One of the highlights of the 2017 Social justice conference held at California State University, Stanislaus (Stan State) was a panel comprised of Spoken word artist/poet Yosimar Reyes. And Joey Krebs “Phantom Street Artist”. Both artists were praised for their take on social justice in the arts.
Reyes is a proud undocumented Mexican poet and performance artist. He got his start in slam poetry when he was a young child in school. One of his proudest accomplishments is his first book that was self-published titled “For colored boys who speak softly.”
Reyes’s work talks about immigration, and sexuality. He isn’t afraid to talk about his life of being an undocumented person.  
“When you tell someone that you are undocumented, people will expect you to tell a certain type of narrative, for me I don’t like that I like to surprise people. As an artist, it is important to have control over their own stories,” says  Reyes.
Joey Krebs also known as the Phantom street artist, is an internationally known artist. He is one of the founders of Art Saves Lives and an advocacy media channel called PYR8FREETV. His art is self-described as provocative.
“I am inspired to direct questions about culture, interested in challenging the institutions,” Krebs says when talking about what inspires his provocative art works.
The panel was moderated by Dr. Xamuel Bañales an ethnic studies assistant professor.
The panelists were asked several questions on how they got involved with art, what the importance of connecting art to social justice, who inspires their art, and their relationship between their art and mainstream art.  Then the floor was opened up to audience questions.
Ariana Cruz-Araiza (junior, Ethnic Studies) attended the panel because she has been a fan of Reyes for the past 8 months.
“I saw him (Reyes) preform the other day, I have been trying to catch as much of his presentations through-out the conference, he kind of disrupts the mainstream artists that we are conditioned to look at or be exposed to,” says Cruz-Araiza.
Today is the final day to attend the 2017 Social Justice conference. The evening events start at 6pm with two keynote speakers. Starting at 7pm is the reception for the play and the final event of the evening is the “Roosters” play that starts at 8pm.