Rostros Emotivos by Rolando Chang Barrero Cultural Council for Palm Beach County
Thursday, January 27, 2022, 5:30–7:30 p.m.
A series of 50 paintings that document the artist's journey though trauma and the incongruence of his verbal and non-verbal presentations of self and in his art work. InstagramWebsiteContact
Thursday, January 27, 2022, 5:30–7:30 p.m. Advance registration required. Free for members of the Cultural Council; $20 for nonmembers.
All people wish to be heard and seen for exactly who they are without question or compromise. Artists are uniquely capable of visually capturing and communicating their emotions and essence through their work. This exhibition will include artists who identify as LGBTQ+ as well as artists whose work interrogates issues of rights, representation, and the lived experience of LGBTQ+ individuals. This exhibition is presented in collaboration with artist Jose Alvarez.
Florida official called Latinx a 'ridiculous woke term.' Some LGBTQ+ people call it a lifeline
It's a word for those 'at the intersection of Latin American and queer,' one advocate says
Ana Goñi-Lessan and Katherine Kokal
USA TODAY NETWORK – FLORIDA
Read Full Story Here: https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/news/2021/12/23/does-latinx-allow-space-super-gendered-language/8967405002/?fbclid=IwAR1mYf7Bl5aGC_l8MCYgI4RFu-N37JVGiIWdl_QclZdyRKv5Pnegmu5_Lls
Hispanic, Latinx Americans push back against generalizations
Some leaders are more hesitant to use "Latinx" because they say it's used to paint people with Spanish-speaking ancestry with too broad a brush — a criticism often launched at media organizations, universities, and governments that refer to Hispanic people and Spanish speakers as if they are a monolithic group.
"Latinx is an attempt by leftists to rework our home language," said Rolando Chang Barrero, a Cuban LGBTQ+ community organizer, art gallery owner and member of the Palm Beach County Democratic Caucus.
"Classifying us as Latinx or even as Hispanic is a misnomer that does not represent the 33 foreign countries represented in my community. Each country is as nuanced as the United States," Barrero added.
Pan-ethnic labels used to describe people from Spanish-speaking countries are not an invention of the 21st century, Barrero said.
The 1980 U.S. Census was the first decennial count to ask respondents if they were "Hispanic." Previously, the Census attempted to quantify people by asking if they had Spanish surnames or whether they spoke Spanish at home.
In 2020, the Census asked respondents whether they were of "Hispanic, Latino or Spanish origin." The question included a space to specify a person's country of ethnic origin.
But even those terms are nuanced.
Hispanic origin refers to any person whose family comes from a Spanish-speaking country, whereas Latino or Latina refers to a person whose family comes from a Latin American country in Central or South America or the Caribbean.
Barrero said the introduction of umbrella terms like Hispanic and Latinx lead to generalizations about people who hail from Spanish-speaking countries instead of a greater understanding of their cultures and traditions.
"They’re using the word like 'the Hispanic market' and '(the) Hispanic voting block.' That has caused a lot of interference in understanding who we are as a people," Barrero said. "We share a language, but that’s where it begins and where it ends."
Barrero, a gay person who uses both he/him and ze/zir pronouns, said while he takes issue with non-Hispanic people using Latinx to describe many communities all together, people who are Hispanic and nonbinary or transgender should feel supported when they use it.
"I completely respect someone's pronouns and their identity, but we should not (all) fall under that label." Barrero said. "We have many nuanced people in our community and that hasn't reached the mainstream."
Barrero and others are pushing for an understanding of "intersectionality" — a respect for all of a person's identities when considering their life experience — in Hispanic and Latin American communities.
Rolando Chang Barrero
Guest Speaker
Give Miami Day for Florida Justice Center
Starting at 9am and ending at 9pm, we will be broadcasting LIVE from the CIC in Miami for a 12-hour livestream.
Tune in throughout the day as we raise awareness for the barriers faced by justice-involved people and raise funds to help provide FREE legal services throughout Miami-Dade County.
WATCH LIVESTREAM at 1PM Discussion of the challenges faced by returning citizens from jail and prison with Rolando Barrero and Jonathan Bleiweiss November 18, 202 at 1 PM
Our livestream will include guest speakers, Miami trivia, special cocktails by the Mexican Mixologist, a smoked pork Cuban sandwich recipe by BaconCartel’s Chef Jeffrey Schlissel,
The Box Gallery curator, Rolando Chang Barrero
and plenty of surprises! It is sure to be a day of fun, education, and philanthropy as we try to reach our fundraising goal of $60k.
