Melissa Acedera 🔻🇵🇭

One of my dearest friends and current poet laureate for Hawaii, Brandy Nālani McDougall, is in town from UH-Manoa. I had the honor of watching her read her poetry at Fullerton College yesterday. I’m so happy she’s visiting with her two beautiful daughters 💖✨🌀🌱🤲🏽

giving our respects 🪶

new book

bounty from a dear friend’s front + backyard 🌱💕

new art ❤️‍🔥

Los Angeles, CA | August 2025

A family sets up in front of the detention center, blasting oldies with a live mariachi for their grandfather’s birthday — he’s inside.

The reality on the ground is much more heartbreaking than you think.

new pins 🤙🏾

self portrait, summer 2025

One of the hardest weeks of my life.

Los Angeles, plug in tomorrow 🤙🏾

Wrapped up my first quarter advising a multidisciplinary cohort of students under the Urban Humanities Initiative at the Urban Planning Department @ UCLA! So proud of the students 🌀♥️

Please come thru if you’re in the L.A. area, this Sunday @ 11am

For any folks in the IE, my homie Alex will be the keynote for today’s symposium. Please check it out if you’re available!

Gifted myself some new art 🌾🤎

❤️🌀

Stayed over an elder’s place last night. Woke up to a new friend hanging outside her window 🌀💗✨🐦

Drinking margaritas and telling ghost stories with my campesina comrades. Blissed out lol🌀👻💕

YouTube video by AJ+ Español El lado oscuro de Coachella: así viven los campesinos mexicanos en EE. UU. | @ajplusespanol

I’m in a mini documentary on our farmworkers in Coachella Valley with Sonia Baltoroni and Mily Treviño-Sauceda of Alianza Nacional de Campesinas

youtu.be/6wIUFYOj0Lg?...

Quick trip to Coachella Valley to celebrate my mentor’s birthday 🎉 💕🌱

And no, fuck that festival.

It makes such a big difference building with folks who center people with lived experiences and truly have the heart for this work — egos get checked at the door and so much good work gets done. I’m mad grateful for the food spaces I’m in rn. So much humility and power 🌀🫀

I’m already organizing with farmworker women turned farmers who grow food on land they own or lease. Purchasing direct from farms and bringing it into our neighborhoods will really change the game for food access and health. I’m very excited and so grateful to be part of this!

This has been in the works for the past 2 years. It started as a conversation in a working group thru the L.A. Food Policy Council Food Recovery working group, which quickly blossomed into this cooperative style hub. We’ll be centering our most vulnerable communities while supporting local farms 🫀🌽

Started something pretty special today. Hoping to revolutionize the way we move food in Los Angeles 🫡✊🏾🌽❤️

Moving in style thank you to the homies at Tierras Milperas 🌀💕🌺

It’s the 4th season of Garden Club 🪴💕 in South Central LA hosted by Heal2Gether & CAT911 South Central

I love my new corn earrings so much! A gift from my campesina homies 🌽💕

Children in Gaza Are So Hungry They’re Drawing Pictures of Food in the Sand Israel has blocked all aid from entering Gaza for over three weeks, the longest total aid blockade so far.

Palestinian children in Gaza are so hungry that they’re drawing pictures of food in the sand, according to a Gaza reporter, as the population is being starved by the most brutal form of Israel’s aid blockade yet for the past three weeks.

YouTube video by AJ+ Español El lado oscuro de Coachella: así viven los campesinos mexicanos en EE. UU. | @ajplusespanol

I’m in a mini documentary on our farmworkers in Coachella Valley with Sonia Baltoroni and Mily Treviño-Sauceda of Alianza Nacional de Campesinas

youtu.be/6wIUFYOj0Lg?...

Savor the beauty of the moment.
ko-fi.com/sophielabell...

I have the best heart to heart talks with my mentor. That foundation of great friendship is everything. I feel lucky to have this guidance & care 🌀🫀🤲🏾🌱