Program Description
Event Details
Formerly Latina Voices, Rising Voices is a series of programs offered by Pikes Peak Library District that celebrate the accomplishments, successes, and cultural riches of the diverse people in our community – people whose voices should be heard. Please join us for a panel discussion featuring several local community members including Luisa Graff, Kim Nguyen, and Peter Choi.
Learn more about the panelists below.
Peter Choi
Peter W. Choi joined the News 5 team as a Multimedia journalist in July 2024. Peter's career began at Arirang TV in South Korea, where he was a bilingual reporter covering the Korean peninsula and international news. His multicultural background brings a unique perspective to his reporting. After two years in Seoul, Peter pursued local journalism at KXLY 4 News Now in Spokane, covering two devastating wildfires, homelessness, and regional and state legislatures.
Peter was born and raised in South Korea and graduated from Seattle Pacific University, where he studied Communication. When Peter is not in the newsroom, you can catch him beatboxing and singing.
Luisa Graff
Born in Lima to an American father and a Peruvian mother, Luisa escaped the country by herself at age 12 when the government was overthrown and all major industries nationalized by then dictator “Juan Velasco.”
Her father was originally from Colorado and she made her way to Colorado Springs – joining her older sister and an elderly aunt to “start over.” It would be years until the family was re-united. Speaking but a few words of English but in need of money, she smiled her way into part-time work at a local jewelry store.
A spring-board diving scholarship enabled her to attend college, and not long thereafter she earned honors as the first female Gemologist in the Western United States certified by the Gemological Institute of America. Gaining valuable experience as a minority shareholder at the same store where she worked as a young girl, Luisa struck out on her own in 1999 and established “Luisa Graff Jewelers.”
Luisa Graff Jewelers grew rapidly, attracting national attention for sales success and yielding many invitations for Luisa to speak at different national forums. The store ranks among the top independent jewelry retailers in the country, with a single location in Colorado Springs.
A self-described “science nerd,” Luisa believes in knowing and teaching the gemology behind the jewelry as a basis for assessing quality and value. She travels all over the world to find unique items that evidence high quality. Supported by a very capable staff of 29 professionals she considers family, her goal is to deliver on the promise made to every customer of “Helping You Be Unforgettable!”
If you would like to know more about Luisa’s back-story, you can watch her presentation at the Air Force Academy on You Tube. Search “Luisa Graff at Air Force Academy”
Katherine Latona
Katherine Latona, a native of Colombia and a graduate of UCCS, overcame many stumbling blocks on her way to an art history degree. Latona has studied monuments and their influence on cultural identity, with an eye to contemporary controversies concerning the Civil War monuments. She was once told to drop out of high school and now she is a curator at the new Olympic Museum.