Adrian H Molina, also known as Molina Speaks, is an artist, poet, and master of ceremonies. His mission is to unite the human spirit through the radical imagination. Molina is the son of a Mexican immigrant father and a Chicana mother from Wyoming. He explores themes of humanity, technology, and sustainability through a futurist lens, informed by Chicano art, Hip-Hop, and the natural world. Molina practices multimedia and conceptual art, studio art, and performance art, working in the mediums of storytelling, writing, live scribe poetry, music, video, doodle, paint and design. He left social media for three years in 2020 to focus on the human dimension. Molina resides in Denver, Colorado, where he has worked on large-scale installations, exhibitions, and events with Meow Wolf, the Denver Art Museum, the Denver Theater District, and numerous arts, cultural, and community organizations. Outside of the urban core, his roots continue to inspire creative work in the San Luis Valley, Mountain West and Southwest.
Molina has launched a new project called Future Town Tour with civic health club Warm Cookies of the Revolution. Future Town seeks to reimagine small towns in the American West, positioning them in the future rather than in the past, building creative rural/urban partnerships, and challenging racial and social divisions. On the strength of this work, Molina is a 2023-24 Us@250 Fellow with New America—a Washington D.C. think/action tank that advocates for the reimagination of the American narrative as the nation turns 250 years old.
Molina has written, recorded and produced decades of music, beginning with experimental/DIY/punk rock duos CHiTT Productions and Mannequin Rituals of Wyoming, and LA native and West Coast hip hop legend DJ Icewater. Molina was the musical director and lead recording artist for the 2009 documentary film Papers—a film about undocumented students that screened in all fifty states. Molina wrote and performed music with Chicano Afrobeat orchestra Pink Hawks between 2014-2020. Molina’s artistic legacy includes serving as the Creative Director of Youth on Record during the establishment of its youth media studio on Denver’s westside. He developed Youth on Record’s creative fellowship program for 19-24 year-old artists and mentored the first fifty fellows between 2016-2023. Molina was an Artist in Residence with the Breckenridge Creative District in 2022. He has been named a Mastermind by Denver Westword. He is an honoree of the Lalo Delgado poetry festival, and a room has been named for Molina at the Denver Foundation’s Casa Grande on Poet’s Row. His Living Word Scroll, 2015-2020 was recently on display with the Latino Cultural Arts Center, History Colorado Center, and El Pueblo History Museum.