Ashley Blakeney

Executive Director

Ashley Blakeney (she/her/hers) is a Los-Angeles based arts healing facilitator and cultural leader with more than a decade of experience working in arts organizations and education. As the Executive Director at the Crenshaw Dairy Mart since 2021, Blakeney works to help communities of color imagine new systems for a more equitable world. Working at the intersection of abolition and healing, Blakeney’s professional and personal focus centers on cultivating safe spaces for creative expression. Her recent projects as Executive Director include the inaugural Crenshaw Dairy Mart Film Festival at the historic Miracle Theater in Inglewood and the Fellowship for Abolition and the Advancement of the Creative Economy, which awarded a significant stipend and healthcare to three Black artists. 

Blakeney has been a guest lecturer and speaker at LA Trade Tech College, the National Art Education Association Conference, SoCal Grantmakers, the J. Paul Getty Museum and the California Institute of the Arts. She holds certifications from the UCLArts and Healing Social Emotional Arts (SEA) program and the National Guild Community Arts Education Leadership Institute. 

She received her BA at the University of Southern California, with a focus on creative writing and photography. Her current artistic practice includes facilitating and curating sound journeys that incorporate arts and healing practices. She has performed at spaces such as Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE) and was a 2023 artist in residence at Denniston Hill. 

Patrisse Cullors

Co-FOUNDER

Patrisse Cullors is a New York Times bestselling author, educator, artist, and abolitionist from Los Angeles, CA. Her work has been featured at The Broad, The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, LTD Gallery, Crystal Bridges Museum, Second Home West Hollywood, The Fowler Museum, Frieze LA, The Hammer Museum, Vashon Center for the Arts, Joe’s Pub, Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center, and a host of theaters, galleries, and museums across the globe.

Cullors launched a ground-breaking Social and Environmental Arts Practice MFA program at Prescott College where she served as the Founding Director for two years. She is the co-founder of the Crenshaw Dairy Mart and has been on the frontlines of abolitionist movement building with Black Lives Matter, Justice LA, Dignity and Power Now and Reform LA jails. Her current work and practice is focusing on “Abolitionist Aesthetics,” a term she has advanced and popularized to help challenge artists and cultural workers to aestheticize abolition. Patrisse is also the founder of The Center For Art and Abolition-  a trailblazing nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering abolitionist artists and leveraging the transformative power of art to catalyze social change.

Patrisse has won numerous awards for her art and activism.  In September 2021, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved Patrisse’s appointment to serve as one of three Second District Arts Commissioners. Patrisse’s mission is to invite all of us to grow towards abolition through intergenerational healing work that centers love, collective care, and art.

alexandre ali reza dorriz

Co-FOUNDER

alexandre ali reza dorriz (he/him/his) is an artist, writer, researcher, and curator. dorriz’s intermittent research and fieldwork have previously investigated the privatization of water banks in the Central Valley of California, water futures-commodities trading, the financial properties of museums and museum dissolution, and localized textile economies through silkworm breeding practices. dorriz is the co-founder of the abolitionist arts organization and artist collective Crenshaw Dairy Mart alongside artists Patrisse Cullors and noé olivas. he is the curator of Yes on R: Archives and Legal Conceptions (Part 1: 2011 - 2013) (2020), co-curated with Autumn Breon, CARE NOT CAGES: Processing a Pandemic (2020), co-curated with Ana Briz, and YES ON R! YES ON J! SHUT DOWN MCJ! A Decade in Abolitionist Aesthetics (2023), co-curated with Autumn Breon. he is the author of "Creeping Tender" (2021) for Art Journal, Volume 80, and "abolitionist aesthetics and the abolitionist movement: Los Angeles Grassroots Organizations and the Aesthetic Foundations of Real-time Abolition" (2023), co-written with Patrisse Cullors, for the UCLA Law Review, Volume 69.6. dorriz's work has been featured and reviewed in the Los Angeles Review of Books Quarterly and Artforum. dorriz received his MFA at the University of Southern California and his BA at the University of California, Berkeley.

noé olivas

Co-FOUNDER

noé olivas (b. 1987, San Diego, California—occupied Kumeyaay land) lives and works in Los Angeles, California, occupied Tongva land. He received his MFA from the University of Southern California in 2019, and his BFA from the University of San Diego, California in 2013. Alongside with Patrisse Cullors and alexandre ali reza dorriz, olivas is co-founder of the Crenshaw Dairy Mart, an artist collective in Inglewood, California.  

His work has been exhibited at the Candlewood Festival, Borrego Springs, California (2022); Hammer Museum, Los Angeles,  California (2022); The Front Arte Y Cultura Gallery, San Ysidro, California (2021); Napa Hall Gallery at the California State University Channel Islands, Camarillo (2020); Open Mind Art Space, Los Angeles (2019); Residency Art Gallery, Inglewood (2019); Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles (2019); La Jolla Historical Society, San Diego, California (2018 San Diego Art Institute, California (2017); The New Children’s Museum, San Diego, California (2017);); and the San Diego Museum of Art. (2017).

