Mariano Avila
Inclusion ReporterMariano Avila is WGVU's inclusion reporter. He has made a career of bringing voices from the margins to those who need to hear them. Over the course of his career, Mariano has written for major papers in English and Spanish, published in magazines, worked in broadcast, and produced short films, commercials, and nonprofit campaigns. He also briefly served at a foreign consulate, organized for international human rights efforts and has done considerable work connecting marginalized people to religious, educational, and nonprofit institutions through the power of story.
Mariano was born in Mexico City, Mexico, where he learned the value of civic engagement and public discourse. His life and work have taken him from refugee camps in Palestine to garbage-dump communities in Egypt, Guatemala, and Mexico. He has met presidents and dignitaries from several countries, as well several international celebrities.
Mariano is a graduate of Calvin College and has an MFA in creative writing from Warren Wilson.
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Gentrification and displacement are words that make residents anxious when their neighborhoods are being bought out by folks with more money. Last night,…
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Engaging Community. It may sound simple, but it’s the question as development in Grand Rapids continues to boom. Recently, community members who didn’t…
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It’s early in the morning and Martel Posey, the new executive director of Spokes Folks, is making arrangements to move an entire bike shop gifted to his…
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UPDATE: GRCRC issued a statement of thanks to Flamingo Lounge for apologizing and canceling the event. The Grand Rapids Community Relations Commission…
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LINC UP held a ceremony last night announcing the winners of its annual Community Spirit Awards which also kicked off its Empowered Communities…
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Grand Rapids Nonprofit LINC-UP is hosting the second-annual Empowering Communities Conference at DeVos place tonight and tomorrow. For WGVU’s Mutually…
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The rain holds off but the clouds cool the thousands who gathered at Cannonsburg Ski Area. Whole families, with spreads ranging from traditional…
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“Mino Bimaadiziwin is a story about a young, trans-gender Anishnaabe man who has lost all connection to his culture living in the city. Until one day this…
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Thousands marched from Garfield Park to the Calder Plaza as part of the “Day Without Immigrants” demonstration in Grand Rapids. It felt more like an…
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Grand Rapids has a new poet laureate! The Grand Rapids Public Library Foundation announced today that Marcel Price, better known as Fable the Poet, will…