Jana Lynne (JL) Caldetera Umipig was born and raised in Honolulu on the Kingdom of Hawaii and currently resides on Lenapehoking Territory (Bronx, NY). She uses multidisciplinary artistic expression/creation work, intuitive, somatic and bodywork healing and decolonial education for liberation to support her work as a cultural organizer and cultural bearer.

JL received her colonial institutional degrees at The Claire Trevor School of the Arts at UC Irvine in Theatre and Ethnic Studies, and Steinhardt at New York University in Educational Theatre for Social Justice and Communities. JL also studied at the Accamdia Dell’arte in Arrezo Italy. She has been doing direct service organizing work using the arts, all over the U.S. and internationally in detention centers, rehabilitation centers, community centers, and the homes of those in need, for over 13 years. She spent seven years serving through leadership at El Puente shaping programs for Creative Justice and Healing with young people in Williamsburg and is a founding member of the Global Justice Institute, supporting the codifying of curricula to match EP’s 40 years of service to the Afro-Latino movements across the U.S.