Fabiola Méndez

Photos courtesy of the artist

Project Description

Fabiola Méndez's project "Negrura" is an audiovisual experience that aims to create spaces for conversations about colorism, anti-blackness, discrimination, and racism within our own Afro-Caribbean, Afro-Latinx community, by engaging with the Latin Quarter Cultural District in Jamaica Plain. The project will provide the educative and technical support for Afro-Latinx people from different origins, genders, ages, and creeds, to document via audiovisual storytelling their experiences as Black people living in the United States. As lead-artist and musician, Fabiola's contribution will be to musically translate those stories into melodies and songs to accompany the micro-storytelling videos, planned to be broadcasted on social media (YouTube, Facebook, Twitter). Eventually, the hope is to have outdoor screenings and conversations among participants, community leaders, racial justice leaders, and Afro-Latinx artists at different plazas and parks in Boston.

Artist Bio

Fabiola Méndez (she/her) is a Puerto Rican cuatro player who is part of a musical movement, crossing over the lines of genres such as folkloric, jazz & Latin. A graduate from Berklee College of Music '18, Fabiola has worked and performed for artists such as: Totó La Momposina, Eddie Palmieri, Puerto Rican Symphony Orchestra, El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico, Cucco Peña, and Pedro Capó, among others. She was a luminary at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and currently works as an independent artist all around New England, collaborating with organizations such as Inquiliños Boricuas en Acción (IBA), Celebrity Series of Boston, Hyde Square Task Force, PR Veterans Monument Association, and Agora Cultural Architects.