2026 National Speaker Forum
Woman’s City Club’s 32nd Annual National Speaker Forum with Gina Belafonte on March 10 at Memorial Hall—Arts and Activism: the Belafonte Legacy—was outstanding in every way: entertaining, informative, and inspiring. WCC President Beth Sullebarger warmly welcomed everyone and thanked our presenting sponsors—Cincinnati Museum Center/National Underground Railroad Freedom Center and Jeannette Rankin Foundation, our reception sponsors—Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office and Park National Bank, our community builder sponsors—A Picture’s Worth and Greater Cincinnati Foundation, media sponsors —CET, Enquirer, and WVXU, as well as nonprofit community partners, members and friends. Kathy Wade, internationally known jazz vocalist and founder/director of Learning Through Art, Inc., then introduced Gina Belafonte, noting all her accomplishments as an actress and producer but highlighting her work as co-founder and Executive Director of Sankofa, saying, “She has continued the Belafonte tradition of using the arts as a vehicle for truth, healing, and change.”
Gina, like her father Harry Belafonte, is a commanding presence onstage. She was practiced and professional in her presentation, but also very personal and engaging in her connection with the audience. She began by thanking “the ancestors” who paved the way, and saying it was an honor to be here “in community with people who know we build democracy together.” With a nod to the Forum title, Arts and Activism, she acknowledged she had come to talk about the power of art but stressed that “throughout history art has never been separated from movements for justice.”
She spoke about joining with her father to establish Sankofa, describing the things they have accomplished and the work the organization is currently doing. The first of three videos she showed was about the founding of Sankofa and its mission to use art as a tool for justice. In this video, an artist asked, “What can I do?” and Harry Belafonte responded, “What are you willing to do, to sacrifice?” He believed art could educate about an issue, such as homelessness or violence, and make a difference. Gina said proudly, “My father understood a song could go where a speech could not.” And then added her own thoughts: “Art has not been an accessory to justice—it has been its engine… Facts rarely change people. Data informs—art transforms. Once the heart is open, the mind can follow.”
Sankofa is about the intersection of art and activism. The second video focused on using visual arts and role-playing to help incarcerated persons successfully reenter society—to reintegrate to a life of choices and decisions after being in prison where all things are decided for you. Sankofa programs use dramatized scenarios to teach about using public transportation and QR codes, grocery shopping with scanners and self-checkout, ordering at fast-food restaurants, and other changing aspects of daily life. “Art is a safe place to fall forward,” Gina said. Sankofa also uses virtual reality, game simulations, painting, and drawing to help incarcerated persons practice situations.
Another focus of Sankofa is the power of story—who gets to tell their story about who belongs and what is possible. Art programs at Sankofa help young people learn to recognize their creative processes. Gina’s third media piece included three videos made by young people—one about gerrymandering and voting; Are You OK? about mental health issues; and one about access to safe and clean water. “Stories are infrastructure,” Gina explained. “They change what people believe is normal and possible.”
Gina closed her rousing presentation on a positive note. “I am hopeful that you agree art changes hearts.” She noted that WCC has always understood that democracy is participatory, and said “artivism” is “participatory democracy with imagination.” Her final call to action: “History tells us art can change the world. Will we be brave enough to use art for change?”
In the lively question and answer session that followed the presentation, moderated by Cheri Rekow, WCC’s Vice President for Civic Engagement, Gina focused on ways we can be engaged in artivism. She shared some very dear stories and memories about her loving relationship with her father and the joy of working with him to found and promote Sankofa, “to institutionalize what he had done with his life.”
When asked what Sankofa means and why that name was chosen, Gina said it came from the time that her father spent in Africa. It is a Ghanaian term that means “Go back and get it”—to retrieve what you have left behind, to learn from the past to build a better future. That word, and all that Gina shared in this stirring National Speaker Forum, is a call to action that aligns very closely with WCC’s mission to educate, empower, and engage. May we, individually and as an organization dedicated to activism, continue to use art and every other means to shape our community’s shared future. As Harry said to Gina, “Never go a day without doing something to undermine injustice.”
The NSF write up was contributed by Janet Buening with event photos by Harriet Kaufman.