Featured Projects
Things I've Made or Worked On
By my second year at RISD, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King keynote lecture series had spanned 10 years and 13 speakers. As one of the few annual campus-wide events, the MLK Speaker Series is a massive undertaking and in the three years I've been involved, it has taken a different form each year, adding new challenges and evolving, like expanding accessibility through livestream and committing to improved live captioning, which were lessons taken from the COVID years. Everything from the pre-show music choices to the speaker gifts are all carefully considered to celebrate the accomplishments and legacies of Black scholars, artists, writers, makers and performers, who come to RISD as well as create an occasion to teach and inspire both the community at RISD and our close partners throughout Providence.
RISD Celebrates the Life and Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (RISD news feature)
A range of campus-wide activities promoting social justice ended with an inspirational panel discussion and musical performance.
Studio Museum Director Thelma Golden Honors Martin Luther King at RISD (RISD news feature)
RISD’s 11th annual MLK Series keynote speaker addresses public art and the importance of creating space for Black artists.
Take Giant Steps (RISD news feature)
2022 MLK Series keynote speaker Eddie Glaude, Jr. invokes legendary jazz musician John Coltrane in a powerful and forthright call to action.
The livestream of the MLK 2022 event had a remote audience of 326 with 1,163
views of the limited one week release of the recording.
MLK 2023 event had 366 in-person attendees.
Building RISD Affinity Groups
First Generation College Student Pre-Orientation Program, FGC POP
Indigenous Speaker Series & Community Partnerships
SEI Teaching & Research Postdoctoral Fellows Symposiums & Public Programming
In many cultures, gifts of food are often a balm to those experiencing a loss. We hope that the sweet treats can give a reprieve to the constant anxiety of this pandemic, which compounds many other existing economic systemic issues including food insecurity. We emphasize that these offerings are for anyone who wants them, regardless of need because everyone deserves something nice. Admittedly, C does the bulk of the baking while I coordinate the logistics and do a lot of cleanup. What recipes we choose is something we plan together. Truly, the epitome of a successful team effort.
C and I were featured for our baked goods contributions to the Free Food Box at Freedom Square in Troy which is apart of an art installation sponsored by The Sanctuary for Independent Media and other community orgs.
While the feature didn't cover it, since the Summer 2020 BLM protests, I have been more involved with community efforts towards direct giving and mutual aid. My background is in policy and I personally believe in incremental change via progressive legislation. However, in these unprecedented times during the pandemic, both C and I felt that folks in our community needed help now. So on top of donations to community orgs doing the work on the ground and more volunteering, we have been making food for bake sales benefiting nonprofits in Upstate NY, organizers and attendees at local protests, and the Free Food Box. Community building, making the effort to get to know and genuinely care for your neighbors, is the only way to build foundations of collective power.
Creative Partner: ACE & CapNY, Fall/Winter 2020
Upstate Alliance for the Creative Economy (ACE)'s Digital Magazine for the Capital Region
ACE Author Tag and Featured Articles:
CapNY Author Tag and Featured Articles:
I was one one of the founding editors of The New Scene, which was a reboot of The South End Scene, formerly Albany's longest running independent Black newspaper. I built the website and digital infrastructure, as well as volunteered my time as a managing editor for the paper.
Center for Law and Justice, August 2019
During my time working at the Center for Law and Justice, I managed the majority of their social media, organized their website, and contributed to their publication of their 2019 survey report on public safety [right].
CFLJ Pathways to Reformative Change 2019.pdfCID Conference Packet.pdfGraduate Capstone Project, April 2018
Working with the Center for International Development and two of my MIA program mates, we organized an academic conference on the correlations between human trafficking and violent extremism and exploring how it could be dealt with on a policy level. My principle roll on the capstone project was creating all the visual materials for the conference, including organizing all the information on the CID website's event page, creating digital and physical advertisements, putting together the day-of presentation slideshow, and creating the information packet that was given out during the conference [left].
US Consulate Guangzhou, September 2017
Illuminated Maps: Cultural Geography Projects, Spring 2016
While laid up recovering from an ACL reconstruction surgery after a tennis injury, I decided to make my rather simple map memorization project into an art project. I really enjoyed researching and reproducing regional Native art and indulge in the kind of details that made old timey maps worth looking at and to wonder over.
Folk Literature Final Project, Spring 2013
A comic book I wrote and illustrated of common Filipino folk tales, superstitions, and myths which I grew up with. comic final.pdfLiterature Editing and Publishing, Fall 2012
Self-published collection of blackout poetry utilizing pages from the Clarkson N. Potter, 1960 edition of the Annotated Sherlock Holmes by William Baring S. Gould and created using Adobe Illustrate.Sherlock Chapbook .pdfAERO Institute's Aeronautics Academy at NASA Ames: June-August 2012
NASA Ames Academy Profile Book 2012.pdfNilo Poster.pdf