By Anna Cait Wade | Associate Director of Donor Relations
Dear Friends,
We had a very exciting winter full of empowering and inspiring projects for the Mariposa girls! In December, the Mariposa DR Foundation was honored to receive special guests Elizabeth Acevedo and Laura Peña, two artists with Dominican-American backgrounds. These vibrant women served as incredible role models for our girls and shared their crafts through dynamic workshops and mentoring.
Liz, an acclaimed spoken-word poet and inspirational speaker, has garnered much success for her work in the areas of identity and reclamation of word and story. As a descendent of the Dominican diaspora, through her writing she has worked to preserve her heritage and roots, while affirming her own unique space in the world. Similarly, the Mariposa girls are carving out room for their identity as an unprecedented generation of educated, empowered Dominican and Haitian girls interrupting the cycle of poverty. Liz helped the girls to transform their personal histories into powerful pieces of spoken-word poetry. At our year-end presentation in December, the high school aged girls were able to present their new written works with pride, affirmation, and strength!
We were also very excited to host Laura, a motion art designer and founder of a NYC-based design lab which is focused on storytelling through motion graphics, design, and technology. The oldest Mariposa girls learned and applied this cutting-edge art technology in their various workshops with Laura. With her help, the girls created imagery, wrote dialogue, and recorded videos of themselves to produce a short film. Their final product complemented the oldest girls’ activism campaign #nosoytumamcita in their affirmation of identity and empowerment. Katiana, aged 15, said, “The experience making the video was so cool and educational. I loved it because I was able to learn more about animation. With my photos and expressions, I got to show my strength and independence.” We are so excited to unveil this creative video, made by girls, for girls!
Seeing the girls embody their work so passionately on the stage and on the screen in December was incredible. The video produced with Laura will help share the Mariposa story for years to come, and empowering the Mariposa girls to know the value of their own stories and voices is priceless! Thanks to your generous support, empowerment takes center stage in our work!
With gratitude,
The girls, families, staff and volunteers at The Mariposa DR Foundation
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