As part of the 2018 Mexicali Biennial, his work was also included in the traveling exhibition Calafia: Manifesting the Terrestrial Paradise at the Robert and Frances Fullerton Art Museum at the California State University, San Bernardino (2018), and Armory Center of the Arts, Pasadena, California (2019-2020). olivas has also performed in Open Mind Art Space, Los Angeles (2019); The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, Los Angeles (2020), Hauser & Wirth, Los Angeles (2018), and the NADA and Prizm Art Fair, Miami (2018) with collaborator Patrisse Cullors; and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2018).

Loretta Fields-Powell

Bookkeeper

Loretta Fields-Powell (she/Her/Hers) is a daughter of revolution, hailing from Pasadena, California. By day, she is a bookkeeper who specializes in tax preparation and administrative services. By night, she is a student of life, art, and wisdom. 

Loretta began her career working for AT&T as a branch results manager & specialist. After 24 years, she retired and began a career in private client services with Wealth & Tax Advisory Services. When the recession hit, she made another career pivot and began offering bookkeeping and tax & notary services to small businesses in LA County, as well as independent multimedia companies and multidisciplinary artists between LA, NY, & ATL. In addition to the work she’s done within her field, Loretta has also had many retail & customer service jobs in order to not only make ends meet through trying times, but also to widen her knowledge and expertise so that she could provide the best experience for her clients when it came time for her to start her own business. Though her professional merits shine bright, what is most effervescent about Loretta is her dedication and commitment to her family, community, and the arts. Loretta is and has been a proud Inglewood resident for over thirty years. She is not only the mother of her own two adult children, but also a mother to the many children and young adults who have found a way to her doorstep seeking guidance, counsel, or unconditional love & support. 

Loretta has a deep passion for the performing and visual arts, mental health advocacy, mentorship, and mutual aid. Her love for her community is present in her work within the community but one of the things she is most proud of is helping to establish and maintain the Inglewood Community Fridge (located at the Crenshaw Dairy Mart) during the height of the covid 19 pandemic. Loretta is also very proud of the opportunities she’s had to be an avid supporter of aspiring independent artists from not only Inglewood, but all over the world. 

You can always find Loretta either opening her house to be used as a creative space for dance videos, short films, concerts, and community meetings OR sitting in the front row of an inspiring play, musical, comedy show, or concert.  

Loretta is honored to be joining the Crenshaw Dairy Mart team and looks forward to using her skills and heart to support the mission and vision the Dairy Mart has – as she believes they hold the keys to ushering all Black, Brown, and Indigenous peoples into a peaceful, prosperous, liberated and equitable tomorrow.  

Vic Quintanar

Program Director

Early in their journey as a theater practitioner, Vic Quintanar (they/them) faced a disheartening truth: despite their involvement in bringing theater to life, they couldn't afford to be part of the audience. This frustrating realization, combined with a deep awareness of the inequities faced by marginalized communities, sparked deep concern about the socio-economic barriers that prevent access to art. It was this experience, and a passion for bringing powerful art to the stage that birthed a career in the arts for social change. As a queer Black Latino with over 10 years of experience in the arts and education sector, Vic firmly believes in the transformative power of art, seeing it as a tool for reshaping narratives, fostering healing, and achieving collective liberation.

Vic's journey includes serving as the Program Manager for the Theater Offensive's Pride Youth Theater Alliance program -- a national queer youth theater initiative based in Boston. They have also collaborated with institutions such as Turnaround Arts: California in Los Angeles, Boston's American Repertory Theater, San Diego's North Coast Repertory Theatre, and The Unusual Suspects Theatre Company in Los Angeles, among others.

Vic is a trained Stage Manager from San Diego, California, and earned a B.A. in Theatre from the University of Southern California. They also hold an Ed.M. in Arts in Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Alejandra Lemus

Programs & Operations Associate

Born and based in Los Angeles, California, to Guatemalan refugee parents, Alejandra Lemus-Perez is a creative and strategist with over 15 years of experience in community organizing and active involvement in social justice organizations and over 3 years in the creative and entertainment production industry. While working with diverse brands, community organizations, and independent clients, Alejandra seeks to build innovative campaigns and bring cultural experiences to life rooted in both abolitionist practice and transformational change. With a background in political education based on Black liberation movements, Alejandra started working at the age of 16 as a community organizer for educational and racial justice groups throughout Los Angeles. In 2018, she acted as Co-Curator of “Central American Families: Networks & Resistance”, an exhibit and art installation at Cal State LA’s John F. Kennedy Library that engaged photographs, political graphics, testimonio, etc., and that featured the stories of the Central American diaspora as an integral part of Los Angeles Latinx history. In 2021, Alejandra launched Botanica Style Studio, a fashion styling project that focuses on sustainability and BIPOC designers and brands. Alejandra holds a Bachelor of Arts in Latin American Studies from California State University, Los Angeles, and is an avid consumer of how popular culture, aesthetics, and art manifest in the social media/ digital age.