“I studied Social Research and Public Policy at NYUAD, largely exploring struggles and justice movements in different global contexts. Outside of class, I found a lot of inspiration connecting these lessons with visits to spaces like the Sharjah Biennial, where artists from around the world shared their own plights with the public. In my work at the Taipei Biennial, I am continuing that tradition while interacting with Taiwanese and international artists and curators. It's all super connected.
As a high school student in the US, I knew I wanted to fight for better structural realities for those marginalized around me. Politics and policy felt like a natural next step. Coming to Abu Dhabi made the audience I want to fight for grow exponentially, and taking a global approach to justice became a necessity.
A lot of my non-academic time at NYUAD was focused on growing AZIZA, a Black feminist space on campus. In many ways, connecting issues of race, class, and gender in the UAE through community organizing was a training ground for learning how to bring together wider communities.
Home Region: San Antonio, Texas, USA
Current: Taipei Biennial Assistant, Taipei Fine Arts Museum
Location: Taipei, Taiwan
Major: Social Research and Public Policy
In my early career in global cultural institutions, I am essentially doing the same thing, but engaging a larger audience. I am slowly learning that curation and public programming require many of the same intentions and practices as community organizing.
I still lean a lot on my professors and mentors from NYUAD as an alum. There is a whole chapter of development that follows being a college student, and having their mentorship through the next set of questions has been a great source of clarity for me.
Currently, I am in Taiwan with the Henry Luce Scholars program, which I learned about in my sophomore year through an NYUAD alum and the NYUAD Global Awards advisor. This fellowship program allows you to choose where you want to work for the year, and my NYUAD professor ended up connecting me to one of the curators of the Taipei Biennial, who spent many years in Sharjah.
I love the chance to welcome people from around Taiwan into the museum. There is so much enthusiasm in the general public to engage with social issues through contemporary art. It has also been very fulfilling to understand the behind-the-scenes moments in making a globally-focused space like the Taipei Biennial.
I hope to make cultural spaces where people can build solidarity across struggles, and I hope to work in policy for the future of Puerto Rico — where my family is from.”