Youth Organizer, Artist
Currently rooted in the Hudson Valley in Poughkeepsie, NY, Lala was born and raised in Sabaneta, Colombia - Her work is guided by her Cultures passion for using creativity as a tool for overcoming challenges and cultivating joy. After her experience of having to leave her home at 15 she has focused her work on creatively opening spaces that help us create a sense of belonging in new environments.
Lala is the youth program co-manager at the Poughkeepsie farm project, where she is able to work with Bipoc youth from the city of Poughkeepsie to heal the relationship we have with sacred land, seeds, water, food and these bodies. This work and her growing up in " casas de la cultura" drove her to opening in a studio called " La raiz" this is a underground space which serves as a incubator that through art and community we can regain a sense of safety- where she holds open studios where People of the world majority of all ages are welcome to come in and learn art making from a visionary fiction, and a radical joyful lens how through community we can create social change.
As a language justice worker all the spaces where Lala moves through become Multilingual spaces, welcoming not only Spanish and English but - shifting the dynamic of the dominant language, creating a space where all feel welcome to share in the languages they feel the most powerful in.
Her previous experience of the Long spoon collective- a collective that grew out of transition towns and permaculture which build a worker movement, living in a moneyless economy, while growing all the food for the"workers" building tiny houses, producing their own medicine and fiber connects her and keeps her center at what is possible when we moved away from capitalism and transactional relationships- she believes we - people of the world majority can reclaim our right to joy, pleasure, safety, community and creativity .
Her most recent curiosities have brought her to study wood block, Restorative justice and meditation to add to the tool belt which she is committed to sharing with the bipoc community in poughkeepsie and hudson valley.