Indie Space-Indie Theatre Fund – Current Co-President of the Board of Board of Directors and served as an Ambassador to Theatres of Color. Initiated/managed Emergency Artists Grants that prioritized disabled, LGBTQIA, immigrant, POC artists as well as programming a series of events in response to BIPOC artists needs during COVID. Founder in creating anti-racist training for members and an equity lens in funding for the organization, creating the inaugural reparations fund for Black and Indigenous artist in New York City. https://www.indiespace.org/
Raquel Almazan is the Executive Artistic Director of La Lucha Arts: an independent company dedicated to producing interdisciplinary theatre and media projects, that create transformational arts participation between communities, advocates, audiences and artists. La Lucha Arts collaborates with organizations, social movements, and impacted individuals towards providing a platform for historically excluded – abandoned narratives and people. Almazan’s La Lucha Arts has produced and co-produced several independent workshops, productions, events with presenting institutions and organizations listed on play productions, panels, instruction sections of CV.
La Lucha Arts Funders include: The Doris Duke Foundation, The Howard Gilman Foundation, National Association of Latino Arts & Culture, The MAP Fund, NYC Mayor’s Woman Fund, The Bret Adams and Paul Reisch Foundation, New York State Council of the Arts, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Arthur J. Harris Social Justice Prize- Columbia University and the New York Community Trust. The Fund for Creative Communities/New York State Council on the Arts, The Manhattan Community Arts Fund. Miami Dade Cultural Affairs Community Grant, Tropiculture Miami, and Florida Arts Grant and the Miami Artist Access Individual Travel Grant.
Selected into the 2020 National Association of Latino Arts and Culture Leadership Institute cohort that trains and cultivates Latinx leaders in the arts field. Budgeting, marketing, ethics of cultural production and not for profit organizations, history of systemic oppression in the US, Board of Directors best practices and societal conditions facing Latinx cultural workers were addressed. Facilitated by: Abel López, Charles Rice-Gonzalez, Rosalba Rolón, Maribel Álvarez and Evonne Gallardo.
The Welcome Table – Restorative Justice Training with Joddie Geddes and Tom DeWolf. Introduction to the Coming to the Table Approach to Racial Healing and restorative justice circle process towards transforming historical harms.
Anti- Racist Theatre Practice – Nicole Brewer Conscientious Theatre Training is dedicated to equitable anti-racist representation in all areas of theatre through disrupting harmful erasure present in traditional theatre training through purposeful inclusion of marginalized groups contributions to the cannon of theatre, fusing together cultural competency, self care practices, and anti-racist theory to create an embodied experience where participants learn to utilize their sphere of power to disrupt white supremacy culture.
Patricia Ariza– (Artistic director of Teatro de Candelaria Bogota) Selected by the League of Professional Theatre Woman as an ensemble member of a devised workshop presentation based on violence against women using personal mythology and dance theatre techniques; creating text and integrating members of the community into performance. NYC
Ana Correa – (Company member of Yuyachkani Lima Peru) Yuyachkani has oriented its action around one main objective: to contribute to the development and strengthening of citizen memory. Master class on physical theatre techniques and sequences of the company. Development process of the making of the solo production Rosa Cuchillo, an interactive theatre piece that collaborated with The Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Peru addressing the genocide of indigenous communities.
Workshop with Ensemble members from the historic Mexican-American theatre company, El Teatro Campesino, introduction to the three styles that inform their artistic tradition: Acto, Mito, and Corrido. Covered the origins of the company, the development of their style, and the cultural traditions they draw from to create original, ensemble-based theatre for the past 51 years. With Radical Evolution Company.
Workshop through People’s Theatre Project on teaching techniques when engaging with students who are English language learners.
Cultural Organizing for Community Change with Arts & Democracy: series of workshops and panels on building tools for social change with art making. Bomba Yo Roots and Rhythms workshop, Communications for the Can’t Stop Won’t Stop Artist/ Activist and Bold and Engaged with Urban Bush Women.
Undoing Racism workshop with Center for Racial Justice in Education organization: workshop scenarios to train and equip educators to be leaders of racial justice in their schools and communities.
Anti- Oppression training with Race Forward – The Center for Racial Justice Innovation, Piper Anderson, Daniel Lim and YK Hong addressing: racial equity, gender, systems of oppression, intergroup oppression, conflict resolution, cultural competency and restorative justice techniques.
Ping Chong and Company: devised theatre techniques utilized by Ping Chong to conduct the Undesirable Elements residencies with youth and adult groups.
Puppets for the People- Puppetry and Theatrical Mask Making Workshop with Jessica Litwak.
PAN THEATRE COMPANY- Roy Hard Voice Work with Linda Wise and The Double Theatre- Hard vs Artaud Theatre of Cruelty workshop with Enrique Pardo.
Certified Theatre of the Oppressed training for facilitating: Joker Level I and II for conducting TO residencies with diverse groups.
Julian Boal -Master class on his father’s Augusto Boal’s Forum Theatre, an interactive approach to theatrical expression emphasizes physical dialogues, non-verbal imagery, consensus-building and problem solving processes, and techniques for developing awareness of both external and internalized forms of oppression. Thus, instead of remaining passive, the people in the audience become active “spect-actors” who now create alternative solutions and control the dramatic action.
Barbara Santos– Madalena Project Theatre of the Oppressed NYC Workshop- using characters, choreography, painting, sound and text to explore the meaning of “being a good girl”.
Geo Britto of CTO-Rio (Centre de Teatro do Oprimido): Aesthetics of Theatre of the Oppressed: Boal’s philosophy through using techniques with clean trash materials, narratives, group compositions and participant generated poetry. NYC
As a writing/performance facilitator with Art Spring Org., developed She Wolves monologues with incarcerated women in Broward and Dade Correctional Prisons. South Florida