Marlène Ramírez-Cancio

Marlène Ramírez-Cancio is the director of EMERGENYC, an incubator for emerging artists-activists in New York City and beyond, focused on developing the voice and artistic expression of people of color, women, and LGBTQAI+ folks. Offering varied entry points into art and activism, EMERGENYC prioritizes process, discovery, and reflection, fostering a brave space for experimentation and risk-taking, building solidarity across differences, and challenging dominant narratives through artistic cultural resistance. She originally created the program in 2008 at NYU’s Hemispheric Institute (Hemi), where she was Associate Director of Arts and Media, forging spaces of creative inquiry and critical practice that enlivened struggles for justice in the Americas. In her role, she led the curation and production of Hemi’s large-scale, biannual Encuentros, which gathered about 700 participants in different cities throughout the Americas; curated HIDVL, a groundbreaking digital video library that archives and circulates the work of politically engaged artists; created and directed Hemi’s Artist Residencies for local NYC artists; and co-created initiatives like the Helix Queer Performance Network, supporting queer artists of color and fostering intergenerational mentorship.

Marlène co-founded and co-directs Fulana, a Latina satire collective collective whose videos have been shown internationally at film festivals, museums, and universities. Fulana members lead satire and parody workshops for emerging artists.

In 2018, she curated “Cuerpxs Radicales: Radical Bodies in Performance,” a live art series presented at the Brooklyn Museum in conjunction with the Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960-1985 exhibition.

Marlène Ramírez-Cancio currently serves on the Board of Directors of the National Performance Network and the Board of Advisors of the Center for Artistic Activism.

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