Tune in to Lumpen Radio 105.5 FM for a live radio broadcast presented by Silvia Inés Gonzalez, the administrator of POCAS (People of Color Artist Space). This episode featuresVanessa Sanchez of Yollocalli, Karen Reyes from Firebird, and Denise Ruiz from The Honeycomb Network. The conversation highlights the transformative possibilities found in third spaces. What are the needs that third spaces often respond to and what can we learn from the holistic care-led approach in this work? What critical connections do art, healing, and building in the community create within the larger historical landscape of our city?
Vanessa Sanchez is the Director of Education and Yollocalli Arts Reach at the National Museum of Mexican Art (NMMA). Born and raised in Chicago, Vanessa has dedicated her career to enhancing her communities. She has served as an arts administrator, program director and mentor in the cultural sector for over 15 years. Vanessa is a creative, civic-focused leader dedicated to enhancing her communities by designing and facilitating numerous community arts initiatives. She has collaborated with hundreds of youth, artists, journalists, media producers, and civic leaders throughout Chicago garnering national and international recognition. Vanessa holds a BFA in Painting from the University of Illinois at Chicago, was an ambassador for the Creative Youth Development Summit in Boston, previously served as the Board Vice President for Villapalooza, the Little Village Music Fest, and is an artist and collaborator in the Chicago Artists Creating Transformation (ACT) Collective. She completed the 2020 Leadership in Democracy program through the McCormick Foundation and in 2024 was a graduate of the Civic Leadership Academy (CLA) through the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago.
Karen Benita Reyes, Ph.D., has been the Executive Director of Firebird Community Arts since 2012. A proud Chicago Public School graduate and a family-taught fiber and textile artist, she helps to build a strong container for classes, workshops and events in the East Garfield Park-based art space. She is also an active member of the Chicago ACT Collective and a 2018 Civic Leadership Academy Fellow through the University of Chicago. Outside of community art, Karen served for eight years as the Managing Editor of the international academic journal Latino Studies and has held teaching positions at St. Augustine College, University of Illinois at Chicago, St. Leonard’s Adult High School, and Literacy Works. Karen earned her Doctorate in 2012 in Urban Educational Policy Studies from the University of Illinois at Chicago, studying the school-prison nexus.
Denise S. Ruiz is a queer Boricua creative raised and living on the traditional unceded homelands of the Council of the Three Fires: the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi Nations. Daughter of Mary & Kenny. Mama of Elijah & Coda. She is the founder and director of The Honeycomb Network est. 2020, + Madre de Perla Designs est. 2013, she is the co-founder of “Litanies for Survival Library + Reading Room est. 2024,” and co-founded “Books, Brunch & Botanica” from 2017-2020. The Humboldt Park & Logan Square (pre-gentrification) communities made her. She is a creative writer, space keeper + facilitator, mixed media artist, jewelry + bag designer, decolonial folk herbalist, and magic maker. Experienced curator, event organizer, and social justice advocate. Denise unapologetically centers BIPOC brilliance, especially femmes. Her installation art + design work has been featured at The Lubeznik Center for the Arts in Michigan City (2023), Palenque LSNA (2023), & The National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture (2024). Currently, Denise is finishing her community herbalism certification program from the People’s Medicine School.
Sala is an ongoing talk series anchoring the stories of artists in Chicago through topics such as grief, labor, immigration, and movement building. The multimedia project, now in its second season includes radio interviews, public programming, and an archival self-published zine is supported by Hyde Park Art Center’s Artists Run Chicago Fund as part of Art Design Chicago.
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An initiative of the Terra Foundation for American Art in partnership with artists and organizations across the city, Art Design Chicago is a series of events and exhibitions that highlight the city’s artistic heritage and creative communities.
