The Urban Peacebuilding Exchange (UPex) connects peacebuilders, artists and institutional leaders across the globe. Through collaborative, multidisciplinary exchanges, UPex expands global peacebuilding networks and research, synthesizes key findings into creative knowledge products, and inspires innovative approaches to violence prevention and conflict resolution around the world.
What is UPex?
The Urban Peacebuilding Exchange (UPex) is a Program directed by A. Billi Drakeford and Kane Smego in collaboration with The Carter School’s Program for Urban Peacebuilding. The program facilitates multidisciplinary person-to-person exchanges with peacebuilders, artists and leaders from diverse fields across the U.S. and around the world to share tools, insights and inspiration for violence prevention. The Urban Peacebuilding Exchange expands global peacebuilding networks, synthesizes key findings into creative knowledge products and inspires innovative conflict resolution strategies around the world.
We translate these insights into creative, accessible knowledge products—including performances, visual media, and toolkits—that travel well beyond the exchange itself. UPex strengthens global peacebuilding networks while fueling local innovation.
In a moment marked by deepening political divides, cuts to critical social services, and strained international relationships, person-to-person diplomacy and collaboration are more important than ever.
Current UPex Projects:
Next Stop: Valparaíso, Chile - August 2025.
We’re heading to Chile for our next UPex exchange! We are partnering with The Rotary Carter School Collaboration for Peace and the Baltimore-based community-based organization By Peaceful Means and You! This immersive experience will bring together peacebuilders, artists and community leaders from Baltimore, Maryland and Valparaiso, Chile to share tools, insights, models, strategies and inspiration across cultures.
What Makes UPex Unique?
UPex creates immersive, artistic, and relationship-driven exchanges that inspire lasting transformation. Participants don’t just travel and observe —in country, they work with peacebuilding counterparts to share knowledge, curate public offerings, map peacebuilding approaches and networks, and shape a global peacebuilding movement rooted in creativity, equity, and action. At UPex, art is not an afterthought—it’s a methodology. Through storytelling, performance, visual art, and music, we help participants process complex social dynamics and transform experience into impact.
Program Highlights
- Global and U.S.-based exchange cohorts
- Creative synthesis: audiovisual documentation, storytelling, and performance
- Facilitated by A. Billi Drakeford and Kane Smego
- Partnerships with George Mason University, Rotary, and more
Get Involved
Municipal leaders, policymakers, organizers, educators, artists, and community builders—join us to connect and co-create.
We welcome people from all walks of life working toward peace, justice, and community healing. You might be:
- A peace educator or practitioner
- A city official, funder, or policymaker
- A local artist or creative organizer
- A youth advocate or community builder
- A survivor, storyteller, or dreamer
UPex is for those who believe that change comes from the heart and the streets.
What Participants Gain
- Deep relationships across regions, identities, and disciplines
- Exposure to models of community-led peace and safety
- Practice using creative methods for social transformation
- Collaborative performance and storytelling experience
- Opportunities to publish or share their work widely
Meet The Team
A. Billi Drakeford
A. Billi Drakeford has designed and managed various arts and service-learning residencies for more than 15 years. She believes that the multi-layered experience of travel engenders unique understandings that effect change on deep levels. A. Billi is based in the Borderlands of southern New Mexico and currently serves as the General Manager of The LAB Learning Action Buffet, a leadership skills mentorship organization serving youth and young adults. She is also Affiliate Faculty at The Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution, a Thought Partner in the Borderlands & Ethnic Studies Department at New Mexico State University and Cultural Ambassador and Site Manager with the Next Level Hip Hop Cultural Diplomacy program. Aside from her organizing work, A. Billi is active artistically as an emcee, singer/songwriter, sound selector and beat producer.
email: bdrakefo@gmu.edu
Kane Smego
Based in Los Angeles, CA, Kane Smego is a global leader in cross-cultural creative exchange. Since 2008, he has been working at the intersection of the arts, educational programming and social change on local and International levels, including serving as the Associate Director of Next Level, a groundbreaking cultural diplomacy program that sends American hip-hop artists around the world to promote exchange, artistic collaboration, and community building. An artist himself, Kane has performed, taught, and managed programs in over 20 countries and his work has been featured on NPR, American Public Media, TEDx, BET, and more. He is a bilingual English-Spanish speaker with a B.A. in Romance Languages, and he is currently obtaining his Master's in Public Affairs at UC Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy.
email: ksmego@gmu.edu
Nawal Rajeh
Nawal Rajeh is a peace educator and community organizer in the DC/Baltimore area. She is the co-founder of By Peaceful Means (BPM), a grassroots organization dedicated to interrupting both physical and structural violence in Baltimore City. Rajeh holds a PhD from George Mason University’s Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution and serves as an adjunct lecturer in Georgetown University’s Justice and Peace Studies Program. She is also a consultant with Movement Matters in DC, where she supports organizers in strengthening their capacity through training, facilitation, and accompaniment. In 2018, she was honored as Baltimore Peacemaker of the Year for her work leading summer peace camps in Baltimore, which she co-founded in 2007.
Rubén Parra
Ruben Parra is a professor with a Master's degree in Management and a Bachelor's degree in Education. Based in Chile, he has extensive experience facilitating sociocultural, artistic and educational programs and national and international diplomatic cultural exchanges. Currently, he is the Manager of the Municipal Office for Youth, Children, and Adolescents in Villa Alemana, Chile. He is also the co-founder of the Hip Hop collective Southkinta and the creator of the “action-consequence” meta-methodology for biopsychosocial development.
WANT TO BRING THE URBAN PEACEBUILDING EXCHANGE (UPEX) TO YOUR CITY OR COMMUNITY?
Fill out the form below to begin the conversation. We collaborate with local leaders,
cultural institutions, and peacebuilding organizations to co-design meaningful, artistic, and
community-rooted exchanges.