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Our Founder

Gabriel "MoFundamentals" Gutiérrez

Originally from Chicago, Gabriel is an adult adoptee, first generation street dance artist, and P'urhépecha dedicated to highlighting the resiliency of foster and adoptee artists.

His contributions at the intersection of street dance, education, and foster care artivism have earned him invitation to train at intensives hosted by Rennie Harris, nomination for the ACTIVATE Cultural Policy Fellowship to represent Los Angeles City District 1, becoming a 2022 DanceUSA fellow, and piloting reentry through arts programs funded by the California Arts Council.

OUR IMPACT

2674

Audience Members Served Original Foster-Adoptee Works

1188

Foster Youth and Students Served in Pandemic

280

Dance Workshops and Dance Classes Hosted

50

Foster-Adoptee Artists Hired under our RESILIENCE model

45

Artist Professional Development Workshops Hosted

36

Arts, Educational, and Social Welfare NonProfit Partners

OUR MISSION

Create spaces for foster-adoptee youth and adults to grieve, process, heal, and speak about their truth in foster care, filling in the gap of what is needed to transform and abolish this traumatic system by:
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  • Hiring foster-adoptee artists at an admin rate of $20/hr and performance rate of $100/hr

  • Building out a foster-adoptee dancer and artist network in the U.S.

  • Facilitating community spaces, centering foster-adoptee perspectives (i.e. panels, festivals, performances, and workshops)

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About Us: About

Our Beginning and Pilot Program

MoFundamentals, originally Memoirs Of A Broke Chicano, began after our founder Gabriel "MoFundamentals" Gutierrez desired to utilize dance as a healing modality to process his own experiences navigating foster care, adoption, and recovering from houselessness.

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In 2013, we conducted an ethnographic research project to compare art experiences among 20 undergraduate and graduate foster-adoptee artists. We found nearly everyone utilized arts as their healing modality, despite underfunded programs or difficulty accessing art opportunities in k-12.

Our pilot program at Hathaway Sycamores Learning Lab from 2014-2016 focused on expanding our research into a therapeutic program centering foster-adoptee artist development through a healing dance practice.

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