Please share this link with your friends, family, and coworkers as we make this Give Miami Day our most successful one yet.
We encourage you to provide a contribution of any size as we try to make a meaningful change in our community. Your giving will go to expanding FLJC’s legal services and providing holistic care to more people in Miami.
Join Me in Making a Change with Florida Justice Center
I am proud to be the Community Relations Manager at Florida Justice Center. I'm asking you to support this revolutionary organization that is changing lives in Miami this #GiveMiamiDay
As the only nonprofit legal aid organization serving Miami that’s dedicated to providing free holistic legal and social services, FLJC stands for what I believe in: justice, equality, and second chances.
My personal goal is to raise $2,500 to aid returning citizens. By giving you're supporting programs that help Miamians get better jobs and get back on their feet.
Last year, FLJC touched the lives of 153 people, but so far in 2021 we've already served over 2,000 people! In 2022, Our goal is to reach over 4,000 people and to increase the number of legal clinics in the Miami community.
Thank you for supporting me and this very important cause.
9AM – Coffee Talk with Alex and Jonathan: Discussion of Give Miami Day, FLJC, and the day to come
10AM – Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion with Natalie Robinson Bruner of Glad Ed Solutions: Discussion of unconscious bias
10:30AM – George Floyd Movement Retrospective and Look Forward with Melba Pearson, Esq.
10:50AM – Miami Beach Ordinance Criminalizing Recording of Police: Discussion with Alex Saiz and our client Bree.
11:00AM – Immigration topics with Jessenia Rosales, Esq., Alex Saiz, Esq., and William Sanchez, Esq.: Effects of a conviction on immigration status and the importance of identification documents
11:20AM – Temas de inmigración con Jessenia Rosales, Esq., Alex Saiz, Esq., Y William Sanchez, Esq .: Efectos de una condena en el estado migratorio y la importancia de los documentos de identificación
12:00PM – Chef Jeffrey Schlissel of BaconCartel shows how to make a Smoked Pork Cuban Sandwich followed by relaxing music, trivia, and a discussion of the news.
12:50PM – Know Your Rights: Protesting
1PM – Discussion of the challenges faced by returning citizens from jail and prison with Rolando Barrero and Jonathan Bleiweiss
1:45PM – Know Your Rights: Traffic Stops
2PM – Representative Matt Willhite provides legislative updates and discusses issues of concern to Floridians
3PM – History of Cubans in Miami
3:30PM – Know Your Rights: If Immigration Arrests You with Gina Fraga
4PM – Know Your Rights: What To Do If You’re Arrested
5PM – Give Miami Day Cocktail #1 with Mexican Mixologist
5:05PM – Criminal law’s disproportionate affect on the Transgender community
5:25PM – History of Gay Miami
6PM – Give Miami Day Cocktail #2 with Mexican Mixologist
6:05PM – Discussion of Cannabis Topics, Sponsored by Green Thumb Industries
7PM – Give Miami Day Cocktail #3 with Mexican Mixologist
7:05PM – Discusión sobre temas de cannabis
8PM – Give Miami Day Cocktail #4 with Mexican Mixologist
While Cubans and other Hispanics continue to struggle for equality, a West Palm Beach artist is at the root of that crusade. His art may make you think twice – whether it’s in a subliminal message or one of his more controversial exhibits.
Inside The Box Gallery in West Palm Beach, curator Rolando Chang Barrero, also known as “The Bird Man,” creates his next piece.He’s not only an artist but an activist.
“It’s a powerful means of communication,” Barrero said. “Whether it deals with Cuba, homosexuality, because I am gay, the artwork also stems from that larger-than-life image. So, it hits you.”
Rolando uses current headlines and historical events as his influence. He exposes problems and gives them a silent voice of expression.
“We’ve taken the time to deal with social issues, which includes race and ethnicity,” Rolando said.
Whether it’s the 2018 Parkland school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School or showcasing other artists, like Dominic Esposito’s “The Opioid Spoon Project,” Rolando said he knows what it’s like to struggle growing up in Miami.
His parents are from Cuba and sought political asylum in the United States.
“It was the '60s, and there was no Hispanics,” Rolando said. “And racism was at its peak. Life changed in kindergarten. We had to go out and mix with other kids. We were the ones that stood out. It wasn’t once or twice that we would come home beat up. That was a sign of the times in this country.”
He said inequality is still rampant, but he uses it to promote positive change in the community.
