Aura Carreño

Ancestral name: Akoshua Balanta, Afro-Colombian, repatriated to the Avatime nation, Volta Region, Ghana. She holds a degree in Performing Arts from the National Pedagogical University of Colombia, with a specialization in Public Policies and Gender Justice from the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO), and a diploma in Ethnoeducation from the Polytechnic of Colombia. She has complementary studies in Black Theater and Theater for Liberation from the University of Rio (Brazil). She is the recipient of several awards, including the Afro Audiovisual Project Writing Grant from the Cinemateca de Bogotá, the Professionalization of Artists Grant from the Bogotá District Institute of Arts (IDARTES), the national competition Comparte lo que Somos by the Ministry of Culture of Bogotá, and the training and co-creation grant from the 8th National Afro Film Showcase of the Cinemateca de Bogotá. With over five years of experience as an actress in various media, her notable roles include a co-lead role in the mini-series Bogoblack, broadcast on multiple channels of Colombia’s Public Media System (RTVC), and the lead role in the theater production Shaila, a Heroine Among Chains, produced by Deca Teatro and directed by Daniel Calderón. She is the director and founder of the educational strategy for ethnic and feminine reparations in the Global South, Women, South & Global Justice. She is also the co-director of the Glocal Grassroots Movement of Movements organization. Previously, she served as the International Coordinator of the Abya Yala Southern Affinities Network and the International Network of Scholars and Activists for Afrikan Reparations (INOSAAR-REPAFRIKA), part of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on African Reparations (APPGAR, United Kingdom), Boston University (USA), and the University of Edinburgh (Scotland). She has supported peace processes of the Truth Commission in Colombia as a member of the Somos Generación de Verdad Network and the Re-Conectando: Truth and Reconciliation Laboratories in the Womb of Mother Earth project.

Follow: @aura.xbalanta