The Future is Ancient: An Interview with Israel Francisco Haros Lopez


Join us for a conversation with Israel Francisco Haros Lopez where we discuss how art saves lives, how ancestors help us, the evolution of the Alas de Agua Art Collective, and much more.

Topics we cover include:

  • Poetry of the people
  • Healing and respecting ourselves
  • Moving beyond the spirit of the colonizer that lives in all of us
  • How institutions become borders
  • Asemic writing
  • Relentless hope

About Israel: Israel Francisco Haros Lopez was born in East Los Angeles to immigrant parents of Mexican descent. He brings his firsthand knowledge of the realities of migration, U.S. border policies, and life as a Mexican American to his work with families and youth as a mentor, educator, art instructor, ally, workshop facilitator and activist. He studied at U.C. Berkeley and received a degree in English Literature and Chicano Studies followed by an M.F.A in Creative Writing from California College of the Arts. At formal and informal visual art spaces, Israel creates and collaborates in many interdisciplinary ways including poetry, performance, music, visual art, and video making and curriculum creation. His work addresses a multitude of historical and spiritual layered realities of border politics, identity politics, and the re-interpretation of histories. He was formerly the Highschool Homeless Liason at SFPS Adelante and is one of the founders and forces of energy at Alas de Agua Arts Collective and the New Mexico Murals Project. In 2020 he began working with YouthWorks, Reunity Resources, and Mother Nature Center to grow food for the community on county owned land at San Isidro Crossing

Find Israel online:

Links to relevant resources:

Links to So Many Wings’ social media and website