Rolando said it’s important to value yourself, adding that fighting for that value is the only way Hispanics will be on an equal playing field.
Rolando said he has always drawn outside the lines – using art to make people think outside the box, which he said he wants to instill in young artists.
“As soon as they put a drawing pencil to paper or a brush to a canvas, that’s a powerful medium. And if you’re going to paint flowers, make sure it’s the most beautiful flower in the world and that it resonates with the broadest amount of people," he said.
The Box Gallery is finally back on track and opening to the public with much care and safety measures!
Artist + Social Activist Domenic Esposito tackles mental health in new series of works to be shown at The Box Gallery kicks off with a national roundtable discussion with mental health leaders.
Artist and social activist Domenic Esposito to exhibit new work this
March at the Box Gallery in West Palm Beach, Florida
West Palm Beach, FL 01-22-2021--Domenic Esposito will be showing his new series of artwork entitled Blank Slate, along with select pieces of his signature work addressing the Opioid Crisis, at the socially conscious Box Gallery in West Palm Beach's “Cultural Corridor.”
The exhibit will be curated by The Box Gallery owner and curator Rolando Chang Barrero.
Esposito's new series titled "Blank Slate" represents the artist's reflections upon current times and the era of fear, depression, and loneliness experienced in the "new normal." Esposito explores the isolation of those living with mental illness and those suffering from substance abuse whose challenges have been exacerbated and laid bare. All the figures depicted in Blank Slate are hooded; their faces are either totally or partially hidden from view. Many pieces contrast bronze patinas with painted backgrounds illuminating the hooded figures' hidden, inner world, alluding to the wearer's identity. Through the combination of two and three-dimensional media, the artworks push the hooded subject into our visceral space creating conflict between the figure's desire to be hidden and the viewer's own incompatible impulses to ignore, expose and understand.
The Blank Slate Exhibition will open with a reception on on March 6th and continue through March 29, 2021. Gallery hours are Tuesday-Saturday 11-6 p.m. or by appointment.
Information for the course is gleaned from community forums held around the state, MMERI Forum Radio Podcasts, evidence-based pedagogy, and research from various areas, including the Florida Department of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Institute of Health (NIH), etc.
Self Portrait with Found Object(ive) by Rolando Chang Barrerro
“My response to the murder of George Floyd was to listen. What I heard and saw was a clear call for unity and justice. What I did was to gather those voices and images, so others could bear witness to our history; our American History as it was in the summer of 2020. Black History is not a version of American History, Black History is that part of the American truth that questions… “and justice for all.”
By Sally O'Dowd Las Olas Lifestyles Magazine 2019 Publisher Lifestyle Media Group https://go.epublish4me.com/ebook/10101344/1019_Las_Olas.pdf
Rolando Chang Barrero "Art That Advocates" By Sally O'Dowd Las Olas Lifestyles Magazine 2019 Publisher Lifestyle Media Group https://go.epublish4me.com/ebook/10101344/1019_Las_Olas.pdf
"The opening of the CONstitutionX: Our Human Rights held last week was spectacular to say the least. It was a grand success on so many levels! It was really engaging and created the much anticipated empathic response. The interactions between audience and artists were a sight to see and experience, as was the artwork itself!"-Rolando Chang Barrero
Artist: Maria Lino
The exhibition which opened last Saturday on September 28, 2019 was purposely held on the anniversary date that The U.S. Congress voted to send the new Constitution of the United States to the state legislatures for their approval and will close on November 8, 2019; the anniversary of the election of President Abraham Lincoln who authored of The Emancipation Proclamation.
The curators, Rolando Chang Barrero and Sonia Baez-Hernandez selected together 23 International Artists and 2 organizations unite for Social Justice and awareness. The exhibition includes a series of visual art presentations, theatrical performances, performance art, films, workshops, artists talks and video curated by both artist/curators who have long established their presence in the the art world as leaders of social justice art and have exhibited alongside many of the artists in the exhibition.
Among the 23 International Artists which are included are Rolando Chang Barrero (US), Lisu Vega (Venezuela), Muu Blanco (Venezuela), Donna Ruff, Diane Arrieta , Ruben Riviera Matos, Sonia Baez-Hernandez (D.R), Narciso Martinez (Mex.), Maria Lino (Cuba), Sunny Marquez (P.R.), Edouard Duval-Carrié (Haiti), Lisu Vega (Venezuela), Muu Blanco (Venezuela), Diane Khalo, Ruben Riviera Matos, Izel Vargas, Zonia Zena, and others. Please see blog for complete list of artists:
Opens with a reception on September 28th, 2019 | 7 PM RSVP
September 28, 2019 - November 6, 2019
An exhibition and series of visual art presentations, theatrical performances, performance art, films, workshops, artists talks and video curated by
Rolando Chang Barrero, Daynalis Gonzalez, and Sonia Baez-Hernandez.
