Advocacy Director, Our Streets Minneapolis
José Antonio Zayas Cabán is the Advocacy Director for Our Streets Minneapolis, where he has worked on developing reparative justice campaigns that address highway development harms on Minnesota communities such as Bring Back 6th! in North Minneapolis, and the Twin Cities Boulevard along the I-94 corridor. He is also serving as co-convener and Advisory Board member in a climate and mobility justice campaign that aims to increase multimodal transportation and reduce vehicle miles traveled and improve equitable access to transportation infrastructure across the state of Minnesota. José is also a resident at the University of Minnesota Liberal Arts Engagement Hub, where he will be working on an essay for the upcoming book Human Tolls: Public Histories and Community Responses to Twin Cities’ Freeways in collaboration with Associate Professor Greg Donofrio and Dr. Ernest Lloyd from the Heritage Studies and Public History program. As a performing artist, José was awarded the McKnight Artist Fellowship for his work on producing albums with music focused on present day social issues and the relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States Empire. The albums include Centennial, Mind and Machine, El País Invisible and the upcoming Romance al Campesino Porteño. To learn more about José’s advocacy work, visit https://www.ourstreetsmpls.org/advocacy and to learn more about José’s music projects visit https://joseantonio-zayascaban.com/.
