ARTIST LENS | Our Bronx Future

ARTIST BIOS

STEPHANIE ALVARADO is an artist, poet, community organizer, and photo archivist born and raised in the Bronx, NY by way of Guayaquil, Ecuador. She has 15 years of work experience doing public education programming, policy advocacy research, curriculum development, archival research, and creative facilitation. Her current work in development Fotos y Recuerdos: A Bronx Photo and Poetry Archive is dedicated to documenting the Bronx up until 2004 when smartphones became mainstream. Community members contribute their Bronx photographs and learn how to archive them through community teach-ins. She currently serves on the board of The Literary Freedom Project and works at Freelancers Hub as the founding Director of Programs. Stephanie received her BA from NYU in Psychology, Latino Studies, and Public Policy and her MA in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from Emory University.

RODRICK BELL is a historian and traditionalist whose life work is centered on the preservation of the history and cultural traditions of indigenous eastern woodlands First Nations. Descending from both the Carolina Algonquin and Virginia Powhatan first contact tribes, he has been with the alliance for 3 years now. Through Hard Work and dedication he has elevated his way up to being the recreational coordinator, where he enriched the paddle journeys with his ancestral knowledge of Algonquin traditions along the east coast. Rodrick is passionate about not only protecting and rehabilitating the Bronx River but also creating outdoor restorative experiences that help reshape the attitudes of all participants and encouraged them to redevelop a love and respect for the earth. When he is not working on the river Rodrick spends his time working with the Bronx children’s museum as a guide for their “Waters On the Go!” which features a diorama exploring the Bronx River, Orchard Beach, and the Native Americans who used to inhabit those areas four hundred years ago. He has also been involved with the Bronx Community Solutions helping to facilitate their Project Reset Program and incorporating traditional native American healing practices to promote self-awareness and personal accountability to communities of color. As a southeast indigenous person, he not only dedicates his time educating and raising awareness but he also lives it every day.

CARIDAD DE LA LUZ (she/her), aka La Bruja, is a multi-faceted performer named in the “Top 20 Puerto Rican Women Everyone Should Know” (La Respuesta). Known as a “Bronx Living Legend,” Caridad received a Citation of Merit from the Bronx Borough President and The Edgar Allan Poe Award from The Bronx Historical Society. She has performed at The Apollo, Lincoln Center, Gracie Mansion, Cathedral of St. John the Divine, City Hall in New York City and international venues. Since her 1996 debut performance at the famed Nuyorican Poets Café, she hosts Monday Night Open Mics, and was a lead in the successful Off Broadway musical “I LIKE IT LIKE THAT.” Caridad is a 2019 Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship, and is cultivating her own art space in the Soundview area of The Bronx called “El Garaje,” and creating a new full-evening length work, “From Poor to Rico.”   caridaddelaluz.com

FANA FRASER – Born and raised in Trinidad and Tobago, Fana Fraser is a performer and director based in New York City. Her performance work is rooted in a contemporary Caribbean aesthetic and framed by narratives of eroticism, power, and compassion. Fana’s work has been presented at Issue Project Room, Wassaic Project, Brooklyn Museum, The Knockdown Center, Movement Research at the Judson Church, BAAD!, La MaMa Moves!, the CURRENT SESSIONS, Gibney, Trinidad Theatre Workshop, and Emerging Artists Theatre. She has been a CUNY Dance Initiative artist in residence (2017-18), a Movement Research Van Lier Fellow (2017), a resident at the inaugural MANCC Forward Dialogues choreolab (2017), and a resident artist for Dance Your Future 2016 – a project partnership between BAAD! and Pepatián, and at the Dance and Performance Institute of Trinidad & Tobago (2016). Fana also currently serves as the Rehearsal Director for Ailey II and as Co-Director/consultant for South Bronx based arts organization, Pepatián. As a dancer, she has worked with Camille A. Brown & Dancers, Ailey II, Sidra Bell Dance New York, The Francesca Harper Project, The Metropolitan Opera, Andrea Miller for Hermès, and with Ryan McNamara at Performa 13, Art Basel Miami, Guggenheim Works & Process, Frieze New York, and The ICA Boston. fanafraser.com