These art interventions address a range of narratives regarding immigration and our basic human rights. The inclusion of the varieties media included in this exhibition we hope extends the dialogue of what art and activism can and does look like when it merges. Its purpose and intent is to introduce, inform and educate the viewer of some of the most powerful work being created in the social justice arena and to share the issues and the experiences of the artists which shapes, not only their work, but their very lives.
All three are artist/curators have long established their presence in the the art world as leaders of social justice art with the purpose of showcasing and participating in a wide range of visual and performing art that aim to raise critical consciousness, build community, and motivate individuals to promote social change.
The exhibition opens on the anniversary date that The U.S. Congress voted to send the new Constitution of the United States to the state legislatures for their approval and closes on the anniversary of the election of Abraham Lincoln the author of The Emancipation Proclamation.
Artists in all media will unite to respond to the various "CONs" that have been revealed during the current political climate in the United States and perceived as a blatant disregard of our “X" basic guaranteed freedoms presented in the Constitution of The United States’ Bill of of Rights.
Special presentations by Guatemalan Maya Center
In the 1980s, at the height of the Guatemalan genocide, many indigenous migrant workers were facing harassment from employers while struggling to find their place in a new home. The founders of the Guatemalan-Maya Center lobbied and advocated for the migrant community, gaining numerous victories throughout the past three decades, including securing special agricultural work visas for nearly 1,000,000 people. Thanks to a grant from the Palm Beach County Health Department, The Guatemalan-Maya Center was officially incorporated in 1992. With just a staff of 5 and a van, we began driving mothers with limited access to the health services and prenatal care to their doctor visits - interpreting both language and culture. Years later, we continue to accompany the immigrant communities of South Florida, and have expanded our programs to serve over 1,000 people each month from more than 28 different countries.
We Count! a grassroots membership organization in Homestead, Florida, founded in 2006 and dedicated to promoting the rights and well-being of the immigrant community through education, support and collective action. Help build the power of Latin American immigrants and farm workers in Homestead with a generous tax-deductible contribution in support of WeCount! Donations can be made at www.we-count.org.
Among the 24 international artists which are included are Rolando Chang Barrero (US), Lisu Vega (Venezuela), Muu Blanco (Venezuela), Donna Ruff , Diane khalo, Ruben Riviera Matos, Sonia Baez-Hernandez (D.R), Narciso Martinez (Mex.), Maria Lino (Cuba), Sunny Marquez (P.R.), Edouard Duval-Carrié (Haiti), Lisu Vega (Venezuela), Muu Blanco (Venezuela), Donna Ruff , Diane khalo, Ruben Riviera Matos, Izel Vargas, and others. Please scroll down for complete list of artists.
Artists List:
RODRIGO DORFMAM
This Taco Truck Kills Fascists (2018) | Rodrigo Dorfman in attendance
Rodrigo Dorfman (born 1967 in Santiago, Chile) is a multimedia award-winning filmmaker and producer living in Durham, North Carolina. He has worked with POV, HBO, Salma Hayek's Ventanazul and the BBC among others.
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AURORA MOLINA
Aurora Molina was born in La Havana, Cuba, in 1984. She emigrated to the United States at the age of sixteen, where she opted to pursue an education in art. Molina received her Associates of Arts in Visual Arts from Miami Dade College, a Bachelors in Fine Arts specializing in Mixed Media from Florida International University and Master Degree in Contemporary Art at the Universidad Europea de Madrid completed in 2009. She currently resides in Miami, Florida, where she works as a full time artist.
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DIANE KAHLO
Over a five-year period, I developed an installation of artwork that is a memorial to the thousands of girls and young women who have disappeared and often brutally murdered in Juárez, Mexico. My intent was to create a “sacred space” and a memorial wall of portraits of the victims. I painted portraits and built frames for more than 150 victims as well as created other large sculptures and paintings which made reference to Mexico’s indigenous roots to help memorialize these victims of feminicide (the murder of women because they are women).
