2025 Community Arts & Creative Work Summary

In 2025, my work as an artist and cultural organizer focused on creating shared spaces for creativity, cultural connection, and collective care. Throughout the year, I collaborated with community partners, artists, and institutions to support projects rooted in participation, cultural memory, and access to the arts.

I began the year with the beautiful closing of Arts For EveryBody, a national arts and health initiative organized by One Nation/One Project in collaboration with the National League of Cities and partners like the University of Florida Center for Arts in Medicine. This initiative culminated in a meaningful capstone gathering in Dallas, Texas, where we celebrated the power of art to support community wellbeing and public health. I’m forever grateful to have worked with national collaborators to bring art to our communities in ways that foster connection, healing, and resilience.

In March, I traveled to the Dominican Republic for the closing ceremony of Anticanon RD’s Diplomado de Literatura Caribeña, a four-month creative writing program offered by the Proyecto Anticanon with academic accreditation through the Instituto Superior Pedro Francisco Bonó and the Grupo Latinoamericano de Estudios, Formación y Acción Feminista (Glefas). There, I had the privilege of meeting all my classmates and celebrating the closing of a beautiful learning cycle that deepened my connection to Caribbean literary expression.

I was also selected as an Arts in Medicine Fellow with the Global Arts in Medicine Fellowship, a program that brings together artists and healthcare professionals from around the world to explore creative approaches to health, healing, and community wellbeing. It was very meaningful to embark on months of learning, collaboration, and growth with an international cohort of practitioners dedicated to integrating the arts and health.

One of the year’s central creative projects was Museo de las Ancestras, a collaborative performance that honored women through storytelling, embodiment, and collective ritual. This project invited audiences to engage with history as something living and carried through community voice.

Throughout the year, I facilitated workshops and community gatherings designed to nurture reflection, creativity, and healing. This included leading workshops at the Gloria Gemma Foundation, where creative practice supported moments of care and connection, as well as hosting outdoor gatherings at Roger Williams Park, such as Rooting at the Garden, which encouraged people to gather, create, and reconnect with nature and one another.

I also hosted a cultural night at Conexión Latina in Newport, creating space for storytelling, artistic expression, and shared cultural celebration within the local Latinx community. 

A joyful highlight of the year was bringing back Todas las Fefas to the Dominican Festival, reintroducing, by popular demand, this cultural presence as a collective celebration of Dominican identity and tradition. The return of this procession created an opportunity for community members to participate, perform, and celebrate together in public space.

In addition to community-based projects, I began working as the Community Art Coordinator in collaboration with the Magdalena Foundation at Salve Regina University. Through this partnership, We engaged high school students in photography lessons on campus and facilitated opportunities for them to be in conversation with the Graciela Iturbide: Infancia exhibition. This work centered youth voice, visual storytelling, and critical dialogue with art, while fostering meaningful connections between students, the university, and contemporary cultural work.

Across all of these efforts, 2025 was guided by collaboration, listening, and shared creativity. Each project reflected a commitment to using art as a bridge between people, generations, and cultures, and to supporting spaces where community stories, traditions, and creative practices can continue to grow.

Muchas gracias por leerme y feliz 2026