the Artists

Frances Negrón-Muntaner and Sarabel Santos-Negrón worked together on a range of projects before but this is their first artistic collaboration.

Frances Negrón-Muntaner is a filmmaker, writer, curator, scholar and professor at Columbia University, where she is also the founding curator of the Latino Arts and Activism Archive and the Gallery at the Center. Among her books and publications are: Boricua Pop: Puerto Ricans and the Latinization of American Culture (CHOICE Award, 2004), The Latino Media Gap (2014), and Sovereign Acts: Contesting Colonialism in Native Nations and Latinx America (2017). Among her films are Brincando el charco: Portrait of a Puerto Rican (1994), Small City, Big Change (2013), and War for Guam (2015). For her work as a scholar and filmmaker, Negrón-Muntaner has received Ford, Truman, Rockefeller, and Pew fellowships. In 2008, the United Nations' Rapid Response Media Mechanism recognized her as a global expert in the areas of mass media and Latin/o American studies. She is also recipient of the Lenfest Award, one of Columbia University's most prestigious recognitions for excellence in teaching and scholarship (2012); OZY Educator Award (2017), and the Latin American Studies Association’s Frank Bonilla Public Intellectual Award (2019). From 2016-2019, she served as the director of Unpayable Debt, a working group at Columbia University's Center for the Study of Social Difference that studied debt regimes in the world. During her tenure, she co-created “Caribbean Syllabus: Life and Debt in the Caribbean” and launched Valor y Cambio, an art, digital storytelling and just economy project.

Sarabel Santos Negrón is a multidisciplinary artist, educator and museum professional. Her work focuses on the experience and memory of nature and landscape of Puerto Rico and the Caribbean with a special interest in its expansive organic form and structure. She uses drawing, painting and mixed media together with industrially produced and everyday materials such as paper, plastic, wire, and wood, among others. She has served as an independent curator for projects in the United States and is also the current director of the Museo de Arte de Bayamón in Puerto Rico. Her solo exhibitions or special projects include Entre Reinos (2016), Casa Roig Museum, Humacao; Portraits of Nature (2013), Pierced Gallery, New Jersey; and Encuentro (2012), Pontificia Universidad Católica, Ponce. Her work had been exhibited at the Pasos Peace Museum, New York; Anytime Department Gallery, Cincinnati; Espacio Tres50, Chiapas, México; Rigss & Leidy Gallery, Maryland; Saatchi Gallery, London; and Museo Arsenal de la Marina Española, among others. Santos received awards from the Department of Education, the Department of Health, the Office of Youth Affairs, and Pfizer Pharmaceutical Companies. In 2016, the Maryland Institute College of Art awarded her a merit scholarship for graduate studies.

consultants

F. Melis Bağatır holds Bachelor and Masters degrees on Graphic Design from The Bilkent University, Ankara and University of Mimar Sinan, Istanbul, Turkey respectively and received the Dean’s Recommendation of Honour. She took advanced design courses from Parsons, SVA and RISD. She has over 10 years of experience in the field.

Max Haiven is Canada Research Chair in Culture, Media and Social Justice at Lakehead University. His latest book Art After Money, Money After Art: Creative Strategies Against Financialization was published in 2018.

Robert Mason, PhD (University of Georgia) is a professor of economics in the College of Business, Georgia Gwinnett College. His areas of research include monetary economics, macroeconomics, and price theory.

Sarah Muir, co-Director the Unpayable Debt working group, is also Director of the International Studies Program at City College, CUNY. She is currently finishing a book manuscript entitled Exhaustion: Critique in an Era of Routinized Crisis, which examines everyday middle-class Argentine politics in the wake of a century of financial crises. 

project team

Dayani Centeno-Torres and Palabrería, publicists• Francesca Carroll Lausell, general project coordinator •Gabriel Coss and Leandro Fabrizi, videographers •  Elisabetta Diorio, video editor • Sunny Wen Chen, web designer and writer • Joel Franqui, community and small business coordinator •Kağan Kaya, illustrator •Pochi Maldonado, programmer • Andrea Penman-Lomelli, web editor •Brooks Rubin, researcher • Walter Santaliz and Gio Torres, VyC designers • Alan Burnett Valverde, web writer and translator

Many thanks

This project would be impossible without the help of many friends and supporters, including all participating businesses and institutions:

PUERTO RICO

Casa de Cultura Ruth Hernández Torres • Deaverdura Fonda Sanjuanera • La Casa de los Contrafuertes • Mercado Agrícola Natural de San Juan • Mercado Agroartesanal de Barrio Obrero Pa’ Ti • Latte que Latte Coffee Shop • Programa de Educación Comunal de Entrega y Servicio (P.E.C.E.S.) • University High School, UPR Río Piedras Campus • Proyecto ENLACE del Caño Martín Peña • Miramar Food Truck Park • El Nido • La Esquinita • Obrigado Organic Coffee & Acai Bar

NEW YORK CITY

The Loisaida Inc. Center • Essex Market • Heros & Villains NYC • Czar’s Grooming • Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space • The Lower Eastside Girls Club • Mil Mundos Books • Restaurante La Morada • THE LIT. BAR Bookstore & Chill • Pregones Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre • Port Morris Distillery • La Marqueta Retoña • Teatro LATEA • Teatro SEA • No Longer Empty • Repertorio Español • El Museo del Barrio • Taller Boricua • El Barrio's Artspace PS 109

We would also like to thank our web readers and contributors, including Anjanette Delgado, Monxo López, Cristina Pérez-Jiménez, and Vanessa Pérez-Rosario. In addition, we thank José Rosario for several of the site’s photos.