Permeating Ruff’s art is a passion for social justice. She’s active in the social justice network of her Miami Beach synagogue, Temple Beth Sholom. With network members, she demonstrated against the detaining of immigrant children at the Homestead Detention Center.
”No wonder her art is included in the exhibit “CONstitutionX: Our Human Rights,” opening September 28 at the Box Gallery, 811 Belvedere Rd., in West Palm Beach. “Box Gallery concentrates on socially conscious art,” says gallery owner and curator Rolando Chang Barrero. Ruff uses “new forms and traditional material, as well as imagery which is extremely powerful,” he adds. Her art “is one of the more perfect examples of work that should be seen today.”
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EVELYN POLIZER
My art seeks to spark a conversation on subjects that touch me deeply, such as place, motherhood, breast cancer and the fragility of the natural environment. The relationship between the fibers I work with and the place where I was born evokes the comfort of belonging. Regardless of whether I am physically “here or there”, the question is always … but where do you come from?
Working in fiber art allows me to foster community , bringing people together to knit for different positive causes.
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JAHAIRA RIOS CAMPOS Y GALVEZ
Born in the village of Rancheria in Chinandega, Nicaragua, Jahaira Ríos Campos y Gálvez immigrated to the U.S. in 1979 with her parents fleeing the civil war. She is an alumna of New World School of the Arts High School. Jahaira received her B.F.A. from University of Florida and her M.F.A. from Barry University. She currently lives in Miami, Florida with her husband and four children and works at Perez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) as a Teaching Artist. As a teacher she has a passion to show others how art can enrich their lives and the understanding of the world around them. Her work as an artist stems from her desire to touch on difficult subjects in a way that provokes conversations and reflection.
In 2014, Venezuelan artist Jose Antonio Blanco decided that enough was enough.
Known as Muu to his friends and fellow artists, Blanco took to the streets in Caracas to protest alongside thousands of other people in what would later become one of the most violent days in Venezuelan history: Students’ Day or Dia de los Estudiantes. The protests also coincided with the imprisonment of opposition leader, Leopoldo Lopez.
Her art crosses boundaries from installations and performance arts to documentary to poetry. The work responds to issues of human rights, police brutality, embodiment (art healing), health disparities, biomedicine, medical deportation, climate change and the immigration detention deportation apparatus. Her interest in the arts allow her to expand the dialogue and awareness about social transformation, climate and racial justice and meditations about identity., gender... Please watch link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-kNliOvLww.
Sonia Baez-Hernandez (born 1958) is a Puerto-Dominican interdisciplinary artist. She works with a wider variety of media including drawing, painting, instillations, performance art, poetry, and filmmaking.
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ROLANDO CHANG BARRERO
“We have to be able to at least sort the bodies later of we’re not going to take care of the issue.”-CBS NEWS
Rolando Chang Barrero’s “School Supplies for a New Generation” makes another stark, strong statement as he lays a series of white printed tags and bags that may look like school supplies but are actually body bags. “School Supplies For the Next Generation” is meant to disturb the audience. “It should anger you and maybe shame you into action,” says Barrero. “These are not times that I am concerned about you, nor your response to my work! What you see is my response to the inaction of our country and the possibility of normalizing events that should not have occurred, but did, and may very well happen again.” - Florida Daily Post
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SANDRA PORTAL ANDREU
Sandra L. Portal-Andreu (Performance Artist/Choreographer/Educator) is a Miami native of Cuban/Colombian descent who began her dance experience at the Mirochnik Ballet Institute under the direction of Madelyn Alfonso. Later, she trained intensively in the Vaganova Technique with Ballet Master Vladimir Issaev. Under Issaev’s direction with the Arts Ballet Theater of South Florida, she performed as soloist in The Nutcracker, Le Corsaire, Ballet Concerto, and Suite of Waltzes No.1. She received an A.A. from New World School of the Arts, a B.F.A. in Dance from Florida State University, and a M.S. in Movement Sciences from Barry University.
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AIMEE PEREZ
Aimee Perez was born in Habana Cuba in 1955. She left for the United States when she was twelve with her family through the Freedom Flights and grew up in Miami in Cuban immigrant community. As a young adult she won the Gold Key Award in painting and several honorable mentions as she continued her pursuit of the arts during her college years. In 1989 she moved to Mexico City and continued painting and exhibiting with Cuban and Mexican artist.
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ALANDY MARTINEZ
XII Biennial of Havana / Photographer Artist/ Arts & Technoscience /
Mojado is a slang term meaning Wetback.(Someone who illegally enters the
U.S. by crossing the Rio Grande).
