smartAction

Isamar Abreu

\Isamar is a videographer and photographer born in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1989. While earning a BA in Hispanic Studies from the University of Puerto Rico, she became interested in diverse artistic expressions far from the literary world. The multimedia eloquence of video and photography quickly became new mediums for narration. Her work has been exhibited in collective exhibitions in New York, Spain, Cuba, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. Currently she volunteers as a photojournalist for alternative media sources and hopes to start formal studies in photography and communications as soon as next semester. http://www.flickr.com/photos/isa_abreu/\

Stephan Andreas

From 2007 on as the Berlin senate tried to introduce tuition fees, Stephan Andreas has been engaged actively in educational rights and social issues in Berlin. He recently moved to New York to study Social Work, Art and Public Policy at New York University as a graduate student and to assist the smArtAction team.

Michelle Martinez Rosario "Aquarela"

Michelle Martinez was born and raised in Carolina, Puerto Rico. She pursues her final year of the Bachelor in Fine Arts with a concentration in painting at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras. She has participated in several collective exhibitions inside and outside the university. Michelle is currently working on a project with at risk youth which has been an opportunity for her to contribute with art workshops and/or artistic experiences that help youth develop interest and awareness about their lives and their communities. She also participated in a series of art workshops that presented to children and young refugees of the earthquake in Haiti.

Isabel Ferro

\Isabel Ferro is a journalist and graphic designer from Caracas, Venezuela. Her entrepreneurial spirit, deep interest in education, love for the arts and more than 10 years of experience with youth have brought her to NYU Gallatin School of Individualized Studies where she explores Experiential Learning and Human Development for Social Change.\

Lindsay C. Harris

\Lindsay C. Harris is an interdisciplinary artist, educator, and arts administrator, who has recently completed an M.A. in Arts Politics from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. In addition to smArtAction, she has been working on a multiplatform documentary project examining mixed racial identity in the U.S., Evoking the Mulatto. She is currently a teaching artist and museum educator in NYC.\

Maria Heyaca

Javier Maldonado-O'Farrill

Tina Orlandini

\Tina is a writer, cultural worker and human rights advocate. She has a BA in art history and writing, and recently earned her MA in arts politics with a concentration in curatorial practice from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. She is currently the Green Light District Arts & Communications Specialist for Brooklyn community-based organization, El Puente and is a Research Assistant for the arts consulting practice, Webb Management Services, Inc. Tina currently lives in Brooklyn, New York.\

Vladimir Pérez

\Vladimir’s interest and impetus for rhyme and self-expression eventually led to Rap and Spoken-Word. He considers “Estoy de regreso” (2010; 17 years old) to be his first track that embodies his actual characteristic/particular style. Discovering the hip-hop scene in Puerto Rico and participating in the student movement within the University of Puerto Rico (and what all of this implied) created the context that opened the doors to hip-hop as a means to encourage social conscience and change. He participated in El Colectivo, with whom he released the mixtape El Colectivo Vol. 1 (2012). He is currently working on his first EP as a solo artist: “Musas y Vías.”\

Erika P. Rodríguez

\Erika is a Puerto Rican photographer and multimedia journalist. She recently obtained her Bachelor of Science in Visual Journalism at Brooks Institute where she discovered that her documentary approach requires her to immerse herself deeply within the stories she captures. She has received both a silver award and an award of excellence in the portrait category from College Photographer of the Year. Her work has been published in El Nuevo Día and Primera Hora in Puerto Rico, and Coastal View News and Ojai Quarterly in California. “My hope is that the audience is able to see themselves, in the simplest human context, in the images and is able to reflect about what we are as a community.”\

Elsa María Meléndez Torres

\Elsa María has studied printmaking, drawing, painting, curation and museology at the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Puerto Rico, in the Smithsonian Affiliations and the Smithsonian Center for Education Museum Studies, Washington, D.C., at the Museum and Center for Humanistic Studies at the University of Turabo and the Museum of History, Anthropology and Art at the University of Puerto Rico. Elsa María is the cofounder of espacio Metro: plataformaorganizada in Hato Rey , founded in 2011. Since 1998 she has worked at the Caguas Art Museum. Internationally, Elsa María\'s work has exhibited in collectives in the United States, Uruguay, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ireland, Romania and Portugal. Recent awards include the Puerto Rican Fund for the Financing of Cultural Affairs of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture, 2011. In 2009 she was awarded the Lexus with the Arts Scholarship, a project she installed in 2010 at the Museum of Art of Puerto Rico. Elsa María\'s work is represented in the collection of the Ponce Art Museum, Museum of History, Anthropology and Art of the UPR; Caguas Art Museum, Puerto Rico; Collection of Arts, Library José M. Lazaro, UPR; International Experimental Print Biennale, Romania; Lolita Rubial Foundation, Minas, Uruguay and Haydee Santamaria Collection Art of the Americas, Havana, Cuba.\

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