to the pasts, presents, and futures embedded in the landscapes and waterways of the Yolo bioregion, and centers the voices and stories of marginalized communities, especially Patwin-Wintun culture bearers, youth, and the diverse immigrant communities that make up the Yolo cultural tapestry.

YoloSol is supported in our work by grants from the Native American Studies Department (UC Davis), the UC Davis Environment and Climate Justice Hub, Arts and Cultural Affairs Fund (City of Davis), the city of Sacramento Office of Arts and Culture (OAC), the California Arts Council (CAC), and the Yolo Community Foundation (YCF).

Team

From left to right: Diana Almendariz, Anuj Vaidya, Adnan Beteha
From left to right: Juliette Beck, Marlen Garcia

Diana Almendariz

Diana Almendariz (YoloSol co-founder) is a culture-bearer, storyteller, and visual artist who has been working on the cultural and ecological revival and restoration of her Wintun homeland for over three decades. 

Juliette Beck

Juliette Beck (YoloSol co-founder) is a lifelong community organizer, climate justice advocate and mother of two daughters born in Davis on Wintun homeland. She combines art and activism to bring awareness to the complex social, economic, and environmental issues of our time. 

Marlen Garcia

Marlen Garcia is an accomplished climate organizer/artivist who has led numerous successful media campaigns in her work as a youth and climate organizer for the Sunrise Movement, Earth Uprising International, Yolo Climate Emergency Coalition, etc.

Adnan Beteha

Adnan Beteha is a queer writer, artist and activist from California with an interest in Disability Justice, abolition, and Indigenous land relations. 

Anuj Vaidya

Anuj Vaidya (YoloSol Co-founder) is a media maker, curator, and educator, whose praxis engages a diverse range of forms and strategies that include theater and performance, multi-media installation and story-telling, social practice, curatorial practice, arts education, and artivism.

David Abramson

David Abramson brings extensive experience working on digital production for community-based organizations and social and environmental justice campaigns, with a strong focus on indigenous rights.

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