This photo is a reminder of the hardships my husband faced when trying to navigate the immigration system. He is now an American citizen but it was a long, arduous process. Depending on which country you are from, the rules change a bit. Not everyone who wants to become
a citizen is granted that privilege.
The United States helps fund wars in other countries to benefit their agenda and then are very slow or reluctant to help the people fleeing from violence, crime and other atrocities of war. -Diane Arrieta
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EDUARDO DUVAL-CARRE
Edouard Duval-Carrié’s work navigates the historically rich and culturally complex traditions that comprise a uniquely Caribbean perspective. Duval-Carrié’s recent works attend to themes of water, travel, and Francophone culture. For him, water becomes both a symbolic passage and a barrier – the means by which enslaved Africans were brought to the Caribbean and modern-day Haitians migrate to the United States. Both circumstances have been driven by capitalism, a force that occupies Duval-Carrié’s work materially and iconographically.
Edouard Duval Carrié is a contemporary artist and curator based in Miami, Florida. Born and raised in Haiti, Duval Carrié fled the regime of “Papa Doc” Duvalier as a teen ager and subsequently resided in locales as diverse as Puerto Rico, New York, Montreal, Paris and Miami. Parallels thus emerge between the artist’s cosmopolitan lifestyle and his artistic sensitivity toward the multifaceted identities that form his native Haiti. At heart, Duval Carrié is an educator: he challenges the viewer to make meaning of dense iconography derived from Caribbean history, politics, and religion. His mixed media works and installations present migrations and transformations, often human and spiritual. Recently the conceptual layering of Duval Carrié’s works has been further emphasized in his materials and through consistent attention to translucent and reflective mediums, such as glitter, glass, and resin. The introspective effects of these mediums transform his works into spatial interventions that implicate the viewer in their historicity.
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IGNACIO FONT
Ignacio Font was born of Cuban parents on the island of Puerto Rico, where he began his search as an artist. As a child, Ignacio always felt an outsider, not belonging to his family, neighborhood or school. At the age of 10, he visited New York with his family and felt a warm embrace when in front of a Jackson Pollock painting. A year later his family moved to Miami from Puerto Rico and the disjointed feeling he always had became an even greater contrast to the warm embrace of the Pollock painting. This disjointed feeling, coupled with the warm embrace, are the driving forces in his works.
“Before I decided to be political in my art, I would get critiques about how I was making statements that were too social and political, so I decided to embrace it,” said Martinez.
At the age of 20, Martinez moved to the United States to pursue better opportunities, as most immigrants do. Now at 39, Martinez is a drawing and painting major showcasing his art throughout the Cal State University Long Beach campus and the country.
“I grew up poor in Oaxaca. [My family’s] goal was to have enough to eat,” said Martinez. “We didn’t really have time to dream.”
Martinez’s artwork is a collection of portraits of agricultural workers painted or drawn on recycled produce boxes he collects from grocery stores who have thrown the boxes away. The majority of his pieces are done in charcoal pencils, ink wash, and oil paints.
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PETER EVERSOLL
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RICARDO LEVINS MORALES
Ricardo Levins Morales describes himself as a “healer and trickster organizer disguised as an artist.” He was born into the anti-colonial movement in his native Puerto Rico and was drawn into activism in Chicago when his family moved there in 1967.
Ricardo left high school early and worked in various industries, and over time began to use his art as part of his activism. This activism has included support work for the Black Panthers and Young Lords to participating in or acting in solidarity with farmers, environmental, labor, racial justice and peace movements.
Increasingly Ricardo sees his art and organizing practices as means to address individual, collective and historical trauma. He co-leads workshops on trauma and resilience for organizers as well as trainings on creative organizing, social justice strategy and sustainable activism, and mentors and supports young activists.
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RUBEN RIVERA MATOS
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SUNNY MARQUEZ
Experienced Art Teacher with a demonstrated history of working in the fine art industry. Strong educationprofessional skilled in Photography, Printmaking, Logo Design, Microsoft Word, and Conceptual Art.
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ZONIA ZENA
Zonia Zena is a photo based artist born and living in Lima Peru. Her photographic work has evolved on the genre of portraiture with a documentary approach. She has been working on projects dealing with women and inmigration, family and her own interaction with her surroundings.
Zonia completed a Bacherlor’s degree in Fine Arts with concentration in Creative Photography and a Minor in Art History from New World School of the Arts in partnership with University of Florida. She is a member of Women Photograph.