JULIA GUTIÉRREZ-RIVERA – As the daughter of master plenero, Juan Gutiérrez. Bomba/Plena have been the epicenter of Julia Gutiérrez-Rivera’s life since childhood. Performing and teaching professionally since 2003, Julia Loiza is one of today’s most respected Bomba practitioners, featured everywhere from Sesame Street to International stages; performing with groups like Los Pleneros de la 21, Alma Moyo, Legacy Women, Bomplenazo Collective and more. She uniquely combines traditional influences with urban swag, telling a story of complex DiaspoRican experiences. And in 2016, she helped form Redobles de Cultura, producing annual multiweek national tours. Offstage, Julia contracts as an artist manager and festival producer. Contact: Rioloiza@gmail.com   vimeo.com/rioloiza

BRANDEN JANESE is a writer, podcast host, and researcher. She graduated from The New School in 2017. Branden lives in The Bronx. Ron Kavanaughis the founder of the Literary Freedom Project, which is committed to creating spaces that help leverage the power of books, culture, and education. Ron was born in the Bronx and has worked for numerous arts organizations including En Foco, Bronx Council for the Arts, and the Bronx Museum of the Arts among others.

CYNTHIA PANIAGUA is a dancer, choreographer, and educator whose work reflects her Peruvian and Puerto Rican ancestral heritage. She was raised in New York City where she earned a B.A. in Dance at Hunter College and a M.A. in Performance Studies at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. She is a Fulbright scholar who studied at Peru’s two leading folkdance institutions Jose Maria Arguedas and Universidad de San Marcos. Her dance research led her to journey along the Peruvian coast, Andes and Amazon, where she lived and studied with living masters of Peruvian dance. Her experience was filmed in the PBS aired documentary “Soy Andina”. She is launching her company KAYPACHA Dance in 2020 and is honored to continue this amazing ancestral dance journey. “The journeys are part of my quest in order to respect the legacy my ancestors through dance and share that energy with my audience.”

WANDA RAIMUNDI-ORTIZ KLOTZ is a nationally and internationally recognized, award winning interdisciplinary visual and performance artist. Her project, Pieta, debuted at the Knowles Memorial Chapel at Rollins College and was presented as part of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery’s IDENTIFY: Performance as Portraiture series. She was awarded a 2016 Franklin Furnace award for performance, nominated for the prestigious 2016 United States Artist Fellowship, named one of UCF’s 2016 Woman Making History honoree by the University of Central Florida’s Center for Success of Women Faculty. She is was a 2016 Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery’s Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition semifinalist, top ten finalist for the statewide 2015 Orlando Museum of Art Florida Prize in Contemporary Art, two time Joan Mitchell Foundation grant nominee, 2013 Creative Capital “On Our Radar” honorable mention, recipient of the 2011 UCF Keeper of the Creed Award in Creativity, MFA 2008 Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of Art Ralph Bunche Fellow, AAS 1998 Fashion Institute of Technology, State University of New York, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture alum, 2002; Selected exhibitions include Project 35: Last Call, Garage Museum, Moscow, Russia, The Florida Prize in Contemporary Art, Orlando, FL 2015, Manifesta 8, Murcia, Spain 2010, American Chambers, Gyeongnam Art Museum, Changwong City, South Korea, Performa 05 biennial, Artist Space, NY; The S Files 05 and Artist in the Marketplace 25, Bronx Museum of the Arts; Mercury/Mercurio, Longwood Art Gallery @ Hostos; The L Factor, Exit Art, New York. Collections include The Orlando Museum of Art, FL, El Museo del Barrio, NY, Jersey City Museum of Art, NJ, and the private collection of Mr. Corey Baylor. wandaraimundi-ortiz.com

This program is made possible, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. Our Stage Garden Rumba initiative is generously funded by Con Edison. Southwest Airlines is the official airline of Pregones/PRTT. For a full list of our funders, visit www.pregonesprtt.org.