origem: (noun, origin)
I am a multifaceted artist & educator using words to bring people together, bridge viewpoints and create possibility. My experiences as a first-generation immigrant served as a school ground on the power of words to transmute and transform lives. I write in a borrowed language and welcome in words from my mother tongue. I believe that writing is not a solitary practice, but an act of dialogue and conversation. My writing is in conversation with immigrant writers (Judith Ortiz Cofer and Gloria Anzaldúa) who mixed the palettes of language and gave me permission to do the same. It is in dialogue with the strength of the ancestors that paved my story with theirs. It serves as an invitation to a lineage of writers and storytellers that will come.
​encantar: (verb, to enchant)
My work has been described as a juxtaposition of lightness and depth. It lives in the inbetween, neither here nor there, it carves out its own path. Informed by Portuguese folk music and fado, my writing is a dance between what is sung, what is spoken, what is written, and what is felt. In fado, the aim is not to be an artist or a singer, but to be a fadista. The word fadista implies someone who is waltzing with their own destiny by taking chances with heartbreak and by being a voice that transmits the humanity of emotion. I am interested in making the mystical tangible and the ordinary beautiful. Through writing, I alchemize: heartbreak into joy, bitterness into nectar, and poison into remedy.
insinar: (verb, to teach)
As a teaching artist and Kripalu-certified yoga instructor, I design and teach writing and creativity workshops that incorporate mindfulness and movement. Through the cultivation of inner quietude, we create fertile ground for inspiration and presence. My workshops focus on writing as a contemplative practice that invites clarity, connection, and insight. My teaching philosophy centers on listening, seeing each person’s wholeness, the edge of our comfort zones and transformation.
agradecer: (verb, to thank)
My work has received support from: MASSMoCA Assets for Artists, MassCultural Council and FRACC. I am grateful to these organizations for their generous support and the work they continue to do to ensure the livelihood of all artists. I am also grateful to you: for reading, for showing up, for sending notes and words of support.
