Hard-hitting yet truly inspiring, Daniel Mora captivates his audience
“Making decisions for a positive change: Knowing that what we do impacts self, family and community”
Daniel Mora was raised in projects where hundreds of apartments were staggered on top of one another — a place where prostitution, high crime, and drugs were rampant. The youngest child of immigrant parents, Daniel began seeking refuge in the gangs soon after witnessing the near death of his mother at the hands of his father. He began ditching school, using drugs, robbing, and fighting, landing him in the juvenile detention facility over six times and eventually getting expelled from his school district.
Skeptical of the world and convinced that people including individuals who tried to help him were “out to get him,” Daniel discovers an outlet for his anger, fears, and frustrations through writing and music. As he honed his natural talent, his confidence both in himself and in others grew. Daniel takes his audience on this riveting transformative journey that focuses on the critical importance for youth to discover their own energy outlets. He explains, “My earliest outlet as a youth was writing, recording and performing rhythm and poetry amongst my group of family and friends.”
Daniel explains how his musical and performing outlet motivated him to graduate from high school, complete two A.A degrees with honors and transfer to the University of California at Berkeley where he recently graduated with his B.A degree in Ethnic Studies. Today, he continues to vigorously advocate for youth and adamantly believes that youth essentially want to make good choices for themselves, and often thrive with the help of positive role models and activists like himself who genuinely want to help them.
Daniel Mora covers topics such as; Identifying values and hobbies, violence prevention, motivation for education, connecting and advocating for community resources, overcoming conflict with self, family or peer pressures.