Role: Co-Lead, Artist Collaborations & Building Partnerships, with the Latino Community Coalition
(2021-ongoing)
Project Overview
Nuestra HERencia is a placemaking project by the Latino Community Coalition, a collective working toward the equitable advancement of Latinos in West Michigan, in partnership with Downtown Grand Rapids Inc.'s alleyway activation initiative, a city effort to turn overlooked public spaces into places that reflect the communities around them. The project honors Latina women who have passed, women who were the first in their families to set roots in Grand Rapids and anchored generations that followed. Instead of celebrating awards and accomplishments, HERencia celebrates the women to whom families owe their legacies here. Their stories were shared through short films that screened to a sold-out crowd at Studio Park and archived at the Grand Rapids Public Library so future generations will always remember them. Her story is our story.
The project's next chapter is a mural honoring these women. From the beginning, the coalition connected with the families to learn how to represent their loved ones best, and they have stayed at the center of the process ever since. I co-lead the artist collaboration, guiding the search and selection process that brought our muralist on board, and lead outreach to building partners willing to lend their walls. Two buildings are now slated, with the mural set to go up in 2027.
Images from mural selection session with families
