The Clemente leads eight NYC Cultural Organization Form Latinx/POC Arts Legacy Consortium
July 9 – August 21, 2020
In a statement, Charles Rice-González, the executive director of the Bronx Academy of Arts & Dance, said “We need to mind our Latinx/POC arts legacy organizations for what they bring to communities of color now also disproportionately hit by COVID-19, and also make sure these organizations stay strong past the emergency point.”
“New York City is a tapestry of neighborhoods and cultures where individuals and communities grow, where they find meaning, health, and wellbeing,” says Libertad Guerra, Executive Director of The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural Center. She points to the heavy lifting still ahead for many Latinx/POC-serving organizations, especially as indignation over racial injustice and anti-black violence flares nationwide: “All that we do is essential, but we continue to absorb more than our fair share of cuts and losses. We can’t let structural invisibility and structural inequity render us expendable. We need holistic approaches to equity through a healing framework.”