Who We Are.
Rey
Educator. Writer. Agitator. Worker bee for the liberative struggle of all people.
Trained professionally in ideating and disseminating knowledge-based solutions at the public level, Rey’s professional record illustrates an atlas of commitments that invite structural relief and opportunity to communities excluded from healthy material and social outcomes.
With an unwavering faith in the power of collective people power, Rey has spent the life of his career pollinating structural criticism for immediate, long-term and sustainable change. Most influenced by Black radical traditions of resistance and radical youth power, Rey believes in and fights for a world free from borders, prisons and poverty.
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My great-grandmother, Juanita L. Burton, believed passionately in the power of education.
As a lifelong learner, mother of 8, wife, and domestic laborer in the Coastal Plain of Southeast Texas, she dedicated herself tirelessly to instilling, in every branch of her lineage, a deep appreciation for learning; for the endless possibilities that education offered; for that all could be obtained through knowledge and hard work.
Her conviction extended beyond just language and found plentiful roots in her actions. She exemplified her commitment to the fierce pursuit of education and self-betterment, realizing her goal of becoming a Licensed Vocational Nurse at the ripe age of 47.
By putting her belief into practice, she showed her family and community that, despite challenges and obstacles, the accomplishments that can come from audacity and perseverance are among life’s most valuable rewards.
Burton Bond is inspired by my great grandmother’s fierce commitment to the power of education and hard work. This manifests in not just the ways we seek to continuously enrich ourselves through education and knowledge building, but through the ways we seek to empower communities through the relentless pursuit, development, and sharing of wisdom.
Alex
Creative strategist. Narrative designer. Advocate for the human rights of marginalized people everywhere.
With more than 15 years of experience leading the design, strategy, and execution of local to global initiatives and campaigns for equity-centered impact, Alex understands the power of storytelling to create tangible shifts in human understanding and action.
Alex has long been inspired by youth-led movements and always aims to approach his work with the kind of humility and integrity that is reflected in how young people think, move, and speak. He is an expert at respectfully leveraging stories and narratives as connective vehicles for social justice and power.
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Utilizing the power of story to create a world with better outcomes for marginalized people is at the heart of my design practice—and that’s due, in large part, to the stories I heard during the childhood summers I spent in Mississippi with my maternal grandmother Eliece Avery Bond. I called her Mamo.
My entire family is from Wiggins, a small town near the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Every summer my parents would send me and my brothers home to Wiggins to make sure we understood and deepened our connection to our roots; to the community and culture of our ancestors; to our Blackness. All summer long, I would poke and prod my family members—some departed, some still with us—for stories about growing up back then and life in the country. Mamo always entertained my curiosity about our family history. She would laugh and say, “You’re a nosey lil boy. You want to know everything, huh baby?”
And when she couldn’t answer a question, she would take me to our then oldest living relative, Aunt Irma. Together they taught me the names of my ancestors and that my 5th great-grandfather Dyer was the first ancestor born out of slavery; about my great-grandpa Willie Jake, known across the county for his incredible green thumb and unmatched collard greens, and how he defied era norms when he stood up to a white man who had been stealing from his garden; about how my mom’s dad, Henry ‘Pap’ Bond Sr., integrated the Wiggins Police Department in the 60s as the only Black officer on the force in a county known nationally for lynchings. He was not long after killed in the line of duty leaving Mamo to raise nine children alone.
Undefeated, Mamo narrated to me the magic and joy of growing up in the country, and how happiness had to live alongside the pain and powerlessness of Jim Crow. “We all took care of each other back then,” she said.
Through how she moved in the world, Mamo taught me what it looked like to embody community, strength and love. She used her personal capacity to build community power.
She taught me that most people are moved by the heart and the gut. A listening ear, a good meal and a bit of intention can go a long way. Watching her, I learned how to connect with people through words, tones, a facial expression, a deep laugh. Mamo demonstrated how to placemake from joy and resistance through daily life.
Her funeral was a testament to her values as so many people recounted how my grandma had fed them, clothed them, celebrated with them, cried with them, shared her limited resources with them or met some other dyer need. I believe that my dedication to humanity comes from her because she never left anyone out.
Burton Bond is inspired by Mamo’s deep connections to community and legacy. We want to create and curate experiences that connect people to their own legacies of resistance, the stories that ignite them and the outcomes they fuel through them.