SpeakOut | Rosa Clemente

About

Speeches

Rosa Alicia Clemente is a Black-Puerto Rican woman born and raised in the Bronx, NY. She is an award-winning organizer, political commentator, producer, independent journalist, scholar-activist, and former vice presidential candidate. A leading voice of her generation, Rosa is frequently sought out for her insight and commentary on Afro/Black-Latina/Latino/Latinx identity, Black and Latinx liberation movements, police violence, colonialism in Puerto Rico, hip-hop feminism, third-party politics and more.

In 2008, Clemente made herstory when she became the first Afro/Black-Latina to run for Vice-President of the United States on the Green Party ticket. She and her running mate, Cynthia McKinney are, to this date, the only women of color ticket in U.S. Presidential history.

However, her influential work neither started nor ended there. A media-maker, Clemente was recently an associate producer on Judas and the Black Messiah, a two-time Oscar-winning film by Shaka King, Charles D. King and Ryan Coogler about the betrayal of Black Panther Chairman Fred Hampton at the hands of FBI informant William O’Neal.

As an independent journalist, Clemente has provided on-the-ground coverage of the U.S. Navy’s withdrawal from Vieques, Puerto Rico, after 67 years of military control; the devastation and government failures in New Orleans and Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina; Black Lives Matters protests in Ferguson, Missouri, after the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown and more. In 2017, days after Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico, Clemente organized a group of young Latinx media-makers to cover the destruction and its political implications through PR on the Map. Under the project, she produced multiple documentaries, photo series and articles. As a writer, Clemente isn’t scared to get personal, either. Her powerful first-person essays on Afro-Latinx identity, particularly her article Who is Black?, is read in classrooms across the country and has been translated into four different languages.

As president of Know Thy Self Productions, she has produced eight community activism tours, and also co-founded and was the national coordinator for the first-ever National Hip-Hop Political Convention in 2003, which helped bring together more than 3,000 activists to create and implement a political agenda for the hip-hop generation.

A fearless voice against injustice and violence, including high-profile perpetrators, Clemente has famously called out Russell Simmons on accusations of sexual violence as well as confronted rapper Rick Ross on his lyrics normalizing rape culture. A longtime champion for survivors in the hip-hop industry, it’s no surprise Clemente caught the attention of celebrities in the #MeToo movement. On January 8, 2018, she and six other women of color organizers joined Hollywood actresses at the Golden Globes Red Carpet as part of an initiative by Time’s Up and #MeToo. There, she spotlighted sexual harassment and violence against women from Beverly Hills to the South Bronx.

Currently completing her PhD at the W.E.B. DuBois Center at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Clemente’s academic work centers national liberation struggles inside the U.S. with a specific focus on the Young Lords Party, the Black Panther Party, Black and brown liberation movements of the ‘60s and ‘70s as well as the effects of COINTELPRO (Counterintelligence Program) on such movements.

We Know What Time It Is: Story, Power, and Holding the Line In a moment when many institutions are retreating from the very commitments they once made—to racial justice, truth-telling, and cultural accountability—Rosa Clemente offers a powerful space for reflection, clarity, and action. Drawing on decades of organizing, scholarship, and storytelling, she speaks to the fear, fatigue, and strategic silence shaping this political moment—and how we resist the urge to shrink. Through personal story and critical insight, Rosa challenges audiences to think deeply about power, responsibility, and what it takes to hold the line when the tide turns.

Can’t Stop Our Blackness: Black Latinx Narratives, Power, and Presence Black Latinx communities have shaped culture and politics across the Americas, yet their stories are too often erased. In this powerful talk, Rosa Clemente traces the deep roots of Afro-descendant peoples across Latin America, the Caribbean, and the U.S., illuminating the intersections of Blackness and Latinidad. Through hip-hop, resistance movements, and personal story, she offers a compelling narrative of survival, identity, and cultural power.

From Clicks to Collective Action: Building Movements That Last Social media has transformed how we raise awareness—but how do we turn moments of digital outrage into long-term, on-the-ground organizing? In this talk, Rosa Clemente explores how to move from visibility to impact, using real strategies that build sustainable community power. She examines what it takes to keep movements alive beyond the news cycle and how we ensure our activism is rooted in connection, leadership, and collective vision.

Reclaiming Democracy: Disrupting the Two-Party System and Organizing Outside the Lines In 2008, Rosa Clemente made history running for Vice President on a third-party ticket—but mainstream media barely paid attention. In this session, she challenges the limits of the two-party system and explores how independent organizing, movement building, and collective leadership can reshape democracy. Through personal story and political insight, she shares why true change demands more than a vote—it demands vision.

Hip-Hop as Resistance: Storytelling, Power, and Radical Imagination More than music, hip-hop has always been a movement. From the streets of the Bronx to global struggles for justice, it has served as a tool for education, resistance, and liberation. Rosa Clemente explores how hip-hop empowers communities, reshapes political discourse, and creates space for truth-telling and transformation—from classrooms to movements to the mic.