The LES Coastal Community Fellowship is a paid creative residency for a group of neighbors and stakeholders in the Lower East Side of Manhattan to reflect on the years since Hurricane Sandy, build upon existing community resilience to climate impacts, and envision a thriving future for the neighborhood through artistic activities. Ten participants, selected from an open application process and follow-up interviews, will meet (virtually) six times between October 14-31, 2020. During these sessions, participants will share stories and be guided in creating poems, songs, or performance that will be included in an informal public sharing for neighbors and family members. The Fellowship is facilitated by The Arctic Cycle and Superhero Clubhouse two NYC-based arts collectives working at the intersection of theater and climate justice.
Meet our 2020 Fellows!
Felicia Gordon
Felicia Gordon is a proud long term LES resident. She is the TA President of 189 Allen- (Hernandez Houses) LESCCC council along with many other community based titles. She loves her community and has a very active role in it. She is excited to partake in this new venture, as it merges two prevalent passions of hers: the arts & environmental concerns.
Antígona González
Antígona González is a Mexican theater maker as a creator and performer. She has also been engaged in theater production, lighting design, and technical departments. Co-founder of Colectivo Aguardiente that develops community art projects based on the oral history interview process. Member of Teatro Linea de Sombra (Mexico) since 2007. She has collaborated with Cie Carabosse (Niort, France), The Commons Choir, FABnyc (NYC) among others. Artists-in-residence at Downtown Art, 2017 (NYC). She loves dancing, watching movies, reading, and spending time in nature by herself or with friends and family.
Jennifer Chiao
Jennifer currently lives in Chinatown/Two Bridges, where she is interested in community organizing work centered around workers, those who are undocumented, and youth. She fell in love with theater after taking Acting 1 her senior year of college. In her spare time, she loves to dance salsa, bachata, and practice her español.
Keno Burckhardt
Keno Burckhardt, born and raised in the Lower East Side, is a Sociocultural Anthropologist with particular interest in issues of gentrification, environmental racism, climate change, and postcolonialism as they relate to the relationship between the United States and Latin America. Having worked with Universities in Medellin Colombia in 2019, Keno was set to return to Colombia on a Fulbright Scholarship, however it was postponed due to COVID-19. He is currently in the process of applying to Masters programs in democratization and human rights.
Sandra Santana
Sandra is 51 years old and has lived in the Lower East Side her entire life. Being a mother is the first and most important job she has ever had and she is also a poet by heart.
Amy Lee
Amy Lee is a PhD candidate in the English Department at UC Berkeley. In addition to completing her dissertation on postcolonial and diasporic imaginations of China's entry onto the world stage, she teaches courses on race, precarity, climate change, and Chinatown. She grew up on the Lower East Side and much of her scholarship has been informed by that experience.
Jonathan Martinez
Jonathan Martinez is a lifelong Scholar and Educator native to New York City.
Sinplicity, his first book of Poetry, was self published in the summer of 2018. He has been dubbed the “Street Art Historian” due to his recent work with respected members of the Graffiti and Urban Arts Movement in NYC, by way of his social media platforms. A self taught photographer who also enjoys creating original paint and graffiti pieces. Currently working on Vol 2 of Sinplicity along with the publication of other original comic books and graphic novels. Co-Founder of Deathwish Society Art Collective.
Joshua Martinez
Joshua Martinez has lived in NYC all his life and is currently studying theatre at Hunter College. He recently finished recording his first audio play Misfit America, written by Nelson Diaz-Marcano and directed by Charlie Chauca. It is to be released on Spotify on Halloween. He enjoys discovering what he is to do with the rest of his life.
Tatyanna Santana
Tatyanna Santana was raised in the Lower East Side and grew up loving theatre and community. Tatyanna loves helping others when she can and usually writes skits and plays about community based issues and/or the issues we as humans face in general. She’s worked with Roots and Branches theater, Tragedy in Spades, Sasha Soreff Dance theater, solo pieces in PLAY TANK by the Performance Project @ University Settlement and many more other talented artists. Tatyanna enjoys nature, loves cats, and adores making everyone smile “a smile is the best medicine”.
Minna Periniva
Minna Periniva is originally from Finland but she has found her true home in the Lower East Side of New York. Her work has been mostly in hospitality, and education in Creative Writing and Mythology. She is passionate about street and public art as well as visual storytelling and exploring new ways to bring art and environmental issues together.
Beyond 2020
The October 2020 Fellowship is the first part of an intended three-year process, with Fellows reconvening in October 2021 and October 2022, culminating in a public performance event in October 2022 at the ten-year anniversary of Hurricane Sandy.
The Lower East Side Coastal Community Fellowship is made possible in part with public funds from Creative Learning, supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and administered by LMCC. LMCC serves, connects, and makes space for artists and community.
The Lower East Side Coastal Community Fellowship is made possible in part with public funds from Creative Learning, supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and administered by LMCC. LMCC serves, connects, and makes space for artists and community.