In-Person/ Talk / Multiple Techniques

Join La Sudestada for a special conversation to celebrate the power of textiles as carriers of memory, identity, and community. As part of New York Textile Month and Latin Heritage Month, this gathering brings together 6 incredible artists, designers, and cultural leaders to share how their practices were born, how their roots and traditions shape their work, and how they see textiles as a way to connect and empower.

This is not a traditional panel but a space for storytelling, reflection, and inspiration — where diasporic voices highlight the role of textiles in preserving culture, creating belonging, and imagining new futures.

MODERATOR : Sofía S. Reeser del Rio

PANELISTS: Andres Altamirano (Artist), Cassandra Mayela Allen, Cinthya Santos Briones, María Lulu Varona, Yamil Arbaje (Co-founder and Designer, LEBLANC STUDIOS)

Sofía S. Reeser del Rio (b. Puerto Rico) is a New York City based curator, scholar, multidisciplinary artist, and educator whose practice. Specializing in Latinx, Latin American, and Caribbean art, she produces exhibitions that champion LGBTQ+ and self-identified female creatives from Puerto Rico. Her work integrates ecological working models, community wellness initiatives, and sustainable cultural production.

Sofía is Curator and Associate Director of Programs at The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center in NYC, where she leads cutting-edge digital storytelling, archival research, and innovative community gathering initiatives. As Co-Curator of Historias and Project Lead of Nueva York Chronicles, in collaboration with Libertad O. Guerra, she is redefining how Latinx narratives are collected, archived, and shared through interactive, multimedia platforms. Her visionary leadership has been recognized through multiple awards, fellowships, and residencies, underscoring her commitment to advancing knowledge justice and rethinking art, science, and civic practice as catalysts for sustainable community engagement.

Andres Altamirano / Artist (b. Ecuador) Andrés Altamirano is an Ecuadorian-born visual artist and photographer based in New York. His interest in photography and textiles is inspired by his Ecuadorian grandmother’s work on traditional Andean textiles. Weaving these traditions into the fabric of his art practice, Altamirano explores the intricate facets of identity, culture, and language within transitional spaces. In 2022, Altamirano founded Runamaky Projects, a community-based archive focused on Ecuadorian cultural heritage which aims to preserve and reactivate the production of traditional Andean-Ecuadorian textiles. In 2024, he completed the New York Foundation for the Arts Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program. He is a graduate of the Documentary Practice & Visual Journalism Program at the International Center of Photography, where he was awarded the Jan Mulder Fellowship. His book, Viaje a los Amuletos, created in collaboration with Agnes Studios and published by Lindsay Books, explores and documents Guatemala’s cultural and artistic heritage.

Selected Exhibitions include: Queens Museum (Queens, NY, On View), CAMERA – Centro Italiano per la Fotografia (Turin, Italy, 2025), Galería Rebelde (Guatemala City, Guatemala, 2025), International Center of Photography (New York, NY, 2025), MECA Art Fair (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, 2024), Ago Projects (Mexico City, Mexico, 2024).

Cassandra Mayela Allen  (b. 1989, Venezuela) is a multidisciplinary artist based in New York since 2014, following her migration from Venezuela. Her practice explores themes of identity, migration, resistance, and belonging through autobiographical references, participatory forms, and research-driven projects.
Her recent solo and two-person exhibitions include Olympia (NYC, 2024 and 2021), NADA Miami (2024), JO-HS (Mexico City, 2023), and NADA House (NYC, 2022). Group exhibitions include UNAM (2025), Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (2024), V1 Gallery (Copenhagen, 2024), Eric Firestone Gallery (East Hampton, 2024), apexart (NYC, 2024), and others. She has attended residencies such as Campo Garzón (Uruguay, 2024), Modern Ancient Brown (Detroit, 2024), Pocoapoco (Oaxaca, 2024), with Skowhegan (2025) upcoming. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Artforum, Elephant, Juxtapoz, Bomb Magazine, and Vogue Mexico.

Cinthya Santos Briones (b. 1983 México) is an interdisciplinary artist, scholar, and community organizer of Nahua heritage based in New York. Trained in Anthropology and History, she spent a decade as a researcher at Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), focusing on Indigenous migration, codices, textiles, and traditional medicine. Her artistic practice combines ethnography, archival research, and socially engaged art to examine the histories and lived experiences of migration, using photography, writing, textiles, collage, and popular education to build collective narratives.
Her work has received fellowships and awards from Magnum Foundation, National Geographic, En Foco, Mellon Foundation, and others, and has been published in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vogue, The Nation, among many outlets. She has exhibited at the International Center of Photography, El Museo del Barrio, The Latinx Project at NYU, the Museum of the City of New York, and additional venues across the U.S.
Alongside her artistic work, she teaches at CUNY and the Institute of American Indian Arts, and actively collaborates with immigrant communities, supporting advocacy efforts, education, and sanctuary initiatives.

María Lulu Varona (b. 1993, San Juan, Puerto Rico) began her studies in theater before transferring to visual arts at the University of Puerto Rico. Learning embroidery techniques from her grandmother, she developed a practice that uses craft to explore contemporary conditions.
Residencies include ISCP (Brooklyn, 2018), Flux Factory (Queens, 2019), MACPR Program of Independent Studies (San Juan, 2020), ACRE (Wisconsin, 2021), Teton Artlab (Wyoming, 2022), New Wave (Palm Beach, 2022), The Clemente (NYC, 2022), and Art Omi (2023). Her first solo show LABOR-DADA (Embajada, San Juan, 2021) was followed by group exhibitions at The Whitney Museum of American Art (2022), The Green Gallery (Milwaukee, 2021), Abrons Art Center (NYC, 2021), Flux Factory (2019), Bronx Art Space (2017), and Roberto Paradise (San Juan, 2017).

Yamil Arbaje / Co-founder and Designer, LEBLANC STUDIOS (b. República Dominicana) Founded in 2014 with Angelo Beato in Santo Domingo, LEBLANC STUDIOS is a Caribbean brand redefining masculine and feminine identities through youth culture, graphic design, and historical narratives. Their work has been featured in Dominican and international publications including Periódico Hoy, Diario Libre, Pandora Magazine, Vogue Thailand, Office Magazine, 1Granary, Dazed, Kaltblut, ODDA, The Forumist, British Thoughts, Bully, and Forbes. In 2024, Yamil Arbaje received the Graduate Prize at The Fashion Trust U.S. in Los Angeles.