Women Who Create
Women Who Create is a mentorship program for women of color in the creative industry and an event platform.
I grew up in a single parent household with no brothers or sisters. My mom and biological father dropped out of school early in high school. My mom was working as a waitress at Pizza Hut. And I wanted to be an artist.
When You’re Stuck Inside A Box
When the pandemic started I got to thinking about how kids are processing this whole situation. I worked with PreK-5th graders before graduating college and their positivity and honesty always inspired me. To be honest I was worried about them, but I was also pretty scared myself. This book helped me strip down the pandemic into language a kid would understand, in an effort to be honest but also positive about the whole thing (something I’m not always good at). While technically a children’s book, When You’re Stuck Inside a Box is for everyone.
Treat Your Block
During the COVID outbreak, New Yorkers knew restaurants, the lifeblood of NYC, were struggling to survive. Not many realized many public school students were also struggling. New York City has one of the highest rates of food insecure students and often times, those very students are homeless, transient or live with family who are essential workers and more likely to be exposed to COVID.
In the Neighborhood
In the Neighborhood (ITN) is a platform for individuals and small businesses affected by COVID in the greater Seattle area.
Seattle was among the first cities in the United States to be hit hard by the COVID pandemic. Stay-at-home orders were issued on March 15th and case numbers grew rapidly in the weeks to follow. I, as well as my co-founders, Pari and Raphael, grew up in this city. We felt an urgent and sudden need to offer support to our neighbors but found ourselves overwhelmed by the barrage of resources, news, and the closure of small business.
PorTips
PorTips is a space to share career advice with all creative women. There I publish tips and tricks to help girls improve the presentation of their portfolios, make the most of a job interview, or seize opportunities to showcase their talent. Through @portips_ , I also invite other senior creative women to pass on what made a difference in their journeys. In addition to the original content that I bring the followers, I compile and publish job opportunities, mentorship programs, free courses, student contests, and other relevant content. The project made the news on the Brazilian Creative Club’s coverage, and got me invited to speak on creative social media channels about gender inequality in advertising.
https://www.instagram.com/portips_/
My Trusted Circle
After testing false positive for COVID-19, I realized how real the fear of social stigma is amongst patients who’ve tested positive. While I knew how important it is to notify those I’ve been in close contact with, I was scared of being judged and blamed.
Trump Against Trump
trumpagainsttrump.org is a platform that uses web-based augmented reality to hijack every Trump campaign sign and turn it into a fact-based warning. Through geo-location, the warnings become specific to the state that the user is in.
Super Trunfo Covid
The pandemic of coronavirus stopped the world and Brazil is one of the most affected by the problem. Then, when the pandemic was very close to completing 150 days in Brazil, our country authorities declare the gradual opening of commerce, even though it is one of the countries most devastated by the disease and being a decision contrary to all the recommendations of science.
Therefore, we created the Super Trunfo Covid project: an Instagram profile displaying information in the cards from the countries most affected by the coronavirus in 150 days after the first case confirmed. From data collected on the official pandemic tool of World Health Organization, fields such as confirmed cases’ and ‘deaths’ are present in the cards, which are compared with the numbers from Brazil.
The goal was to make the population aware of the dimension of the problem in Brazil and in the world, since, for many, the irresponsible decisions of Brazil authorities caused the wrong feeling of back to normality and false control of the situation.
The initiative also had posters that criticize the wrong measures and attitudes taken in these days of Covid-19 in Brazil.
https://www.instagram.com/supertrunfocovid/
“Share the Love” snail mail campaign
After the 2016 Presidential election, I immediately saw the increased levels of pain, division and anxiety. I wanted to find a way to give a little hope and positivity to those who felt overwhelmed, so I started the “Share the Love” snail mail campaign. Each day I created an original watercolor illustration with a hand lettered quote about hope, love, etc. I put the word out that if anyone wanted to get on my list, they just had to send me their mailing address.
Each person who responded was sent one of these original watercolors. As the country became more divided, the number of folks who requested to be on the “Share the Love” mailing list grew. Original art was no longer possible, so the campaign morphed into 4 mailings per year which included a print of an original illustration and some kind of small gift that helped try to make the recipients’ day a bit brighter. Anyone can send an email blast, but I wanted folks to know they were special. There is something special about receiving a tangible letter in the mail. While I hand letter each envelope, I think about the person to whom that mailing is headed and consciously take a moment to wish them well.
My mailing list is now around 120 and each mailing costs (including stamps) about $250. Financially, I cannot add as many new people as I would like – so I created the “Pay it Forward” program. People can go to my website and, for $35, can order a year’s worth of mailings for a friend or family member. This upcoming election marks the 4 year anniversary of the “Share the Love” campaign. I have never sought out publicity however, I think it is really important to let people know that there are LOTS of folks out there every day, trying to do good for others and counter all the hate and division…those stories just don’t make for juicy news ratings 🙂
NEIGHBORHOOD CURBSIDE CANVAS PROJECT
The NEIGHBORHOOD CURBSIDE CANVAS PROJECT is a volunteer neighborhood-recovery effort, uniting local artists with struggling New York City restaurants to transform pop-up dining patios into street art, for the purposes of driving greater interest, energy and business back into our COVID-coping communities.
