SOLANGEL CUBAS

My vision for the future:
For each community and each individual to claim a voice and become an agent of their own destiny.

I grew up in a disenfranchised Dominican community in upper Manhattan. When I first read Drown by Junot Diaz, I was struck by how, for the first time, someone had so eloquently exposed the grittier, yet very real, aspects of life for poor, urban Dominican youth in this country. Reading Drown inspired me to find my own voice.

North Star is the catalyst to turn the volume up on the voices of New York's marginalized communities. In supporting North Star and helping our grantees make their voices heard, I'm making my own voice heard as well.